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[
"Eugene O'Neill",
"Illness and death",
"What illness did he have",
"After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor",
"When did he die?",
"O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Shelton Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation",
"When was the last time he wrote",
"He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write.",
"Who was there when he died?",
"Dr. Harry Kozol, the lead prosecuting expert of the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death",
"Did he have any other illness",
"After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism"
]
| C_b45e90a21bc74439bf73afea77b659e6_0 | What else was going on with him | 7 | In addition to completing Moon,what else was going on with Eugene O'Neill? | Eugene O'Neill | After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions, were ever completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene's request. O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Shelton Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room." Dr. Harry Kozol, the lead prosecuting expert of the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death and announced the fact to the public. O'Neill is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967). The United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965-1978) $1 postage stamp. CANNOTANSWER | While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. | Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. The tragedy Long Day's Journey into Night is often numbered on the short list of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century, alongside Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.
Early life
O'Neill was born in a hotel, the Barrett House, at Broadway and 43rd Street, on what was then Longacre Square (now Times Square). A commemorative plaque was first dedicated there in 1957. The site is now occupied by 1500 Broadway, which houses offices, shops and the ABC Studios.
He was the son of Irish immigrant actor James O'Neill and Mary Ellen Quinlan, who was also of Irish descent. His father suffered from alcoholism; his mother from an addiction to morphine, prescribed to relieve the pains of the difficult birth of Eugene, who was her third son. Because his father was often on tour with a theatrical company, accompanied by Eugene's mother, in 1895 O'Neill was sent to St. Aloysius Academy for Boys, a Catholic boarding school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. In 1900, he became a day student at the De La Salle Institute on 59th Street in Manhattan.
The O'Neill family reunited for summers at the Monte Cristo Cottage in New London, Connecticut. He also briefly attended Betts Academy in Stamford. He attended Princeton University for one year. Accounts vary as to why he left. He may have been dropped for attending too few classes, been suspended for "conduct code violations", or "for breaking a window", or according to a more concrete but possibly apocryphal account, because he threw "a beer bottle into the window of Professor Woodrow Wilson", the future president of the United States.
O'Neill spent several years at sea, during which he suffered from depression and alcoholism. Despite this, he had a deep love for the sea and it became a prominent theme in many of his plays, several of which are set on board ships like those on which he worked. O'Neill joined the Marine Transport Workers Union of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which was fighting for improved living conditions for the working class using quick 'on the job' direct action. O'Neill's parents and elder brother Jamie (who drank himself to death at the age of 45) died within three years of one another, not long after he had begun to make his mark in the theater.
Career
After his experience in 1912–13 at a sanatorium where he was recovering from tuberculosis, he decided to devote himself full-time to writing plays (the events immediately prior to going to the sanatorium are dramatized in his masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night). O'Neill had previously been employed by the New London Telegraph, writing poetry as well as reporting. In the fall of 1914, he entered Harvard University to attend a course in dramatic technique given by Professor George Baker. He left after one year.
During the 1910s O'Neill was a regular on the Greenwich Village literary scene, where he also befriended many radicals, most notably Communist Labor Party of America founder John Reed. O'Neill also had a brief romantic relationship with Reed's wife, writer Louise Bryant. O'Neill was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1981 film Reds, about the life of John Reed; Louise Bryant was portrayed by Diane Keaton.
His involvement with the Provincetown Players began in mid-1916. Terry Carlin reported that O'Neill arrived for the summer in Provincetown with "a trunk full of plays", but this was an exaggeration. Susan Glaspell describes a reading of Bound East for Cardiff that took place in the living room of Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook's home on Commercial Street, adjacent to the wharf (pictured) that was used by the Players for their theater: "So Gene took Bound East for Cardiff out of his trunk, and Freddie Burt read it to us, Gene staying out in the dining-room while reading went on. He was not left alone in the dining-room when the reading had finished." The Provincetown Players performed many of O'Neill's early works in their theaters both in Provincetown and on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. Some of these early plays, such as The Emperor Jones, began downtown and then moved to Broadway.
In an early one-act play, The Web. written in 1913, O'Neill first explored the darker themes that he later thrived on. Here he focused on the brothel world and the lives of prostitutes, which also play a role in some fourteen of his later plays. In particular, he memorably included the birth of an infant into the world of prostitution. At the time, such themes constituted a huge innovation, as these sides of life had never before been presented with such success.
O'Neill's first published play, Beyond the Horizon, opened on Broadway in 1920 to great acclaim, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His first major hit was The Emperor Jones, which ran on Broadway in 1920 and obliquely commented on the U.S. occupation of Haiti that was a topic of debate in that year's presidential election. His best-known plays include Anna Christie (Pulitzer Prize 1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), Strange Interlude (Pulitzer Prize 1928), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), and his only well-known comedy, Ah, Wilderness!, a wistful re-imagining of his youth as he wished it had been. In 1936 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature after he had been nominated that year by Henrik Schück, member of the Swedish Academy. After a ten-year pause, O'Neill's now-renowned play The Iceman Cometh was produced in 1946. The following year's A Moon for the Misbegotten failed, and it was decades before coming to be considered as among his best works.
He was also part of the modern movement to partially revive the classical heroic mask from ancient Greek theatre and Japanese Noh theatre in some of his plays, such as The Great God Brown and Lazarus Laughed.
Family life
O'Neill was married to Kathleen Jenkins from October 2, 1909, to 1912, during which time they had one son, Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (1910–1950). In 1917, O'Neill met Agnes Boulton, a successful writer of commercial fiction, and they married on April 12, 1918. They lived in a home owned by her parents in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, after their marriage. The years of their marriage—during which the couple lived in Connecticut and Bermuda and had two children, Shane and Oona—are described vividly in her 1958 memoir Part of a Long Story. They divorced in 1929, after O'Neill abandoned Boulton and the children for the actress Carlotta Monterey (born San Francisco, California, December 28, 1888; died Westwood, New Jersey, November 18, 1970). O'Neill and Carlotta married less than a month after he officially divorced his previous wife.
In 1929, O'Neill and Monterey moved to the Loire Valley in central France, where they lived in the Château du Plessis in Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher, Indre-et-Loire. During the early 1930s they returned to the United States and lived in Sea Island, Georgia, at a house called Casa Genotta. He moved to Danville, California in 1937 and lived there until 1944. His house there, Tao House, is today the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site.
In their first years together, Monterey organized O'Neill's life, enabling him to devote himself to writing. She later became addicted to potassium bromide, and the marriage deteriorated, resulting in a number of separations, although they never divorced.
In 1943, O'Neill disowned his daughter Oona for marrying the English actor, director, and producer Charlie Chaplin when she was 18 and Chaplin was 54. He never saw Oona again.
He also had distant relationships with his sons. Eugene O'Neill Jr., a Yale classicist, suffered from alcoholism and committed suicide in 1950 at the age of 40. Shane O'Neill became a heroin addict and moved into the family home in Bermuda, Spithead, with his new wife, where he supported himself by selling off the furnishings. He was disowned by his father before also committing suicide (by jumping out of a window) a number of years later. Oona ultimately inherited Spithead and the connected estate (subsequently known as the Chaplin Estate). In 1950 O'Neill joined The Lambs, the famed theater club.
Illness and death
After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions, were ever completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene's request.
O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Kilachand Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room."
Dr. Harry Kozol, the prosecution's lead expert in the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death and announced the fact to the public.
O'Neill is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967).
In 1967, the United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965–1978) $1 postage stamp.
Only in 2000 was it discovered that he died of cerebellar cortical atrophy, a rare form of brain deterioration unrelated to either alcohol use or Parkinson's disease.
Legacy
In Warren Beatty's 1981 film Reds, O'Neill is portrayed by Jack Nicholson, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
George C. White founded the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut in 1964.
Eugene O'Neill is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.
O'Neill is referenced by Upton Sinclair in The Cup of Fury (1956), by J.K. Simmons' character in Whiplash (2014), and by Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), specifically Long Day's Journey into Night.
O’Neill is referred to in Moss Hart’s 1959 book Act One, later a Broadway play.
Museums and collections
O'Neill's home in New London, Monte Cristo Cottage, was made a National Historic Landmark in 1971. His home in Danville, California, near San Francisco, was preserved as the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in 1976.
Connecticut College maintains the Louis Sheaffer Collection, consisting of material collected by the O'Neill biographer. The principal collection of O'Neill papers is at Yale University. The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut fosters the development of new plays under his name.
There is also a theatre in New York City named after him located at 230 West 49th Street in midtown-Manhattan. The Eugene O'Neill Theatre has housed musicals and plays such as Yentl, Annie, Grease, M. Butterfly, Spring Awakening, and The Book of Mormon.
Work
Full-length plays
Bread and Butter, 1914
Servitude, 1914
The Personal Equation, 1915
Now I Ask You, 1916
Beyond the Horizon, 1918 - Pulitzer Prize, 1920
The Straw, 1919
Chris Christophersen, 1919
Gold, 1920
Anna Christie, 1920 - Pulitzer Prize, 1922
The Emperor Jones, 1920
Diff'rent, 1921
The First Man, 1922
The Hairy Ape, 1922
The Fountain, 1923
Marco Millions, 1923–25
All God's Chillun Got Wings, 1924
Welded, 1924
Desire Under the Elms, 1924
Lazarus Laughed, 1925–26
The Great God Brown, 1926
Strange Interlude, 1928 - Pulitzer Prize
Dynamo, 1929
Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931
Ah, Wilderness!, 1933
Days Without End, 1933
The Iceman Cometh, written 1939, published 1940, first performed 1946
Long Day's Journey into Night, written 1941, first performed 1956; Pulitzer Prize 1957
A Moon for the Misbegotten, written 1941–1943, first performed 1947
A Touch of the Poet, completed in 1942, first performed 1958
More Stately Mansions, second draft found in O'Neill's papers, first performed 1967
The Calms of Capricorn, published in 1983
One-act plays
The Glencairn Plays, all of which feature characters on the fictional ship Glencairn—filmed together as The Long Voyage Home:
Bound East for Cardiff, 1914
In the Zone, 1917
The Long Voyage Home, 1917
Moon of the Caribbees, 1918
Other one-act plays include:
A Wife for a Life, 1913
The Web, 1913
Thirst, 1913
Recklessness, 1913
Warnings, 1913
Fog, 1914
Abortion, 1914
The Movie Man: A Comedy, 1914
The Sniper, 1915
Before Breakfast, 1916
Ile, 1917
The Rope, 1918
Shell Shock, 1918
The Dreamy Kid, 1918
Where the Cross Is Made, 1918
Eugene O'Neill's "Exorcism" 1919<ref name="Ex">{{cite web | url=http://chronicle.com/blogs/pageview/yale-u-library-acquires-lost-play-by-eugene-oneill/29541?sid=at | title=Exorcism | publisher=Chronicle of Higher Education | work=Yale U. Library Acquires Lost Play by Eugene O'Neill | date=October 19, 2011 | access-date=October 22, 2011}} (The play, set in 1912, is based on O’Neill’s suicide attempt from an overdose of barbiturates in a Manhattan rooming house. After its premiere in 1920, O’Neill canceled the production and, it had been thought, destroyed all copies.)</ref>
Hughie, written 1941, first performed 1959
Other works
Tomorrow, 1917. A Small Story published in The Seven Arts, Vol. II, No. 8 in June 1917.
The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog, 1940. Written to comfort Carlotta as their "child" Blemie was approaching his death in December 1940.
See also
The Eugene O'Neill Award
References
Further reading
Editions of O'Neill
Scholarly works
Bryan, George B. and Wolfgang Mieder. 1995. The Proverbial Eugene O'Neill. An Index to Proverbs in the Works of Eugene Gladstone O'Neill. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
External links
Digital collections
Works by Eugene O'Neill at Project Gutenberg Australia
Works by Eugene O'Neill (public domain in Canada)
Physical collections
Eugene O'Neill Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Eugene O'Neill Papers Addition. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Carlotta O'Neill notebook of letters and photographs, 1927-1954, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The notebook contains handwritten transcriptions by Carlotta O'Neill of letters and inscriptions to her from her husband, Eugene O'Neill, and photographs, mostly portraits of Eugene and Carlotta O'Neill.
Analysis and editorials
Haunted by Eugene O'Neill—Article in BU Today'', September 29, 2009
Eugene O’Neill: the sailor, the sickness, the stage from the Museum of the City of New York Collections blog
The Iceman Cometh: A Study Guide
External entries
Eugene O'Neill | PlaybillVault.com
Other sources
Eugene O'Neill official website
Casa Genotta official website
Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site
American Experience - Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film on PBS
1888 births
1953 deaths
O'Neill, Eugene
American agnostics
American Nobel laureates
American people of Irish descent
Expressionist dramatists and playwrights
Industrial Workers of the World members
Irish-American history
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Modernist theatre
Nobel laureates in Literature
People from Danville, California
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from New London, Connecticut
People from Point Pleasant, New Jersey
People from Provincetown, Massachusetts
People from Ridgefield, Connecticut
People with Parkinson's disease
Princeton University alumni
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Tony Award winners
Writers from Manhattan
Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts
Members of The Lambs Club | true | [
"\"There's Something Else Going On\" is the ninth episode of the fourth season of the American television drama series Homeland, and the 45th episode overall. It premiered on Showtime on November 23, 2014.\n\nThe episode was cited by multiple publications as one of the best television episodes of 2014.\n\nPlot \nCarrie (Claire Danes) asks Dennis Boyd (Mark Moses) to confess to helping the ISI, but he denies involvement. In the middle of the session, Martha Boyd (Laila Robins) pulls Dennis out and reprimands Carrie, but this is shown to be a ploy, as Martha agrees with Carrie's suspicions. Martha later catches Dennis trying to escape the embassy and locks him up.\n\nDuring the prisoner exchange, the CIA and ISI stand at opposite ends of an airstrip. Both sides release their prisoners at the same time. A teenage boy wearing a suicide vest follows along with Saul (Mandy Patinkin). At this point, Saul sits down and refuses to move because he doesn't wish to see those prisoners go free. Carrie approaches Saul and pleads with him. Finally, Saul agrees and rises up, and the exchange succeeds.\n\nOn the way back to the Embassy, the three-car convoy transporting Saul and Carrie is struck by two RPGs. The CIA staff detect the explosions, and Lockhart (Tracy Letts) sends the embassy's security guards to the scene. When Martha visits Dennis in the cell, and tells him what happened, it occurs to Dennis that the explosions are a diversion for an attack on the embassy. He confesses to Martha that he told Tasneem Qureishi (Nimrat Kaur) about the embassy's hidden tunnel.\n\nHaissam Haqqani (Numan Acar) and a platoon of soldiers, all armed with assault rifles, make use of the tunnel and get inside.\n\nProduction \nThe episode was directed by Seith Mann and written by co-executive producer Patrick Harbinson.\n\nReception\n\nRatings \nThe original broadcast of the episode was watched by 1.77 million viewers, an increase of over 100,000 from the previous week.\n\nCritical response \nThe review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating from critics based on 11 reviews. The website's consensus reads, There's Something Else Going On' is an apt title for this episode of Homeland, which ably balances nerve-rattling action with continuously suspenseful plotting.\"\n\nCynthia Littleton of Variety said \"Homeland ninth episode, 'There’s Something Else Going On,' was a combustible mix of action, nail-biting tension and plot twists and turns. In the middle of all this, the show has made its way back to holding a mirror up to U.S. foreign policy action\". Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post lauded the episode for its \"two great, tense sequences, the second even better for coming as a genuine shock\". New York magazine's Price Peterson rated the episode 5 out of 5 stars, adding that \"this week's episode was the season's best yet\". Peterson highlighted the unpredictability of the writing, as well as the performances of Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin in the prisoner exchange scene, saying \"these two next-level actors have never been better as their back-and-forth concisely spelled out the entire premise of the show\".\n\nEntertainment Weekly named it the fifth best television episode of 2014, stating, \"It was classic Homeland—and we mean that, once again, in a good way.\" TV Guide named it the third best television episode of the year, remarking that it had \"all the suspense and entertainment as some of the most highly regarded action movies\" and that \"Mandy Patinkin delivers his strongest work on the series to date\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \"There's Something Else Going On\" at Showtime\n \n\n2014 American television episodes\nHomeland (season 4) episodes",
"\"What's the Matter with You Baby\" is a 1964 single written by William \"Mickey\" Stevenson, Clarence Paul, and Barney Ales and produced by Stevenson. It was recorded and released by Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells on the Motown label.\nReleased as a double A-side single alongside \"Once Upon a Time\", the song gave Gaye and Wells another charted smash.\n\nBackground\nThe song has Gaye and Wells going back and forth with Gaye apologizing to Wells for leaving her behind for someone else begging Wells to give him one more chance.\nAt first, Wells says taking Gaye back would \"hurt (her) pride\" and that she cannot let him take her out for the night but after Gaye pleads for Wells to come back to him, Wells relents but still passes on him taking her out for the night. The song begins and ends with the two harmonizing together.\n\nChart performance\n\"What's the Matter with You Baby\" peaked at number nineteen on the U.S. Pop Singles chart when released. On Cash Box \"Top 50 in R&B Locations\", the song went to number two.\n\nPersonnel\nAll vocals by Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells\nProduced by William \"Mickey\" Stevenson\nInstrumentation by The Funk Brothers\n\nReferences\n\n1964 singles\nMarvin Gaye songs\nMary Wells songs\nVocal duets\nSongs written by Clarence Paul\n1964 songs\nSongs written by William \"Mickey\" Stevenson\nMotown singles"
]
|
[
"Eugene O'Neill",
"Illness and death",
"What illness did he have",
"After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor",
"When did he die?",
"O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Shelton Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation",
"When was the last time he wrote",
"He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write.",
"Who was there when he died?",
"Dr. Harry Kozol, the lead prosecuting expert of the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death",
"Did he have any other illness",
"After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism",
"What else was going on with him",
"While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s."
]
| C_b45e90a21bc74439bf73afea77b659e6_0 | Did he write anything else? | 8 | Other than Moon, did Eugene O'Neill write anything else? | Eugene O'Neill | After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions, were ever completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene's request. O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Shelton Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room." Dr. Harry Kozol, the lead prosecuting expert of the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death and announced the fact to the public. O'Neill is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967). The United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965-1978) $1 postage stamp. CANNOTANSWER | The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. | Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. The tragedy Long Day's Journey into Night is often numbered on the short list of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century, alongside Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.
Early life
O'Neill was born in a hotel, the Barrett House, at Broadway and 43rd Street, on what was then Longacre Square (now Times Square). A commemorative plaque was first dedicated there in 1957. The site is now occupied by 1500 Broadway, which houses offices, shops and the ABC Studios.
He was the son of Irish immigrant actor James O'Neill and Mary Ellen Quinlan, who was also of Irish descent. His father suffered from alcoholism; his mother from an addiction to morphine, prescribed to relieve the pains of the difficult birth of Eugene, who was her third son. Because his father was often on tour with a theatrical company, accompanied by Eugene's mother, in 1895 O'Neill was sent to St. Aloysius Academy for Boys, a Catholic boarding school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. In 1900, he became a day student at the De La Salle Institute on 59th Street in Manhattan.
The O'Neill family reunited for summers at the Monte Cristo Cottage in New London, Connecticut. He also briefly attended Betts Academy in Stamford. He attended Princeton University for one year. Accounts vary as to why he left. He may have been dropped for attending too few classes, been suspended for "conduct code violations", or "for breaking a window", or according to a more concrete but possibly apocryphal account, because he threw "a beer bottle into the window of Professor Woodrow Wilson", the future president of the United States.
O'Neill spent several years at sea, during which he suffered from depression and alcoholism. Despite this, he had a deep love for the sea and it became a prominent theme in many of his plays, several of which are set on board ships like those on which he worked. O'Neill joined the Marine Transport Workers Union of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which was fighting for improved living conditions for the working class using quick 'on the job' direct action. O'Neill's parents and elder brother Jamie (who drank himself to death at the age of 45) died within three years of one another, not long after he had begun to make his mark in the theater.
Career
After his experience in 1912–13 at a sanatorium where he was recovering from tuberculosis, he decided to devote himself full-time to writing plays (the events immediately prior to going to the sanatorium are dramatized in his masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night). O'Neill had previously been employed by the New London Telegraph, writing poetry as well as reporting. In the fall of 1914, he entered Harvard University to attend a course in dramatic technique given by Professor George Baker. He left after one year.
During the 1910s O'Neill was a regular on the Greenwich Village literary scene, where he also befriended many radicals, most notably Communist Labor Party of America founder John Reed. O'Neill also had a brief romantic relationship with Reed's wife, writer Louise Bryant. O'Neill was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1981 film Reds, about the life of John Reed; Louise Bryant was portrayed by Diane Keaton.
His involvement with the Provincetown Players began in mid-1916. Terry Carlin reported that O'Neill arrived for the summer in Provincetown with "a trunk full of plays", but this was an exaggeration. Susan Glaspell describes a reading of Bound East for Cardiff that took place in the living room of Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook's home on Commercial Street, adjacent to the wharf (pictured) that was used by the Players for their theater: "So Gene took Bound East for Cardiff out of his trunk, and Freddie Burt read it to us, Gene staying out in the dining-room while reading went on. He was not left alone in the dining-room when the reading had finished." The Provincetown Players performed many of O'Neill's early works in their theaters both in Provincetown and on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. Some of these early plays, such as The Emperor Jones, began downtown and then moved to Broadway.
In an early one-act play, The Web. written in 1913, O'Neill first explored the darker themes that he later thrived on. Here he focused on the brothel world and the lives of prostitutes, which also play a role in some fourteen of his later plays. In particular, he memorably included the birth of an infant into the world of prostitution. At the time, such themes constituted a huge innovation, as these sides of life had never before been presented with such success.
O'Neill's first published play, Beyond the Horizon, opened on Broadway in 1920 to great acclaim, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His first major hit was The Emperor Jones, which ran on Broadway in 1920 and obliquely commented on the U.S. occupation of Haiti that was a topic of debate in that year's presidential election. His best-known plays include Anna Christie (Pulitzer Prize 1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), Strange Interlude (Pulitzer Prize 1928), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), and his only well-known comedy, Ah, Wilderness!, a wistful re-imagining of his youth as he wished it had been. In 1936 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature after he had been nominated that year by Henrik Schück, member of the Swedish Academy. After a ten-year pause, O'Neill's now-renowned play The Iceman Cometh was produced in 1946. The following year's A Moon for the Misbegotten failed, and it was decades before coming to be considered as among his best works.
He was also part of the modern movement to partially revive the classical heroic mask from ancient Greek theatre and Japanese Noh theatre in some of his plays, such as The Great God Brown and Lazarus Laughed.
Family life
O'Neill was married to Kathleen Jenkins from October 2, 1909, to 1912, during which time they had one son, Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (1910–1950). In 1917, O'Neill met Agnes Boulton, a successful writer of commercial fiction, and they married on April 12, 1918. They lived in a home owned by her parents in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, after their marriage. The years of their marriage—during which the couple lived in Connecticut and Bermuda and had two children, Shane and Oona—are described vividly in her 1958 memoir Part of a Long Story. They divorced in 1929, after O'Neill abandoned Boulton and the children for the actress Carlotta Monterey (born San Francisco, California, December 28, 1888; died Westwood, New Jersey, November 18, 1970). O'Neill and Carlotta married less than a month after he officially divorced his previous wife.
In 1929, O'Neill and Monterey moved to the Loire Valley in central France, where they lived in the Château du Plessis in Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher, Indre-et-Loire. During the early 1930s they returned to the United States and lived in Sea Island, Georgia, at a house called Casa Genotta. He moved to Danville, California in 1937 and lived there until 1944. His house there, Tao House, is today the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site.
In their first years together, Monterey organized O'Neill's life, enabling him to devote himself to writing. She later became addicted to potassium bromide, and the marriage deteriorated, resulting in a number of separations, although they never divorced.
In 1943, O'Neill disowned his daughter Oona for marrying the English actor, director, and producer Charlie Chaplin when she was 18 and Chaplin was 54. He never saw Oona again.
He also had distant relationships with his sons. Eugene O'Neill Jr., a Yale classicist, suffered from alcoholism and committed suicide in 1950 at the age of 40. Shane O'Neill became a heroin addict and moved into the family home in Bermuda, Spithead, with his new wife, where he supported himself by selling off the furnishings. He was disowned by his father before also committing suicide (by jumping out of a window) a number of years later. Oona ultimately inherited Spithead and the connected estate (subsequently known as the Chaplin Estate). In 1950 O'Neill joined The Lambs, the famed theater club.
Illness and death
After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions, were ever completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene's request.
O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Kilachand Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room."
Dr. Harry Kozol, the prosecution's lead expert in the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death and announced the fact to the public.
O'Neill is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967).
In 1967, the United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965–1978) $1 postage stamp.
Only in 2000 was it discovered that he died of cerebellar cortical atrophy, a rare form of brain deterioration unrelated to either alcohol use or Parkinson's disease.
Legacy
In Warren Beatty's 1981 film Reds, O'Neill is portrayed by Jack Nicholson, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
George C. White founded the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut in 1964.
Eugene O'Neill is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.
O'Neill is referenced by Upton Sinclair in The Cup of Fury (1956), by J.K. Simmons' character in Whiplash (2014), and by Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), specifically Long Day's Journey into Night.
O’Neill is referred to in Moss Hart’s 1959 book Act One, later a Broadway play.
Museums and collections
O'Neill's home in New London, Monte Cristo Cottage, was made a National Historic Landmark in 1971. His home in Danville, California, near San Francisco, was preserved as the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in 1976.
Connecticut College maintains the Louis Sheaffer Collection, consisting of material collected by the O'Neill biographer. The principal collection of O'Neill papers is at Yale University. The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut fosters the development of new plays under his name.
There is also a theatre in New York City named after him located at 230 West 49th Street in midtown-Manhattan. The Eugene O'Neill Theatre has housed musicals and plays such as Yentl, Annie, Grease, M. Butterfly, Spring Awakening, and The Book of Mormon.
Work
Full-length plays
Bread and Butter, 1914
Servitude, 1914
The Personal Equation, 1915
Now I Ask You, 1916
Beyond the Horizon, 1918 - Pulitzer Prize, 1920
The Straw, 1919
Chris Christophersen, 1919
Gold, 1920
Anna Christie, 1920 - Pulitzer Prize, 1922
The Emperor Jones, 1920
Diff'rent, 1921
The First Man, 1922
The Hairy Ape, 1922
The Fountain, 1923
Marco Millions, 1923–25
All God's Chillun Got Wings, 1924
Welded, 1924
Desire Under the Elms, 1924
Lazarus Laughed, 1925–26
The Great God Brown, 1926
Strange Interlude, 1928 - Pulitzer Prize
Dynamo, 1929
Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931
Ah, Wilderness!, 1933
Days Without End, 1933
The Iceman Cometh, written 1939, published 1940, first performed 1946
Long Day's Journey into Night, written 1941, first performed 1956; Pulitzer Prize 1957
A Moon for the Misbegotten, written 1941–1943, first performed 1947
A Touch of the Poet, completed in 1942, first performed 1958
More Stately Mansions, second draft found in O'Neill's papers, first performed 1967
The Calms of Capricorn, published in 1983
One-act plays
The Glencairn Plays, all of which feature characters on the fictional ship Glencairn—filmed together as The Long Voyage Home:
Bound East for Cardiff, 1914
In the Zone, 1917
The Long Voyage Home, 1917
Moon of the Caribbees, 1918
Other one-act plays include:
A Wife for a Life, 1913
The Web, 1913
Thirst, 1913
Recklessness, 1913
Warnings, 1913
Fog, 1914
Abortion, 1914
The Movie Man: A Comedy, 1914
The Sniper, 1915
Before Breakfast, 1916
Ile, 1917
The Rope, 1918
Shell Shock, 1918
The Dreamy Kid, 1918
Where the Cross Is Made, 1918
Eugene O'Neill's "Exorcism" 1919<ref name="Ex">{{cite web | url=http://chronicle.com/blogs/pageview/yale-u-library-acquires-lost-play-by-eugene-oneill/29541?sid=at | title=Exorcism | publisher=Chronicle of Higher Education | work=Yale U. Library Acquires Lost Play by Eugene O'Neill | date=October 19, 2011 | access-date=October 22, 2011}} (The play, set in 1912, is based on O’Neill’s suicide attempt from an overdose of barbiturates in a Manhattan rooming house. After its premiere in 1920, O’Neill canceled the production and, it had been thought, destroyed all copies.)</ref>
Hughie, written 1941, first performed 1959
Other works
Tomorrow, 1917. A Small Story published in The Seven Arts, Vol. II, No. 8 in June 1917.
The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog, 1940. Written to comfort Carlotta as their "child" Blemie was approaching his death in December 1940.
See also
The Eugene O'Neill Award
References
Further reading
Editions of O'Neill
Scholarly works
Bryan, George B. and Wolfgang Mieder. 1995. The Proverbial Eugene O'Neill. An Index to Proverbs in the Works of Eugene Gladstone O'Neill. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
External links
Digital collections
Works by Eugene O'Neill at Project Gutenberg Australia
Works by Eugene O'Neill (public domain in Canada)
Physical collections
Eugene O'Neill Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Eugene O'Neill Papers Addition. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Carlotta O'Neill notebook of letters and photographs, 1927-1954, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The notebook contains handwritten transcriptions by Carlotta O'Neill of letters and inscriptions to her from her husband, Eugene O'Neill, and photographs, mostly portraits of Eugene and Carlotta O'Neill.
Analysis and editorials
Haunted by Eugene O'Neill—Article in BU Today'', September 29, 2009
Eugene O’Neill: the sailor, the sickness, the stage from the Museum of the City of New York Collections blog
The Iceman Cometh: A Study Guide
External entries
Eugene O'Neill | PlaybillVault.com
Other sources
Eugene O'Neill official website
Casa Genotta official website
Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site
American Experience - Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film on PBS
1888 births
1953 deaths
O'Neill, Eugene
American agnostics
American Nobel laureates
American people of Irish descent
Expressionist dramatists and playwrights
Industrial Workers of the World members
Irish-American history
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Modernist theatre
Nobel laureates in Literature
People from Danville, California
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from New London, Connecticut
People from Point Pleasant, New Jersey
People from Provincetown, Massachusetts
People from Ridgefield, Connecticut
People with Parkinson's disease
Princeton University alumni
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Tony Award winners
Writers from Manhattan
Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts
Members of The Lambs Club | true | [
"\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" is a song written by Billy Livsey and Don Schlitz, and recorded by American country music artist George Strait. It was released in February 2001 as the third and final single from his self-titled album. The song reached number 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in July 2001. It also peaked at number 51 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.\n\nContent\nThe song is about man who is giving his woman the option to leave him. He gives her many different options for all the things she can do. At the end he gives her the option to stay with him if she really can’t find anything else to do. He says he will be alright if she leaves, but really it seems he wants her to stay.\n\nChart performance\n\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" debuted at number 60 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 3, 2001.\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2001 singles\n2000 songs\nGeorge Strait songs\nSongs written by Billy Livsey\nSongs written by Don Schlitz\nSong recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer)\nMCA Nashville Records singles",
"Say Anything may refer to:\n\nFilm and television\n Say Anything..., a 1989 American film by Cameron Crowe\n \"Say Anything\" (BoJack Horseman), a television episode\n\nMusic\n Say Anything (band), an American rock band\n Say Anything (album), a 2009 album by the band\n \"Say Anything\", a 2012 song by Say Anything from Anarchy, My Dear\n \"Say Anything\" (Marianas Trench song), 2006\n \"Say Anything\" (X Japan song), 1991\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Aimee Mann from Whatever, 1993\n \"Say Anything\", a song by the Bouncing Souls from The Bouncing Souls, 1997\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Good Charlotte from The Young and the Hopeless, 2002\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Girl in Red, 2018\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Will Young from Lexicon, 2019\n \"Say Anything (Else)\", a song by Cartel from Chroma, 2005\n\nOther uses\n Say Anything (party game), a 2008 board game published by North Star Games\n \"Say Anything\", a column in YM magazine\n\nSee also\n Say Something (disambiguation)"
]
|
[
"Eugene O'Neill",
"Illness and death",
"What illness did he have",
"After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor",
"When did he die?",
"O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Shelton Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation",
"When was the last time he wrote",
"He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write.",
"Who was there when he died?",
"Dr. Harry Kozol, the lead prosecuting expert of the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death",
"Did he have any other illness",
"After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism",
"What else was going on with him",
"While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s.",
"Did he write anything else?",
"The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten."
]
| C_b45e90a21bc74439bf73afea77b659e6_0 | What else was important in this article? | 9 | Aside from Eugene O'Neill illness, death, writing Moon, what else was important in this article? | Eugene O'Neill | After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions, were ever completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene's request. O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Shelton Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room." Dr. Harry Kozol, the lead prosecuting expert of the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death and announced the fact to the public. O'Neill is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967). The United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965-1978) $1 postage stamp. CANNOTANSWER | In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, | Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. The tragedy Long Day's Journey into Night is often numbered on the short list of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century, alongside Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.
Early life
O'Neill was born in a hotel, the Barrett House, at Broadway and 43rd Street, on what was then Longacre Square (now Times Square). A commemorative plaque was first dedicated there in 1957. The site is now occupied by 1500 Broadway, which houses offices, shops and the ABC Studios.
He was the son of Irish immigrant actor James O'Neill and Mary Ellen Quinlan, who was also of Irish descent. His father suffered from alcoholism; his mother from an addiction to morphine, prescribed to relieve the pains of the difficult birth of Eugene, who was her third son. Because his father was often on tour with a theatrical company, accompanied by Eugene's mother, in 1895 O'Neill was sent to St. Aloysius Academy for Boys, a Catholic boarding school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. In 1900, he became a day student at the De La Salle Institute on 59th Street in Manhattan.
The O'Neill family reunited for summers at the Monte Cristo Cottage in New London, Connecticut. He also briefly attended Betts Academy in Stamford. He attended Princeton University for one year. Accounts vary as to why he left. He may have been dropped for attending too few classes, been suspended for "conduct code violations", or "for breaking a window", or according to a more concrete but possibly apocryphal account, because he threw "a beer bottle into the window of Professor Woodrow Wilson", the future president of the United States.
O'Neill spent several years at sea, during which he suffered from depression and alcoholism. Despite this, he had a deep love for the sea and it became a prominent theme in many of his plays, several of which are set on board ships like those on which he worked. O'Neill joined the Marine Transport Workers Union of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which was fighting for improved living conditions for the working class using quick 'on the job' direct action. O'Neill's parents and elder brother Jamie (who drank himself to death at the age of 45) died within three years of one another, not long after he had begun to make his mark in the theater.
Career
After his experience in 1912–13 at a sanatorium where he was recovering from tuberculosis, he decided to devote himself full-time to writing plays (the events immediately prior to going to the sanatorium are dramatized in his masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night). O'Neill had previously been employed by the New London Telegraph, writing poetry as well as reporting. In the fall of 1914, he entered Harvard University to attend a course in dramatic technique given by Professor George Baker. He left after one year.
During the 1910s O'Neill was a regular on the Greenwich Village literary scene, where he also befriended many radicals, most notably Communist Labor Party of America founder John Reed. O'Neill also had a brief romantic relationship with Reed's wife, writer Louise Bryant. O'Neill was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1981 film Reds, about the life of John Reed; Louise Bryant was portrayed by Diane Keaton.
His involvement with the Provincetown Players began in mid-1916. Terry Carlin reported that O'Neill arrived for the summer in Provincetown with "a trunk full of plays", but this was an exaggeration. Susan Glaspell describes a reading of Bound East for Cardiff that took place in the living room of Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook's home on Commercial Street, adjacent to the wharf (pictured) that was used by the Players for their theater: "So Gene took Bound East for Cardiff out of his trunk, and Freddie Burt read it to us, Gene staying out in the dining-room while reading went on. He was not left alone in the dining-room when the reading had finished." The Provincetown Players performed many of O'Neill's early works in their theaters both in Provincetown and on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. Some of these early plays, such as The Emperor Jones, began downtown and then moved to Broadway.
In an early one-act play, The Web. written in 1913, O'Neill first explored the darker themes that he later thrived on. Here he focused on the brothel world and the lives of prostitutes, which also play a role in some fourteen of his later plays. In particular, he memorably included the birth of an infant into the world of prostitution. At the time, such themes constituted a huge innovation, as these sides of life had never before been presented with such success.
O'Neill's first published play, Beyond the Horizon, opened on Broadway in 1920 to great acclaim, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His first major hit was The Emperor Jones, which ran on Broadway in 1920 and obliquely commented on the U.S. occupation of Haiti that was a topic of debate in that year's presidential election. His best-known plays include Anna Christie (Pulitzer Prize 1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), Strange Interlude (Pulitzer Prize 1928), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), and his only well-known comedy, Ah, Wilderness!, a wistful re-imagining of his youth as he wished it had been. In 1936 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature after he had been nominated that year by Henrik Schück, member of the Swedish Academy. After a ten-year pause, O'Neill's now-renowned play The Iceman Cometh was produced in 1946. The following year's A Moon for the Misbegotten failed, and it was decades before coming to be considered as among his best works.
He was also part of the modern movement to partially revive the classical heroic mask from ancient Greek theatre and Japanese Noh theatre in some of his plays, such as The Great God Brown and Lazarus Laughed.
Family life
O'Neill was married to Kathleen Jenkins from October 2, 1909, to 1912, during which time they had one son, Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (1910–1950). In 1917, O'Neill met Agnes Boulton, a successful writer of commercial fiction, and they married on April 12, 1918. They lived in a home owned by her parents in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, after their marriage. The years of their marriage—during which the couple lived in Connecticut and Bermuda and had two children, Shane and Oona—are described vividly in her 1958 memoir Part of a Long Story. They divorced in 1929, after O'Neill abandoned Boulton and the children for the actress Carlotta Monterey (born San Francisco, California, December 28, 1888; died Westwood, New Jersey, November 18, 1970). O'Neill and Carlotta married less than a month after he officially divorced his previous wife.
In 1929, O'Neill and Monterey moved to the Loire Valley in central France, where they lived in the Château du Plessis in Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher, Indre-et-Loire. During the early 1930s they returned to the United States and lived in Sea Island, Georgia, at a house called Casa Genotta. He moved to Danville, California in 1937 and lived there until 1944. His house there, Tao House, is today the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site.
In their first years together, Monterey organized O'Neill's life, enabling him to devote himself to writing. She later became addicted to potassium bromide, and the marriage deteriorated, resulting in a number of separations, although they never divorced.
In 1943, O'Neill disowned his daughter Oona for marrying the English actor, director, and producer Charlie Chaplin when she was 18 and Chaplin was 54. He never saw Oona again.
He also had distant relationships with his sons. Eugene O'Neill Jr., a Yale classicist, suffered from alcoholism and committed suicide in 1950 at the age of 40. Shane O'Neill became a heroin addict and moved into the family home in Bermuda, Spithead, with his new wife, where he supported himself by selling off the furnishings. He was disowned by his father before also committing suicide (by jumping out of a window) a number of years later. Oona ultimately inherited Spithead and the connected estate (subsequently known as the Chaplin Estate). In 1950 O'Neill joined The Lambs, the famed theater club.
Illness and death
After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions, were ever completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene's request.
O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Kilachand Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room."
Dr. Harry Kozol, the prosecution's lead expert in the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death and announced the fact to the public.
O'Neill is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967).
In 1967, the United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965–1978) $1 postage stamp.
Only in 2000 was it discovered that he died of cerebellar cortical atrophy, a rare form of brain deterioration unrelated to either alcohol use or Parkinson's disease.
Legacy
In Warren Beatty's 1981 film Reds, O'Neill is portrayed by Jack Nicholson, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
George C. White founded the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut in 1964.
Eugene O'Neill is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.
O'Neill is referenced by Upton Sinclair in The Cup of Fury (1956), by J.K. Simmons' character in Whiplash (2014), and by Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), specifically Long Day's Journey into Night.
O’Neill is referred to in Moss Hart’s 1959 book Act One, later a Broadway play.
Museums and collections
O'Neill's home in New London, Monte Cristo Cottage, was made a National Historic Landmark in 1971. His home in Danville, California, near San Francisco, was preserved as the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in 1976.
Connecticut College maintains the Louis Sheaffer Collection, consisting of material collected by the O'Neill biographer. The principal collection of O'Neill papers is at Yale University. The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut fosters the development of new plays under his name.
There is also a theatre in New York City named after him located at 230 West 49th Street in midtown-Manhattan. The Eugene O'Neill Theatre has housed musicals and plays such as Yentl, Annie, Grease, M. Butterfly, Spring Awakening, and The Book of Mormon.
Work
Full-length plays
Bread and Butter, 1914
Servitude, 1914
The Personal Equation, 1915
Now I Ask You, 1916
Beyond the Horizon, 1918 - Pulitzer Prize, 1920
The Straw, 1919
Chris Christophersen, 1919
Gold, 1920
Anna Christie, 1920 - Pulitzer Prize, 1922
The Emperor Jones, 1920
Diff'rent, 1921
The First Man, 1922
The Hairy Ape, 1922
The Fountain, 1923
Marco Millions, 1923–25
All God's Chillun Got Wings, 1924
Welded, 1924
Desire Under the Elms, 1924
Lazarus Laughed, 1925–26
The Great God Brown, 1926
Strange Interlude, 1928 - Pulitzer Prize
Dynamo, 1929
Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931
Ah, Wilderness!, 1933
Days Without End, 1933
The Iceman Cometh, written 1939, published 1940, first performed 1946
Long Day's Journey into Night, written 1941, first performed 1956; Pulitzer Prize 1957
A Moon for the Misbegotten, written 1941–1943, first performed 1947
A Touch of the Poet, completed in 1942, first performed 1958
More Stately Mansions, second draft found in O'Neill's papers, first performed 1967
The Calms of Capricorn, published in 1983
One-act plays
The Glencairn Plays, all of which feature characters on the fictional ship Glencairn—filmed together as The Long Voyage Home:
Bound East for Cardiff, 1914
In the Zone, 1917
The Long Voyage Home, 1917
Moon of the Caribbees, 1918
Other one-act plays include:
A Wife for a Life, 1913
The Web, 1913
Thirst, 1913
Recklessness, 1913
Warnings, 1913
Fog, 1914
Abortion, 1914
The Movie Man: A Comedy, 1914
The Sniper, 1915
Before Breakfast, 1916
Ile, 1917
The Rope, 1918
Shell Shock, 1918
The Dreamy Kid, 1918
Where the Cross Is Made, 1918
Eugene O'Neill's "Exorcism" 1919<ref name="Ex">{{cite web | url=http://chronicle.com/blogs/pageview/yale-u-library-acquires-lost-play-by-eugene-oneill/29541?sid=at | title=Exorcism | publisher=Chronicle of Higher Education | work=Yale U. Library Acquires Lost Play by Eugene O'Neill | date=October 19, 2011 | access-date=October 22, 2011}} (The play, set in 1912, is based on O’Neill’s suicide attempt from an overdose of barbiturates in a Manhattan rooming house. After its premiere in 1920, O’Neill canceled the production and, it had been thought, destroyed all copies.)</ref>
Hughie, written 1941, first performed 1959
Other works
Tomorrow, 1917. A Small Story published in The Seven Arts, Vol. II, No. 8 in June 1917.
The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog, 1940. Written to comfort Carlotta as their "child" Blemie was approaching his death in December 1940.
See also
The Eugene O'Neill Award
References
Further reading
Editions of O'Neill
Scholarly works
Bryan, George B. and Wolfgang Mieder. 1995. The Proverbial Eugene O'Neill. An Index to Proverbs in the Works of Eugene Gladstone O'Neill. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
External links
Digital collections
Works by Eugene O'Neill at Project Gutenberg Australia
Works by Eugene O'Neill (public domain in Canada)
Physical collections
Eugene O'Neill Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Eugene O'Neill Papers Addition. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Carlotta O'Neill notebook of letters and photographs, 1927-1954, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The notebook contains handwritten transcriptions by Carlotta O'Neill of letters and inscriptions to her from her husband, Eugene O'Neill, and photographs, mostly portraits of Eugene and Carlotta O'Neill.
Analysis and editorials
Haunted by Eugene O'Neill—Article in BU Today'', September 29, 2009
Eugene O’Neill: the sailor, the sickness, the stage from the Museum of the City of New York Collections blog
The Iceman Cometh: A Study Guide
External entries
Eugene O'Neill | PlaybillVault.com
Other sources
Eugene O'Neill official website
Casa Genotta official website
Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site
American Experience - Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film on PBS
1888 births
1953 deaths
O'Neill, Eugene
American agnostics
American Nobel laureates
American people of Irish descent
Expressionist dramatists and playwrights
Industrial Workers of the World members
Irish-American history
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Modernist theatre
Nobel laureates in Literature
People from Danville, California
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from New London, Connecticut
People from Point Pleasant, New Jersey
People from Provincetown, Massachusetts
People from Ridgefield, Connecticut
People with Parkinson's disease
Princeton University alumni
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Tony Award winners
Writers from Manhattan
Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts
Members of The Lambs Club | 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",
"Else Alfelt (16 September 1910 – 9 August 1974) was a Danish artist who specialized in abstract paintings. She was one of two female members of the CoBrA movement. She was married to Carl-Henning Pedersen, another prominent CoBrA member.\n\nEarly life and education\nAlfelt was born in Copenhagen to the parents Carl Valdemar Ahlefeldt (1882–1954) and Edith Alexandra Regine Julie Thomsen (1893–1938). She began to paint in an early age and remained self-taught as an artist. When her parents divorced while Else was very young, she was sent away to an orphanage by her father’s new wife. Alfelt learned to paint around age 12 by trying to capture staff and other children at the orphanage.\n\nAt age 15, Alfelt attended the Technical School in Copenhagen for two years. Her training worked to prepare her to apply to the Art Academy in Copenhagen where she was ultimately turned down. According to her museum website, “the rejection was made on the grounds that she already possessed the necessary painting skills.”\nIn 1933, when Alfelt was 23 years old, she attended the International Folk High School in Elsinore. There, she met her future husband Carl-Henning Pederson. They married very quickly, and their daughter Vibeke Alfelt was born in 1934. From about 1934 to 1937, the couple struggled financially but felt inspired still, so they would paint over used canvases in order to continue their craft. This was how Pederson allegedly began painting, by being given a used canvas from his wife and instructed to make it his own.\n\nCareer\n\nAhlefeldt submitted her work to the annual Autumn Salon of Danish artists (Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling) from 1929, but her work was not accepted until 1936, when she exhibited two naturalistic portraits. Soon after this, Alfelt's painting style shifted to a completely abstract idiom of meditative and colorful prismatic compositions.\n\nAlfelt was involved with the major avant-garde art movements in Denmark from the 1930s through the 1950s. She took part in Linien (The Line, 1934-1939), the artists' collective and art journal that was the first conduit of French Surrealism to Denmark. Under the German occupation of Denmark during World War Two, Alfelt was an integral component of Helhesten (The Hell-Horse, 1941-1944), the artists' group and art journal co-founded by Asger Jorn as a harbinger of experimental art and implicit cultural-political resistance. She was also an important member of CoBrA (1948-1951) after the war.\n\nAlfelt's work explored motifs such as spirals, mountains, and spheres, which she linked to expressions of \"inner space\". Alfelt was directly inspired by nature, specifically mountains, which she sought out on her many travels, such as her trip to Lapland 1945 and Japan in 1967. In addition to paintings she also produced several mosaics.\n\nShe was awarded the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat in 1961.\n\nNotable artworks\n\nPosthumous Exhibitions \n“Else Alfelt- The Flower of the Universe” – Carl Henning Pederson og Else Alfelts Museum; 2018.\n\nAlfelt was inspired by travels to Japan to incorporate Zen Buddhism into her artistic style, resulting in 100 meditative paintings all named “Flower of the Universe.” These paintings were all made from Since she created them while traveling to Japan, each piece was composed on paper since it was lightweight and easy to transport.\n\n“Abstract Women- Else Alfelt and Marianne Grønnow” – Carl Henning Pederson og Else Alfelts museum; March 2015-August 2015.\nAbstract women documents two Danish abstract female painters who have gone overlooked by history, and overshadowed by their husbands’ works. While the two artists vary greatly in style and technique, the CHPEA museum brings them together for this exhibition to bring attention to the ways their art challenges established societal norms.\n\nLegacy\n'Carl Henning Pedersen og Else Alfelts Museum' outside Herning. Else Alfelts Vej in the Ørestad district of Copenhagen is named after her. In September 2010, the museum displayed a large-scale exhibition called “Else Alfelt – The Aesthetics of Emptiness.” The exhibition was shown for five months to celebrate what would have been Alfelt’s 100th birthday. The museum page description of the event calls her “one of the most significant women artists in Danish modernism.”\n\nSee also\nList of Danish painters\nList of Danish women artists\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n'Carl Henning Pedersen og Else Alfelts Museum' - Else Alfelt \nElse Alfelt in Kunstindeks Danmark \n\n1910 births\n1974 deaths\n20th-century Danish painters\n20th-century Danish women artists\nAbstract painters\nArtists from Copenhagen\nDanish watercolourists\nDanish women painters\nRecipients of the Thorvaldsen Medal\nWomen watercolorists"
]
|
[
"Eugene O'Neill",
"Illness and death",
"What illness did he have",
"After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor",
"When did he die?",
"O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Shelton Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation",
"When was the last time he wrote",
"He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write.",
"Who was there when he died?",
"Dr. Harry Kozol, the lead prosecuting expert of the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death",
"Did he have any other illness",
"After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism",
"What else was going on with him",
"While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s.",
"Did he write anything else?",
"The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten.",
"What else was important in this article?",
"In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published,"
]
| C_b45e90a21bc74439bf73afea77b659e6_0 | What else happen in that year | 10 | What else happen in year 1956, besides Carlotta arranging to publish Eugene O'Neill autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night? | Eugene O'Neill | After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions, were ever completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene's request. O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Shelton Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room." Dr. Harry Kozol, the lead prosecuting expert of the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death and announced the fact to the public. O'Neill is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967). The United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965-1978) $1 postage stamp. CANNOTANSWER | It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. | Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. The tragedy Long Day's Journey into Night is often numbered on the short list of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century, alongside Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.
Early life
O'Neill was born in a hotel, the Barrett House, at Broadway and 43rd Street, on what was then Longacre Square (now Times Square). A commemorative plaque was first dedicated there in 1957. The site is now occupied by 1500 Broadway, which houses offices, shops and the ABC Studios.
He was the son of Irish immigrant actor James O'Neill and Mary Ellen Quinlan, who was also of Irish descent. His father suffered from alcoholism; his mother from an addiction to morphine, prescribed to relieve the pains of the difficult birth of Eugene, who was her third son. Because his father was often on tour with a theatrical company, accompanied by Eugene's mother, in 1895 O'Neill was sent to St. Aloysius Academy for Boys, a Catholic boarding school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. In 1900, he became a day student at the De La Salle Institute on 59th Street in Manhattan.
The O'Neill family reunited for summers at the Monte Cristo Cottage in New London, Connecticut. He also briefly attended Betts Academy in Stamford. He attended Princeton University for one year. Accounts vary as to why he left. He may have been dropped for attending too few classes, been suspended for "conduct code violations", or "for breaking a window", or according to a more concrete but possibly apocryphal account, because he threw "a beer bottle into the window of Professor Woodrow Wilson", the future president of the United States.
O'Neill spent several years at sea, during which he suffered from depression and alcoholism. Despite this, he had a deep love for the sea and it became a prominent theme in many of his plays, several of which are set on board ships like those on which he worked. O'Neill joined the Marine Transport Workers Union of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which was fighting for improved living conditions for the working class using quick 'on the job' direct action. O'Neill's parents and elder brother Jamie (who drank himself to death at the age of 45) died within three years of one another, not long after he had begun to make his mark in the theater.
Career
After his experience in 1912–13 at a sanatorium where he was recovering from tuberculosis, he decided to devote himself full-time to writing plays (the events immediately prior to going to the sanatorium are dramatized in his masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night). O'Neill had previously been employed by the New London Telegraph, writing poetry as well as reporting. In the fall of 1914, he entered Harvard University to attend a course in dramatic technique given by Professor George Baker. He left after one year.
During the 1910s O'Neill was a regular on the Greenwich Village literary scene, where he also befriended many radicals, most notably Communist Labor Party of America founder John Reed. O'Neill also had a brief romantic relationship with Reed's wife, writer Louise Bryant. O'Neill was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1981 film Reds, about the life of John Reed; Louise Bryant was portrayed by Diane Keaton.
His involvement with the Provincetown Players began in mid-1916. Terry Carlin reported that O'Neill arrived for the summer in Provincetown with "a trunk full of plays", but this was an exaggeration. Susan Glaspell describes a reading of Bound East for Cardiff that took place in the living room of Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook's home on Commercial Street, adjacent to the wharf (pictured) that was used by the Players for their theater: "So Gene took Bound East for Cardiff out of his trunk, and Freddie Burt read it to us, Gene staying out in the dining-room while reading went on. He was not left alone in the dining-room when the reading had finished." The Provincetown Players performed many of O'Neill's early works in their theaters both in Provincetown and on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. Some of these early plays, such as The Emperor Jones, began downtown and then moved to Broadway.
In an early one-act play, The Web. written in 1913, O'Neill first explored the darker themes that he later thrived on. Here he focused on the brothel world and the lives of prostitutes, which also play a role in some fourteen of his later plays. In particular, he memorably included the birth of an infant into the world of prostitution. At the time, such themes constituted a huge innovation, as these sides of life had never before been presented with such success.
O'Neill's first published play, Beyond the Horizon, opened on Broadway in 1920 to great acclaim, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His first major hit was The Emperor Jones, which ran on Broadway in 1920 and obliquely commented on the U.S. occupation of Haiti that was a topic of debate in that year's presidential election. His best-known plays include Anna Christie (Pulitzer Prize 1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), Strange Interlude (Pulitzer Prize 1928), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), and his only well-known comedy, Ah, Wilderness!, a wistful re-imagining of his youth as he wished it had been. In 1936 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature after he had been nominated that year by Henrik Schück, member of the Swedish Academy. After a ten-year pause, O'Neill's now-renowned play The Iceman Cometh was produced in 1946. The following year's A Moon for the Misbegotten failed, and it was decades before coming to be considered as among his best works.
He was also part of the modern movement to partially revive the classical heroic mask from ancient Greek theatre and Japanese Noh theatre in some of his plays, such as The Great God Brown and Lazarus Laughed.
Family life
O'Neill was married to Kathleen Jenkins from October 2, 1909, to 1912, during which time they had one son, Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (1910–1950). In 1917, O'Neill met Agnes Boulton, a successful writer of commercial fiction, and they married on April 12, 1918. They lived in a home owned by her parents in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, after their marriage. The years of their marriage—during which the couple lived in Connecticut and Bermuda and had two children, Shane and Oona—are described vividly in her 1958 memoir Part of a Long Story. They divorced in 1929, after O'Neill abandoned Boulton and the children for the actress Carlotta Monterey (born San Francisco, California, December 28, 1888; died Westwood, New Jersey, November 18, 1970). O'Neill and Carlotta married less than a month after he officially divorced his previous wife.
In 1929, O'Neill and Monterey moved to the Loire Valley in central France, where they lived in the Château du Plessis in Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher, Indre-et-Loire. During the early 1930s they returned to the United States and lived in Sea Island, Georgia, at a house called Casa Genotta. He moved to Danville, California in 1937 and lived there until 1944. His house there, Tao House, is today the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site.
In their first years together, Monterey organized O'Neill's life, enabling him to devote himself to writing. She later became addicted to potassium bromide, and the marriage deteriorated, resulting in a number of separations, although they never divorced.
In 1943, O'Neill disowned his daughter Oona for marrying the English actor, director, and producer Charlie Chaplin when she was 18 and Chaplin was 54. He never saw Oona again.
He also had distant relationships with his sons. Eugene O'Neill Jr., a Yale classicist, suffered from alcoholism and committed suicide in 1950 at the age of 40. Shane O'Neill became a heroin addict and moved into the family home in Bermuda, Spithead, with his new wife, where he supported himself by selling off the furnishings. He was disowned by his father before also committing suicide (by jumping out of a window) a number of years later. Oona ultimately inherited Spithead and the connected estate (subsequently known as the Chaplin Estate). In 1950 O'Neill joined The Lambs, the famed theater club.
Illness and death
After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions, were ever completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene's request.
O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Kilachand Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room."
Dr. Harry Kozol, the prosecution's lead expert in the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death and announced the fact to the public.
O'Neill is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967).
In 1967, the United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965–1978) $1 postage stamp.
Only in 2000 was it discovered that he died of cerebellar cortical atrophy, a rare form of brain deterioration unrelated to either alcohol use or Parkinson's disease.
Legacy
In Warren Beatty's 1981 film Reds, O'Neill is portrayed by Jack Nicholson, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
George C. White founded the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut in 1964.
Eugene O'Neill is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.
O'Neill is referenced by Upton Sinclair in The Cup of Fury (1956), by J.K. Simmons' character in Whiplash (2014), and by Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), specifically Long Day's Journey into Night.
O’Neill is referred to in Moss Hart’s 1959 book Act One, later a Broadway play.
Museums and collections
O'Neill's home in New London, Monte Cristo Cottage, was made a National Historic Landmark in 1971. His home in Danville, California, near San Francisco, was preserved as the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in 1976.
Connecticut College maintains the Louis Sheaffer Collection, consisting of material collected by the O'Neill biographer. The principal collection of O'Neill papers is at Yale University. The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut fosters the development of new plays under his name.
There is also a theatre in New York City named after him located at 230 West 49th Street in midtown-Manhattan. The Eugene O'Neill Theatre has housed musicals and plays such as Yentl, Annie, Grease, M. Butterfly, Spring Awakening, and The Book of Mormon.
Work
Full-length plays
Bread and Butter, 1914
Servitude, 1914
The Personal Equation, 1915
Now I Ask You, 1916
Beyond the Horizon, 1918 - Pulitzer Prize, 1920
The Straw, 1919
Chris Christophersen, 1919
Gold, 1920
Anna Christie, 1920 - Pulitzer Prize, 1922
The Emperor Jones, 1920
Diff'rent, 1921
The First Man, 1922
The Hairy Ape, 1922
The Fountain, 1923
Marco Millions, 1923–25
All God's Chillun Got Wings, 1924
Welded, 1924
Desire Under the Elms, 1924
Lazarus Laughed, 1925–26
The Great God Brown, 1926
Strange Interlude, 1928 - Pulitzer Prize
Dynamo, 1929
Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931
Ah, Wilderness!, 1933
Days Without End, 1933
The Iceman Cometh, written 1939, published 1940, first performed 1946
Long Day's Journey into Night, written 1941, first performed 1956; Pulitzer Prize 1957
A Moon for the Misbegotten, written 1941–1943, first performed 1947
A Touch of the Poet, completed in 1942, first performed 1958
More Stately Mansions, second draft found in O'Neill's papers, first performed 1967
The Calms of Capricorn, published in 1983
One-act plays
The Glencairn Plays, all of which feature characters on the fictional ship Glencairn—filmed together as The Long Voyage Home:
Bound East for Cardiff, 1914
In the Zone, 1917
The Long Voyage Home, 1917
Moon of the Caribbees, 1918
Other one-act plays include:
A Wife for a Life, 1913
The Web, 1913
Thirst, 1913
Recklessness, 1913
Warnings, 1913
Fog, 1914
Abortion, 1914
The Movie Man: A Comedy, 1914
The Sniper, 1915
Before Breakfast, 1916
Ile, 1917
The Rope, 1918
Shell Shock, 1918
The Dreamy Kid, 1918
Where the Cross Is Made, 1918
Eugene O'Neill's "Exorcism" 1919<ref name="Ex">{{cite web | url=http://chronicle.com/blogs/pageview/yale-u-library-acquires-lost-play-by-eugene-oneill/29541?sid=at | title=Exorcism | publisher=Chronicle of Higher Education | work=Yale U. Library Acquires Lost Play by Eugene O'Neill | date=October 19, 2011 | access-date=October 22, 2011}} (The play, set in 1912, is based on O’Neill’s suicide attempt from an overdose of barbiturates in a Manhattan rooming house. After its premiere in 1920, O’Neill canceled the production and, it had been thought, destroyed all copies.)</ref>
Hughie, written 1941, first performed 1959
Other works
Tomorrow, 1917. A Small Story published in The Seven Arts, Vol. II, No. 8 in June 1917.
The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog, 1940. Written to comfort Carlotta as their "child" Blemie was approaching his death in December 1940.
See also
The Eugene O'Neill Award
References
Further reading
Editions of O'Neill
Scholarly works
Bryan, George B. and Wolfgang Mieder. 1995. The Proverbial Eugene O'Neill. An Index to Proverbs in the Works of Eugene Gladstone O'Neill. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
External links
Digital collections
Works by Eugene O'Neill at Project Gutenberg Australia
Works by Eugene O'Neill (public domain in Canada)
Physical collections
Eugene O'Neill Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Eugene O'Neill Papers Addition. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Carlotta O'Neill notebook of letters and photographs, 1927-1954, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The notebook contains handwritten transcriptions by Carlotta O'Neill of letters and inscriptions to her from her husband, Eugene O'Neill, and photographs, mostly portraits of Eugene and Carlotta O'Neill.
Analysis and editorials
Haunted by Eugene O'Neill—Article in BU Today'', September 29, 2009
Eugene O’Neill: the sailor, the sickness, the stage from the Museum of the City of New York Collections blog
The Iceman Cometh: A Study Guide
External entries
Eugene O'Neill | PlaybillVault.com
Other sources
Eugene O'Neill official website
Casa Genotta official website
Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site
American Experience - Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film on PBS
1888 births
1953 deaths
O'Neill, Eugene
American agnostics
American Nobel laureates
American people of Irish descent
Expressionist dramatists and playwrights
Industrial Workers of the World members
Irish-American history
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Modernist theatre
Nobel laureates in Literature
People from Danville, California
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from New London, Connecticut
People from Point Pleasant, New Jersey
People from Provincetown, Massachusetts
People from Ridgefield, Connecticut
People with Parkinson's disease
Princeton University alumni
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Tony Award winners
Writers from Manhattan
Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts
Members of The Lambs Club | true | [
"Tunnel vision is a term used when a shooter is focused on a target, and thus misses what goes on around that target. Therefore an innocent bystander may pass in front or behind of the target and be shot accidentally. This is easily understandable if the bystander is not visible in the telescopic sight (see Tunnel vision#Optical instruments), but can also happen without one. In this case, the mental concentration of the shooter is so focused on the target, that they fail to notice anything else.\n\nMarksmanship\nShooting sports",
"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"
]
|
[
"Eugene O'Neill",
"Illness and death",
"What illness did he have",
"After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor",
"When did he die?",
"O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Shelton Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation",
"When was the last time he wrote",
"He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write.",
"Who was there when he died?",
"Dr. Harry Kozol, the lead prosecuting expert of the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death",
"Did he have any other illness",
"After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism",
"What else was going on with him",
"While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s.",
"Did he write anything else?",
"The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten.",
"What else was important in this article?",
"In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published,",
"What else happen in that year",
"It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957."
]
| C_b45e90a21bc74439bf73afea77b659e6_0 | Did he win anything else | 11 | Did Eugene O'Neill autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night, win anything else other than Pulitzer Prize in 1957? | Eugene O'Neill | After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions, were ever completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene's request. O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Shelton Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room." Dr. Harry Kozol, the lead prosecuting expert of the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death and announced the fact to the public. O'Neill is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967). The United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965-1978) $1 postage stamp. CANNOTANSWER | The United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965-1978) $1 postage stamp. | Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. The tragedy Long Day's Journey into Night is often numbered on the short list of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century, alongside Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.
Early life
O'Neill was born in a hotel, the Barrett House, at Broadway and 43rd Street, on what was then Longacre Square (now Times Square). A commemorative plaque was first dedicated there in 1957. The site is now occupied by 1500 Broadway, which houses offices, shops and the ABC Studios.
He was the son of Irish immigrant actor James O'Neill and Mary Ellen Quinlan, who was also of Irish descent. His father suffered from alcoholism; his mother from an addiction to morphine, prescribed to relieve the pains of the difficult birth of Eugene, who was her third son. Because his father was often on tour with a theatrical company, accompanied by Eugene's mother, in 1895 O'Neill was sent to St. Aloysius Academy for Boys, a Catholic boarding school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. In 1900, he became a day student at the De La Salle Institute on 59th Street in Manhattan.
The O'Neill family reunited for summers at the Monte Cristo Cottage in New London, Connecticut. He also briefly attended Betts Academy in Stamford. He attended Princeton University for one year. Accounts vary as to why he left. He may have been dropped for attending too few classes, been suspended for "conduct code violations", or "for breaking a window", or according to a more concrete but possibly apocryphal account, because he threw "a beer bottle into the window of Professor Woodrow Wilson", the future president of the United States.
O'Neill spent several years at sea, during which he suffered from depression and alcoholism. Despite this, he had a deep love for the sea and it became a prominent theme in many of his plays, several of which are set on board ships like those on which he worked. O'Neill joined the Marine Transport Workers Union of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which was fighting for improved living conditions for the working class using quick 'on the job' direct action. O'Neill's parents and elder brother Jamie (who drank himself to death at the age of 45) died within three years of one another, not long after he had begun to make his mark in the theater.
Career
After his experience in 1912–13 at a sanatorium where he was recovering from tuberculosis, he decided to devote himself full-time to writing plays (the events immediately prior to going to the sanatorium are dramatized in his masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night). O'Neill had previously been employed by the New London Telegraph, writing poetry as well as reporting. In the fall of 1914, he entered Harvard University to attend a course in dramatic technique given by Professor George Baker. He left after one year.
During the 1910s O'Neill was a regular on the Greenwich Village literary scene, where he also befriended many radicals, most notably Communist Labor Party of America founder John Reed. O'Neill also had a brief romantic relationship with Reed's wife, writer Louise Bryant. O'Neill was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1981 film Reds, about the life of John Reed; Louise Bryant was portrayed by Diane Keaton.
His involvement with the Provincetown Players began in mid-1916. Terry Carlin reported that O'Neill arrived for the summer in Provincetown with "a trunk full of plays", but this was an exaggeration. Susan Glaspell describes a reading of Bound East for Cardiff that took place in the living room of Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook's home on Commercial Street, adjacent to the wharf (pictured) that was used by the Players for their theater: "So Gene took Bound East for Cardiff out of his trunk, and Freddie Burt read it to us, Gene staying out in the dining-room while reading went on. He was not left alone in the dining-room when the reading had finished." The Provincetown Players performed many of O'Neill's early works in their theaters both in Provincetown and on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. Some of these early plays, such as The Emperor Jones, began downtown and then moved to Broadway.
In an early one-act play, The Web. written in 1913, O'Neill first explored the darker themes that he later thrived on. Here he focused on the brothel world and the lives of prostitutes, which also play a role in some fourteen of his later plays. In particular, he memorably included the birth of an infant into the world of prostitution. At the time, such themes constituted a huge innovation, as these sides of life had never before been presented with such success.
O'Neill's first published play, Beyond the Horizon, opened on Broadway in 1920 to great acclaim, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His first major hit was The Emperor Jones, which ran on Broadway in 1920 and obliquely commented on the U.S. occupation of Haiti that was a topic of debate in that year's presidential election. His best-known plays include Anna Christie (Pulitzer Prize 1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), Strange Interlude (Pulitzer Prize 1928), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), and his only well-known comedy, Ah, Wilderness!, a wistful re-imagining of his youth as he wished it had been. In 1936 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature after he had been nominated that year by Henrik Schück, member of the Swedish Academy. After a ten-year pause, O'Neill's now-renowned play The Iceman Cometh was produced in 1946. The following year's A Moon for the Misbegotten failed, and it was decades before coming to be considered as among his best works.
He was also part of the modern movement to partially revive the classical heroic mask from ancient Greek theatre and Japanese Noh theatre in some of his plays, such as The Great God Brown and Lazarus Laughed.
Family life
O'Neill was married to Kathleen Jenkins from October 2, 1909, to 1912, during which time they had one son, Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (1910–1950). In 1917, O'Neill met Agnes Boulton, a successful writer of commercial fiction, and they married on April 12, 1918. They lived in a home owned by her parents in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, after their marriage. The years of their marriage—during which the couple lived in Connecticut and Bermuda and had two children, Shane and Oona—are described vividly in her 1958 memoir Part of a Long Story. They divorced in 1929, after O'Neill abandoned Boulton and the children for the actress Carlotta Monterey (born San Francisco, California, December 28, 1888; died Westwood, New Jersey, November 18, 1970). O'Neill and Carlotta married less than a month after he officially divorced his previous wife.
In 1929, O'Neill and Monterey moved to the Loire Valley in central France, where they lived in the Château du Plessis in Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher, Indre-et-Loire. During the early 1930s they returned to the United States and lived in Sea Island, Georgia, at a house called Casa Genotta. He moved to Danville, California in 1937 and lived there until 1944. His house there, Tao House, is today the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site.
In their first years together, Monterey organized O'Neill's life, enabling him to devote himself to writing. She later became addicted to potassium bromide, and the marriage deteriorated, resulting in a number of separations, although they never divorced.
In 1943, O'Neill disowned his daughter Oona for marrying the English actor, director, and producer Charlie Chaplin when she was 18 and Chaplin was 54. He never saw Oona again.
He also had distant relationships with his sons. Eugene O'Neill Jr., a Yale classicist, suffered from alcoholism and committed suicide in 1950 at the age of 40. Shane O'Neill became a heroin addict and moved into the family home in Bermuda, Spithead, with his new wife, where he supported himself by selling off the furnishings. He was disowned by his father before also committing suicide (by jumping out of a window) a number of years later. Oona ultimately inherited Spithead and the connected estate (subsequently known as the Chaplin Estate). In 1950 O'Neill joined The Lambs, the famed theater club.
Illness and death
After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions, were ever completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene's request.
O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University's Kilachand Hall) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room."
Dr. Harry Kozol, the prosecution's lead expert in the Patty Hearst trial, treated O'Neill during these last years of illness. He also was present for O'Neill's death and announced the fact to the public.
O'Neill is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
In 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967).
In 1967, the United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965–1978) $1 postage stamp.
Only in 2000 was it discovered that he died of cerebellar cortical atrophy, a rare form of brain deterioration unrelated to either alcohol use or Parkinson's disease.
Legacy
In Warren Beatty's 1981 film Reds, O'Neill is portrayed by Jack Nicholson, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
George C. White founded the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut in 1964.
Eugene O'Neill is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.
O'Neill is referenced by Upton Sinclair in The Cup of Fury (1956), by J.K. Simmons' character in Whiplash (2014), and by Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), specifically Long Day's Journey into Night.
O’Neill is referred to in Moss Hart’s 1959 book Act One, later a Broadway play.
Museums and collections
O'Neill's home in New London, Monte Cristo Cottage, was made a National Historic Landmark in 1971. His home in Danville, California, near San Francisco, was preserved as the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in 1976.
Connecticut College maintains the Louis Sheaffer Collection, consisting of material collected by the O'Neill biographer. The principal collection of O'Neill papers is at Yale University. The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut fosters the development of new plays under his name.
There is also a theatre in New York City named after him located at 230 West 49th Street in midtown-Manhattan. The Eugene O'Neill Theatre has housed musicals and plays such as Yentl, Annie, Grease, M. Butterfly, Spring Awakening, and The Book of Mormon.
Work
Full-length plays
Bread and Butter, 1914
Servitude, 1914
The Personal Equation, 1915
Now I Ask You, 1916
Beyond the Horizon, 1918 - Pulitzer Prize, 1920
The Straw, 1919
Chris Christophersen, 1919
Gold, 1920
Anna Christie, 1920 - Pulitzer Prize, 1922
The Emperor Jones, 1920
Diff'rent, 1921
The First Man, 1922
The Hairy Ape, 1922
The Fountain, 1923
Marco Millions, 1923–25
All God's Chillun Got Wings, 1924
Welded, 1924
Desire Under the Elms, 1924
Lazarus Laughed, 1925–26
The Great God Brown, 1926
Strange Interlude, 1928 - Pulitzer Prize
Dynamo, 1929
Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931
Ah, Wilderness!, 1933
Days Without End, 1933
The Iceman Cometh, written 1939, published 1940, first performed 1946
Long Day's Journey into Night, written 1941, first performed 1956; Pulitzer Prize 1957
A Moon for the Misbegotten, written 1941–1943, first performed 1947
A Touch of the Poet, completed in 1942, first performed 1958
More Stately Mansions, second draft found in O'Neill's papers, first performed 1967
The Calms of Capricorn, published in 1983
One-act plays
The Glencairn Plays, all of which feature characters on the fictional ship Glencairn—filmed together as The Long Voyage Home:
Bound East for Cardiff, 1914
In the Zone, 1917
The Long Voyage Home, 1917
Moon of the Caribbees, 1918
Other one-act plays include:
A Wife for a Life, 1913
The Web, 1913
Thirst, 1913
Recklessness, 1913
Warnings, 1913
Fog, 1914
Abortion, 1914
The Movie Man: A Comedy, 1914
The Sniper, 1915
Before Breakfast, 1916
Ile, 1917
The Rope, 1918
Shell Shock, 1918
The Dreamy Kid, 1918
Where the Cross Is Made, 1918
Eugene O'Neill's "Exorcism" 1919<ref name="Ex">{{cite web | url=http://chronicle.com/blogs/pageview/yale-u-library-acquires-lost-play-by-eugene-oneill/29541?sid=at | title=Exorcism | publisher=Chronicle of Higher Education | work=Yale U. Library Acquires Lost Play by Eugene O'Neill | date=October 19, 2011 | access-date=October 22, 2011}} (The play, set in 1912, is based on O’Neill’s suicide attempt from an overdose of barbiturates in a Manhattan rooming house. After its premiere in 1920, O’Neill canceled the production and, it had been thought, destroyed all copies.)</ref>
Hughie, written 1941, first performed 1959
Other works
Tomorrow, 1917. A Small Story published in The Seven Arts, Vol. II, No. 8 in June 1917.
The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog, 1940. Written to comfort Carlotta as their "child" Blemie was approaching his death in December 1940.
See also
The Eugene O'Neill Award
References
Further reading
Editions of O'Neill
Scholarly works
Bryan, George B. and Wolfgang Mieder. 1995. The Proverbial Eugene O'Neill. An Index to Proverbs in the Works of Eugene Gladstone O'Neill. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
External links
Digital collections
Works by Eugene O'Neill at Project Gutenberg Australia
Works by Eugene O'Neill (public domain in Canada)
Physical collections
Eugene O'Neill Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Eugene O'Neill Papers Addition. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Carlotta O'Neill notebook of letters and photographs, 1927-1954, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The notebook contains handwritten transcriptions by Carlotta O'Neill of letters and inscriptions to her from her husband, Eugene O'Neill, and photographs, mostly portraits of Eugene and Carlotta O'Neill.
Analysis and editorials
Haunted by Eugene O'Neill—Article in BU Today'', September 29, 2009
Eugene O’Neill: the sailor, the sickness, the stage from the Museum of the City of New York Collections blog
The Iceman Cometh: A Study Guide
External entries
Eugene O'Neill | PlaybillVault.com
Other sources
Eugene O'Neill official website
Casa Genotta official website
Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site
American Experience - Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film on PBS
1888 births
1953 deaths
O'Neill, Eugene
American agnostics
American Nobel laureates
American people of Irish descent
Expressionist dramatists and playwrights
Industrial Workers of the World members
Irish-American history
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Modernist theatre
Nobel laureates in Literature
People from Danville, California
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from New London, Connecticut
People from Point Pleasant, New Jersey
People from Provincetown, Massachusetts
People from Ridgefield, Connecticut
People with Parkinson's disease
Princeton University alumni
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Tony Award winners
Writers from Manhattan
Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts
Members of The Lambs Club | false | [
"\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" is a song written by Billy Livsey and Don Schlitz, and recorded by American country music artist George Strait. It was released in February 2001 as the third and final single from his self-titled album. The song reached number 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in July 2001. It also peaked at number 51 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.\n\nContent\nThe song is about man who is giving his woman the option to leave him. He gives her many different options for all the things she can do. At the end he gives her the option to stay with him if she really can’t find anything else to do. He says he will be alright if she leaves, but really it seems he wants her to stay.\n\nChart performance\n\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" debuted at number 60 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 3, 2001.\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2001 singles\n2000 songs\nGeorge Strait songs\nSongs written by Billy Livsey\nSongs written by Don Schlitz\nSong recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer)\nMCA Nashville Records singles",
"Say Anything may refer to:\n\nFilm and television\n Say Anything..., a 1989 American film by Cameron Crowe\n \"Say Anything\" (BoJack Horseman), a television episode\n\nMusic\n Say Anything (band), an American rock band\n Say Anything (album), a 2009 album by the band\n \"Say Anything\", a 2012 song by Say Anything from Anarchy, My Dear\n \"Say Anything\" (Marianas Trench song), 2006\n \"Say Anything\" (X Japan song), 1991\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Aimee Mann from Whatever, 1993\n \"Say Anything\", a song by the Bouncing Souls from The Bouncing Souls, 1997\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Good Charlotte from The Young and the Hopeless, 2002\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Girl in Red, 2018\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Will Young from Lexicon, 2019\n \"Say Anything (Else)\", a song by Cartel from Chroma, 2005\n\nOther uses\n Say Anything (party game), a 2008 board game published by North Star Games\n \"Say Anything\", a column in YM magazine\n\nSee also\n Say Something (disambiguation)"
]
|
[
"Jane Jacobs",
"Amerika"
]
| C_ca305091629643729dbf4a1ce7ed809a_0 | Who did she write for | 1 | Who did Jane Jacobs write for? | Jane Jacobs | She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard. Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist, and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On March 25, 1952, Jacobs delivered a now-famous response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said: The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe ... CANNOTANSWER | became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, | {{Infobox person
|image = Jane Jacobs.jpg
|imagesize =
|caption = Jacobs as chair of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference
|name = Jane Jacobs
|honorific_suffix =
|birth_name = Jane Butzner
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|education = Graduate of Scranton Central High School; two years of undergraduate studies at Columbia University
|occupation = Journalist, author, urban theorist
|employer = Amerika, Architectural Forum
|notable_works = The Death and Life of Great American Cities
|organization = Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Carlos Moreno<ref>Willsher, Kim, Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign, The Guardian, Friday, February 7, 2020</ref>
|awards = OC, OOnt, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum
|spouse = Robert Jacobs
|children = Ned Jacobs, James Jacobs, Mary Burgin Jacobs
}}
Jane Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her concepts eventually was acknowledged by highly respected professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.
Early years
Jacobs was born Jane Isabel Butzner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bess Robison Butzner, a former teacher and nurse and John Decker Butzner, a physician. They were a Protestant family in a heavily Roman Catholic town. Her brother, John Decker Butzner, Jr., served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduation from Scranton High School, she worked for a year as the unpaid assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune.
New York City
In 1935, during the Great Depression, she moved to New York City with her sister Betty. Jane Butzner took an immediate liking to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which deviated some from the city's grid structure. The sisters soon moved there from Brooklyn.
During her early years in Manhattan, Jacobs held a variety of jobs working as a stenographer and freelance writer, writing about working districts in the city. These experiences, she later said, "gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city and what business was like, what work was like." Her first job was for a trade magazine, as a secretary, then an editor. She sold articles to the Sunday Herald Tribune, Cue magazine, and Vogue.
She studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, taking courses in geology, zoology, law, political science, and economics. About the freedom to pursue study across her wide-ranging interests, she said:
For the first time I liked school and for the first time I made good marks. This was almost my undoing because after I had garnered, statistically, a certain number of credits I became the property of Barnard College at Columbia, and once I was the property of Barnard I had to take, it seemed, what Barnard wanted me to take, not what I wanted to learn. Fortunately my high-school marks had been so bad that Barnard decided I could not belong to it and I was therefore allowed to continue getting an education.
Career
After attending Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, Butzner found a job at Iron Age magazine. Her 1943 article on economic decline in Scranton was well publicized and led the Murray Corporation of America to locate a warplane factory there. Encouraged by this success, Butzner petitioned the War Production Board to support more operations in Scranton. Experiencing job discrimination at Iron Age, she also advocated for equal pay for women and for the right of workers to unionize.
Amerika
She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department in the Russian language. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson Street. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect.
The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard.
Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On 25 March 1952, Jacobs delivered her response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said:
The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe...
Architectural Forum
Jacobs left Amerika in 1952 when it announced its relocation to Washington, D.C. She then found a well-paying job at Architectural Forum, published by Henry Luce of Time Inc. She was hired as an associate editor. After early success in that position, Jacobs began to take assignments on urban planning and "urban blight". In 1954, she was assigned to cover a development in Philadelphia designed by Edmund Bacon. Although her editors expected a positive story, Jacobs criticized Bacon's project, reacting against its lack of concern for the poor African Americans who were directly affected. When Bacon showed Jacobs examples of undeveloped and developed blocks, she determined that "development" seemed to end community life on the street. When Jacobs returned to the offices of Architectural Forum, she began to question the 1950s consensus on urban planning.
In 1955, Jacobs met William Kirk, an Episcopal minister who worked in East Harlem. Kirk came to the Architectural Forum offices to describe the impact that "revitalization" had on East Harlem, and he introduced Jacobs to the neighborhood.
In 1956, while standing in for Douglas Haskell of Architectural Forum, Jacobs delivered a lecture at Harvard University. She addressed leading architects, urban planners, and intellectuals (including Lewis Mumford), speaking on the topic of East Harlem. She urged this audience to "respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Contrary to her expectations, the talk was received with enthusiasm, but it also marked her as a threat to established urban planners, real estate owners, and developers. Architectural Forum printed the speech that year, along with photographs of East Harlem.
Rockefeller Foundation and Death and Life of Great American Cities
After reading her Harvard speech, William H. Whyte invited Jacobs to write an article for Fortune magazine. The resulting piece, "Downtown Is for People", appeared in a 1958 issue of Fortune, and marked her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Her criticism of the Lincoln Center was not popular with supporters of urban renewal at Architectural Forum and Fortune. C.D. Jackson, the publisher of Fortune, was outraged and over the telephone, demanded of Whyte: "Who is this crazy dame?"
The Fortune article brought Jacobs to the attention of Chadbourne Gilpatric, then associate director of the Humanities Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation had moved aggressively into urban topics, with a recent award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of urban aesthetics that would culminate in the publication of Kevin A. Lynch's Image of the City. In May 1958, Gilpatric invited Jacobs to begin serving as a reviewer for grant proposals. Later that year, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Jacobs to produce a critical study of city planning and urban life in the U.S. (From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the foundation's Humanities Division sponsored an "Urban Design Studies" research program, of which Jacobs was the best known grantee.) Gilpatric encouraged Jacobs to "explor[e] the field of urban design to look for ideas and actions which may improve thinking on how the design of cities might better serve urban life, including cultural and humane value." Affiliating with The New School (then called The New School for Social Research), she spent three years conducting research and writing drafts. In 1961, Random House published the result: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains one of the most influential books in the history of American city planning. She coined the terms "social capital", "mixed primary uses", and "eyes on the street", which were adopted professionally in urban design, sociology, and many other fields. Jacobs painted a devastating picture of the profession of city planning, labeling it a pseudoscience. This angered the male-dominated urban planning profession. Jacobs was criticized with ad hominem attacks, being called a "militant dame" and a "housewife": an amateur who had no right to interfere with an established discipline. One planner dismissed Jacobs's book as "bitter coffee-house rambling". Robert Moses, sent a copy, called it "intemperate and also libelous... Sell this junk to someone else."
Later, her book was criticized from the left for leaving out race and openly endorsing gentrification, which Jacobs referred to as "unslumming".
In 1962, she resigned her position at Architectural Forum to become a full-time author and concentrate on raising her children. In other political activities she became an opponent of the Vietnam War, marched on the Pentagon in October 1967, and criticized the construction of the World Trade Center as a disaster for Manhattan's waterfront.
Struggle for Greenwich Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, her home neighborhood of Greenwich Village was being transformed by city and state efforts to build housing (see, for example, Jacobs's 1961 fight to build the West Village Houses in lieu of large apartment houses), private developers, the expansion of New York University, and by the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. Moses' plan, funded as "slum clearance" by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, also called for several blocks to be razed and replaced with upscale high-rises. The plan forced 132 families out of their homes and displaced 1,000 small businesses—the result was Washington Square Village.
As part of his efforts to revitalize the area, Moses had proposed the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park in 1935. In the face of community opposition, Moses had shelved the project, but revived the idea in the 1950s. Moses argued that the Fifth Avenue extension would improve the flow of traffic through the neighborhood and provide access to the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), which would connect the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge with the Holland Tunnel.
In response, local activist Shirley Hayes created the "Committee to Save Washington Square Park", a coalition of dozens of local neighborhood groups that opposed the roadway extension. Raymond S. Rubinow eventually took over the organization, changing its name to the "Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic". Jacobs had joined the committee under Hayes, but she took a more prominent role under Rubinow, reaching out to media outlets such as The Village Voice, which provided more sympathetic coverage than The New York Times. The committee gained the support of Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte, as well as Carmine De Sapio, a Greenwich Village resident and influential Democratic leader. De Sapio's involvement proved decisive. On 25 June 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park to traffic, and the joint committee held a ribbon tying (not cutting) ceremony.
Plans for LOMEX expressway continued despite growing community opposition in areas such as Little Italy. In the 1960s, Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The New York Times was sympathetic to Moses, while The Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway. Jacobs continued to fight the expressway when plans resurfaced in 1962, 1965, and 1968, and she became a local hero for her opposition to the project. She was arrested by a plainclothes police officer on April 10, 1968, at a public hearing during which the crowd had charged the stage and destroyed the stenographer's notes. She was accused of inciting a riot, criminal mischief, and obstructing public administration. After months of trials conducted in New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.New York: A Documentary Film devoted an hour of the eight-part, seventeen-and-a-half-hour series to the battle between Moses and Jacobs. Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, gives only passing mention to this event, however, despite Jacobs's strong influence on Caro. In 2017, Caro told an interviewer about the difficulty in cutting more than 300,000 words from his initial manuscript: "The section that I wrote on Jane Jacobs disappeared. To this day, when someone says: 'There's hardly a mention of Jane Jacobs,' I think, 'But I wrote a lot about her.' Every time I'm asked about that, I have this sick feeling."
Life in Toronto
Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in part because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried about the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did not want to continue fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and offered employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that included so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".
She quickly became a leading figure in her new city and helped stop the proposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.
In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on Quebec's sovereignty in her book, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Separation. Jacobs was an advocate of a Province of Toronto to separate the city proper from Ontario. Jacobs said, "Cities, to thrive in the twenty-first century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas."
She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology section of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be given to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".
Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political support for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of Metro Toronto, fearing that individual neighborhoods would have less power with the new structure. She backed an ecologist, Tooker Gomberg, who lost Toronto's 2000 mayoralty race, and she was an adviser to David Miller's successful mayoral campaign in 2003, at a time when he was seen as a longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA). Following the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did upgrade the ferry service and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.
Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a plan of Royal St. George's College (an established school very close to the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district) to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the redesign be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the case during the hearing.
She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.
Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner (d. 2009); a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's statement noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".
Legacy
Jacobs is credited, along with Lewis Mumford, with inspiring the New Urbanist movement. She has been characterized as a major influence on decentralist and radical centrist thought. She discussed her legacy in an interview with Reason magazine.
While Jacobs saw her greatest legacy to be her contributions to economic theory, it is in the realm of urban planning that she has had her most extensive effect. Her observations about the ways in which cities function revolutionized the urban planning profession and discredited many accepted planning models that had dominated mid-century planning. The influential Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser, known for his work on urban studies, acknowledged that Jane Jacobs (1960s) had been prescient in attacking Moses for "replacing well-functioning neighborhoods with Le Corbusier-inspired towers". Glaeser agreed that these housing projects proved to be Moses' greatest failures, "Moses spent millions and evicted tens of thousands to create buildings that became centers of crime, poverty, and despair."
She also was famous for introducing concepts such as the "Ballet of the Sidewalk" and "Eyes on the Street", a reference to what would later be known as natural surveillance. The concept had a huge influence on planners and architects such as Oscar Newman, who prepared the idea through a series of studies that would culminate in his defensible space theory. The work of Jacobs and Newman would go on to affect American housing policy through the HOPE VI Program, an effort by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish the high-rise public housing projects so reviled by Jacobs and to replace them with low-rise, mixed-income housing.
Throughout her life, Jacobs fought to alter the way in which city development was approached. By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects were instrumental in discrediting these once universally supported planning practices.
Jacobs is remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities, and for leaving "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place".
Despite the fact that Jacobs mainly focused on New York City, her arguments have been identified as universal. For instance, her opposition against the demolition of urban neighborhoods for projects of urban renewal had "special resonance" in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne in the 1960s, resident associations fought against large-scale high-rise housing projects of the Housing Commission of Victoria, which they argued had little regard for the impact on local communities.
Jacobs fought an uphill battle against dominant trends of planning. Despite the United States remaining very much a suburban nation, the work of Jacobs has contributed to city living being rehabilitated and revitalized. Because of her ideas, today, many distressed urban neighborhoods are more likely to be gentrified than cleared for redevelopment.
Samuel R. Delany's book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue relies heavily on The Death and Life of Great American Cities in its analysis of the nature of social relations within the realm of urban studies.
Jane Jacobs Days
After the death of Jacobs in April 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a Jane Jacobs Day, held on June 28, 2006. The City of Toronto proclaimed her birthday the following year, May 4, 2007, as Jane Jacobs Day.
Jane's Walks
In connection with Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto, two dozen free neighborhood walks in the city were offered that weekend (5 May 2007) as an active memorial to Jacobs, and they were dubbed Jane's Walks. Later, a Jane's Walk event was held in New York on September 29–30, 2007. In 2008, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents. The interpretive walks typically apply ideas Jacobs identified or espoused to local areas, which are explored on foot and sometimes by bicycle. The walks normally take place in early May, on or close to her May 4 birth anniversary. Walks are organized and led by local volunteers, coordinated by a headquarters office in Toronto. There are more than 200 walks offered in Toronto, alone, in 2016, taking place on May 6, 7, and 8.
Exhibitions
In 2016, to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of Jane Jacobs, a Toronto gallery staged "Jane at Home", an exhibition running from April 29-May 8. Curated by Jane's son, Jim Jacobs, it offered glimpses of her home life, where she also worked. Her Toronto living room was represented, based on the one at her Albany Avenue house in The Annex, where she often spoke with noted thinkers and political leaders including Marshall McLuhan, Paul Martin, and the Queen of the Netherlands. On display were her typewriter, original manuscripts, rediscovered photographs demonstrating her distinctive styles, and personal mementos. The exhibit included furniture from previous homes in New York (her dining room is set up) and from Scranton, Pennsylvania.Jane at Home , Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, 2016
In 2007, the Municipal Art Society of New York partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to host an exhibit focusing on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York," which opened at the society in September that year. The exhibit aimed to educate the public on her writings and activism and used tools to encourage new generations to become active in issues involving their own neighborhoods. An accompanying exhibit publication included essays and articles by such architecture critics, artists, activists, and journalists as Malcolm Gladwell, Reverend Billy, Robert Neuwirth, Tom Wolfe, Thomas de Monchaux, and William McDonough. Many of these contributors participated in a series of panel discussions on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York".
Jane Jacobs Medal
As a tribute to Jacobs, the Rockefeller Foundation, which had awarded grants to Jacobs in the 1950s and 1960s, announced on February 9, 2007, the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, "to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City". Recipients include:
Barry Benepe, co-founder of the New York City Green Market program and a founding member of Transportation Alternatives, was awarded with the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and a $100,000 cash prize in September 2007. The inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism was awarded to Omar Freilla, the founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx; Mr. Freilla donated his $100,000 to his organization.
Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action, received the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, received the award for New Ideas and Activism. Both women received their medals and $100,000 awards at a dinner ceremony in September 2008 in New York City.
Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Richard Kahan, as founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, which created and manages 22 secondary public schools located in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York City, received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. Both received $100,000, in addition to the medal.
The 2010 recipients were Joshua David and Robert Hammond, whose work in establishing the High Line Park atop an unused elevated railroad line, led the foundation to award the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, along with $60,000 to each man. The 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership was given to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, for her longtime work as writer, park administrator, and co-founder of Central Park Conservancy. She received $80,000 as well.
The Canadian Urban Institute offers an award to honor her, the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize a person "who has had significant impact on the health of their region consistent with Jane Jacob's belief that successful cities foster a place-based, community-centered approach." The 2011 winner was Eberhard Zeidler, while his daughter, Margie Zeidler, won the 2015 award. In 2012, Anne Golden took the prize "for her long-standing leadership in public policy, her academic work and her varied leadership experience in business, not-for-profit and government sectors." William (Bill) Teron accepted the 2013 award "for his influential career in public policy and passionate advocacy for quality design and commitment to development in the Ottawa area." In 2014, Jack Diamond was recognized for his "contribution to improving the built form and advocacy for cities and the future of the Greater Toronto Area."
In April 2014, Spacing was appointed the stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize. Spacing, winners of the prize in 2010, has continued to provide the award with a new life and new ways of promoting (and finding) the winners.
Other honors
Jane Jacobs Way, West Village, New York City (Hudson Street and Eleventh Street, New York, New York)
Jane Jacobs Park, 11 Wellesley Street West, Toronto (construction began in 2016)
Jane Jacobs sculptural chairs, Victoria Memorial Square (St. John's Square), Toronto
Jane Jacobs Toronto Legacy Plaque, 69 Albany Avenue, Toronto
Jacobs' Ladder, rose bushes dedicated by Grassroots Albany (neighbors) in 1997, Toronto
Jane Jacobs Street, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jane Jacobs Street (Village of Cheshire) Black Mountain, North Carolina
a Google Doodle marked the 100th anniversary of Jacobs's birth, on May 4, 2016, and was featured on Google's homepage in 15 countries on four continents
a conference room at the offices of the New Economics Foundation in London is named in honor of Jacobs
Jacobs received the second Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.
Jacobs is the subject of the 2017 documentary film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which depicts her victories over Robert Moses and her philosophy of urban design.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of her is played by Alison Smith in a season 1 episode of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The community organizer played by Cherry Jones in Motherless Brooklyn has drawn comparisons to Jane Jacobs. The director, Edward Norton, has clarified that the composite character was partially based on Jacobs, but more so on Hortense Gabel who was active a decade earlier.
The URL of the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) is whatwouldjanejacobsdo.
Criticism
The planners and developers she fought against to preserve the West Village were among those who initially criticized her ideas. Robert Moses has generally been identified as her arch-rival during this period. Since then, Jacobs's ideas have been analysed many times, often in regard to the outcomes that their influences have produced.Glaeser, Edward L. (2010) Taller Buildings, Cheaper Homes. The New York Times, 4 May 2010 6:02 amOuroussoff, Nicolai (2006) Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York. The New York Times, Published 30 April 2006Bratishenko, Lev (2016) Jane Jacobs's Tunnel Vision Why our cities need less Jane Jacobs. Literary Review of Canada, October 2016
In places such as the West Village, the factors that she argued would maintain economic and cultural diversity have led instead to gentrification and some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Her family's conversion of an old candy shop into a home is an example of the gentrifying trend that would continue under the influence of Jacobs's ideas.
Gentrification also was caused, however, by "the completely unexpected influx of affluent residents back into the inner city". The extent to which her ideas facilitated this phenomenon was at the time unimaginable. For example, she advocated the preservation of older buildings specifically because their lack of economic value made them affordable for poor people. In this respect, she saw them as "guarantors of social diversity". That many of these older structures have increased in economic value solely due to their age was implausible in 1961. Issues of gentrification have dominated criticism of Jane Jacobs's planning ideas.
Economist Tyler Cowen has criticized her ideas for not addressing problems of scale or infrastructure, and suggests that economists disagree with some of her approaches to development. For example, although her ideas of planning were praised at times as "universal", they are now thought inapplicable when a city grows from one million to ten million (as has happened many times in developing nations). Such arguments suggest that her ideas apply only to cities with similar issues to those of New York, where Jacobs developed many of them.
Works
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. Her books include:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Death and Life of Great American Cities is her single-most influential book and, possibly, the most influential book on urban planning and cities. Published in 1961, this book was widely read by both planning professionals and the general public. The book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, which, she claimed, destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. In the book, she celebrates the diversity and complexity of old-mixed use neighborhoods while lamenting the monotony and sterility of modern planning. Jacobs advocated the abolition of zoning laws and restoration of free markets in land, which would result in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and she frequently cited New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community.
Robert Caro has cited it as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses, although Caro does not mention Jacobs by name in the book despite Jacobs's battles with Moses over his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Caro reportedly cut a chapter about Jacobs due to his book's length.
Beyond the practical lessons in city design and planning that Death and Life offers, the theoretical underpinnings of the work challenge the modern development mindset. Jane Jacobs defends her positions with common sense and anecdotes.
The Economy of Cities
The thesis of this book is that cities are the primary drivers of economic development. Her main argument is that explosive economic growth derives from urban import replacement. Import replacement is the process of producing goods locally that formerly were imported, e.g., Tokyo bicycle factories replacing Tokyo bicycle importers in the 1800s. Jacobs claims that import replacement builds up local infrastructure, skills, and production. Jacobs also claims that the increased production is subsequently exported to other cities, giving those other cities a new opportunity to engage in import replacement, thus producing a positive cycle of growth.
In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine, Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement. Critics erroneously claim that her ideas parrot the idea of import substitution advanced earlier by scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank. Import substitution was a national economic theory implying that if a nation substituted its imports with national production, the nation would become wealthier, whereas Jacob's idea is entirely about cities and could be called urban import substitution. However, even this would lead to confusion since in practice, import substitution in India and Latin America were government subsidized and mandated, whereas Jacobs's concept of import replacement is a free market process of discovery and division of labor within a city.
In the second part of the book, Jacobs argues that cities preceded agriculture. She argues that in cities trade in wild animals and grains allowed for the initial division of labor necessary for the discovery of husbandry and agriculture; these discoveries then moved out of the city due to land competition. Another interpretation of history, generally and erroneously considered to be contradictory to Jacobs's is supported by Marxist archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe and in recent times, by another historical materialist Charles Keith Maisels These writers argue that agriculture preceded cities. The apparent opposition between Childe and Jacobs theories rests in their definition of 'city', 'civilization', or 'urban'. Childe, like other materialists such as Maisels or Henri Lefebvre defines 'urban' or 'civilization' as Synoecism—as a literate, socially stratified, monolithic political community, whereas, as one can see from The Economy of Cities or from Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs defines the city purely along the lines of geographically dense trade giving way to entrepreneurial discovery and subsequent improvements in the division of labor. Without the requirements of literacy, monumental building, or the signs of specialized civil and armed forces, 'cities' can be accurately be interpreted to exists thousands of years before when Childe and Maisels place them. However, the Jacobs definition is supposition, since 'city' is defined simply as a large town or "a large human settlement" indicating permanence. The earliest remains of mankind uncovered by archaeologists do not give us more information other than that they were hunter-gatherers as there is no evidence yet of farming or settlement, implying nomadic lifestyles until further discoveries are found.
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty The Question of Separatism incorporated and expanded Jacobs's presentation of the 1979 Massey Lectures, entitled Canadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association. It was published in 1980 and reprinted in 2011 with a previously-unpublished 2005 interview with Robin Philpot on the subject in which she evokes the relative overlooking of that book among her usual readership. This was the first time Jacobs was requested to discuss it in an interview. Columnist Richard Gwyn advanced that while not openly criticizing her, English-speaking Canadians readers thought she did not understood how Canadian politics worked and that she was not being helpful in a time of distress for national unity (the 1980 referendum was just defeated by a vote of 60%). The Question of Separatism was also not mentioned in the bibliography of her 2006 obituary in The Globe and Mail.
Jacobs's book advances the view that Quebec's eventual independence is best for Montreal, Toronto, the rest of Canada, and the world; and that such independence can be achieved peacefully. As precedent, she cites Norway's secession from Sweden and how it enriched both nations. The origins of the contemporary secessionist-movement in the Quiet Revolution are examined, along with Canada's historical reliance on natural resources and foreign-owned manufacturing for its own economic development. Jacobs asserts that such an approach is colonial and hence backward, citing by example, Canada buying its skis and furniture from Norway or Norwegian-owned factories in Canada, the latter procedure being a product of Canadian tariffs designed specifically to foster such factories. The relevant public views of René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau are also critically analyzed, an example being their failure to recognize that two respective, independent currencies are essential to the success of an independent Quebec and a smaller resultant Canada, an issue that is central to her book. Jacobs stresses the need for Montreal to continue developing its leadership of Québécois culture, but that ultimately, such a need can never be fulfilled by Montreal's increasing tendencies toward regional-city status, tendencies foretelling economic, political, and cultural subservience to English-speaking Toronto. Such an outcome, Jacobs believed, would in the long run doom Quebec's independence as much as it would hinder Canada's own future. She concludes with her observation that the popular equating of political secession with political and economic failure is the result of the Enlightenment, which perceived nature as a force for "standardization, uniformity, universality, and immutability." Since then, naturalists and their readers have gradually realized that nature is a force for diversity, and that, "diversity itself is of the essence of excellence." The right kind of secession, Jacobs states, can lead to the right kind of diversity, and Quebec and Canada are capable of both, and must achieve both, to survive.
Cities and the Wealth of Nations Cities and the Wealth of Nations attempts to do for economics what The Death and Life of Great American Cities did for modern urban planning, although it has not received the same critical attention. Beginning with a concise treatment of classical economics, this book challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the greatest economists. Classical (and Neo-classical) economists consider the nation-state to be the main player in macroeconomics. Jacobs argues that it is not the nation-state, rather it is the city that is the true player in this worldwide game. She restates the idea of import replacement from her earlier book The Economy of Cities, while speculating on the further ramifications of considering the city first and the nation second, or not at all.
Systems of Survival Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work. As with her other work, she used an observational approach. This book is written as a Platonic dialogue. It appears that she (as described by characters in her book) took newspaper clippings of moral judgments related to work, collected and sorted them to find that they fit two patterns of moral behavior that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome, and "Moral Syndrome B", or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her system are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York subway police are paid bonuses here – reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
The Nature of Economies The Nature of Economies, a dialog between friends concerning the premise: "human beings exist wholly within nature as part of the natural order in every respect" (p. ix), argues that the same principles underlie both ecosystems and economies: "development and co-development through differentiation and their combinations; expansion through diverse, multiple uses of energy; and self-maintenance through self-refueling" (p. 82). Jacobs also comments on the nature of economic and biological diversity and its role in the development and growth of the two kinds of systems.
Jacobs's characters discuss the four methods by which "dynamically stable systems" may evade collapse: "bifurcations; positive-feedback loops; negative-feedback controls; and emergency adaptations" (p. 86). Their conversations also cover the "double nature of fitness for survival" (traits to avoid destroying one's own habitat as well as success in competition to feed and breed, p. 119), and unpredictability including the butterfly effect characterized in terms of multiplicity of variables as well as disproportional response to cause, and self-organization where "a system can be making itself up as it goes along" (p. 137).
The book is infused with many real-world economic and biological examples, which help keep the book "down to earth" and comprehensible, if dense. Concepts are furnished with both economic and biological examples, showing their coherence in both worlds.
One particularly interesting insight is the creation of "something from nothing" – an economy from nowhere. In the biological world, free energy is given through sunlight, but in the economic world human creativity and natural resources supply this free energy, or at least starter energy. Another interesting insight is the creation of economic diversity through the combination of different technologies, for example the typewriter and television as inputs and outputs of a computer system: this can lead to the creation of "new species of work".
Dark Age Ahead
Published in 2004 by Random House, Dark Age Ahead posits Jacobs's argument that "North American" civilization shows signs of a spiral decline comparable to the collapse of the Roman empire. Her discussion focuses on "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm", which can be summarized as the nuclear family and community; quality in education; free thought in science; representational government and responsible taxes; and corporate and professional accountability. As the title of this book suggests, Jacobs's outlook is far more pessimistic than that of her previous works. However, in the conclusion she admits: "At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of overcoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true." While Jacobs idealized U.S. democracy, Dark Age Ahead echoes the skepticism and disappointment that led to her emigration to Canada in 1968. Later, she would indicate that North American cultures, among others, were grounded in a "plantation mentality" that was culturally and ecologically unsustainable.
Orthodox urbanism
Jane Jacobs asserts in her work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, that the sources of orthodox urbanism are:
Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Ebenezer Howard
The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford
Cities in Evolution, Sir Patrick Geddes
Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer
Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein
Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Sir Raymond Unwin
The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier
Writings
Constitutional chaff; rejected suggestions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with explanatory argument Compiled by Jane Butzner, (1941) Columbia University Press; Compiled by Jane Jacobs (Née Butzner), Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House.
The Economy of Cities (1969)
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books)
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985)
The Girl on the Hat (Children's Book Illustrated by Karen Reczuch), (June 1990) Oxford University Press.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)
A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska – The Story of Hannah Breece (1995) Random House of Canada.
The Nature of Economies (2000) New York: Random House, The Modern Library.
Dark Age Ahead (2004)
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs'' (2016) New York: Random House.
See also
David Crombie
Fred Gardiner
Innovation Economics
Urban secession
Urban vitality
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Jane Jacobs's Order of Canada Citation
Jane Jacobs's Papers at John J. Burns Library, Boston College
Jane Jacobs Oral History, 1997 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Jacobs's Legacy, City Journal online, July 31, 2009
1916 births
2006 deaths
American architecture writers
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Tax resisters
Women urban planners
Anti-road protest
Canadian architecture writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers
Canadian social commentators
Interstate 78
Members of the Order of Ontario
Moral philosophers
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Radical centrist writers
Urban theorists
Environmental economists
Writers from Toronto
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
American emigrants to Canada
Women's page journalists | false | [
"Victoria Aveyard (born July 27, 1990) is an American writer of young adult and fantasy fiction and screenplays. She is known for her fantasy novel Red Queen. Aveyard wrote the novel a year after graduating from University of Southern California's screenwriting program in 2012. Sony Pictures teamed up with her to write spec screenplay Eternal.\n\nPersonal life\nAveyard was born in Massachusetts, but moved to California at the age of eighteen when she got accepted into USC, where she studied screenwriting. She is of Scottish and Italian descent and resides in Santa Monica, were she lives with her partner and dog.\n\nCareer\nAveyard did not write any books until after she graduated from USC. She said she was inspired to write Red Queen after she graduated college with a lot of student loan debt and did not see any way to get out of it, she used that and growing up in a post 9/11 world to write Red Queen. Victoria did not traditionally query, she signed with Suzie Townsend after she heard about her work when she was at USC's writing programme. Red Queen was published in 2015 and was met with positive reviews, for praise with it's storyline and diversity within the characters and plot twists. Three sequels came out after that and one prequel, Aveyard also worked on another book series called Realm Breaker which has reached number one on the New York Time's bestseller list. Originally, Red Queen was planned to be a film franchise with universal and Elizabeth Banks directing. In 2021, it was announced that the project will be a television series with Peacock, with Banks directing and appearing in a recurring role. Before production even began, Aveyard announced on Instagram that the series was renewed for a second season. Aveyard also wrote the pilot script for Red Queen.\n\nBibliography\n\nRed Queen\n Red Queen (2015)\n Glass Sword (2016)\n King's Cage (2017)\n War Storm (2018)\n\nNovellas\n Cruel Crown (2016, Collects both the novellas Queen Song and Steel Scars)\n Queen Song (2015)\n Steel Scars (2016)\n Broken Throne (2019)\n\nRealm Breaker \n\n Realm Breaker (2021)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Personal blog\n\nAmerican women novelists\nAmerican fantasy writers\nLiving people\nPeople from East Longmeadow, Massachusetts\nNovelists from Massachusetts\n21st-century American novelists\nUSC School of Cinematic Arts alumni\n21st-century American women writers\nWomen science fiction and fantasy writers\n1990 births",
"Henrietta Gould Rowe (, Gould; 1835 – October 27, 1910) was an American litterateur and author.\n\nBiography\nHenrietta (sometimes \"Harriet\") Gould was born in East Corinth, Maine, 1835. She was the daughter of Aaron and Sarah Gould. Rowe received an academic education.\n\nShe married James Swett Rowe of Bangor, Maine on October 25, 1856. After her marriage, she removed to Bangor, Maine and resided thereafter in that city. \n\nShe began to write as soon as she could make letters on her slate, but only after her marriage did she write for publication. She did a great deal of literary work in the subsequent decades, principally prose, with an occasional poem. She wrote for The Youth's Companion, Portland Transcript, Wide-Awake, and various other publications. Rowe published various volumes, including Re-told Tales of the Hills and Shores of Maine (1892); Queenshithe (1895); and A Maid of Bar Harbor (1902). As an author, she received positive recognition, and her last book did fair to out-rival her Re-Told Tales, which passed through several editions. She wrote poems and stories for many magazines, principally relating to New England life and character. She was also an educator of advanced pupils in history and literature, and a prominent clubwoman. \n\nShe died October 27, 1910.\n\nWorks\nRe-told Tales of the Hills and Shores of Maine\nQueenshithe\nA Maid of Bar Harbor\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1835 births\n1910 deaths\n19th-century American writers\n19th-century American women writers\n20th-century American writers\n20th-century American women writers\nPeople from Corinth, Maine\nWriters from Maine"
]
|
[
"Jane Jacobs",
"Amerika",
"Who did she write for",
"became a feature writer for the Office of War Information,"
]
| C_ca305091629643729dbf4a1ce7ed809a_0 | What happened after this | 2 | What happened after Jane Jacobs became a feature writer for the Office of War Information? | Jane Jacobs | She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard. Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist, and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On March 25, 1952, Jacobs delivered a now-famous response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said: The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe ... CANNOTANSWER | then a reporter for Amerika, | {{Infobox person
|image = Jane Jacobs.jpg
|imagesize =
|caption = Jacobs as chair of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference
|name = Jane Jacobs
|honorific_suffix =
|birth_name = Jane Butzner
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|education = Graduate of Scranton Central High School; two years of undergraduate studies at Columbia University
|occupation = Journalist, author, urban theorist
|employer = Amerika, Architectural Forum
|notable_works = The Death and Life of Great American Cities
|organization = Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Carlos Moreno<ref>Willsher, Kim, Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign, The Guardian, Friday, February 7, 2020</ref>
|awards = OC, OOnt, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum
|spouse = Robert Jacobs
|children = Ned Jacobs, James Jacobs, Mary Burgin Jacobs
}}
Jane Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her concepts eventually was acknowledged by highly respected professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.
Early years
Jacobs was born Jane Isabel Butzner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bess Robison Butzner, a former teacher and nurse and John Decker Butzner, a physician. They were a Protestant family in a heavily Roman Catholic town. Her brother, John Decker Butzner, Jr., served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduation from Scranton High School, she worked for a year as the unpaid assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune.
New York City
In 1935, during the Great Depression, she moved to New York City with her sister Betty. Jane Butzner took an immediate liking to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which deviated some from the city's grid structure. The sisters soon moved there from Brooklyn.
During her early years in Manhattan, Jacobs held a variety of jobs working as a stenographer and freelance writer, writing about working districts in the city. These experiences, she later said, "gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city and what business was like, what work was like." Her first job was for a trade magazine, as a secretary, then an editor. She sold articles to the Sunday Herald Tribune, Cue magazine, and Vogue.
She studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, taking courses in geology, zoology, law, political science, and economics. About the freedom to pursue study across her wide-ranging interests, she said:
For the first time I liked school and for the first time I made good marks. This was almost my undoing because after I had garnered, statistically, a certain number of credits I became the property of Barnard College at Columbia, and once I was the property of Barnard I had to take, it seemed, what Barnard wanted me to take, not what I wanted to learn. Fortunately my high-school marks had been so bad that Barnard decided I could not belong to it and I was therefore allowed to continue getting an education.
Career
After attending Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, Butzner found a job at Iron Age magazine. Her 1943 article on economic decline in Scranton was well publicized and led the Murray Corporation of America to locate a warplane factory there. Encouraged by this success, Butzner petitioned the War Production Board to support more operations in Scranton. Experiencing job discrimination at Iron Age, she also advocated for equal pay for women and for the right of workers to unionize.
Amerika
She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department in the Russian language. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson Street. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect.
The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard.
Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On 25 March 1952, Jacobs delivered her response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said:
The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe...
Architectural Forum
Jacobs left Amerika in 1952 when it announced its relocation to Washington, D.C. She then found a well-paying job at Architectural Forum, published by Henry Luce of Time Inc. She was hired as an associate editor. After early success in that position, Jacobs began to take assignments on urban planning and "urban blight". In 1954, she was assigned to cover a development in Philadelphia designed by Edmund Bacon. Although her editors expected a positive story, Jacobs criticized Bacon's project, reacting against its lack of concern for the poor African Americans who were directly affected. When Bacon showed Jacobs examples of undeveloped and developed blocks, she determined that "development" seemed to end community life on the street. When Jacobs returned to the offices of Architectural Forum, she began to question the 1950s consensus on urban planning.
In 1955, Jacobs met William Kirk, an Episcopal minister who worked in East Harlem. Kirk came to the Architectural Forum offices to describe the impact that "revitalization" had on East Harlem, and he introduced Jacobs to the neighborhood.
In 1956, while standing in for Douglas Haskell of Architectural Forum, Jacobs delivered a lecture at Harvard University. She addressed leading architects, urban planners, and intellectuals (including Lewis Mumford), speaking on the topic of East Harlem. She urged this audience to "respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Contrary to her expectations, the talk was received with enthusiasm, but it also marked her as a threat to established urban planners, real estate owners, and developers. Architectural Forum printed the speech that year, along with photographs of East Harlem.
Rockefeller Foundation and Death and Life of Great American Cities
After reading her Harvard speech, William H. Whyte invited Jacobs to write an article for Fortune magazine. The resulting piece, "Downtown Is for People", appeared in a 1958 issue of Fortune, and marked her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Her criticism of the Lincoln Center was not popular with supporters of urban renewal at Architectural Forum and Fortune. C.D. Jackson, the publisher of Fortune, was outraged and over the telephone, demanded of Whyte: "Who is this crazy dame?"
The Fortune article brought Jacobs to the attention of Chadbourne Gilpatric, then associate director of the Humanities Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation had moved aggressively into urban topics, with a recent award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of urban aesthetics that would culminate in the publication of Kevin A. Lynch's Image of the City. In May 1958, Gilpatric invited Jacobs to begin serving as a reviewer for grant proposals. Later that year, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Jacobs to produce a critical study of city planning and urban life in the U.S. (From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the foundation's Humanities Division sponsored an "Urban Design Studies" research program, of which Jacobs was the best known grantee.) Gilpatric encouraged Jacobs to "explor[e] the field of urban design to look for ideas and actions which may improve thinking on how the design of cities might better serve urban life, including cultural and humane value." Affiliating with The New School (then called The New School for Social Research), she spent three years conducting research and writing drafts. In 1961, Random House published the result: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains one of the most influential books in the history of American city planning. She coined the terms "social capital", "mixed primary uses", and "eyes on the street", which were adopted professionally in urban design, sociology, and many other fields. Jacobs painted a devastating picture of the profession of city planning, labeling it a pseudoscience. This angered the male-dominated urban planning profession. Jacobs was criticized with ad hominem attacks, being called a "militant dame" and a "housewife": an amateur who had no right to interfere with an established discipline. One planner dismissed Jacobs's book as "bitter coffee-house rambling". Robert Moses, sent a copy, called it "intemperate and also libelous... Sell this junk to someone else."
Later, her book was criticized from the left for leaving out race and openly endorsing gentrification, which Jacobs referred to as "unslumming".
In 1962, she resigned her position at Architectural Forum to become a full-time author and concentrate on raising her children. In other political activities she became an opponent of the Vietnam War, marched on the Pentagon in October 1967, and criticized the construction of the World Trade Center as a disaster for Manhattan's waterfront.
Struggle for Greenwich Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, her home neighborhood of Greenwich Village was being transformed by city and state efforts to build housing (see, for example, Jacobs's 1961 fight to build the West Village Houses in lieu of large apartment houses), private developers, the expansion of New York University, and by the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. Moses' plan, funded as "slum clearance" by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, also called for several blocks to be razed and replaced with upscale high-rises. The plan forced 132 families out of their homes and displaced 1,000 small businesses—the result was Washington Square Village.
As part of his efforts to revitalize the area, Moses had proposed the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park in 1935. In the face of community opposition, Moses had shelved the project, but revived the idea in the 1950s. Moses argued that the Fifth Avenue extension would improve the flow of traffic through the neighborhood and provide access to the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), which would connect the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge with the Holland Tunnel.
In response, local activist Shirley Hayes created the "Committee to Save Washington Square Park", a coalition of dozens of local neighborhood groups that opposed the roadway extension. Raymond S. Rubinow eventually took over the organization, changing its name to the "Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic". Jacobs had joined the committee under Hayes, but she took a more prominent role under Rubinow, reaching out to media outlets such as The Village Voice, which provided more sympathetic coverage than The New York Times. The committee gained the support of Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte, as well as Carmine De Sapio, a Greenwich Village resident and influential Democratic leader. De Sapio's involvement proved decisive. On 25 June 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park to traffic, and the joint committee held a ribbon tying (not cutting) ceremony.
Plans for LOMEX expressway continued despite growing community opposition in areas such as Little Italy. In the 1960s, Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The New York Times was sympathetic to Moses, while The Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway. Jacobs continued to fight the expressway when plans resurfaced in 1962, 1965, and 1968, and she became a local hero for her opposition to the project. She was arrested by a plainclothes police officer on April 10, 1968, at a public hearing during which the crowd had charged the stage and destroyed the stenographer's notes. She was accused of inciting a riot, criminal mischief, and obstructing public administration. After months of trials conducted in New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.New York: A Documentary Film devoted an hour of the eight-part, seventeen-and-a-half-hour series to the battle between Moses and Jacobs. Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, gives only passing mention to this event, however, despite Jacobs's strong influence on Caro. In 2017, Caro told an interviewer about the difficulty in cutting more than 300,000 words from his initial manuscript: "The section that I wrote on Jane Jacobs disappeared. To this day, when someone says: 'There's hardly a mention of Jane Jacobs,' I think, 'But I wrote a lot about her.' Every time I'm asked about that, I have this sick feeling."
Life in Toronto
Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in part because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried about the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did not want to continue fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and offered employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that included so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".
She quickly became a leading figure in her new city and helped stop the proposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.
In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on Quebec's sovereignty in her book, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Separation. Jacobs was an advocate of a Province of Toronto to separate the city proper from Ontario. Jacobs said, "Cities, to thrive in the twenty-first century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas."
She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology section of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be given to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".
Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political support for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of Metro Toronto, fearing that individual neighborhoods would have less power with the new structure. She backed an ecologist, Tooker Gomberg, who lost Toronto's 2000 mayoralty race, and she was an adviser to David Miller's successful mayoral campaign in 2003, at a time when he was seen as a longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA). Following the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did upgrade the ferry service and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.
Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a plan of Royal St. George's College (an established school very close to the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district) to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the redesign be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the case during the hearing.
She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.
Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner (d. 2009); a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's statement noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".
Legacy
Jacobs is credited, along with Lewis Mumford, with inspiring the New Urbanist movement. She has been characterized as a major influence on decentralist and radical centrist thought. She discussed her legacy in an interview with Reason magazine.
While Jacobs saw her greatest legacy to be her contributions to economic theory, it is in the realm of urban planning that she has had her most extensive effect. Her observations about the ways in which cities function revolutionized the urban planning profession and discredited many accepted planning models that had dominated mid-century planning. The influential Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser, known for his work on urban studies, acknowledged that Jane Jacobs (1960s) had been prescient in attacking Moses for "replacing well-functioning neighborhoods with Le Corbusier-inspired towers". Glaeser agreed that these housing projects proved to be Moses' greatest failures, "Moses spent millions and evicted tens of thousands to create buildings that became centers of crime, poverty, and despair."
She also was famous for introducing concepts such as the "Ballet of the Sidewalk" and "Eyes on the Street", a reference to what would later be known as natural surveillance. The concept had a huge influence on planners and architects such as Oscar Newman, who prepared the idea through a series of studies that would culminate in his defensible space theory. The work of Jacobs and Newman would go on to affect American housing policy through the HOPE VI Program, an effort by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish the high-rise public housing projects so reviled by Jacobs and to replace them with low-rise, mixed-income housing.
Throughout her life, Jacobs fought to alter the way in which city development was approached. By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects were instrumental in discrediting these once universally supported planning practices.
Jacobs is remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities, and for leaving "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place".
Despite the fact that Jacobs mainly focused on New York City, her arguments have been identified as universal. For instance, her opposition against the demolition of urban neighborhoods for projects of urban renewal had "special resonance" in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne in the 1960s, resident associations fought against large-scale high-rise housing projects of the Housing Commission of Victoria, which they argued had little regard for the impact on local communities.
Jacobs fought an uphill battle against dominant trends of planning. Despite the United States remaining very much a suburban nation, the work of Jacobs has contributed to city living being rehabilitated and revitalized. Because of her ideas, today, many distressed urban neighborhoods are more likely to be gentrified than cleared for redevelopment.
Samuel R. Delany's book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue relies heavily on The Death and Life of Great American Cities in its analysis of the nature of social relations within the realm of urban studies.
Jane Jacobs Days
After the death of Jacobs in April 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a Jane Jacobs Day, held on June 28, 2006. The City of Toronto proclaimed her birthday the following year, May 4, 2007, as Jane Jacobs Day.
Jane's Walks
In connection with Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto, two dozen free neighborhood walks in the city were offered that weekend (5 May 2007) as an active memorial to Jacobs, and they were dubbed Jane's Walks. Later, a Jane's Walk event was held in New York on September 29–30, 2007. In 2008, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents. The interpretive walks typically apply ideas Jacobs identified or espoused to local areas, which are explored on foot and sometimes by bicycle. The walks normally take place in early May, on or close to her May 4 birth anniversary. Walks are organized and led by local volunteers, coordinated by a headquarters office in Toronto. There are more than 200 walks offered in Toronto, alone, in 2016, taking place on May 6, 7, and 8.
Exhibitions
In 2016, to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of Jane Jacobs, a Toronto gallery staged "Jane at Home", an exhibition running from April 29-May 8. Curated by Jane's son, Jim Jacobs, it offered glimpses of her home life, where she also worked. Her Toronto living room was represented, based on the one at her Albany Avenue house in The Annex, where she often spoke with noted thinkers and political leaders including Marshall McLuhan, Paul Martin, and the Queen of the Netherlands. On display were her typewriter, original manuscripts, rediscovered photographs demonstrating her distinctive styles, and personal mementos. The exhibit included furniture from previous homes in New York (her dining room is set up) and from Scranton, Pennsylvania.Jane at Home , Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, 2016
In 2007, the Municipal Art Society of New York partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to host an exhibit focusing on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York," which opened at the society in September that year. The exhibit aimed to educate the public on her writings and activism and used tools to encourage new generations to become active in issues involving their own neighborhoods. An accompanying exhibit publication included essays and articles by such architecture critics, artists, activists, and journalists as Malcolm Gladwell, Reverend Billy, Robert Neuwirth, Tom Wolfe, Thomas de Monchaux, and William McDonough. Many of these contributors participated in a series of panel discussions on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York".
Jane Jacobs Medal
As a tribute to Jacobs, the Rockefeller Foundation, which had awarded grants to Jacobs in the 1950s and 1960s, announced on February 9, 2007, the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, "to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City". Recipients include:
Barry Benepe, co-founder of the New York City Green Market program and a founding member of Transportation Alternatives, was awarded with the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and a $100,000 cash prize in September 2007. The inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism was awarded to Omar Freilla, the founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx; Mr. Freilla donated his $100,000 to his organization.
Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action, received the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, received the award for New Ideas and Activism. Both women received their medals and $100,000 awards at a dinner ceremony in September 2008 in New York City.
Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Richard Kahan, as founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, which created and manages 22 secondary public schools located in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York City, received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. Both received $100,000, in addition to the medal.
The 2010 recipients were Joshua David and Robert Hammond, whose work in establishing the High Line Park atop an unused elevated railroad line, led the foundation to award the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, along with $60,000 to each man. The 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership was given to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, for her longtime work as writer, park administrator, and co-founder of Central Park Conservancy. She received $80,000 as well.
The Canadian Urban Institute offers an award to honor her, the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize a person "who has had significant impact on the health of their region consistent with Jane Jacob's belief that successful cities foster a place-based, community-centered approach." The 2011 winner was Eberhard Zeidler, while his daughter, Margie Zeidler, won the 2015 award. In 2012, Anne Golden took the prize "for her long-standing leadership in public policy, her academic work and her varied leadership experience in business, not-for-profit and government sectors." William (Bill) Teron accepted the 2013 award "for his influential career in public policy and passionate advocacy for quality design and commitment to development in the Ottawa area." In 2014, Jack Diamond was recognized for his "contribution to improving the built form and advocacy for cities and the future of the Greater Toronto Area."
In April 2014, Spacing was appointed the stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize. Spacing, winners of the prize in 2010, has continued to provide the award with a new life and new ways of promoting (and finding) the winners.
Other honors
Jane Jacobs Way, West Village, New York City (Hudson Street and Eleventh Street, New York, New York)
Jane Jacobs Park, 11 Wellesley Street West, Toronto (construction began in 2016)
Jane Jacobs sculptural chairs, Victoria Memorial Square (St. John's Square), Toronto
Jane Jacobs Toronto Legacy Plaque, 69 Albany Avenue, Toronto
Jacobs' Ladder, rose bushes dedicated by Grassroots Albany (neighbors) in 1997, Toronto
Jane Jacobs Street, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jane Jacobs Street (Village of Cheshire) Black Mountain, North Carolina
a Google Doodle marked the 100th anniversary of Jacobs's birth, on May 4, 2016, and was featured on Google's homepage in 15 countries on four continents
a conference room at the offices of the New Economics Foundation in London is named in honor of Jacobs
Jacobs received the second Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.
Jacobs is the subject of the 2017 documentary film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which depicts her victories over Robert Moses and her philosophy of urban design.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of her is played by Alison Smith in a season 1 episode of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The community organizer played by Cherry Jones in Motherless Brooklyn has drawn comparisons to Jane Jacobs. The director, Edward Norton, has clarified that the composite character was partially based on Jacobs, but more so on Hortense Gabel who was active a decade earlier.
The URL of the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) is whatwouldjanejacobsdo.
Criticism
The planners and developers she fought against to preserve the West Village were among those who initially criticized her ideas. Robert Moses has generally been identified as her arch-rival during this period. Since then, Jacobs's ideas have been analysed many times, often in regard to the outcomes that their influences have produced.Glaeser, Edward L. (2010) Taller Buildings, Cheaper Homes. The New York Times, 4 May 2010 6:02 amOuroussoff, Nicolai (2006) Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York. The New York Times, Published 30 April 2006Bratishenko, Lev (2016) Jane Jacobs's Tunnel Vision Why our cities need less Jane Jacobs. Literary Review of Canada, October 2016
In places such as the West Village, the factors that she argued would maintain economic and cultural diversity have led instead to gentrification and some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Her family's conversion of an old candy shop into a home is an example of the gentrifying trend that would continue under the influence of Jacobs's ideas.
Gentrification also was caused, however, by "the completely unexpected influx of affluent residents back into the inner city". The extent to which her ideas facilitated this phenomenon was at the time unimaginable. For example, she advocated the preservation of older buildings specifically because their lack of economic value made them affordable for poor people. In this respect, she saw them as "guarantors of social diversity". That many of these older structures have increased in economic value solely due to their age was implausible in 1961. Issues of gentrification have dominated criticism of Jane Jacobs's planning ideas.
Economist Tyler Cowen has criticized her ideas for not addressing problems of scale or infrastructure, and suggests that economists disagree with some of her approaches to development. For example, although her ideas of planning were praised at times as "universal", they are now thought inapplicable when a city grows from one million to ten million (as has happened many times in developing nations). Such arguments suggest that her ideas apply only to cities with similar issues to those of New York, where Jacobs developed many of them.
Works
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. Her books include:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Death and Life of Great American Cities is her single-most influential book and, possibly, the most influential book on urban planning and cities. Published in 1961, this book was widely read by both planning professionals and the general public. The book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, which, she claimed, destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. In the book, she celebrates the diversity and complexity of old-mixed use neighborhoods while lamenting the monotony and sterility of modern planning. Jacobs advocated the abolition of zoning laws and restoration of free markets in land, which would result in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and she frequently cited New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community.
Robert Caro has cited it as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses, although Caro does not mention Jacobs by name in the book despite Jacobs's battles with Moses over his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Caro reportedly cut a chapter about Jacobs due to his book's length.
Beyond the practical lessons in city design and planning that Death and Life offers, the theoretical underpinnings of the work challenge the modern development mindset. Jane Jacobs defends her positions with common sense and anecdotes.
The Economy of Cities
The thesis of this book is that cities are the primary drivers of economic development. Her main argument is that explosive economic growth derives from urban import replacement. Import replacement is the process of producing goods locally that formerly were imported, e.g., Tokyo bicycle factories replacing Tokyo bicycle importers in the 1800s. Jacobs claims that import replacement builds up local infrastructure, skills, and production. Jacobs also claims that the increased production is subsequently exported to other cities, giving those other cities a new opportunity to engage in import replacement, thus producing a positive cycle of growth.
In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine, Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement. Critics erroneously claim that her ideas parrot the idea of import substitution advanced earlier by scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank. Import substitution was a national economic theory implying that if a nation substituted its imports with national production, the nation would become wealthier, whereas Jacob's idea is entirely about cities and could be called urban import substitution. However, even this would lead to confusion since in practice, import substitution in India and Latin America were government subsidized and mandated, whereas Jacobs's concept of import replacement is a free market process of discovery and division of labor within a city.
In the second part of the book, Jacobs argues that cities preceded agriculture. She argues that in cities trade in wild animals and grains allowed for the initial division of labor necessary for the discovery of husbandry and agriculture; these discoveries then moved out of the city due to land competition. Another interpretation of history, generally and erroneously considered to be contradictory to Jacobs's is supported by Marxist archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe and in recent times, by another historical materialist Charles Keith Maisels These writers argue that agriculture preceded cities. The apparent opposition between Childe and Jacobs theories rests in their definition of 'city', 'civilization', or 'urban'. Childe, like other materialists such as Maisels or Henri Lefebvre defines 'urban' or 'civilization' as Synoecism—as a literate, socially stratified, monolithic political community, whereas, as one can see from The Economy of Cities or from Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs defines the city purely along the lines of geographically dense trade giving way to entrepreneurial discovery and subsequent improvements in the division of labor. Without the requirements of literacy, monumental building, or the signs of specialized civil and armed forces, 'cities' can be accurately be interpreted to exists thousands of years before when Childe and Maisels place them. However, the Jacobs definition is supposition, since 'city' is defined simply as a large town or "a large human settlement" indicating permanence. The earliest remains of mankind uncovered by archaeologists do not give us more information other than that they were hunter-gatherers as there is no evidence yet of farming or settlement, implying nomadic lifestyles until further discoveries are found.
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty The Question of Separatism incorporated and expanded Jacobs's presentation of the 1979 Massey Lectures, entitled Canadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association. It was published in 1980 and reprinted in 2011 with a previously-unpublished 2005 interview with Robin Philpot on the subject in which she evokes the relative overlooking of that book among her usual readership. This was the first time Jacobs was requested to discuss it in an interview. Columnist Richard Gwyn advanced that while not openly criticizing her, English-speaking Canadians readers thought she did not understood how Canadian politics worked and that she was not being helpful in a time of distress for national unity (the 1980 referendum was just defeated by a vote of 60%). The Question of Separatism was also not mentioned in the bibliography of her 2006 obituary in The Globe and Mail.
Jacobs's book advances the view that Quebec's eventual independence is best for Montreal, Toronto, the rest of Canada, and the world; and that such independence can be achieved peacefully. As precedent, she cites Norway's secession from Sweden and how it enriched both nations. The origins of the contemporary secessionist-movement in the Quiet Revolution are examined, along with Canada's historical reliance on natural resources and foreign-owned manufacturing for its own economic development. Jacobs asserts that such an approach is colonial and hence backward, citing by example, Canada buying its skis and furniture from Norway or Norwegian-owned factories in Canada, the latter procedure being a product of Canadian tariffs designed specifically to foster such factories. The relevant public views of René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau are also critically analyzed, an example being their failure to recognize that two respective, independent currencies are essential to the success of an independent Quebec and a smaller resultant Canada, an issue that is central to her book. Jacobs stresses the need for Montreal to continue developing its leadership of Québécois culture, but that ultimately, such a need can never be fulfilled by Montreal's increasing tendencies toward regional-city status, tendencies foretelling economic, political, and cultural subservience to English-speaking Toronto. Such an outcome, Jacobs believed, would in the long run doom Quebec's independence as much as it would hinder Canada's own future. She concludes with her observation that the popular equating of political secession with political and economic failure is the result of the Enlightenment, which perceived nature as a force for "standardization, uniformity, universality, and immutability." Since then, naturalists and their readers have gradually realized that nature is a force for diversity, and that, "diversity itself is of the essence of excellence." The right kind of secession, Jacobs states, can lead to the right kind of diversity, and Quebec and Canada are capable of both, and must achieve both, to survive.
Cities and the Wealth of Nations Cities and the Wealth of Nations attempts to do for economics what The Death and Life of Great American Cities did for modern urban planning, although it has not received the same critical attention. Beginning with a concise treatment of classical economics, this book challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the greatest economists. Classical (and Neo-classical) economists consider the nation-state to be the main player in macroeconomics. Jacobs argues that it is not the nation-state, rather it is the city that is the true player in this worldwide game. She restates the idea of import replacement from her earlier book The Economy of Cities, while speculating on the further ramifications of considering the city first and the nation second, or not at all.
Systems of Survival Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work. As with her other work, she used an observational approach. This book is written as a Platonic dialogue. It appears that she (as described by characters in her book) took newspaper clippings of moral judgments related to work, collected and sorted them to find that they fit two patterns of moral behavior that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome, and "Moral Syndrome B", or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her system are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York subway police are paid bonuses here – reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
The Nature of Economies The Nature of Economies, a dialog between friends concerning the premise: "human beings exist wholly within nature as part of the natural order in every respect" (p. ix), argues that the same principles underlie both ecosystems and economies: "development and co-development through differentiation and their combinations; expansion through diverse, multiple uses of energy; and self-maintenance through self-refueling" (p. 82). Jacobs also comments on the nature of economic and biological diversity and its role in the development and growth of the two kinds of systems.
Jacobs's characters discuss the four methods by which "dynamically stable systems" may evade collapse: "bifurcations; positive-feedback loops; negative-feedback controls; and emergency adaptations" (p. 86). Their conversations also cover the "double nature of fitness for survival" (traits to avoid destroying one's own habitat as well as success in competition to feed and breed, p. 119), and unpredictability including the butterfly effect characterized in terms of multiplicity of variables as well as disproportional response to cause, and self-organization where "a system can be making itself up as it goes along" (p. 137).
The book is infused with many real-world economic and biological examples, which help keep the book "down to earth" and comprehensible, if dense. Concepts are furnished with both economic and biological examples, showing their coherence in both worlds.
One particularly interesting insight is the creation of "something from nothing" – an economy from nowhere. In the biological world, free energy is given through sunlight, but in the economic world human creativity and natural resources supply this free energy, or at least starter energy. Another interesting insight is the creation of economic diversity through the combination of different technologies, for example the typewriter and television as inputs and outputs of a computer system: this can lead to the creation of "new species of work".
Dark Age Ahead
Published in 2004 by Random House, Dark Age Ahead posits Jacobs's argument that "North American" civilization shows signs of a spiral decline comparable to the collapse of the Roman empire. Her discussion focuses on "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm", which can be summarized as the nuclear family and community; quality in education; free thought in science; representational government and responsible taxes; and corporate and professional accountability. As the title of this book suggests, Jacobs's outlook is far more pessimistic than that of her previous works. However, in the conclusion she admits: "At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of overcoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true." While Jacobs idealized U.S. democracy, Dark Age Ahead echoes the skepticism and disappointment that led to her emigration to Canada in 1968. Later, she would indicate that North American cultures, among others, were grounded in a "plantation mentality" that was culturally and ecologically unsustainable.
Orthodox urbanism
Jane Jacobs asserts in her work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, that the sources of orthodox urbanism are:
Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Ebenezer Howard
The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford
Cities in Evolution, Sir Patrick Geddes
Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer
Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein
Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Sir Raymond Unwin
The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier
Writings
Constitutional chaff; rejected suggestions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with explanatory argument Compiled by Jane Butzner, (1941) Columbia University Press; Compiled by Jane Jacobs (Née Butzner), Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House.
The Economy of Cities (1969)
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books)
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985)
The Girl on the Hat (Children's Book Illustrated by Karen Reczuch), (June 1990) Oxford University Press.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)
A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska – The Story of Hannah Breece (1995) Random House of Canada.
The Nature of Economies (2000) New York: Random House, The Modern Library.
Dark Age Ahead (2004)
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs'' (2016) New York: Random House.
See also
David Crombie
Fred Gardiner
Innovation Economics
Urban secession
Urban vitality
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Jane Jacobs's Order of Canada Citation
Jane Jacobs's Papers at John J. Burns Library, Boston College
Jane Jacobs Oral History, 1997 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Jacobs's Legacy, City Journal online, July 31, 2009
1916 births
2006 deaths
American architecture writers
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Tax resisters
Women urban planners
Anti-road protest
Canadian architecture writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers
Canadian social commentators
Interstate 78
Members of the Order of Ontario
Moral philosophers
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Radical centrist writers
Urban theorists
Environmental economists
Writers from Toronto
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
American emigrants to Canada
Women's page journalists | 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 Jones may refer to:\n What Happened to Jones (1897 play), a play by George Broadhurst\n What Happened to Jones (1915 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1920 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1926 film), a silent film comedy"
]
|
[
"Jane Jacobs",
"Amerika",
"Who did she write for",
"became a feature writer for the Office of War Information,",
"What happened after this",
"then a reporter for Amerika,"
]
| C_ca305091629643729dbf4a1ce7ed809a_0 | What is this | 3 | What is Amerika? | Jane Jacobs | She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard. Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist, and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On March 25, 1952, Jacobs delivered a now-famous response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said: The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe ... CANNOTANSWER | a publication of the U.S. State Department. | {{Infobox person
|image = Jane Jacobs.jpg
|imagesize =
|caption = Jacobs as chair of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference
|name = Jane Jacobs
|honorific_suffix =
|birth_name = Jane Butzner
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|education = Graduate of Scranton Central High School; two years of undergraduate studies at Columbia University
|occupation = Journalist, author, urban theorist
|employer = Amerika, Architectural Forum
|notable_works = The Death and Life of Great American Cities
|organization = Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Carlos Moreno<ref>Willsher, Kim, Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign, The Guardian, Friday, February 7, 2020</ref>
|awards = OC, OOnt, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum
|spouse = Robert Jacobs
|children = Ned Jacobs, James Jacobs, Mary Burgin Jacobs
}}
Jane Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her concepts eventually was acknowledged by highly respected professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.
Early years
Jacobs was born Jane Isabel Butzner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bess Robison Butzner, a former teacher and nurse and John Decker Butzner, a physician. They were a Protestant family in a heavily Roman Catholic town. Her brother, John Decker Butzner, Jr., served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduation from Scranton High School, she worked for a year as the unpaid assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune.
New York City
In 1935, during the Great Depression, she moved to New York City with her sister Betty. Jane Butzner took an immediate liking to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which deviated some from the city's grid structure. The sisters soon moved there from Brooklyn.
During her early years in Manhattan, Jacobs held a variety of jobs working as a stenographer and freelance writer, writing about working districts in the city. These experiences, she later said, "gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city and what business was like, what work was like." Her first job was for a trade magazine, as a secretary, then an editor. She sold articles to the Sunday Herald Tribune, Cue magazine, and Vogue.
She studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, taking courses in geology, zoology, law, political science, and economics. About the freedom to pursue study across her wide-ranging interests, she said:
For the first time I liked school and for the first time I made good marks. This was almost my undoing because after I had garnered, statistically, a certain number of credits I became the property of Barnard College at Columbia, and once I was the property of Barnard I had to take, it seemed, what Barnard wanted me to take, not what I wanted to learn. Fortunately my high-school marks had been so bad that Barnard decided I could not belong to it and I was therefore allowed to continue getting an education.
Career
After attending Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, Butzner found a job at Iron Age magazine. Her 1943 article on economic decline in Scranton was well publicized and led the Murray Corporation of America to locate a warplane factory there. Encouraged by this success, Butzner petitioned the War Production Board to support more operations in Scranton. Experiencing job discrimination at Iron Age, she also advocated for equal pay for women and for the right of workers to unionize.
Amerika
She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department in the Russian language. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson Street. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect.
The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard.
Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On 25 March 1952, Jacobs delivered her response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said:
The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe...
Architectural Forum
Jacobs left Amerika in 1952 when it announced its relocation to Washington, D.C. She then found a well-paying job at Architectural Forum, published by Henry Luce of Time Inc. She was hired as an associate editor. After early success in that position, Jacobs began to take assignments on urban planning and "urban blight". In 1954, she was assigned to cover a development in Philadelphia designed by Edmund Bacon. Although her editors expected a positive story, Jacobs criticized Bacon's project, reacting against its lack of concern for the poor African Americans who were directly affected. When Bacon showed Jacobs examples of undeveloped and developed blocks, she determined that "development" seemed to end community life on the street. When Jacobs returned to the offices of Architectural Forum, she began to question the 1950s consensus on urban planning.
In 1955, Jacobs met William Kirk, an Episcopal minister who worked in East Harlem. Kirk came to the Architectural Forum offices to describe the impact that "revitalization" had on East Harlem, and he introduced Jacobs to the neighborhood.
In 1956, while standing in for Douglas Haskell of Architectural Forum, Jacobs delivered a lecture at Harvard University. She addressed leading architects, urban planners, and intellectuals (including Lewis Mumford), speaking on the topic of East Harlem. She urged this audience to "respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Contrary to her expectations, the talk was received with enthusiasm, but it also marked her as a threat to established urban planners, real estate owners, and developers. Architectural Forum printed the speech that year, along with photographs of East Harlem.
Rockefeller Foundation and Death and Life of Great American Cities
After reading her Harvard speech, William H. Whyte invited Jacobs to write an article for Fortune magazine. The resulting piece, "Downtown Is for People", appeared in a 1958 issue of Fortune, and marked her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Her criticism of the Lincoln Center was not popular with supporters of urban renewal at Architectural Forum and Fortune. C.D. Jackson, the publisher of Fortune, was outraged and over the telephone, demanded of Whyte: "Who is this crazy dame?"
The Fortune article brought Jacobs to the attention of Chadbourne Gilpatric, then associate director of the Humanities Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation had moved aggressively into urban topics, with a recent award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of urban aesthetics that would culminate in the publication of Kevin A. Lynch's Image of the City. In May 1958, Gilpatric invited Jacobs to begin serving as a reviewer for grant proposals. Later that year, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Jacobs to produce a critical study of city planning and urban life in the U.S. (From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the foundation's Humanities Division sponsored an "Urban Design Studies" research program, of which Jacobs was the best known grantee.) Gilpatric encouraged Jacobs to "explor[e] the field of urban design to look for ideas and actions which may improve thinking on how the design of cities might better serve urban life, including cultural and humane value." Affiliating with The New School (then called The New School for Social Research), she spent three years conducting research and writing drafts. In 1961, Random House published the result: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains one of the most influential books in the history of American city planning. She coined the terms "social capital", "mixed primary uses", and "eyes on the street", which were adopted professionally in urban design, sociology, and many other fields. Jacobs painted a devastating picture of the profession of city planning, labeling it a pseudoscience. This angered the male-dominated urban planning profession. Jacobs was criticized with ad hominem attacks, being called a "militant dame" and a "housewife": an amateur who had no right to interfere with an established discipline. One planner dismissed Jacobs's book as "bitter coffee-house rambling". Robert Moses, sent a copy, called it "intemperate and also libelous... Sell this junk to someone else."
Later, her book was criticized from the left for leaving out race and openly endorsing gentrification, which Jacobs referred to as "unslumming".
In 1962, she resigned her position at Architectural Forum to become a full-time author and concentrate on raising her children. In other political activities she became an opponent of the Vietnam War, marched on the Pentagon in October 1967, and criticized the construction of the World Trade Center as a disaster for Manhattan's waterfront.
Struggle for Greenwich Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, her home neighborhood of Greenwich Village was being transformed by city and state efforts to build housing (see, for example, Jacobs's 1961 fight to build the West Village Houses in lieu of large apartment houses), private developers, the expansion of New York University, and by the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. Moses' plan, funded as "slum clearance" by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, also called for several blocks to be razed and replaced with upscale high-rises. The plan forced 132 families out of their homes and displaced 1,000 small businesses—the result was Washington Square Village.
As part of his efforts to revitalize the area, Moses had proposed the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park in 1935. In the face of community opposition, Moses had shelved the project, but revived the idea in the 1950s. Moses argued that the Fifth Avenue extension would improve the flow of traffic through the neighborhood and provide access to the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), which would connect the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge with the Holland Tunnel.
In response, local activist Shirley Hayes created the "Committee to Save Washington Square Park", a coalition of dozens of local neighborhood groups that opposed the roadway extension. Raymond S. Rubinow eventually took over the organization, changing its name to the "Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic". Jacobs had joined the committee under Hayes, but she took a more prominent role under Rubinow, reaching out to media outlets such as The Village Voice, which provided more sympathetic coverage than The New York Times. The committee gained the support of Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte, as well as Carmine De Sapio, a Greenwich Village resident and influential Democratic leader. De Sapio's involvement proved decisive. On 25 June 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park to traffic, and the joint committee held a ribbon tying (not cutting) ceremony.
Plans for LOMEX expressway continued despite growing community opposition in areas such as Little Italy. In the 1960s, Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The New York Times was sympathetic to Moses, while The Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway. Jacobs continued to fight the expressway when plans resurfaced in 1962, 1965, and 1968, and she became a local hero for her opposition to the project. She was arrested by a plainclothes police officer on April 10, 1968, at a public hearing during which the crowd had charged the stage and destroyed the stenographer's notes. She was accused of inciting a riot, criminal mischief, and obstructing public administration. After months of trials conducted in New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.New York: A Documentary Film devoted an hour of the eight-part, seventeen-and-a-half-hour series to the battle between Moses and Jacobs. Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, gives only passing mention to this event, however, despite Jacobs's strong influence on Caro. In 2017, Caro told an interviewer about the difficulty in cutting more than 300,000 words from his initial manuscript: "The section that I wrote on Jane Jacobs disappeared. To this day, when someone says: 'There's hardly a mention of Jane Jacobs,' I think, 'But I wrote a lot about her.' Every time I'm asked about that, I have this sick feeling."
Life in Toronto
Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in part because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried about the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did not want to continue fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and offered employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that included so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".
She quickly became a leading figure in her new city and helped stop the proposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.
In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on Quebec's sovereignty in her book, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Separation. Jacobs was an advocate of a Province of Toronto to separate the city proper from Ontario. Jacobs said, "Cities, to thrive in the twenty-first century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas."
She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology section of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be given to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".
Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political support for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of Metro Toronto, fearing that individual neighborhoods would have less power with the new structure. She backed an ecologist, Tooker Gomberg, who lost Toronto's 2000 mayoralty race, and she was an adviser to David Miller's successful mayoral campaign in 2003, at a time when he was seen as a longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA). Following the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did upgrade the ferry service and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.
Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a plan of Royal St. George's College (an established school very close to the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district) to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the redesign be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the case during the hearing.
She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.
Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner (d. 2009); a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's statement noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".
Legacy
Jacobs is credited, along with Lewis Mumford, with inspiring the New Urbanist movement. She has been characterized as a major influence on decentralist and radical centrist thought. She discussed her legacy in an interview with Reason magazine.
While Jacobs saw her greatest legacy to be her contributions to economic theory, it is in the realm of urban planning that she has had her most extensive effect. Her observations about the ways in which cities function revolutionized the urban planning profession and discredited many accepted planning models that had dominated mid-century planning. The influential Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser, known for his work on urban studies, acknowledged that Jane Jacobs (1960s) had been prescient in attacking Moses for "replacing well-functioning neighborhoods with Le Corbusier-inspired towers". Glaeser agreed that these housing projects proved to be Moses' greatest failures, "Moses spent millions and evicted tens of thousands to create buildings that became centers of crime, poverty, and despair."
She also was famous for introducing concepts such as the "Ballet of the Sidewalk" and "Eyes on the Street", a reference to what would later be known as natural surveillance. The concept had a huge influence on planners and architects such as Oscar Newman, who prepared the idea through a series of studies that would culminate in his defensible space theory. The work of Jacobs and Newman would go on to affect American housing policy through the HOPE VI Program, an effort by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish the high-rise public housing projects so reviled by Jacobs and to replace them with low-rise, mixed-income housing.
Throughout her life, Jacobs fought to alter the way in which city development was approached. By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects were instrumental in discrediting these once universally supported planning practices.
Jacobs is remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities, and for leaving "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place".
Despite the fact that Jacobs mainly focused on New York City, her arguments have been identified as universal. For instance, her opposition against the demolition of urban neighborhoods for projects of urban renewal had "special resonance" in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne in the 1960s, resident associations fought against large-scale high-rise housing projects of the Housing Commission of Victoria, which they argued had little regard for the impact on local communities.
Jacobs fought an uphill battle against dominant trends of planning. Despite the United States remaining very much a suburban nation, the work of Jacobs has contributed to city living being rehabilitated and revitalized. Because of her ideas, today, many distressed urban neighborhoods are more likely to be gentrified than cleared for redevelopment.
Samuel R. Delany's book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue relies heavily on The Death and Life of Great American Cities in its analysis of the nature of social relations within the realm of urban studies.
Jane Jacobs Days
After the death of Jacobs in April 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a Jane Jacobs Day, held on June 28, 2006. The City of Toronto proclaimed her birthday the following year, May 4, 2007, as Jane Jacobs Day.
Jane's Walks
In connection with Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto, two dozen free neighborhood walks in the city were offered that weekend (5 May 2007) as an active memorial to Jacobs, and they were dubbed Jane's Walks. Later, a Jane's Walk event was held in New York on September 29–30, 2007. In 2008, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents. The interpretive walks typically apply ideas Jacobs identified or espoused to local areas, which are explored on foot and sometimes by bicycle. The walks normally take place in early May, on or close to her May 4 birth anniversary. Walks are organized and led by local volunteers, coordinated by a headquarters office in Toronto. There are more than 200 walks offered in Toronto, alone, in 2016, taking place on May 6, 7, and 8.
Exhibitions
In 2016, to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of Jane Jacobs, a Toronto gallery staged "Jane at Home", an exhibition running from April 29-May 8. Curated by Jane's son, Jim Jacobs, it offered glimpses of her home life, where she also worked. Her Toronto living room was represented, based on the one at her Albany Avenue house in The Annex, where she often spoke with noted thinkers and political leaders including Marshall McLuhan, Paul Martin, and the Queen of the Netherlands. On display were her typewriter, original manuscripts, rediscovered photographs demonstrating her distinctive styles, and personal mementos. The exhibit included furniture from previous homes in New York (her dining room is set up) and from Scranton, Pennsylvania.Jane at Home , Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, 2016
In 2007, the Municipal Art Society of New York partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to host an exhibit focusing on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York," which opened at the society in September that year. The exhibit aimed to educate the public on her writings and activism and used tools to encourage new generations to become active in issues involving their own neighborhoods. An accompanying exhibit publication included essays and articles by such architecture critics, artists, activists, and journalists as Malcolm Gladwell, Reverend Billy, Robert Neuwirth, Tom Wolfe, Thomas de Monchaux, and William McDonough. Many of these contributors participated in a series of panel discussions on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York".
Jane Jacobs Medal
As a tribute to Jacobs, the Rockefeller Foundation, which had awarded grants to Jacobs in the 1950s and 1960s, announced on February 9, 2007, the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, "to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City". Recipients include:
Barry Benepe, co-founder of the New York City Green Market program and a founding member of Transportation Alternatives, was awarded with the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and a $100,000 cash prize in September 2007. The inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism was awarded to Omar Freilla, the founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx; Mr. Freilla donated his $100,000 to his organization.
Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action, received the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, received the award for New Ideas and Activism. Both women received their medals and $100,000 awards at a dinner ceremony in September 2008 in New York City.
Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Richard Kahan, as founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, which created and manages 22 secondary public schools located in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York City, received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. Both received $100,000, in addition to the medal.
The 2010 recipients were Joshua David and Robert Hammond, whose work in establishing the High Line Park atop an unused elevated railroad line, led the foundation to award the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, along with $60,000 to each man. The 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership was given to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, for her longtime work as writer, park administrator, and co-founder of Central Park Conservancy. She received $80,000 as well.
The Canadian Urban Institute offers an award to honor her, the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize a person "who has had significant impact on the health of their region consistent with Jane Jacob's belief that successful cities foster a place-based, community-centered approach." The 2011 winner was Eberhard Zeidler, while his daughter, Margie Zeidler, won the 2015 award. In 2012, Anne Golden took the prize "for her long-standing leadership in public policy, her academic work and her varied leadership experience in business, not-for-profit and government sectors." William (Bill) Teron accepted the 2013 award "for his influential career in public policy and passionate advocacy for quality design and commitment to development in the Ottawa area." In 2014, Jack Diamond was recognized for his "contribution to improving the built form and advocacy for cities and the future of the Greater Toronto Area."
In April 2014, Spacing was appointed the stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize. Spacing, winners of the prize in 2010, has continued to provide the award with a new life and new ways of promoting (and finding) the winners.
Other honors
Jane Jacobs Way, West Village, New York City (Hudson Street and Eleventh Street, New York, New York)
Jane Jacobs Park, 11 Wellesley Street West, Toronto (construction began in 2016)
Jane Jacobs sculptural chairs, Victoria Memorial Square (St. John's Square), Toronto
Jane Jacobs Toronto Legacy Plaque, 69 Albany Avenue, Toronto
Jacobs' Ladder, rose bushes dedicated by Grassroots Albany (neighbors) in 1997, Toronto
Jane Jacobs Street, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jane Jacobs Street (Village of Cheshire) Black Mountain, North Carolina
a Google Doodle marked the 100th anniversary of Jacobs's birth, on May 4, 2016, and was featured on Google's homepage in 15 countries on four continents
a conference room at the offices of the New Economics Foundation in London is named in honor of Jacobs
Jacobs received the second Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.
Jacobs is the subject of the 2017 documentary film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which depicts her victories over Robert Moses and her philosophy of urban design.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of her is played by Alison Smith in a season 1 episode of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The community organizer played by Cherry Jones in Motherless Brooklyn has drawn comparisons to Jane Jacobs. The director, Edward Norton, has clarified that the composite character was partially based on Jacobs, but more so on Hortense Gabel who was active a decade earlier.
The URL of the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) is whatwouldjanejacobsdo.
Criticism
The planners and developers she fought against to preserve the West Village were among those who initially criticized her ideas. Robert Moses has generally been identified as her arch-rival during this period. Since then, Jacobs's ideas have been analysed many times, often in regard to the outcomes that their influences have produced.Glaeser, Edward L. (2010) Taller Buildings, Cheaper Homes. The New York Times, 4 May 2010 6:02 amOuroussoff, Nicolai (2006) Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York. The New York Times, Published 30 April 2006Bratishenko, Lev (2016) Jane Jacobs's Tunnel Vision Why our cities need less Jane Jacobs. Literary Review of Canada, October 2016
In places such as the West Village, the factors that she argued would maintain economic and cultural diversity have led instead to gentrification and some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Her family's conversion of an old candy shop into a home is an example of the gentrifying trend that would continue under the influence of Jacobs's ideas.
Gentrification also was caused, however, by "the completely unexpected influx of affluent residents back into the inner city". The extent to which her ideas facilitated this phenomenon was at the time unimaginable. For example, she advocated the preservation of older buildings specifically because their lack of economic value made them affordable for poor people. In this respect, she saw them as "guarantors of social diversity". That many of these older structures have increased in economic value solely due to their age was implausible in 1961. Issues of gentrification have dominated criticism of Jane Jacobs's planning ideas.
Economist Tyler Cowen has criticized her ideas for not addressing problems of scale or infrastructure, and suggests that economists disagree with some of her approaches to development. For example, although her ideas of planning were praised at times as "universal", they are now thought inapplicable when a city grows from one million to ten million (as has happened many times in developing nations). Such arguments suggest that her ideas apply only to cities with similar issues to those of New York, where Jacobs developed many of them.
Works
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. Her books include:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Death and Life of Great American Cities is her single-most influential book and, possibly, the most influential book on urban planning and cities. Published in 1961, this book was widely read by both planning professionals and the general public. The book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, which, she claimed, destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. In the book, she celebrates the diversity and complexity of old-mixed use neighborhoods while lamenting the monotony and sterility of modern planning. Jacobs advocated the abolition of zoning laws and restoration of free markets in land, which would result in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and she frequently cited New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community.
Robert Caro has cited it as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses, although Caro does not mention Jacobs by name in the book despite Jacobs's battles with Moses over his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Caro reportedly cut a chapter about Jacobs due to his book's length.
Beyond the practical lessons in city design and planning that Death and Life offers, the theoretical underpinnings of the work challenge the modern development mindset. Jane Jacobs defends her positions with common sense and anecdotes.
The Economy of Cities
The thesis of this book is that cities are the primary drivers of economic development. Her main argument is that explosive economic growth derives from urban import replacement. Import replacement is the process of producing goods locally that formerly were imported, e.g., Tokyo bicycle factories replacing Tokyo bicycle importers in the 1800s. Jacobs claims that import replacement builds up local infrastructure, skills, and production. Jacobs also claims that the increased production is subsequently exported to other cities, giving those other cities a new opportunity to engage in import replacement, thus producing a positive cycle of growth.
In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine, Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement. Critics erroneously claim that her ideas parrot the idea of import substitution advanced earlier by scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank. Import substitution was a national economic theory implying that if a nation substituted its imports with national production, the nation would become wealthier, whereas Jacob's idea is entirely about cities and could be called urban import substitution. However, even this would lead to confusion since in practice, import substitution in India and Latin America were government subsidized and mandated, whereas Jacobs's concept of import replacement is a free market process of discovery and division of labor within a city.
In the second part of the book, Jacobs argues that cities preceded agriculture. She argues that in cities trade in wild animals and grains allowed for the initial division of labor necessary for the discovery of husbandry and agriculture; these discoveries then moved out of the city due to land competition. Another interpretation of history, generally and erroneously considered to be contradictory to Jacobs's is supported by Marxist archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe and in recent times, by another historical materialist Charles Keith Maisels These writers argue that agriculture preceded cities. The apparent opposition between Childe and Jacobs theories rests in their definition of 'city', 'civilization', or 'urban'. Childe, like other materialists such as Maisels or Henri Lefebvre defines 'urban' or 'civilization' as Synoecism—as a literate, socially stratified, monolithic political community, whereas, as one can see from The Economy of Cities or from Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs defines the city purely along the lines of geographically dense trade giving way to entrepreneurial discovery and subsequent improvements in the division of labor. Without the requirements of literacy, monumental building, or the signs of specialized civil and armed forces, 'cities' can be accurately be interpreted to exists thousands of years before when Childe and Maisels place them. However, the Jacobs definition is supposition, since 'city' is defined simply as a large town or "a large human settlement" indicating permanence. The earliest remains of mankind uncovered by archaeologists do not give us more information other than that they were hunter-gatherers as there is no evidence yet of farming or settlement, implying nomadic lifestyles until further discoveries are found.
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty The Question of Separatism incorporated and expanded Jacobs's presentation of the 1979 Massey Lectures, entitled Canadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association. It was published in 1980 and reprinted in 2011 with a previously-unpublished 2005 interview with Robin Philpot on the subject in which she evokes the relative overlooking of that book among her usual readership. This was the first time Jacobs was requested to discuss it in an interview. Columnist Richard Gwyn advanced that while not openly criticizing her, English-speaking Canadians readers thought she did not understood how Canadian politics worked and that she was not being helpful in a time of distress for national unity (the 1980 referendum was just defeated by a vote of 60%). The Question of Separatism was also not mentioned in the bibliography of her 2006 obituary in The Globe and Mail.
Jacobs's book advances the view that Quebec's eventual independence is best for Montreal, Toronto, the rest of Canada, and the world; and that such independence can be achieved peacefully. As precedent, she cites Norway's secession from Sweden and how it enriched both nations. The origins of the contemporary secessionist-movement in the Quiet Revolution are examined, along with Canada's historical reliance on natural resources and foreign-owned manufacturing for its own economic development. Jacobs asserts that such an approach is colonial and hence backward, citing by example, Canada buying its skis and furniture from Norway or Norwegian-owned factories in Canada, the latter procedure being a product of Canadian tariffs designed specifically to foster such factories. The relevant public views of René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau are also critically analyzed, an example being their failure to recognize that two respective, independent currencies are essential to the success of an independent Quebec and a smaller resultant Canada, an issue that is central to her book. Jacobs stresses the need for Montreal to continue developing its leadership of Québécois culture, but that ultimately, such a need can never be fulfilled by Montreal's increasing tendencies toward regional-city status, tendencies foretelling economic, political, and cultural subservience to English-speaking Toronto. Such an outcome, Jacobs believed, would in the long run doom Quebec's independence as much as it would hinder Canada's own future. She concludes with her observation that the popular equating of political secession with political and economic failure is the result of the Enlightenment, which perceived nature as a force for "standardization, uniformity, universality, and immutability." Since then, naturalists and their readers have gradually realized that nature is a force for diversity, and that, "diversity itself is of the essence of excellence." The right kind of secession, Jacobs states, can lead to the right kind of diversity, and Quebec and Canada are capable of both, and must achieve both, to survive.
Cities and the Wealth of Nations Cities and the Wealth of Nations attempts to do for economics what The Death and Life of Great American Cities did for modern urban planning, although it has not received the same critical attention. Beginning with a concise treatment of classical economics, this book challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the greatest economists. Classical (and Neo-classical) economists consider the nation-state to be the main player in macroeconomics. Jacobs argues that it is not the nation-state, rather it is the city that is the true player in this worldwide game. She restates the idea of import replacement from her earlier book The Economy of Cities, while speculating on the further ramifications of considering the city first and the nation second, or not at all.
Systems of Survival Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work. As with her other work, she used an observational approach. This book is written as a Platonic dialogue. It appears that she (as described by characters in her book) took newspaper clippings of moral judgments related to work, collected and sorted them to find that they fit two patterns of moral behavior that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome, and "Moral Syndrome B", or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her system are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York subway police are paid bonuses here – reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
The Nature of Economies The Nature of Economies, a dialog between friends concerning the premise: "human beings exist wholly within nature as part of the natural order in every respect" (p. ix), argues that the same principles underlie both ecosystems and economies: "development and co-development through differentiation and their combinations; expansion through diverse, multiple uses of energy; and self-maintenance through self-refueling" (p. 82). Jacobs also comments on the nature of economic and biological diversity and its role in the development and growth of the two kinds of systems.
Jacobs's characters discuss the four methods by which "dynamically stable systems" may evade collapse: "bifurcations; positive-feedback loops; negative-feedback controls; and emergency adaptations" (p. 86). Their conversations also cover the "double nature of fitness for survival" (traits to avoid destroying one's own habitat as well as success in competition to feed and breed, p. 119), and unpredictability including the butterfly effect characterized in terms of multiplicity of variables as well as disproportional response to cause, and self-organization where "a system can be making itself up as it goes along" (p. 137).
The book is infused with many real-world economic and biological examples, which help keep the book "down to earth" and comprehensible, if dense. Concepts are furnished with both economic and biological examples, showing their coherence in both worlds.
One particularly interesting insight is the creation of "something from nothing" – an economy from nowhere. In the biological world, free energy is given through sunlight, but in the economic world human creativity and natural resources supply this free energy, or at least starter energy. Another interesting insight is the creation of economic diversity through the combination of different technologies, for example the typewriter and television as inputs and outputs of a computer system: this can lead to the creation of "new species of work".
Dark Age Ahead
Published in 2004 by Random House, Dark Age Ahead posits Jacobs's argument that "North American" civilization shows signs of a spiral decline comparable to the collapse of the Roman empire. Her discussion focuses on "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm", which can be summarized as the nuclear family and community; quality in education; free thought in science; representational government and responsible taxes; and corporate and professional accountability. As the title of this book suggests, Jacobs's outlook is far more pessimistic than that of her previous works. However, in the conclusion she admits: "At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of overcoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true." While Jacobs idealized U.S. democracy, Dark Age Ahead echoes the skepticism and disappointment that led to her emigration to Canada in 1968. Later, she would indicate that North American cultures, among others, were grounded in a "plantation mentality" that was culturally and ecologically unsustainable.
Orthodox urbanism
Jane Jacobs asserts in her work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, that the sources of orthodox urbanism are:
Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Ebenezer Howard
The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford
Cities in Evolution, Sir Patrick Geddes
Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer
Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein
Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Sir Raymond Unwin
The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier
Writings
Constitutional chaff; rejected suggestions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with explanatory argument Compiled by Jane Butzner, (1941) Columbia University Press; Compiled by Jane Jacobs (Née Butzner), Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House.
The Economy of Cities (1969)
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books)
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985)
The Girl on the Hat (Children's Book Illustrated by Karen Reczuch), (June 1990) Oxford University Press.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)
A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska – The Story of Hannah Breece (1995) Random House of Canada.
The Nature of Economies (2000) New York: Random House, The Modern Library.
Dark Age Ahead (2004)
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs'' (2016) New York: Random House.
See also
David Crombie
Fred Gardiner
Innovation Economics
Urban secession
Urban vitality
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Jane Jacobs's Order of Canada Citation
Jane Jacobs's Papers at John J. Burns Library, Boston College
Jane Jacobs Oral History, 1997 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Jacobs's Legacy, City Journal online, July 31, 2009
1916 births
2006 deaths
American architecture writers
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Tax resisters
Women urban planners
Anti-road protest
Canadian architecture writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers
Canadian social commentators
Interstate 78
Members of the Order of Ontario
Moral philosophers
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Radical centrist writers
Urban theorists
Environmental economists
Writers from Toronto
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
American emigrants to Canada
Women's page journalists | false | [
"\"This Is What It Feels Like\" is a 2013 song by Armin van Buuren featuring Trevor Guthrie.\n\nThis Is What It Feels Like may also refer to:\n\n This Is What It Feels Like (album), a 2021 studio album by Gracie Abrams\n \"This Is What It Feels Like\", a song by Banks from the 2014 studio album Goddess\n This Is What It Feels Like, a 2019 EP by Clinton Kane\n\nSee also\n This Is What the Truth Feels Like, a 2016 album by Gwen Stefani\n Feels Like (disambiguation)",
"\"What Is This Thing Called Love?\" is a song written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and recorded by American recording artist Alexander O'Neal. It is the second single from the singer's fourth solo album, All True Man (1991). The song's distinctive backing vocals were performed by Lisa Keith. Following the successful chart performances of the All True Man single \"All True Man\", \"What Is This Thing Called Love?\" was released as the album's second single.\n\nRelease\nAlexander O'Neal's 19th hit single and it reached #53 in the UK Singles Chart. In the United States, the single reached #21 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks.\n\nTrack listing\n 12\" Maxi (45 73804) \n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Classic 12\" Mix)\" - 8:20\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Classic Radio Mix)\" - 3:37\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (LP Edit)\" - 3:58\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Red Zone Mix)\" - 5:41\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Instrumental Mix)\" - 5:58\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Reprise)\" - 2:13\n\n 7\" Single (656731 7) / Cassette Single (656731 4)\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love?\" - 4:08\n\"Crying Overtime\" - 4:55\n\n CD Single (656731 2)\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Album Version)\" - 6:04\n\"The Lovers (Extended Version)\" - 7:02\n\"If You Were Here Tonight\" - 6:08\n\n CD Single (656731 9) \n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Classic 12\" Mix)\" - 8:20\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Classic Radio Mix)\" - 3:37\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Red Zone Mix)\" - 5:41\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Reprise)\" - 2:13\n\n Cassette Single (35T 73810) \n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Classic Radio Mix)\" - 3:37\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love? (Dee Instrumental Mix)\" - 5:58\n\nPersonnel\nCredits are adapted from the album's liner notes.\n\n Alexander O'Neal - lead vocals \n Jimmy Jam - acoustic piano, keyboards, synthesizer, drum programming, rhythm & vocal arrangements\n Terry Lewis - rhythm & vocal arrangements, backing vocals\n Lee Blaskey - string arrangements\n Susie Allard - strings\n Mynra Rian - strings\n Joanna Shelton - strings\n Carolyn Daws - strings\n Mary Bahr - strings\n Lea Foli - strings\n Julia Persilz - strings\n Hyacinthe Tlucek - strings\n Maricia Peck - strings\n Jeanne Ekhold - strings\n Luara Sewell - strings\n Rudolph Lekhter - strings\n Lisa Keith - backing vocals\n\nCharts\n\nHistory\n\"What Is This Thing Called Love?\" had its bass-line sampled in the 2018 Kanye West and Lil Pump song, \"I Love It\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1991 singles\nAlexander O'Neal songs\nSongs written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis\n1991 songs\nSong recordings produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis\nTabu Records singles"
]
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| C_ca305091629643729dbf4a1ce7ed809a_0 | Who did she meet | 4 | Who did Jane Jacobs meet? | Jane Jacobs | She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard. Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist, and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On March 25, 1952, Jacobs delivered a now-famous response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said: The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe ... CANNOTANSWER | Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., | {{Infobox person
|image = Jane Jacobs.jpg
|imagesize =
|caption = Jacobs as chair of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference
|name = Jane Jacobs
|honorific_suffix =
|birth_name = Jane Butzner
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|education = Graduate of Scranton Central High School; two years of undergraduate studies at Columbia University
|occupation = Journalist, author, urban theorist
|employer = Amerika, Architectural Forum
|notable_works = The Death and Life of Great American Cities
|organization = Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Carlos Moreno<ref>Willsher, Kim, Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign, The Guardian, Friday, February 7, 2020</ref>
|awards = OC, OOnt, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum
|spouse = Robert Jacobs
|children = Ned Jacobs, James Jacobs, Mary Burgin Jacobs
}}
Jane Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her concepts eventually was acknowledged by highly respected professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.
Early years
Jacobs was born Jane Isabel Butzner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bess Robison Butzner, a former teacher and nurse and John Decker Butzner, a physician. They were a Protestant family in a heavily Roman Catholic town. Her brother, John Decker Butzner, Jr., served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduation from Scranton High School, she worked for a year as the unpaid assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune.
New York City
In 1935, during the Great Depression, she moved to New York City with her sister Betty. Jane Butzner took an immediate liking to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which deviated some from the city's grid structure. The sisters soon moved there from Brooklyn.
During her early years in Manhattan, Jacobs held a variety of jobs working as a stenographer and freelance writer, writing about working districts in the city. These experiences, she later said, "gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city and what business was like, what work was like." Her first job was for a trade magazine, as a secretary, then an editor. She sold articles to the Sunday Herald Tribune, Cue magazine, and Vogue.
She studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, taking courses in geology, zoology, law, political science, and economics. About the freedom to pursue study across her wide-ranging interests, she said:
For the first time I liked school and for the first time I made good marks. This was almost my undoing because after I had garnered, statistically, a certain number of credits I became the property of Barnard College at Columbia, and once I was the property of Barnard I had to take, it seemed, what Barnard wanted me to take, not what I wanted to learn. Fortunately my high-school marks had been so bad that Barnard decided I could not belong to it and I was therefore allowed to continue getting an education.
Career
After attending Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, Butzner found a job at Iron Age magazine. Her 1943 article on economic decline in Scranton was well publicized and led the Murray Corporation of America to locate a warplane factory there. Encouraged by this success, Butzner petitioned the War Production Board to support more operations in Scranton. Experiencing job discrimination at Iron Age, she also advocated for equal pay for women and for the right of workers to unionize.
Amerika
She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department in the Russian language. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson Street. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect.
The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard.
Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On 25 March 1952, Jacobs delivered her response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said:
The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe...
Architectural Forum
Jacobs left Amerika in 1952 when it announced its relocation to Washington, D.C. She then found a well-paying job at Architectural Forum, published by Henry Luce of Time Inc. She was hired as an associate editor. After early success in that position, Jacobs began to take assignments on urban planning and "urban blight". In 1954, she was assigned to cover a development in Philadelphia designed by Edmund Bacon. Although her editors expected a positive story, Jacobs criticized Bacon's project, reacting against its lack of concern for the poor African Americans who were directly affected. When Bacon showed Jacobs examples of undeveloped and developed blocks, she determined that "development" seemed to end community life on the street. When Jacobs returned to the offices of Architectural Forum, she began to question the 1950s consensus on urban planning.
In 1955, Jacobs met William Kirk, an Episcopal minister who worked in East Harlem. Kirk came to the Architectural Forum offices to describe the impact that "revitalization" had on East Harlem, and he introduced Jacobs to the neighborhood.
In 1956, while standing in for Douglas Haskell of Architectural Forum, Jacobs delivered a lecture at Harvard University. She addressed leading architects, urban planners, and intellectuals (including Lewis Mumford), speaking on the topic of East Harlem. She urged this audience to "respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Contrary to her expectations, the talk was received with enthusiasm, but it also marked her as a threat to established urban planners, real estate owners, and developers. Architectural Forum printed the speech that year, along with photographs of East Harlem.
Rockefeller Foundation and Death and Life of Great American Cities
After reading her Harvard speech, William H. Whyte invited Jacobs to write an article for Fortune magazine. The resulting piece, "Downtown Is for People", appeared in a 1958 issue of Fortune, and marked her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Her criticism of the Lincoln Center was not popular with supporters of urban renewal at Architectural Forum and Fortune. C.D. Jackson, the publisher of Fortune, was outraged and over the telephone, demanded of Whyte: "Who is this crazy dame?"
The Fortune article brought Jacobs to the attention of Chadbourne Gilpatric, then associate director of the Humanities Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation had moved aggressively into urban topics, with a recent award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of urban aesthetics that would culminate in the publication of Kevin A. Lynch's Image of the City. In May 1958, Gilpatric invited Jacobs to begin serving as a reviewer for grant proposals. Later that year, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Jacobs to produce a critical study of city planning and urban life in the U.S. (From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the foundation's Humanities Division sponsored an "Urban Design Studies" research program, of which Jacobs was the best known grantee.) Gilpatric encouraged Jacobs to "explor[e] the field of urban design to look for ideas and actions which may improve thinking on how the design of cities might better serve urban life, including cultural and humane value." Affiliating with The New School (then called The New School for Social Research), she spent three years conducting research and writing drafts. In 1961, Random House published the result: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains one of the most influential books in the history of American city planning. She coined the terms "social capital", "mixed primary uses", and "eyes on the street", which were adopted professionally in urban design, sociology, and many other fields. Jacobs painted a devastating picture of the profession of city planning, labeling it a pseudoscience. This angered the male-dominated urban planning profession. Jacobs was criticized with ad hominem attacks, being called a "militant dame" and a "housewife": an amateur who had no right to interfere with an established discipline. One planner dismissed Jacobs's book as "bitter coffee-house rambling". Robert Moses, sent a copy, called it "intemperate and also libelous... Sell this junk to someone else."
Later, her book was criticized from the left for leaving out race and openly endorsing gentrification, which Jacobs referred to as "unslumming".
In 1962, she resigned her position at Architectural Forum to become a full-time author and concentrate on raising her children. In other political activities she became an opponent of the Vietnam War, marched on the Pentagon in October 1967, and criticized the construction of the World Trade Center as a disaster for Manhattan's waterfront.
Struggle for Greenwich Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, her home neighborhood of Greenwich Village was being transformed by city and state efforts to build housing (see, for example, Jacobs's 1961 fight to build the West Village Houses in lieu of large apartment houses), private developers, the expansion of New York University, and by the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. Moses' plan, funded as "slum clearance" by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, also called for several blocks to be razed and replaced with upscale high-rises. The plan forced 132 families out of their homes and displaced 1,000 small businesses—the result was Washington Square Village.
As part of his efforts to revitalize the area, Moses had proposed the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park in 1935. In the face of community opposition, Moses had shelved the project, but revived the idea in the 1950s. Moses argued that the Fifth Avenue extension would improve the flow of traffic through the neighborhood and provide access to the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), which would connect the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge with the Holland Tunnel.
In response, local activist Shirley Hayes created the "Committee to Save Washington Square Park", a coalition of dozens of local neighborhood groups that opposed the roadway extension. Raymond S. Rubinow eventually took over the organization, changing its name to the "Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic". Jacobs had joined the committee under Hayes, but she took a more prominent role under Rubinow, reaching out to media outlets such as The Village Voice, which provided more sympathetic coverage than The New York Times. The committee gained the support of Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte, as well as Carmine De Sapio, a Greenwich Village resident and influential Democratic leader. De Sapio's involvement proved decisive. On 25 June 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park to traffic, and the joint committee held a ribbon tying (not cutting) ceremony.
Plans for LOMEX expressway continued despite growing community opposition in areas such as Little Italy. In the 1960s, Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The New York Times was sympathetic to Moses, while The Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway. Jacobs continued to fight the expressway when plans resurfaced in 1962, 1965, and 1968, and she became a local hero for her opposition to the project. She was arrested by a plainclothes police officer on April 10, 1968, at a public hearing during which the crowd had charged the stage and destroyed the stenographer's notes. She was accused of inciting a riot, criminal mischief, and obstructing public administration. After months of trials conducted in New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.New York: A Documentary Film devoted an hour of the eight-part, seventeen-and-a-half-hour series to the battle between Moses and Jacobs. Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, gives only passing mention to this event, however, despite Jacobs's strong influence on Caro. In 2017, Caro told an interviewer about the difficulty in cutting more than 300,000 words from his initial manuscript: "The section that I wrote on Jane Jacobs disappeared. To this day, when someone says: 'There's hardly a mention of Jane Jacobs,' I think, 'But I wrote a lot about her.' Every time I'm asked about that, I have this sick feeling."
Life in Toronto
Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in part because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried about the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did not want to continue fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and offered employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that included so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".
She quickly became a leading figure in her new city and helped stop the proposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.
In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on Quebec's sovereignty in her book, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Separation. Jacobs was an advocate of a Province of Toronto to separate the city proper from Ontario. Jacobs said, "Cities, to thrive in the twenty-first century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas."
She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology section of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be given to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".
Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political support for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of Metro Toronto, fearing that individual neighborhoods would have less power with the new structure. She backed an ecologist, Tooker Gomberg, who lost Toronto's 2000 mayoralty race, and she was an adviser to David Miller's successful mayoral campaign in 2003, at a time when he was seen as a longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA). Following the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did upgrade the ferry service and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.
Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a plan of Royal St. George's College (an established school very close to the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district) to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the redesign be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the case during the hearing.
She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.
Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner (d. 2009); a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's statement noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".
Legacy
Jacobs is credited, along with Lewis Mumford, with inspiring the New Urbanist movement. She has been characterized as a major influence on decentralist and radical centrist thought. She discussed her legacy in an interview with Reason magazine.
While Jacobs saw her greatest legacy to be her contributions to economic theory, it is in the realm of urban planning that she has had her most extensive effect. Her observations about the ways in which cities function revolutionized the urban planning profession and discredited many accepted planning models that had dominated mid-century planning. The influential Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser, known for his work on urban studies, acknowledged that Jane Jacobs (1960s) had been prescient in attacking Moses for "replacing well-functioning neighborhoods with Le Corbusier-inspired towers". Glaeser agreed that these housing projects proved to be Moses' greatest failures, "Moses spent millions and evicted tens of thousands to create buildings that became centers of crime, poverty, and despair."
She also was famous for introducing concepts such as the "Ballet of the Sidewalk" and "Eyes on the Street", a reference to what would later be known as natural surveillance. The concept had a huge influence on planners and architects such as Oscar Newman, who prepared the idea through a series of studies that would culminate in his defensible space theory. The work of Jacobs and Newman would go on to affect American housing policy through the HOPE VI Program, an effort by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish the high-rise public housing projects so reviled by Jacobs and to replace them with low-rise, mixed-income housing.
Throughout her life, Jacobs fought to alter the way in which city development was approached. By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects were instrumental in discrediting these once universally supported planning practices.
Jacobs is remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities, and for leaving "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place".
Despite the fact that Jacobs mainly focused on New York City, her arguments have been identified as universal. For instance, her opposition against the demolition of urban neighborhoods for projects of urban renewal had "special resonance" in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne in the 1960s, resident associations fought against large-scale high-rise housing projects of the Housing Commission of Victoria, which they argued had little regard for the impact on local communities.
Jacobs fought an uphill battle against dominant trends of planning. Despite the United States remaining very much a suburban nation, the work of Jacobs has contributed to city living being rehabilitated and revitalized. Because of her ideas, today, many distressed urban neighborhoods are more likely to be gentrified than cleared for redevelopment.
Samuel R. Delany's book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue relies heavily on The Death and Life of Great American Cities in its analysis of the nature of social relations within the realm of urban studies.
Jane Jacobs Days
After the death of Jacobs in April 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a Jane Jacobs Day, held on June 28, 2006. The City of Toronto proclaimed her birthday the following year, May 4, 2007, as Jane Jacobs Day.
Jane's Walks
In connection with Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto, two dozen free neighborhood walks in the city were offered that weekend (5 May 2007) as an active memorial to Jacobs, and they were dubbed Jane's Walks. Later, a Jane's Walk event was held in New York on September 29–30, 2007. In 2008, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents. The interpretive walks typically apply ideas Jacobs identified or espoused to local areas, which are explored on foot and sometimes by bicycle. The walks normally take place in early May, on or close to her May 4 birth anniversary. Walks are organized and led by local volunteers, coordinated by a headquarters office in Toronto. There are more than 200 walks offered in Toronto, alone, in 2016, taking place on May 6, 7, and 8.
Exhibitions
In 2016, to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of Jane Jacobs, a Toronto gallery staged "Jane at Home", an exhibition running from April 29-May 8. Curated by Jane's son, Jim Jacobs, it offered glimpses of her home life, where she also worked. Her Toronto living room was represented, based on the one at her Albany Avenue house in The Annex, where she often spoke with noted thinkers and political leaders including Marshall McLuhan, Paul Martin, and the Queen of the Netherlands. On display were her typewriter, original manuscripts, rediscovered photographs demonstrating her distinctive styles, and personal mementos. The exhibit included furniture from previous homes in New York (her dining room is set up) and from Scranton, Pennsylvania.Jane at Home , Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, 2016
In 2007, the Municipal Art Society of New York partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to host an exhibit focusing on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York," which opened at the society in September that year. The exhibit aimed to educate the public on her writings and activism and used tools to encourage new generations to become active in issues involving their own neighborhoods. An accompanying exhibit publication included essays and articles by such architecture critics, artists, activists, and journalists as Malcolm Gladwell, Reverend Billy, Robert Neuwirth, Tom Wolfe, Thomas de Monchaux, and William McDonough. Many of these contributors participated in a series of panel discussions on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York".
Jane Jacobs Medal
As a tribute to Jacobs, the Rockefeller Foundation, which had awarded grants to Jacobs in the 1950s and 1960s, announced on February 9, 2007, the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, "to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City". Recipients include:
Barry Benepe, co-founder of the New York City Green Market program and a founding member of Transportation Alternatives, was awarded with the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and a $100,000 cash prize in September 2007. The inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism was awarded to Omar Freilla, the founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx; Mr. Freilla donated his $100,000 to his organization.
Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action, received the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, received the award for New Ideas and Activism. Both women received their medals and $100,000 awards at a dinner ceremony in September 2008 in New York City.
Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Richard Kahan, as founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, which created and manages 22 secondary public schools located in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York City, received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. Both received $100,000, in addition to the medal.
The 2010 recipients were Joshua David and Robert Hammond, whose work in establishing the High Line Park atop an unused elevated railroad line, led the foundation to award the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, along with $60,000 to each man. The 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership was given to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, for her longtime work as writer, park administrator, and co-founder of Central Park Conservancy. She received $80,000 as well.
The Canadian Urban Institute offers an award to honor her, the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize a person "who has had significant impact on the health of their region consistent with Jane Jacob's belief that successful cities foster a place-based, community-centered approach." The 2011 winner was Eberhard Zeidler, while his daughter, Margie Zeidler, won the 2015 award. In 2012, Anne Golden took the prize "for her long-standing leadership in public policy, her academic work and her varied leadership experience in business, not-for-profit and government sectors." William (Bill) Teron accepted the 2013 award "for his influential career in public policy and passionate advocacy for quality design and commitment to development in the Ottawa area." In 2014, Jack Diamond was recognized for his "contribution to improving the built form and advocacy for cities and the future of the Greater Toronto Area."
In April 2014, Spacing was appointed the stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize. Spacing, winners of the prize in 2010, has continued to provide the award with a new life and new ways of promoting (and finding) the winners.
Other honors
Jane Jacobs Way, West Village, New York City (Hudson Street and Eleventh Street, New York, New York)
Jane Jacobs Park, 11 Wellesley Street West, Toronto (construction began in 2016)
Jane Jacobs sculptural chairs, Victoria Memorial Square (St. John's Square), Toronto
Jane Jacobs Toronto Legacy Plaque, 69 Albany Avenue, Toronto
Jacobs' Ladder, rose bushes dedicated by Grassroots Albany (neighbors) in 1997, Toronto
Jane Jacobs Street, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jane Jacobs Street (Village of Cheshire) Black Mountain, North Carolina
a Google Doodle marked the 100th anniversary of Jacobs's birth, on May 4, 2016, and was featured on Google's homepage in 15 countries on four continents
a conference room at the offices of the New Economics Foundation in London is named in honor of Jacobs
Jacobs received the second Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.
Jacobs is the subject of the 2017 documentary film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which depicts her victories over Robert Moses and her philosophy of urban design.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of her is played by Alison Smith in a season 1 episode of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The community organizer played by Cherry Jones in Motherless Brooklyn has drawn comparisons to Jane Jacobs. The director, Edward Norton, has clarified that the composite character was partially based on Jacobs, but more so on Hortense Gabel who was active a decade earlier.
The URL of the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) is whatwouldjanejacobsdo.
Criticism
The planners and developers she fought against to preserve the West Village were among those who initially criticized her ideas. Robert Moses has generally been identified as her arch-rival during this period. Since then, Jacobs's ideas have been analysed many times, often in regard to the outcomes that their influences have produced.Glaeser, Edward L. (2010) Taller Buildings, Cheaper Homes. The New York Times, 4 May 2010 6:02 amOuroussoff, Nicolai (2006) Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York. The New York Times, Published 30 April 2006Bratishenko, Lev (2016) Jane Jacobs's Tunnel Vision Why our cities need less Jane Jacobs. Literary Review of Canada, October 2016
In places such as the West Village, the factors that she argued would maintain economic and cultural diversity have led instead to gentrification and some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Her family's conversion of an old candy shop into a home is an example of the gentrifying trend that would continue under the influence of Jacobs's ideas.
Gentrification also was caused, however, by "the completely unexpected influx of affluent residents back into the inner city". The extent to which her ideas facilitated this phenomenon was at the time unimaginable. For example, she advocated the preservation of older buildings specifically because their lack of economic value made them affordable for poor people. In this respect, she saw them as "guarantors of social diversity". That many of these older structures have increased in economic value solely due to their age was implausible in 1961. Issues of gentrification have dominated criticism of Jane Jacobs's planning ideas.
Economist Tyler Cowen has criticized her ideas for not addressing problems of scale or infrastructure, and suggests that economists disagree with some of her approaches to development. For example, although her ideas of planning were praised at times as "universal", they are now thought inapplicable when a city grows from one million to ten million (as has happened many times in developing nations). Such arguments suggest that her ideas apply only to cities with similar issues to those of New York, where Jacobs developed many of them.
Works
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. Her books include:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Death and Life of Great American Cities is her single-most influential book and, possibly, the most influential book on urban planning and cities. Published in 1961, this book was widely read by both planning professionals and the general public. The book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, which, she claimed, destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. In the book, she celebrates the diversity and complexity of old-mixed use neighborhoods while lamenting the monotony and sterility of modern planning. Jacobs advocated the abolition of zoning laws and restoration of free markets in land, which would result in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and she frequently cited New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community.
Robert Caro has cited it as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses, although Caro does not mention Jacobs by name in the book despite Jacobs's battles with Moses over his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Caro reportedly cut a chapter about Jacobs due to his book's length.
Beyond the practical lessons in city design and planning that Death and Life offers, the theoretical underpinnings of the work challenge the modern development mindset. Jane Jacobs defends her positions with common sense and anecdotes.
The Economy of Cities
The thesis of this book is that cities are the primary drivers of economic development. Her main argument is that explosive economic growth derives from urban import replacement. Import replacement is the process of producing goods locally that formerly were imported, e.g., Tokyo bicycle factories replacing Tokyo bicycle importers in the 1800s. Jacobs claims that import replacement builds up local infrastructure, skills, and production. Jacobs also claims that the increased production is subsequently exported to other cities, giving those other cities a new opportunity to engage in import replacement, thus producing a positive cycle of growth.
In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine, Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement. Critics erroneously claim that her ideas parrot the idea of import substitution advanced earlier by scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank. Import substitution was a national economic theory implying that if a nation substituted its imports with national production, the nation would become wealthier, whereas Jacob's idea is entirely about cities and could be called urban import substitution. However, even this would lead to confusion since in practice, import substitution in India and Latin America were government subsidized and mandated, whereas Jacobs's concept of import replacement is a free market process of discovery and division of labor within a city.
In the second part of the book, Jacobs argues that cities preceded agriculture. She argues that in cities trade in wild animals and grains allowed for the initial division of labor necessary for the discovery of husbandry and agriculture; these discoveries then moved out of the city due to land competition. Another interpretation of history, generally and erroneously considered to be contradictory to Jacobs's is supported by Marxist archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe and in recent times, by another historical materialist Charles Keith Maisels These writers argue that agriculture preceded cities. The apparent opposition between Childe and Jacobs theories rests in their definition of 'city', 'civilization', or 'urban'. Childe, like other materialists such as Maisels or Henri Lefebvre defines 'urban' or 'civilization' as Synoecism—as a literate, socially stratified, monolithic political community, whereas, as one can see from The Economy of Cities or from Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs defines the city purely along the lines of geographically dense trade giving way to entrepreneurial discovery and subsequent improvements in the division of labor. Without the requirements of literacy, monumental building, or the signs of specialized civil and armed forces, 'cities' can be accurately be interpreted to exists thousands of years before when Childe and Maisels place them. However, the Jacobs definition is supposition, since 'city' is defined simply as a large town or "a large human settlement" indicating permanence. The earliest remains of mankind uncovered by archaeologists do not give us more information other than that they were hunter-gatherers as there is no evidence yet of farming or settlement, implying nomadic lifestyles until further discoveries are found.
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty The Question of Separatism incorporated and expanded Jacobs's presentation of the 1979 Massey Lectures, entitled Canadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association. It was published in 1980 and reprinted in 2011 with a previously-unpublished 2005 interview with Robin Philpot on the subject in which she evokes the relative overlooking of that book among her usual readership. This was the first time Jacobs was requested to discuss it in an interview. Columnist Richard Gwyn advanced that while not openly criticizing her, English-speaking Canadians readers thought she did not understood how Canadian politics worked and that she was not being helpful in a time of distress for national unity (the 1980 referendum was just defeated by a vote of 60%). The Question of Separatism was also not mentioned in the bibliography of her 2006 obituary in The Globe and Mail.
Jacobs's book advances the view that Quebec's eventual independence is best for Montreal, Toronto, the rest of Canada, and the world; and that such independence can be achieved peacefully. As precedent, she cites Norway's secession from Sweden and how it enriched both nations. The origins of the contemporary secessionist-movement in the Quiet Revolution are examined, along with Canada's historical reliance on natural resources and foreign-owned manufacturing for its own economic development. Jacobs asserts that such an approach is colonial and hence backward, citing by example, Canada buying its skis and furniture from Norway or Norwegian-owned factories in Canada, the latter procedure being a product of Canadian tariffs designed specifically to foster such factories. The relevant public views of René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau are also critically analyzed, an example being their failure to recognize that two respective, independent currencies are essential to the success of an independent Quebec and a smaller resultant Canada, an issue that is central to her book. Jacobs stresses the need for Montreal to continue developing its leadership of Québécois culture, but that ultimately, such a need can never be fulfilled by Montreal's increasing tendencies toward regional-city status, tendencies foretelling economic, political, and cultural subservience to English-speaking Toronto. Such an outcome, Jacobs believed, would in the long run doom Quebec's independence as much as it would hinder Canada's own future. She concludes with her observation that the popular equating of political secession with political and economic failure is the result of the Enlightenment, which perceived nature as a force for "standardization, uniformity, universality, and immutability." Since then, naturalists and their readers have gradually realized that nature is a force for diversity, and that, "diversity itself is of the essence of excellence." The right kind of secession, Jacobs states, can lead to the right kind of diversity, and Quebec and Canada are capable of both, and must achieve both, to survive.
Cities and the Wealth of Nations Cities and the Wealth of Nations attempts to do for economics what The Death and Life of Great American Cities did for modern urban planning, although it has not received the same critical attention. Beginning with a concise treatment of classical economics, this book challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the greatest economists. Classical (and Neo-classical) economists consider the nation-state to be the main player in macroeconomics. Jacobs argues that it is not the nation-state, rather it is the city that is the true player in this worldwide game. She restates the idea of import replacement from her earlier book The Economy of Cities, while speculating on the further ramifications of considering the city first and the nation second, or not at all.
Systems of Survival Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work. As with her other work, she used an observational approach. This book is written as a Platonic dialogue. It appears that she (as described by characters in her book) took newspaper clippings of moral judgments related to work, collected and sorted them to find that they fit two patterns of moral behavior that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome, and "Moral Syndrome B", or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her system are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York subway police are paid bonuses here – reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
The Nature of Economies The Nature of Economies, a dialog between friends concerning the premise: "human beings exist wholly within nature as part of the natural order in every respect" (p. ix), argues that the same principles underlie both ecosystems and economies: "development and co-development through differentiation and their combinations; expansion through diverse, multiple uses of energy; and self-maintenance through self-refueling" (p. 82). Jacobs also comments on the nature of economic and biological diversity and its role in the development and growth of the two kinds of systems.
Jacobs's characters discuss the four methods by which "dynamically stable systems" may evade collapse: "bifurcations; positive-feedback loops; negative-feedback controls; and emergency adaptations" (p. 86). Their conversations also cover the "double nature of fitness for survival" (traits to avoid destroying one's own habitat as well as success in competition to feed and breed, p. 119), and unpredictability including the butterfly effect characterized in terms of multiplicity of variables as well as disproportional response to cause, and self-organization where "a system can be making itself up as it goes along" (p. 137).
The book is infused with many real-world economic and biological examples, which help keep the book "down to earth" and comprehensible, if dense. Concepts are furnished with both economic and biological examples, showing their coherence in both worlds.
One particularly interesting insight is the creation of "something from nothing" – an economy from nowhere. In the biological world, free energy is given through sunlight, but in the economic world human creativity and natural resources supply this free energy, or at least starter energy. Another interesting insight is the creation of economic diversity through the combination of different technologies, for example the typewriter and television as inputs and outputs of a computer system: this can lead to the creation of "new species of work".
Dark Age Ahead
Published in 2004 by Random House, Dark Age Ahead posits Jacobs's argument that "North American" civilization shows signs of a spiral decline comparable to the collapse of the Roman empire. Her discussion focuses on "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm", which can be summarized as the nuclear family and community; quality in education; free thought in science; representational government and responsible taxes; and corporate and professional accountability. As the title of this book suggests, Jacobs's outlook is far more pessimistic than that of her previous works. However, in the conclusion she admits: "At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of overcoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true." While Jacobs idealized U.S. democracy, Dark Age Ahead echoes the skepticism and disappointment that led to her emigration to Canada in 1968. Later, she would indicate that North American cultures, among others, were grounded in a "plantation mentality" that was culturally and ecologically unsustainable.
Orthodox urbanism
Jane Jacobs asserts in her work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, that the sources of orthodox urbanism are:
Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Ebenezer Howard
The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford
Cities in Evolution, Sir Patrick Geddes
Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer
Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein
Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Sir Raymond Unwin
The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier
Writings
Constitutional chaff; rejected suggestions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with explanatory argument Compiled by Jane Butzner, (1941) Columbia University Press; Compiled by Jane Jacobs (Née Butzner), Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House.
The Economy of Cities (1969)
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books)
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985)
The Girl on the Hat (Children's Book Illustrated by Karen Reczuch), (June 1990) Oxford University Press.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)
A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska – The Story of Hannah Breece (1995) Random House of Canada.
The Nature of Economies (2000) New York: Random House, The Modern Library.
Dark Age Ahead (2004)
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs'' (2016) New York: Random House.
See also
David Crombie
Fred Gardiner
Innovation Economics
Urban secession
Urban vitality
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Jane Jacobs's Order of Canada Citation
Jane Jacobs's Papers at John J. Burns Library, Boston College
Jane Jacobs Oral History, 1997 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Jacobs's Legacy, City Journal online, July 31, 2009
1916 births
2006 deaths
American architecture writers
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Tax resisters
Women urban planners
Anti-road protest
Canadian architecture writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers
Canadian social commentators
Interstate 78
Members of the Order of Ontario
Moral philosophers
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Radical centrist writers
Urban theorists
Environmental economists
Writers from Toronto
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
American emigrants to Canada
Women's page journalists | true | [
"Meet is an Indian Hindi-language television drama series that premiered on August 23, 2021, on Zee TV and digital platform ZEE5 is produced by Shashi Sumeet Productions. The show stars Ashi Singh and Shagun Pandey in the lead-roles. It is a remake of Zee Sarthak's Sindura Bindu.\n\nPlot\nThe show explores the story of Meet Hooda, a spirited young tomboyish girl from Haryana who is the sole breadwinner of her family but also breaks societal rule books of gender roles by serving as a delivery agent. Her father was a police officer who sacrificed his life while in service, due to which Meet takes up all the responsibilities of her house and gives up her ambition of becoming an officer like her father. Her grandmother blames her for the death of her twin brother who died in the womb, subjecting her to emotional abuse her entire life while reminding her that she can never be like a boy. \n\nMeet Hooda meets Meet Ahlawat. Though they initially are at loggerheads, they soon become friends. Ahlawat falls in love with Hooda's sister Manushi after hearing her sing. In reality, it was Meet who was singing while Manushi was just lip-syncing the song. Meet Ahlawat's wedding is arranged with Manushi. Ahlawat breaks his friendship with Meet and starts hating her because of a misunderstanding. On the wedding day, Manushi runs away and marries Kunal leading Meet Hooda to marry Meet Ahlawat. No one's happy about this especially Meet Ahlawat's mom, his sister, and he himself. Many arguments and silly fights take place between Meet Hooda and Meet Ahlawat. Though Meet Hooda tries her best to prove herself at every step, Meet Ahlawat is unwilling to accept her as his wife. \n\nAhlawat wants to meet Manushi and loses his cool. On his quest to find Manushi at Meet Hooda's house, he argues with her and leaves, telling her to never step into his house again. On the way back to his house, he is beaten up by goons, and Meet Hooda comes to his rescue and saves his life. She donates blood for him and stays up all night taking care of him at the hospital. Meet Ahlawat regrets his words and starts warming up to her. Meet Hooda takes care of her husband with great care, not leaving his side for a moment. Meet tries to get Manushi to face Ahlawat. However, she instead meets her mother, who makes her promise never to tell her in-laws that Manushi is back at home. Ahlawat throws Meet a surprise birthday party. However, Babita enters the scene and harshly taunts and scolds Meet Hooda for making Ahlawat overexert when he is injured and unwell. Meet Ahlawat stands up for his wife, explaining to his mother that he was the one who threw her a surprise party. He confronts his family members on the way they have treated and perceived Meet H. Finally, Babita understands her son's point of view and accepts Meet as her daughter-in-law. \n\nMasoom finds out that Manushi is at Meet's house. She blackmails Meet Hooda, threatening to reveal this information to the rest of the family if she doesn't divorce her husband. Meet acts aloof with Meet Ahlawat. Meet Ahlawat misses her and demands an answer from her for avoiding him. Later, Meet throws the divorce papers into a bonfire, and tells Masoom that she won't divorce her husband. She apologises to Meet Ahlawat for not taking care of him without revealing the real reason, and she is forgiven. Meet Ahlawat is drugged, and he confesses his love to Meet Hooda, imagining her to be Manushi. Though Meet is broken by this, she dresses up as Manushi in an attempt to get him out of his drunken state, so that he can attend an important business meeting that he has been working towards for years. Her plan works, and he is able to attend his meeting and performs well. Meet Ahlawat initially believes that it was Deep who had helped him out, but Deep clarifies and says that it was Meet Hooda who had helped him fulfill his dream. Meet earnestly apologises to his wife, regretful of all of the pain she had to go through and in awe of how much she cares of him despite all of the hatred and negativity around her. He wishes to start a new life with her. \n\nAt Meet Hooda's house, however, Manushi has convinced her mother and grandmother for her and Parth (actually Kunal) to get married by acting like she is pregnant. Masoom brings Babita, Ragini and Meet Hooda to Hooda's house on the pretext of giving Meet a surprise. In the midst of this, Meet's grandmother finally accepts her as her granddaughter, finally seeing her for the good person she is and seeing Manushi's real evil side. Meet Ahlawat comes to the Hooda house worried, revealing that the police had come to the Ahlawat house with the news that the goons that had beat him up were out of jail. He comes so that Meet can go back home under his protection. Masoom stops them from leaving, revealing that Manushi is at home with the hope that Meet leaves his wife. However, Meet takes his wife's side, citing that if she had taken a decision to keep this secret, then she would have done it only for everyone's happiness.\n\nKunal wants to steal Manushi's jewellery, going as far as pretending to get kidnapped and demanding the jewellery as ransom, but his plans fail. Meet Hooda studies in the middle of the night in the kitchen so as not to disturb anybody. Isha acts strange around the family. It is soon revealed that she is being blackmailed by a few boys, who took photos of her in compromising positions after drugging her. The combination of the above two situations causes Meet Ahlawat to be convinced that Meet Hooda has fallen in love with another man, and decides to support her, even though he is clearly hurt. Meet Hooda finds out about Isha's situation and goes with her to get the photos deleted and the boys arrested. Meet Ahlawat comes and both of them beat up the boys together. Meet Ahlawat's misunderstanding is finally cleared.\n\nThe Ahlawats decide to send Meet and Meet for their honeymoon in a luxurious resort in Rajasthan. Manushi finally finds out Kunal's true nature and intentions, who runs away with her jewellery and she and vows to get back Meet Ahlawat after seeing their lavish lifestyle. Manushi tries to sabotage Meet and Meet's relationship during the honeymoon, but all her efforts go in vain. Though Meet Ahlawat is initially shaken when he sees Manushi, with Meet's constant support and trust, he is able to control himself more. Meet and Meet become closer through this trip and their relationship becomes stronger. Meet Hooda helps a bearded man known as 'Bhula Baba', who is soon revealed to be Tejvardhan Ahlawat, Meet Ahlawat's older brother who has been missing for 3 years. He suffers from memory loss and does not remember anything. However, he shows recognition with names like Meet and Sunaina (his wife). He starts to consider Meet Hooda as his friend. A day before leaving from Rajasthan, Meet Ahlawat sees photographs with Bhula Baba in them and recognizes Tej. Tej and Meet Ahlawat reunite. However, back in Chandigarh, Rajvardhan forces Sunaina to remarry as he doesn't want her to spend her whole life waiting for someone who might not ever come back. By the time Meet tells Rajvardhan about finding Tej, Sunaina's marriage with Ravi has already happened.\n\nRajvardhan informs the rest of the family members that Meet and Meet are returning from Chandigarh with Tej. They all wait eagerly for them to arrive. However, when they come, Meet reveals that they lost Tej in the market. Babita blames Meet Hooda for being careless. Manushi brings back Tej Ahlawat as a part of her plan to return to Meet Ahlawat's life, it was she who had caused them to separate from Tej in market. Manushi is allowed to stay at the Ahlawat house for a day in gratitude for bringing back Tej. However, she plans to stay there till she has gotten back Meet Ahlawat. So she harasses Tej Ahlawat, who injures her in defence. Meet Hooda, not aware of her sister's evil intentions, requests Meet Ahlawat to let Manushi stay in the house till she recovers. Anubha finds out that Manushi is at the Ahlawat house, and becomes extremely mad, and drags her out of the house. Manushi pretends to attempt suicide by drinking bleach. This allows her to stay for longer as the doctor mentions that she should not be stressed. Manushi attempts to get closer to Meet Ahlawat, and he is shaken and confused.\n\nCast\n\nMain\n Ashi Singh as Meet Hooda Ahlawat: Anubha and Ashok's younger daughter; Manushi's younger sister; Meet Ahlawat's wife (2021-present)\n Shagun Pandey as Meet Ahlawat: Rajvardhan and Babita's younger son; Masoom and Tej's brother; Isha and Kunal's cousin; Meet Hooda's husband (2021-present)\n\nRecurring \n Abha Parmar as Dadi: Ashok's mother; Meet and Manushi's grandmother (2021-present)\n Vaishnavi Macdonald as Anubha Hooda: Ashok's widow; Meet and Manushi's mother (2021-present)\n Sharain Khanduja as Manushi Hooda: Anubha and Ashok's elder daughter; Meet's elder sister; Kunal's wife (2021-present)\n Ravi Gossain as Inspector Ashok Hooda: Ammaji's son; Anubha's late husband; Meet and Manushi's father (Dead) (2021)\n Pratham Kunwar as Kunal: Rajvardhan and Ram's nephew; Meet, Tej, Masoom and Isha's cousin; Manushi's husband (2021-present)\n Sooraj Thapar as Rajvardhan Ahlawat: Ram's brother; Babita's husband; Sunaina and Meet Hooda's father in-law; Meet Ahlawat, Tej and Masoom's father; Duggu's grandfather (2021-present)\n Sonica Handa as Babita Ahlawat: Rajvardhan's wife; Sunaina and Meet Hooda's mother in-law; Meet Ahlawat, Tej and Masoom's mother; Duggu's grandmother (2021-present)\n Nisha Rawal/Parakh Madan as Masoom (née Ahlawat): Rajvardhan and Babita's daughter; Tej and Meet's sister; Hoshiyaar's wife; Duggu's mother; Isha and Kunal's cousin (2021-2022)/(2022-present)\n Aditya Rao Nuniwal as Hoshiyaar: Masoom's husband; Duggu's father (2021-present)\n Het Makwana as Duggu: Masoom and Hoshiyaar's son; Rajvardhan and Babita's grandson (2021-present)\n Vishal Gandhi as Tejvardhan \"Tej\" Ahlawat: Rajvardhan and Babita's elder son; Meet and Masoom's brother; Sunaina's husband; Isha and Kunal's cousin (2021-present)\n Riyanka Chanda as Sunaina Ahlawat: Tej's wife; Meet Ahlawat, Meet Hooda, Isha and Masoom's sister-in-law (2021-present)\n Afzal Khan as Ram Ahlawat: Rajvardhan's brother; Ragini's husband; Isha's father (2021-present)\n Preeti Puri Chaudhary as Ragini Ahlawat: Ram's wife; Isha's mother (2021-present)\n Tamanna Jaiswal as Isha Ahlawat: Ram and Ragini's daughter; Meet Ahlawat, Tej, Masoom and Kunal's cousin (2021-present)\n Aashutosh Semwal as Deep: Rajvardhan's employee; Meet Ahlawat's colleague and best friend (2021-present)\n Shalini Mahhall as Chhavi: Masoom's sister-in-law (2021-present)\n Manish Khanna as Jaypratap Singh: Sunaina's father, Tej's Father-in-law (2021-present)\n Manoj Kolhatkar as Inspector Hawa Singh (2022-present)\n\nGuests\n\nProduction\n\nDevelopment\nThe marriage track in the show was a high-budget track, probably the most spent track in the series.\n\nRelease\nIn August 2021, Zee TV announced two new shows at their early slots namely Meet and Rishton Ka Manjha and both the shows were launched on the same date.\n\nAdaptations\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences \n\n2021 Indian television series debuts\nHindi-language television shows\nIndian drama television series\nIndian television soap operas\nTelevision shows set in Mumbai\nZee TV original programming",
"Marie Lande Mathieu (born November 28, 1956) is a Puerto Rican track and field athlete specializing in sprinting events. She competed in the 400 metres at the 1984 Olympics. Marie qualified for the semi-final round but did not qualify for the finals, finishing seventh in her semi-final race. Later she joined her younger sister Evelyn Mathieu in the 4 × 400 metres relay, Evelyn running the lead off leg and Marie running the anchor leg in the qualifying round. The team qualified for the finals, but did not start.\n\nMarie has continued to run into masters athletics age groups. In 2003, at the home town World Masters Athletics Championships held in Carolina, Puerto Rico, she set the still standing W45 world record in the 400 metres at 56.15. She also won two other sprinting events in the same meet. Four years later, in the same meet, without the home town advantage, she set the current W50 record at 57.66 in Riccione, Italy. Six years later, she again repeated the feat, setting the W55 world record at 1:00.56 at the World Championships in Porto Alegre, Brazil. She competed at the 2010 NACAC Masters Championships, where she set meet record in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 400 metres. She had swept those same three sprinting events at the 2009 World Championships in Lahti, Finland.\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\n1956 births\nOlympic track and field athletes of Puerto Rico\nAthletes (track and field) at the 1975 Pan American Games\nAthletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics\nWorld record holders in masters athletics\nPuerto Rican female sprinters\nCentral American and Caribbean Games medalists in athletics\nPan American Games competitors for Puerto Rico"
]
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"Amerika",
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"became a feature writer for the Office of War Information,",
"What happened after this",
"then a reporter for Amerika,",
"What is this",
"a publication of the U.S. State Department.",
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| C_ca305091629643729dbf4a1ce7ed809a_0 | What is special about him | 5 | What is special about Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr.? | Jane Jacobs | She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard. Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist, and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On March 25, 1952, Jacobs delivered a now-famous response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said: The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe ... CANNOTANSWER | Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. | {{Infobox person
|image = Jane Jacobs.jpg
|imagesize =
|caption = Jacobs as chair of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference
|name = Jane Jacobs
|honorific_suffix =
|birth_name = Jane Butzner
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|education = Graduate of Scranton Central High School; two years of undergraduate studies at Columbia University
|occupation = Journalist, author, urban theorist
|employer = Amerika, Architectural Forum
|notable_works = The Death and Life of Great American Cities
|organization = Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Carlos Moreno<ref>Willsher, Kim, Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign, The Guardian, Friday, February 7, 2020</ref>
|awards = OC, OOnt, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum
|spouse = Robert Jacobs
|children = Ned Jacobs, James Jacobs, Mary Burgin Jacobs
}}
Jane Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her concepts eventually was acknowledged by highly respected professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.
Early years
Jacobs was born Jane Isabel Butzner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bess Robison Butzner, a former teacher and nurse and John Decker Butzner, a physician. They were a Protestant family in a heavily Roman Catholic town. Her brother, John Decker Butzner, Jr., served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduation from Scranton High School, she worked for a year as the unpaid assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune.
New York City
In 1935, during the Great Depression, she moved to New York City with her sister Betty. Jane Butzner took an immediate liking to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which deviated some from the city's grid structure. The sisters soon moved there from Brooklyn.
During her early years in Manhattan, Jacobs held a variety of jobs working as a stenographer and freelance writer, writing about working districts in the city. These experiences, she later said, "gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city and what business was like, what work was like." Her first job was for a trade magazine, as a secretary, then an editor. She sold articles to the Sunday Herald Tribune, Cue magazine, and Vogue.
She studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, taking courses in geology, zoology, law, political science, and economics. About the freedom to pursue study across her wide-ranging interests, she said:
For the first time I liked school and for the first time I made good marks. This was almost my undoing because after I had garnered, statistically, a certain number of credits I became the property of Barnard College at Columbia, and once I was the property of Barnard I had to take, it seemed, what Barnard wanted me to take, not what I wanted to learn. Fortunately my high-school marks had been so bad that Barnard decided I could not belong to it and I was therefore allowed to continue getting an education.
Career
After attending Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, Butzner found a job at Iron Age magazine. Her 1943 article on economic decline in Scranton was well publicized and led the Murray Corporation of America to locate a warplane factory there. Encouraged by this success, Butzner petitioned the War Production Board to support more operations in Scranton. Experiencing job discrimination at Iron Age, she also advocated for equal pay for women and for the right of workers to unionize.
Amerika
She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department in the Russian language. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson Street. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect.
The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard.
Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On 25 March 1952, Jacobs delivered her response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said:
The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe...
Architectural Forum
Jacobs left Amerika in 1952 when it announced its relocation to Washington, D.C. She then found a well-paying job at Architectural Forum, published by Henry Luce of Time Inc. She was hired as an associate editor. After early success in that position, Jacobs began to take assignments on urban planning and "urban blight". In 1954, she was assigned to cover a development in Philadelphia designed by Edmund Bacon. Although her editors expected a positive story, Jacobs criticized Bacon's project, reacting against its lack of concern for the poor African Americans who were directly affected. When Bacon showed Jacobs examples of undeveloped and developed blocks, she determined that "development" seemed to end community life on the street. When Jacobs returned to the offices of Architectural Forum, she began to question the 1950s consensus on urban planning.
In 1955, Jacobs met William Kirk, an Episcopal minister who worked in East Harlem. Kirk came to the Architectural Forum offices to describe the impact that "revitalization" had on East Harlem, and he introduced Jacobs to the neighborhood.
In 1956, while standing in for Douglas Haskell of Architectural Forum, Jacobs delivered a lecture at Harvard University. She addressed leading architects, urban planners, and intellectuals (including Lewis Mumford), speaking on the topic of East Harlem. She urged this audience to "respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Contrary to her expectations, the talk was received with enthusiasm, but it also marked her as a threat to established urban planners, real estate owners, and developers. Architectural Forum printed the speech that year, along with photographs of East Harlem.
Rockefeller Foundation and Death and Life of Great American Cities
After reading her Harvard speech, William H. Whyte invited Jacobs to write an article for Fortune magazine. The resulting piece, "Downtown Is for People", appeared in a 1958 issue of Fortune, and marked her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Her criticism of the Lincoln Center was not popular with supporters of urban renewal at Architectural Forum and Fortune. C.D. Jackson, the publisher of Fortune, was outraged and over the telephone, demanded of Whyte: "Who is this crazy dame?"
The Fortune article brought Jacobs to the attention of Chadbourne Gilpatric, then associate director of the Humanities Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation had moved aggressively into urban topics, with a recent award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of urban aesthetics that would culminate in the publication of Kevin A. Lynch's Image of the City. In May 1958, Gilpatric invited Jacobs to begin serving as a reviewer for grant proposals. Later that year, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Jacobs to produce a critical study of city planning and urban life in the U.S. (From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the foundation's Humanities Division sponsored an "Urban Design Studies" research program, of which Jacobs was the best known grantee.) Gilpatric encouraged Jacobs to "explor[e] the field of urban design to look for ideas and actions which may improve thinking on how the design of cities might better serve urban life, including cultural and humane value." Affiliating with The New School (then called The New School for Social Research), she spent three years conducting research and writing drafts. In 1961, Random House published the result: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains one of the most influential books in the history of American city planning. She coined the terms "social capital", "mixed primary uses", and "eyes on the street", which were adopted professionally in urban design, sociology, and many other fields. Jacobs painted a devastating picture of the profession of city planning, labeling it a pseudoscience. This angered the male-dominated urban planning profession. Jacobs was criticized with ad hominem attacks, being called a "militant dame" and a "housewife": an amateur who had no right to interfere with an established discipline. One planner dismissed Jacobs's book as "bitter coffee-house rambling". Robert Moses, sent a copy, called it "intemperate and also libelous... Sell this junk to someone else."
Later, her book was criticized from the left for leaving out race and openly endorsing gentrification, which Jacobs referred to as "unslumming".
In 1962, she resigned her position at Architectural Forum to become a full-time author and concentrate on raising her children. In other political activities she became an opponent of the Vietnam War, marched on the Pentagon in October 1967, and criticized the construction of the World Trade Center as a disaster for Manhattan's waterfront.
Struggle for Greenwich Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, her home neighborhood of Greenwich Village was being transformed by city and state efforts to build housing (see, for example, Jacobs's 1961 fight to build the West Village Houses in lieu of large apartment houses), private developers, the expansion of New York University, and by the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. Moses' plan, funded as "slum clearance" by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, also called for several blocks to be razed and replaced with upscale high-rises. The plan forced 132 families out of their homes and displaced 1,000 small businesses—the result was Washington Square Village.
As part of his efforts to revitalize the area, Moses had proposed the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park in 1935. In the face of community opposition, Moses had shelved the project, but revived the idea in the 1950s. Moses argued that the Fifth Avenue extension would improve the flow of traffic through the neighborhood and provide access to the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), which would connect the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge with the Holland Tunnel.
In response, local activist Shirley Hayes created the "Committee to Save Washington Square Park", a coalition of dozens of local neighborhood groups that opposed the roadway extension. Raymond S. Rubinow eventually took over the organization, changing its name to the "Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic". Jacobs had joined the committee under Hayes, but she took a more prominent role under Rubinow, reaching out to media outlets such as The Village Voice, which provided more sympathetic coverage than The New York Times. The committee gained the support of Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte, as well as Carmine De Sapio, a Greenwich Village resident and influential Democratic leader. De Sapio's involvement proved decisive. On 25 June 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park to traffic, and the joint committee held a ribbon tying (not cutting) ceremony.
Plans for LOMEX expressway continued despite growing community opposition in areas such as Little Italy. In the 1960s, Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The New York Times was sympathetic to Moses, while The Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway. Jacobs continued to fight the expressway when plans resurfaced in 1962, 1965, and 1968, and she became a local hero for her opposition to the project. She was arrested by a plainclothes police officer on April 10, 1968, at a public hearing during which the crowd had charged the stage and destroyed the stenographer's notes. She was accused of inciting a riot, criminal mischief, and obstructing public administration. After months of trials conducted in New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.New York: A Documentary Film devoted an hour of the eight-part, seventeen-and-a-half-hour series to the battle between Moses and Jacobs. Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, gives only passing mention to this event, however, despite Jacobs's strong influence on Caro. In 2017, Caro told an interviewer about the difficulty in cutting more than 300,000 words from his initial manuscript: "The section that I wrote on Jane Jacobs disappeared. To this day, when someone says: 'There's hardly a mention of Jane Jacobs,' I think, 'But I wrote a lot about her.' Every time I'm asked about that, I have this sick feeling."
Life in Toronto
Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in part because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried about the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did not want to continue fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and offered employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that included so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".
She quickly became a leading figure in her new city and helped stop the proposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.
In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on Quebec's sovereignty in her book, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Separation. Jacobs was an advocate of a Province of Toronto to separate the city proper from Ontario. Jacobs said, "Cities, to thrive in the twenty-first century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas."
She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology section of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be given to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".
Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political support for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of Metro Toronto, fearing that individual neighborhoods would have less power with the new structure. She backed an ecologist, Tooker Gomberg, who lost Toronto's 2000 mayoralty race, and she was an adviser to David Miller's successful mayoral campaign in 2003, at a time when he was seen as a longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA). Following the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did upgrade the ferry service and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.
Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a plan of Royal St. George's College (an established school very close to the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district) to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the redesign be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the case during the hearing.
She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.
Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner (d. 2009); a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's statement noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".
Legacy
Jacobs is credited, along with Lewis Mumford, with inspiring the New Urbanist movement. She has been characterized as a major influence on decentralist and radical centrist thought. She discussed her legacy in an interview with Reason magazine.
While Jacobs saw her greatest legacy to be her contributions to economic theory, it is in the realm of urban planning that she has had her most extensive effect. Her observations about the ways in which cities function revolutionized the urban planning profession and discredited many accepted planning models that had dominated mid-century planning. The influential Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser, known for his work on urban studies, acknowledged that Jane Jacobs (1960s) had been prescient in attacking Moses for "replacing well-functioning neighborhoods with Le Corbusier-inspired towers". Glaeser agreed that these housing projects proved to be Moses' greatest failures, "Moses spent millions and evicted tens of thousands to create buildings that became centers of crime, poverty, and despair."
She also was famous for introducing concepts such as the "Ballet of the Sidewalk" and "Eyes on the Street", a reference to what would later be known as natural surveillance. The concept had a huge influence on planners and architects such as Oscar Newman, who prepared the idea through a series of studies that would culminate in his defensible space theory. The work of Jacobs and Newman would go on to affect American housing policy through the HOPE VI Program, an effort by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish the high-rise public housing projects so reviled by Jacobs and to replace them with low-rise, mixed-income housing.
Throughout her life, Jacobs fought to alter the way in which city development was approached. By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects were instrumental in discrediting these once universally supported planning practices.
Jacobs is remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities, and for leaving "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place".
Despite the fact that Jacobs mainly focused on New York City, her arguments have been identified as universal. For instance, her opposition against the demolition of urban neighborhoods for projects of urban renewal had "special resonance" in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne in the 1960s, resident associations fought against large-scale high-rise housing projects of the Housing Commission of Victoria, which they argued had little regard for the impact on local communities.
Jacobs fought an uphill battle against dominant trends of planning. Despite the United States remaining very much a suburban nation, the work of Jacobs has contributed to city living being rehabilitated and revitalized. Because of her ideas, today, many distressed urban neighborhoods are more likely to be gentrified than cleared for redevelopment.
Samuel R. Delany's book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue relies heavily on The Death and Life of Great American Cities in its analysis of the nature of social relations within the realm of urban studies.
Jane Jacobs Days
After the death of Jacobs in April 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a Jane Jacobs Day, held on June 28, 2006. The City of Toronto proclaimed her birthday the following year, May 4, 2007, as Jane Jacobs Day.
Jane's Walks
In connection with Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto, two dozen free neighborhood walks in the city were offered that weekend (5 May 2007) as an active memorial to Jacobs, and they were dubbed Jane's Walks. Later, a Jane's Walk event was held in New York on September 29–30, 2007. In 2008, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents. The interpretive walks typically apply ideas Jacobs identified or espoused to local areas, which are explored on foot and sometimes by bicycle. The walks normally take place in early May, on or close to her May 4 birth anniversary. Walks are organized and led by local volunteers, coordinated by a headquarters office in Toronto. There are more than 200 walks offered in Toronto, alone, in 2016, taking place on May 6, 7, and 8.
Exhibitions
In 2016, to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of Jane Jacobs, a Toronto gallery staged "Jane at Home", an exhibition running from April 29-May 8. Curated by Jane's son, Jim Jacobs, it offered glimpses of her home life, where she also worked. Her Toronto living room was represented, based on the one at her Albany Avenue house in The Annex, where she often spoke with noted thinkers and political leaders including Marshall McLuhan, Paul Martin, and the Queen of the Netherlands. On display were her typewriter, original manuscripts, rediscovered photographs demonstrating her distinctive styles, and personal mementos. The exhibit included furniture from previous homes in New York (her dining room is set up) and from Scranton, Pennsylvania.Jane at Home , Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, 2016
In 2007, the Municipal Art Society of New York partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to host an exhibit focusing on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York," which opened at the society in September that year. The exhibit aimed to educate the public on her writings and activism and used tools to encourage new generations to become active in issues involving their own neighborhoods. An accompanying exhibit publication included essays and articles by such architecture critics, artists, activists, and journalists as Malcolm Gladwell, Reverend Billy, Robert Neuwirth, Tom Wolfe, Thomas de Monchaux, and William McDonough. Many of these contributors participated in a series of panel discussions on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York".
Jane Jacobs Medal
As a tribute to Jacobs, the Rockefeller Foundation, which had awarded grants to Jacobs in the 1950s and 1960s, announced on February 9, 2007, the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, "to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City". Recipients include:
Barry Benepe, co-founder of the New York City Green Market program and a founding member of Transportation Alternatives, was awarded with the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and a $100,000 cash prize in September 2007. The inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism was awarded to Omar Freilla, the founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx; Mr. Freilla donated his $100,000 to his organization.
Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action, received the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, received the award for New Ideas and Activism. Both women received their medals and $100,000 awards at a dinner ceremony in September 2008 in New York City.
Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Richard Kahan, as founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, which created and manages 22 secondary public schools located in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York City, received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. Both received $100,000, in addition to the medal.
The 2010 recipients were Joshua David and Robert Hammond, whose work in establishing the High Line Park atop an unused elevated railroad line, led the foundation to award the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, along with $60,000 to each man. The 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership was given to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, for her longtime work as writer, park administrator, and co-founder of Central Park Conservancy. She received $80,000 as well.
The Canadian Urban Institute offers an award to honor her, the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize a person "who has had significant impact on the health of their region consistent with Jane Jacob's belief that successful cities foster a place-based, community-centered approach." The 2011 winner was Eberhard Zeidler, while his daughter, Margie Zeidler, won the 2015 award. In 2012, Anne Golden took the prize "for her long-standing leadership in public policy, her academic work and her varied leadership experience in business, not-for-profit and government sectors." William (Bill) Teron accepted the 2013 award "for his influential career in public policy and passionate advocacy for quality design and commitment to development in the Ottawa area." In 2014, Jack Diamond was recognized for his "contribution to improving the built form and advocacy for cities and the future of the Greater Toronto Area."
In April 2014, Spacing was appointed the stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize. Spacing, winners of the prize in 2010, has continued to provide the award with a new life and new ways of promoting (and finding) the winners.
Other honors
Jane Jacobs Way, West Village, New York City (Hudson Street and Eleventh Street, New York, New York)
Jane Jacobs Park, 11 Wellesley Street West, Toronto (construction began in 2016)
Jane Jacobs sculptural chairs, Victoria Memorial Square (St. John's Square), Toronto
Jane Jacobs Toronto Legacy Plaque, 69 Albany Avenue, Toronto
Jacobs' Ladder, rose bushes dedicated by Grassroots Albany (neighbors) in 1997, Toronto
Jane Jacobs Street, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jane Jacobs Street (Village of Cheshire) Black Mountain, North Carolina
a Google Doodle marked the 100th anniversary of Jacobs's birth, on May 4, 2016, and was featured on Google's homepage in 15 countries on four continents
a conference room at the offices of the New Economics Foundation in London is named in honor of Jacobs
Jacobs received the second Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.
Jacobs is the subject of the 2017 documentary film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which depicts her victories over Robert Moses and her philosophy of urban design.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of her is played by Alison Smith in a season 1 episode of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The community organizer played by Cherry Jones in Motherless Brooklyn has drawn comparisons to Jane Jacobs. The director, Edward Norton, has clarified that the composite character was partially based on Jacobs, but more so on Hortense Gabel who was active a decade earlier.
The URL of the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) is whatwouldjanejacobsdo.
Criticism
The planners and developers she fought against to preserve the West Village were among those who initially criticized her ideas. Robert Moses has generally been identified as her arch-rival during this period. Since then, Jacobs's ideas have been analysed many times, often in regard to the outcomes that their influences have produced.Glaeser, Edward L. (2010) Taller Buildings, Cheaper Homes. The New York Times, 4 May 2010 6:02 amOuroussoff, Nicolai (2006) Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York. The New York Times, Published 30 April 2006Bratishenko, Lev (2016) Jane Jacobs's Tunnel Vision Why our cities need less Jane Jacobs. Literary Review of Canada, October 2016
In places such as the West Village, the factors that she argued would maintain economic and cultural diversity have led instead to gentrification and some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Her family's conversion of an old candy shop into a home is an example of the gentrifying trend that would continue under the influence of Jacobs's ideas.
Gentrification also was caused, however, by "the completely unexpected influx of affluent residents back into the inner city". The extent to which her ideas facilitated this phenomenon was at the time unimaginable. For example, she advocated the preservation of older buildings specifically because their lack of economic value made them affordable for poor people. In this respect, she saw them as "guarantors of social diversity". That many of these older structures have increased in economic value solely due to their age was implausible in 1961. Issues of gentrification have dominated criticism of Jane Jacobs's planning ideas.
Economist Tyler Cowen has criticized her ideas for not addressing problems of scale or infrastructure, and suggests that economists disagree with some of her approaches to development. For example, although her ideas of planning were praised at times as "universal", they are now thought inapplicable when a city grows from one million to ten million (as has happened many times in developing nations). Such arguments suggest that her ideas apply only to cities with similar issues to those of New York, where Jacobs developed many of them.
Works
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. Her books include:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Death and Life of Great American Cities is her single-most influential book and, possibly, the most influential book on urban planning and cities. Published in 1961, this book was widely read by both planning professionals and the general public. The book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, which, she claimed, destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. In the book, she celebrates the diversity and complexity of old-mixed use neighborhoods while lamenting the monotony and sterility of modern planning. Jacobs advocated the abolition of zoning laws and restoration of free markets in land, which would result in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and she frequently cited New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community.
Robert Caro has cited it as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses, although Caro does not mention Jacobs by name in the book despite Jacobs's battles with Moses over his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Caro reportedly cut a chapter about Jacobs due to his book's length.
Beyond the practical lessons in city design and planning that Death and Life offers, the theoretical underpinnings of the work challenge the modern development mindset. Jane Jacobs defends her positions with common sense and anecdotes.
The Economy of Cities
The thesis of this book is that cities are the primary drivers of economic development. Her main argument is that explosive economic growth derives from urban import replacement. Import replacement is the process of producing goods locally that formerly were imported, e.g., Tokyo bicycle factories replacing Tokyo bicycle importers in the 1800s. Jacobs claims that import replacement builds up local infrastructure, skills, and production. Jacobs also claims that the increased production is subsequently exported to other cities, giving those other cities a new opportunity to engage in import replacement, thus producing a positive cycle of growth.
In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine, Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement. Critics erroneously claim that her ideas parrot the idea of import substitution advanced earlier by scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank. Import substitution was a national economic theory implying that if a nation substituted its imports with national production, the nation would become wealthier, whereas Jacob's idea is entirely about cities and could be called urban import substitution. However, even this would lead to confusion since in practice, import substitution in India and Latin America were government subsidized and mandated, whereas Jacobs's concept of import replacement is a free market process of discovery and division of labor within a city.
In the second part of the book, Jacobs argues that cities preceded agriculture. She argues that in cities trade in wild animals and grains allowed for the initial division of labor necessary for the discovery of husbandry and agriculture; these discoveries then moved out of the city due to land competition. Another interpretation of history, generally and erroneously considered to be contradictory to Jacobs's is supported by Marxist archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe and in recent times, by another historical materialist Charles Keith Maisels These writers argue that agriculture preceded cities. The apparent opposition between Childe and Jacobs theories rests in their definition of 'city', 'civilization', or 'urban'. Childe, like other materialists such as Maisels or Henri Lefebvre defines 'urban' or 'civilization' as Synoecism—as a literate, socially stratified, monolithic political community, whereas, as one can see from The Economy of Cities or from Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs defines the city purely along the lines of geographically dense trade giving way to entrepreneurial discovery and subsequent improvements in the division of labor. Without the requirements of literacy, monumental building, or the signs of specialized civil and armed forces, 'cities' can be accurately be interpreted to exists thousands of years before when Childe and Maisels place them. However, the Jacobs definition is supposition, since 'city' is defined simply as a large town or "a large human settlement" indicating permanence. The earliest remains of mankind uncovered by archaeologists do not give us more information other than that they were hunter-gatherers as there is no evidence yet of farming or settlement, implying nomadic lifestyles until further discoveries are found.
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty The Question of Separatism incorporated and expanded Jacobs's presentation of the 1979 Massey Lectures, entitled Canadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association. It was published in 1980 and reprinted in 2011 with a previously-unpublished 2005 interview with Robin Philpot on the subject in which she evokes the relative overlooking of that book among her usual readership. This was the first time Jacobs was requested to discuss it in an interview. Columnist Richard Gwyn advanced that while not openly criticizing her, English-speaking Canadians readers thought she did not understood how Canadian politics worked and that she was not being helpful in a time of distress for national unity (the 1980 referendum was just defeated by a vote of 60%). The Question of Separatism was also not mentioned in the bibliography of her 2006 obituary in The Globe and Mail.
Jacobs's book advances the view that Quebec's eventual independence is best for Montreal, Toronto, the rest of Canada, and the world; and that such independence can be achieved peacefully. As precedent, she cites Norway's secession from Sweden and how it enriched both nations. The origins of the contemporary secessionist-movement in the Quiet Revolution are examined, along with Canada's historical reliance on natural resources and foreign-owned manufacturing for its own economic development. Jacobs asserts that such an approach is colonial and hence backward, citing by example, Canada buying its skis and furniture from Norway or Norwegian-owned factories in Canada, the latter procedure being a product of Canadian tariffs designed specifically to foster such factories. The relevant public views of René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau are also critically analyzed, an example being their failure to recognize that two respective, independent currencies are essential to the success of an independent Quebec and a smaller resultant Canada, an issue that is central to her book. Jacobs stresses the need for Montreal to continue developing its leadership of Québécois culture, but that ultimately, such a need can never be fulfilled by Montreal's increasing tendencies toward regional-city status, tendencies foretelling economic, political, and cultural subservience to English-speaking Toronto. Such an outcome, Jacobs believed, would in the long run doom Quebec's independence as much as it would hinder Canada's own future. She concludes with her observation that the popular equating of political secession with political and economic failure is the result of the Enlightenment, which perceived nature as a force for "standardization, uniformity, universality, and immutability." Since then, naturalists and their readers have gradually realized that nature is a force for diversity, and that, "diversity itself is of the essence of excellence." The right kind of secession, Jacobs states, can lead to the right kind of diversity, and Quebec and Canada are capable of both, and must achieve both, to survive.
Cities and the Wealth of Nations Cities and the Wealth of Nations attempts to do for economics what The Death and Life of Great American Cities did for modern urban planning, although it has not received the same critical attention. Beginning with a concise treatment of classical economics, this book challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the greatest economists. Classical (and Neo-classical) economists consider the nation-state to be the main player in macroeconomics. Jacobs argues that it is not the nation-state, rather it is the city that is the true player in this worldwide game. She restates the idea of import replacement from her earlier book The Economy of Cities, while speculating on the further ramifications of considering the city first and the nation second, or not at all.
Systems of Survival Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work. As with her other work, she used an observational approach. This book is written as a Platonic dialogue. It appears that she (as described by characters in her book) took newspaper clippings of moral judgments related to work, collected and sorted them to find that they fit two patterns of moral behavior that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome, and "Moral Syndrome B", or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her system are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York subway police are paid bonuses here – reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
The Nature of Economies The Nature of Economies, a dialog between friends concerning the premise: "human beings exist wholly within nature as part of the natural order in every respect" (p. ix), argues that the same principles underlie both ecosystems and economies: "development and co-development through differentiation and their combinations; expansion through diverse, multiple uses of energy; and self-maintenance through self-refueling" (p. 82). Jacobs also comments on the nature of economic and biological diversity and its role in the development and growth of the two kinds of systems.
Jacobs's characters discuss the four methods by which "dynamically stable systems" may evade collapse: "bifurcations; positive-feedback loops; negative-feedback controls; and emergency adaptations" (p. 86). Their conversations also cover the "double nature of fitness for survival" (traits to avoid destroying one's own habitat as well as success in competition to feed and breed, p. 119), and unpredictability including the butterfly effect characterized in terms of multiplicity of variables as well as disproportional response to cause, and self-organization where "a system can be making itself up as it goes along" (p. 137).
The book is infused with many real-world economic and biological examples, which help keep the book "down to earth" and comprehensible, if dense. Concepts are furnished with both economic and biological examples, showing their coherence in both worlds.
One particularly interesting insight is the creation of "something from nothing" – an economy from nowhere. In the biological world, free energy is given through sunlight, but in the economic world human creativity and natural resources supply this free energy, or at least starter energy. Another interesting insight is the creation of economic diversity through the combination of different technologies, for example the typewriter and television as inputs and outputs of a computer system: this can lead to the creation of "new species of work".
Dark Age Ahead
Published in 2004 by Random House, Dark Age Ahead posits Jacobs's argument that "North American" civilization shows signs of a spiral decline comparable to the collapse of the Roman empire. Her discussion focuses on "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm", which can be summarized as the nuclear family and community; quality in education; free thought in science; representational government and responsible taxes; and corporate and professional accountability. As the title of this book suggests, Jacobs's outlook is far more pessimistic than that of her previous works. However, in the conclusion she admits: "At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of overcoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true." While Jacobs idealized U.S. democracy, Dark Age Ahead echoes the skepticism and disappointment that led to her emigration to Canada in 1968. Later, she would indicate that North American cultures, among others, were grounded in a "plantation mentality" that was culturally and ecologically unsustainable.
Orthodox urbanism
Jane Jacobs asserts in her work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, that the sources of orthodox urbanism are:
Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Ebenezer Howard
The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford
Cities in Evolution, Sir Patrick Geddes
Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer
Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein
Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Sir Raymond Unwin
The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier
Writings
Constitutional chaff; rejected suggestions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with explanatory argument Compiled by Jane Butzner, (1941) Columbia University Press; Compiled by Jane Jacobs (Née Butzner), Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House.
The Economy of Cities (1969)
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books)
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985)
The Girl on the Hat (Children's Book Illustrated by Karen Reczuch), (June 1990) Oxford University Press.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)
A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska – The Story of Hannah Breece (1995) Random House of Canada.
The Nature of Economies (2000) New York: Random House, The Modern Library.
Dark Age Ahead (2004)
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs'' (2016) New York: Random House.
See also
David Crombie
Fred Gardiner
Innovation Economics
Urban secession
Urban vitality
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Jane Jacobs's Order of Canada Citation
Jane Jacobs's Papers at John J. Burns Library, Boston College
Jane Jacobs Oral History, 1997 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Jacobs's Legacy, City Journal online, July 31, 2009
1916 births
2006 deaths
American architecture writers
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Tax resisters
Women urban planners
Anti-road protest
Canadian architecture writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers
Canadian social commentators
Interstate 78
Members of the Order of Ontario
Moral philosophers
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Radical centrist writers
Urban theorists
Environmental economists
Writers from Toronto
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
American emigrants to Canada
Women's page journalists | true | [
"1, 2, 3 Go! is a 1961-1962 American filmed children's television series hosted by Jack Lescoulie with Richard Thomas. The show also featured Richard Morse, only for the first episode as The Courier, and Joseph Warren, who portrayed Thomas Jefferson in the first episode.\n\nThe half-hour educational series was telecast on NBC, opening with this theme song:\nWonder what it'll be today?\nWhat excitement is on its way?\nYou can find out just by saying...\n1, 2, 3 Go!\n\nEach episode had a theme and was narrated by Thomas. The episodes show what it's like to be in various occupations, including fire fighter, astronaut and trapeze artist.\n\nThe show established that adults and children were on an equal footing, sometimes with the child in a superior position. For example, in a show with a theme of cinematic special effects, Lescoulie is struck in the neck by an arrow. Although Richard explains it is only a special effect, Lescoulie remains concerned. In the narration, Richard observes, \"Jack was getting worried about the arrow, but I told him to stop crying.\"\n\nDuring the Halloween weekend of 1961, Zacherley appeared for an episode exploring haunted houses.\n\nProduction\nThe show was produced by NBC Public Affairs.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1960s American children's television series\n1961 American television series debuts\n1962 American television series endings\nNBC original programming",
"Our Great Savior is a hymn written by John Wilbur Chapman and composed by Rowland Prichard under the tune Hyfrydol. It was published in 1910 and was renewed in 1938 by Robert Harkness. In some hymnals, it is titled Jesus! What a Friend For Sinners!.\n\nLyrics\nJesus! what a Friend for sinners! Jesus! Lover of my soul;\nFriends may fail me, foes assail me, He, my Savior, makes me whole.\nChorus\nHallelujah! what a Savior! Hallelujah! what a Friend! \nSaving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. \nJesus! what a strength in weakness! Let me hide myself in Him;\nTempted, tried, and sometimes failing, He, my strength, my vic'try wins.\nChorus\nJesus! what a help in sorrow! While the billows o'er me roll,\nEven when my heart is breaking, He, my comfort, helps my soul.\nChorus\nJesus! what a guide and keeper! While the tempest still is high,\nStorms about me, night o'ertakes me, He, my pilot, hears my cry.\nChorus\nJesus! I do now receive Him, More than all in Him I find,\nHe hath granted me forgiveness, I am His and He is mine.\nChorus\n\nReferences\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tdEALFdAME\nhttp://hymnoftheweek.net/?p=722\nhttp://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/j/e/jesuswaf.htm\n\nAmerican Christian hymns\nSongs about Jesus"
]
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"became a feature writer for the Office of War Information,",
"What happened after this",
"then a reporter for Amerika,",
"What is this",
"a publication of the U.S. State Department.",
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| C_ca305091629643729dbf4a1ce7ed809a_0 | What happened to these too | 6 | What happened to Jane Jacobs and Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr.? | Jane Jacobs | She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard. Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist, and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On March 25, 1952, Jacobs delivered a now-famous response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said: The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe ... CANNOTANSWER | They married | {{Infobox person
|image = Jane Jacobs.jpg
|imagesize =
|caption = Jacobs as chair of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference
|name = Jane Jacobs
|honorific_suffix =
|birth_name = Jane Butzner
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|education = Graduate of Scranton Central High School; two years of undergraduate studies at Columbia University
|occupation = Journalist, author, urban theorist
|employer = Amerika, Architectural Forum
|notable_works = The Death and Life of Great American Cities
|organization = Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Carlos Moreno<ref>Willsher, Kim, Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign, The Guardian, Friday, February 7, 2020</ref>
|awards = OC, OOnt, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum
|spouse = Robert Jacobs
|children = Ned Jacobs, James Jacobs, Mary Burgin Jacobs
}}
Jane Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her concepts eventually was acknowledged by highly respected professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.
Early years
Jacobs was born Jane Isabel Butzner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bess Robison Butzner, a former teacher and nurse and John Decker Butzner, a physician. They were a Protestant family in a heavily Roman Catholic town. Her brother, John Decker Butzner, Jr., served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduation from Scranton High School, she worked for a year as the unpaid assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune.
New York City
In 1935, during the Great Depression, she moved to New York City with her sister Betty. Jane Butzner took an immediate liking to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which deviated some from the city's grid structure. The sisters soon moved there from Brooklyn.
During her early years in Manhattan, Jacobs held a variety of jobs working as a stenographer and freelance writer, writing about working districts in the city. These experiences, she later said, "gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city and what business was like, what work was like." Her first job was for a trade magazine, as a secretary, then an editor. She sold articles to the Sunday Herald Tribune, Cue magazine, and Vogue.
She studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, taking courses in geology, zoology, law, political science, and economics. About the freedom to pursue study across her wide-ranging interests, she said:
For the first time I liked school and for the first time I made good marks. This was almost my undoing because after I had garnered, statistically, a certain number of credits I became the property of Barnard College at Columbia, and once I was the property of Barnard I had to take, it seemed, what Barnard wanted me to take, not what I wanted to learn. Fortunately my high-school marks had been so bad that Barnard decided I could not belong to it and I was therefore allowed to continue getting an education.
Career
After attending Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, Butzner found a job at Iron Age magazine. Her 1943 article on economic decline in Scranton was well publicized and led the Murray Corporation of America to locate a warplane factory there. Encouraged by this success, Butzner petitioned the War Production Board to support more operations in Scranton. Experiencing job discrimination at Iron Age, she also advocated for equal pay for women and for the right of workers to unionize.
Amerika
She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department in the Russian language. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson Street. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect.
The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard.
Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On 25 March 1952, Jacobs delivered her response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said:
The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe...
Architectural Forum
Jacobs left Amerika in 1952 when it announced its relocation to Washington, D.C. She then found a well-paying job at Architectural Forum, published by Henry Luce of Time Inc. She was hired as an associate editor. After early success in that position, Jacobs began to take assignments on urban planning and "urban blight". In 1954, she was assigned to cover a development in Philadelphia designed by Edmund Bacon. Although her editors expected a positive story, Jacobs criticized Bacon's project, reacting against its lack of concern for the poor African Americans who were directly affected. When Bacon showed Jacobs examples of undeveloped and developed blocks, she determined that "development" seemed to end community life on the street. When Jacobs returned to the offices of Architectural Forum, she began to question the 1950s consensus on urban planning.
In 1955, Jacobs met William Kirk, an Episcopal minister who worked in East Harlem. Kirk came to the Architectural Forum offices to describe the impact that "revitalization" had on East Harlem, and he introduced Jacobs to the neighborhood.
In 1956, while standing in for Douglas Haskell of Architectural Forum, Jacobs delivered a lecture at Harvard University. She addressed leading architects, urban planners, and intellectuals (including Lewis Mumford), speaking on the topic of East Harlem. She urged this audience to "respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Contrary to her expectations, the talk was received with enthusiasm, but it also marked her as a threat to established urban planners, real estate owners, and developers. Architectural Forum printed the speech that year, along with photographs of East Harlem.
Rockefeller Foundation and Death and Life of Great American Cities
After reading her Harvard speech, William H. Whyte invited Jacobs to write an article for Fortune magazine. The resulting piece, "Downtown Is for People", appeared in a 1958 issue of Fortune, and marked her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Her criticism of the Lincoln Center was not popular with supporters of urban renewal at Architectural Forum and Fortune. C.D. Jackson, the publisher of Fortune, was outraged and over the telephone, demanded of Whyte: "Who is this crazy dame?"
The Fortune article brought Jacobs to the attention of Chadbourne Gilpatric, then associate director of the Humanities Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation had moved aggressively into urban topics, with a recent award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of urban aesthetics that would culminate in the publication of Kevin A. Lynch's Image of the City. In May 1958, Gilpatric invited Jacobs to begin serving as a reviewer for grant proposals. Later that year, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Jacobs to produce a critical study of city planning and urban life in the U.S. (From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the foundation's Humanities Division sponsored an "Urban Design Studies" research program, of which Jacobs was the best known grantee.) Gilpatric encouraged Jacobs to "explor[e] the field of urban design to look for ideas and actions which may improve thinking on how the design of cities might better serve urban life, including cultural and humane value." Affiliating with The New School (then called The New School for Social Research), she spent three years conducting research and writing drafts. In 1961, Random House published the result: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains one of the most influential books in the history of American city planning. She coined the terms "social capital", "mixed primary uses", and "eyes on the street", which were adopted professionally in urban design, sociology, and many other fields. Jacobs painted a devastating picture of the profession of city planning, labeling it a pseudoscience. This angered the male-dominated urban planning profession. Jacobs was criticized with ad hominem attacks, being called a "militant dame" and a "housewife": an amateur who had no right to interfere with an established discipline. One planner dismissed Jacobs's book as "bitter coffee-house rambling". Robert Moses, sent a copy, called it "intemperate and also libelous... Sell this junk to someone else."
Later, her book was criticized from the left for leaving out race and openly endorsing gentrification, which Jacobs referred to as "unslumming".
In 1962, she resigned her position at Architectural Forum to become a full-time author and concentrate on raising her children. In other political activities she became an opponent of the Vietnam War, marched on the Pentagon in October 1967, and criticized the construction of the World Trade Center as a disaster for Manhattan's waterfront.
Struggle for Greenwich Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, her home neighborhood of Greenwich Village was being transformed by city and state efforts to build housing (see, for example, Jacobs's 1961 fight to build the West Village Houses in lieu of large apartment houses), private developers, the expansion of New York University, and by the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. Moses' plan, funded as "slum clearance" by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, also called for several blocks to be razed and replaced with upscale high-rises. The plan forced 132 families out of their homes and displaced 1,000 small businesses—the result was Washington Square Village.
As part of his efforts to revitalize the area, Moses had proposed the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park in 1935. In the face of community opposition, Moses had shelved the project, but revived the idea in the 1950s. Moses argued that the Fifth Avenue extension would improve the flow of traffic through the neighborhood and provide access to the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), which would connect the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge with the Holland Tunnel.
In response, local activist Shirley Hayes created the "Committee to Save Washington Square Park", a coalition of dozens of local neighborhood groups that opposed the roadway extension. Raymond S. Rubinow eventually took over the organization, changing its name to the "Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic". Jacobs had joined the committee under Hayes, but she took a more prominent role under Rubinow, reaching out to media outlets such as The Village Voice, which provided more sympathetic coverage than The New York Times. The committee gained the support of Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte, as well as Carmine De Sapio, a Greenwich Village resident and influential Democratic leader. De Sapio's involvement proved decisive. On 25 June 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park to traffic, and the joint committee held a ribbon tying (not cutting) ceremony.
Plans for LOMEX expressway continued despite growing community opposition in areas such as Little Italy. In the 1960s, Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The New York Times was sympathetic to Moses, while The Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway. Jacobs continued to fight the expressway when plans resurfaced in 1962, 1965, and 1968, and she became a local hero for her opposition to the project. She was arrested by a plainclothes police officer on April 10, 1968, at a public hearing during which the crowd had charged the stage and destroyed the stenographer's notes. She was accused of inciting a riot, criminal mischief, and obstructing public administration. After months of trials conducted in New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.New York: A Documentary Film devoted an hour of the eight-part, seventeen-and-a-half-hour series to the battle between Moses and Jacobs. Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, gives only passing mention to this event, however, despite Jacobs's strong influence on Caro. In 2017, Caro told an interviewer about the difficulty in cutting more than 300,000 words from his initial manuscript: "The section that I wrote on Jane Jacobs disappeared. To this day, when someone says: 'There's hardly a mention of Jane Jacobs,' I think, 'But I wrote a lot about her.' Every time I'm asked about that, I have this sick feeling."
Life in Toronto
Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in part because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried about the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did not want to continue fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and offered employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that included so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".
She quickly became a leading figure in her new city and helped stop the proposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.
In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on Quebec's sovereignty in her book, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Separation. Jacobs was an advocate of a Province of Toronto to separate the city proper from Ontario. Jacobs said, "Cities, to thrive in the twenty-first century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas."
She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology section of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be given to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".
Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political support for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of Metro Toronto, fearing that individual neighborhoods would have less power with the new structure. She backed an ecologist, Tooker Gomberg, who lost Toronto's 2000 mayoralty race, and she was an adviser to David Miller's successful mayoral campaign in 2003, at a time when he was seen as a longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA). Following the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did upgrade the ferry service and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.
Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a plan of Royal St. George's College (an established school very close to the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district) to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the redesign be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the case during the hearing.
She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.
Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner (d. 2009); a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's statement noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".
Legacy
Jacobs is credited, along with Lewis Mumford, with inspiring the New Urbanist movement. She has been characterized as a major influence on decentralist and radical centrist thought. She discussed her legacy in an interview with Reason magazine.
While Jacobs saw her greatest legacy to be her contributions to economic theory, it is in the realm of urban planning that she has had her most extensive effect. Her observations about the ways in which cities function revolutionized the urban planning profession and discredited many accepted planning models that had dominated mid-century planning. The influential Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser, known for his work on urban studies, acknowledged that Jane Jacobs (1960s) had been prescient in attacking Moses for "replacing well-functioning neighborhoods with Le Corbusier-inspired towers". Glaeser agreed that these housing projects proved to be Moses' greatest failures, "Moses spent millions and evicted tens of thousands to create buildings that became centers of crime, poverty, and despair."
She also was famous for introducing concepts such as the "Ballet of the Sidewalk" and "Eyes on the Street", a reference to what would later be known as natural surveillance. The concept had a huge influence on planners and architects such as Oscar Newman, who prepared the idea through a series of studies that would culminate in his defensible space theory. The work of Jacobs and Newman would go on to affect American housing policy through the HOPE VI Program, an effort by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish the high-rise public housing projects so reviled by Jacobs and to replace them with low-rise, mixed-income housing.
Throughout her life, Jacobs fought to alter the way in which city development was approached. By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects were instrumental in discrediting these once universally supported planning practices.
Jacobs is remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities, and for leaving "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place".
Despite the fact that Jacobs mainly focused on New York City, her arguments have been identified as universal. For instance, her opposition against the demolition of urban neighborhoods for projects of urban renewal had "special resonance" in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne in the 1960s, resident associations fought against large-scale high-rise housing projects of the Housing Commission of Victoria, which they argued had little regard for the impact on local communities.
Jacobs fought an uphill battle against dominant trends of planning. Despite the United States remaining very much a suburban nation, the work of Jacobs has contributed to city living being rehabilitated and revitalized. Because of her ideas, today, many distressed urban neighborhoods are more likely to be gentrified than cleared for redevelopment.
Samuel R. Delany's book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue relies heavily on The Death and Life of Great American Cities in its analysis of the nature of social relations within the realm of urban studies.
Jane Jacobs Days
After the death of Jacobs in April 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a Jane Jacobs Day, held on June 28, 2006. The City of Toronto proclaimed her birthday the following year, May 4, 2007, as Jane Jacobs Day.
Jane's Walks
In connection with Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto, two dozen free neighborhood walks in the city were offered that weekend (5 May 2007) as an active memorial to Jacobs, and they were dubbed Jane's Walks. Later, a Jane's Walk event was held in New York on September 29–30, 2007. In 2008, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents. The interpretive walks typically apply ideas Jacobs identified or espoused to local areas, which are explored on foot and sometimes by bicycle. The walks normally take place in early May, on or close to her May 4 birth anniversary. Walks are organized and led by local volunteers, coordinated by a headquarters office in Toronto. There are more than 200 walks offered in Toronto, alone, in 2016, taking place on May 6, 7, and 8.
Exhibitions
In 2016, to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of Jane Jacobs, a Toronto gallery staged "Jane at Home", an exhibition running from April 29-May 8. Curated by Jane's son, Jim Jacobs, it offered glimpses of her home life, where she also worked. Her Toronto living room was represented, based on the one at her Albany Avenue house in The Annex, where she often spoke with noted thinkers and political leaders including Marshall McLuhan, Paul Martin, and the Queen of the Netherlands. On display were her typewriter, original manuscripts, rediscovered photographs demonstrating her distinctive styles, and personal mementos. The exhibit included furniture from previous homes in New York (her dining room is set up) and from Scranton, Pennsylvania.Jane at Home , Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, 2016
In 2007, the Municipal Art Society of New York partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to host an exhibit focusing on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York," which opened at the society in September that year. The exhibit aimed to educate the public on her writings and activism and used tools to encourage new generations to become active in issues involving their own neighborhoods. An accompanying exhibit publication included essays and articles by such architecture critics, artists, activists, and journalists as Malcolm Gladwell, Reverend Billy, Robert Neuwirth, Tom Wolfe, Thomas de Monchaux, and William McDonough. Many of these contributors participated in a series of panel discussions on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York".
Jane Jacobs Medal
As a tribute to Jacobs, the Rockefeller Foundation, which had awarded grants to Jacobs in the 1950s and 1960s, announced on February 9, 2007, the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, "to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City". Recipients include:
Barry Benepe, co-founder of the New York City Green Market program and a founding member of Transportation Alternatives, was awarded with the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and a $100,000 cash prize in September 2007. The inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism was awarded to Omar Freilla, the founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx; Mr. Freilla donated his $100,000 to his organization.
Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action, received the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, received the award for New Ideas and Activism. Both women received their medals and $100,000 awards at a dinner ceremony in September 2008 in New York City.
Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Richard Kahan, as founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, which created and manages 22 secondary public schools located in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York City, received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. Both received $100,000, in addition to the medal.
The 2010 recipients were Joshua David and Robert Hammond, whose work in establishing the High Line Park atop an unused elevated railroad line, led the foundation to award the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, along with $60,000 to each man. The 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership was given to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, for her longtime work as writer, park administrator, and co-founder of Central Park Conservancy. She received $80,000 as well.
The Canadian Urban Institute offers an award to honor her, the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize a person "who has had significant impact on the health of their region consistent with Jane Jacob's belief that successful cities foster a place-based, community-centered approach." The 2011 winner was Eberhard Zeidler, while his daughter, Margie Zeidler, won the 2015 award. In 2012, Anne Golden took the prize "for her long-standing leadership in public policy, her academic work and her varied leadership experience in business, not-for-profit and government sectors." William (Bill) Teron accepted the 2013 award "for his influential career in public policy and passionate advocacy for quality design and commitment to development in the Ottawa area." In 2014, Jack Diamond was recognized for his "contribution to improving the built form and advocacy for cities and the future of the Greater Toronto Area."
In April 2014, Spacing was appointed the stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize. Spacing, winners of the prize in 2010, has continued to provide the award with a new life and new ways of promoting (and finding) the winners.
Other honors
Jane Jacobs Way, West Village, New York City (Hudson Street and Eleventh Street, New York, New York)
Jane Jacobs Park, 11 Wellesley Street West, Toronto (construction began in 2016)
Jane Jacobs sculptural chairs, Victoria Memorial Square (St. John's Square), Toronto
Jane Jacobs Toronto Legacy Plaque, 69 Albany Avenue, Toronto
Jacobs' Ladder, rose bushes dedicated by Grassroots Albany (neighbors) in 1997, Toronto
Jane Jacobs Street, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jane Jacobs Street (Village of Cheshire) Black Mountain, North Carolina
a Google Doodle marked the 100th anniversary of Jacobs's birth, on May 4, 2016, and was featured on Google's homepage in 15 countries on four continents
a conference room at the offices of the New Economics Foundation in London is named in honor of Jacobs
Jacobs received the second Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.
Jacobs is the subject of the 2017 documentary film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which depicts her victories over Robert Moses and her philosophy of urban design.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of her is played by Alison Smith in a season 1 episode of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The community organizer played by Cherry Jones in Motherless Brooklyn has drawn comparisons to Jane Jacobs. The director, Edward Norton, has clarified that the composite character was partially based on Jacobs, but more so on Hortense Gabel who was active a decade earlier.
The URL of the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) is whatwouldjanejacobsdo.
Criticism
The planners and developers she fought against to preserve the West Village were among those who initially criticized her ideas. Robert Moses has generally been identified as her arch-rival during this period. Since then, Jacobs's ideas have been analysed many times, often in regard to the outcomes that their influences have produced.Glaeser, Edward L. (2010) Taller Buildings, Cheaper Homes. The New York Times, 4 May 2010 6:02 amOuroussoff, Nicolai (2006) Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York. The New York Times, Published 30 April 2006Bratishenko, Lev (2016) Jane Jacobs's Tunnel Vision Why our cities need less Jane Jacobs. Literary Review of Canada, October 2016
In places such as the West Village, the factors that she argued would maintain economic and cultural diversity have led instead to gentrification and some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Her family's conversion of an old candy shop into a home is an example of the gentrifying trend that would continue under the influence of Jacobs's ideas.
Gentrification also was caused, however, by "the completely unexpected influx of affluent residents back into the inner city". The extent to which her ideas facilitated this phenomenon was at the time unimaginable. For example, she advocated the preservation of older buildings specifically because their lack of economic value made them affordable for poor people. In this respect, she saw them as "guarantors of social diversity". That many of these older structures have increased in economic value solely due to their age was implausible in 1961. Issues of gentrification have dominated criticism of Jane Jacobs's planning ideas.
Economist Tyler Cowen has criticized her ideas for not addressing problems of scale or infrastructure, and suggests that economists disagree with some of her approaches to development. For example, although her ideas of planning were praised at times as "universal", they are now thought inapplicable when a city grows from one million to ten million (as has happened many times in developing nations). Such arguments suggest that her ideas apply only to cities with similar issues to those of New York, where Jacobs developed many of them.
Works
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. Her books include:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Death and Life of Great American Cities is her single-most influential book and, possibly, the most influential book on urban planning and cities. Published in 1961, this book was widely read by both planning professionals and the general public. The book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, which, she claimed, destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. In the book, she celebrates the diversity and complexity of old-mixed use neighborhoods while lamenting the monotony and sterility of modern planning. Jacobs advocated the abolition of zoning laws and restoration of free markets in land, which would result in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and she frequently cited New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community.
Robert Caro has cited it as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses, although Caro does not mention Jacobs by name in the book despite Jacobs's battles with Moses over his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Caro reportedly cut a chapter about Jacobs due to his book's length.
Beyond the practical lessons in city design and planning that Death and Life offers, the theoretical underpinnings of the work challenge the modern development mindset. Jane Jacobs defends her positions with common sense and anecdotes.
The Economy of Cities
The thesis of this book is that cities are the primary drivers of economic development. Her main argument is that explosive economic growth derives from urban import replacement. Import replacement is the process of producing goods locally that formerly were imported, e.g., Tokyo bicycle factories replacing Tokyo bicycle importers in the 1800s. Jacobs claims that import replacement builds up local infrastructure, skills, and production. Jacobs also claims that the increased production is subsequently exported to other cities, giving those other cities a new opportunity to engage in import replacement, thus producing a positive cycle of growth.
In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine, Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement. Critics erroneously claim that her ideas parrot the idea of import substitution advanced earlier by scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank. Import substitution was a national economic theory implying that if a nation substituted its imports with national production, the nation would become wealthier, whereas Jacob's idea is entirely about cities and could be called urban import substitution. However, even this would lead to confusion since in practice, import substitution in India and Latin America were government subsidized and mandated, whereas Jacobs's concept of import replacement is a free market process of discovery and division of labor within a city.
In the second part of the book, Jacobs argues that cities preceded agriculture. She argues that in cities trade in wild animals and grains allowed for the initial division of labor necessary for the discovery of husbandry and agriculture; these discoveries then moved out of the city due to land competition. Another interpretation of history, generally and erroneously considered to be contradictory to Jacobs's is supported by Marxist archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe and in recent times, by another historical materialist Charles Keith Maisels These writers argue that agriculture preceded cities. The apparent opposition between Childe and Jacobs theories rests in their definition of 'city', 'civilization', or 'urban'. Childe, like other materialists such as Maisels or Henri Lefebvre defines 'urban' or 'civilization' as Synoecism—as a literate, socially stratified, monolithic political community, whereas, as one can see from The Economy of Cities or from Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs defines the city purely along the lines of geographically dense trade giving way to entrepreneurial discovery and subsequent improvements in the division of labor. Without the requirements of literacy, monumental building, or the signs of specialized civil and armed forces, 'cities' can be accurately be interpreted to exists thousands of years before when Childe and Maisels place them. However, the Jacobs definition is supposition, since 'city' is defined simply as a large town or "a large human settlement" indicating permanence. The earliest remains of mankind uncovered by archaeologists do not give us more information other than that they were hunter-gatherers as there is no evidence yet of farming or settlement, implying nomadic lifestyles until further discoveries are found.
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty The Question of Separatism incorporated and expanded Jacobs's presentation of the 1979 Massey Lectures, entitled Canadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association. It was published in 1980 and reprinted in 2011 with a previously-unpublished 2005 interview with Robin Philpot on the subject in which she evokes the relative overlooking of that book among her usual readership. This was the first time Jacobs was requested to discuss it in an interview. Columnist Richard Gwyn advanced that while not openly criticizing her, English-speaking Canadians readers thought she did not understood how Canadian politics worked and that she was not being helpful in a time of distress for national unity (the 1980 referendum was just defeated by a vote of 60%). The Question of Separatism was also not mentioned in the bibliography of her 2006 obituary in The Globe and Mail.
Jacobs's book advances the view that Quebec's eventual independence is best for Montreal, Toronto, the rest of Canada, and the world; and that such independence can be achieved peacefully. As precedent, she cites Norway's secession from Sweden and how it enriched both nations. The origins of the contemporary secessionist-movement in the Quiet Revolution are examined, along with Canada's historical reliance on natural resources and foreign-owned manufacturing for its own economic development. Jacobs asserts that such an approach is colonial and hence backward, citing by example, Canada buying its skis and furniture from Norway or Norwegian-owned factories in Canada, the latter procedure being a product of Canadian tariffs designed specifically to foster such factories. The relevant public views of René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau are also critically analyzed, an example being their failure to recognize that two respective, independent currencies are essential to the success of an independent Quebec and a smaller resultant Canada, an issue that is central to her book. Jacobs stresses the need for Montreal to continue developing its leadership of Québécois culture, but that ultimately, such a need can never be fulfilled by Montreal's increasing tendencies toward regional-city status, tendencies foretelling economic, political, and cultural subservience to English-speaking Toronto. Such an outcome, Jacobs believed, would in the long run doom Quebec's independence as much as it would hinder Canada's own future. She concludes with her observation that the popular equating of political secession with political and economic failure is the result of the Enlightenment, which perceived nature as a force for "standardization, uniformity, universality, and immutability." Since then, naturalists and their readers have gradually realized that nature is a force for diversity, and that, "diversity itself is of the essence of excellence." The right kind of secession, Jacobs states, can lead to the right kind of diversity, and Quebec and Canada are capable of both, and must achieve both, to survive.
Cities and the Wealth of Nations Cities and the Wealth of Nations attempts to do for economics what The Death and Life of Great American Cities did for modern urban planning, although it has not received the same critical attention. Beginning with a concise treatment of classical economics, this book challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the greatest economists. Classical (and Neo-classical) economists consider the nation-state to be the main player in macroeconomics. Jacobs argues that it is not the nation-state, rather it is the city that is the true player in this worldwide game. She restates the idea of import replacement from her earlier book The Economy of Cities, while speculating on the further ramifications of considering the city first and the nation second, or not at all.
Systems of Survival Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work. As with her other work, she used an observational approach. This book is written as a Platonic dialogue. It appears that she (as described by characters in her book) took newspaper clippings of moral judgments related to work, collected and sorted them to find that they fit two patterns of moral behavior that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome, and "Moral Syndrome B", or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her system are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York subway police are paid bonuses here – reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
The Nature of Economies The Nature of Economies, a dialog between friends concerning the premise: "human beings exist wholly within nature as part of the natural order in every respect" (p. ix), argues that the same principles underlie both ecosystems and economies: "development and co-development through differentiation and their combinations; expansion through diverse, multiple uses of energy; and self-maintenance through self-refueling" (p. 82). Jacobs also comments on the nature of economic and biological diversity and its role in the development and growth of the two kinds of systems.
Jacobs's characters discuss the four methods by which "dynamically stable systems" may evade collapse: "bifurcations; positive-feedback loops; negative-feedback controls; and emergency adaptations" (p. 86). Their conversations also cover the "double nature of fitness for survival" (traits to avoid destroying one's own habitat as well as success in competition to feed and breed, p. 119), and unpredictability including the butterfly effect characterized in terms of multiplicity of variables as well as disproportional response to cause, and self-organization where "a system can be making itself up as it goes along" (p. 137).
The book is infused with many real-world economic and biological examples, which help keep the book "down to earth" and comprehensible, if dense. Concepts are furnished with both economic and biological examples, showing their coherence in both worlds.
One particularly interesting insight is the creation of "something from nothing" – an economy from nowhere. In the biological world, free energy is given through sunlight, but in the economic world human creativity and natural resources supply this free energy, or at least starter energy. Another interesting insight is the creation of economic diversity through the combination of different technologies, for example the typewriter and television as inputs and outputs of a computer system: this can lead to the creation of "new species of work".
Dark Age Ahead
Published in 2004 by Random House, Dark Age Ahead posits Jacobs's argument that "North American" civilization shows signs of a spiral decline comparable to the collapse of the Roman empire. Her discussion focuses on "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm", which can be summarized as the nuclear family and community; quality in education; free thought in science; representational government and responsible taxes; and corporate and professional accountability. As the title of this book suggests, Jacobs's outlook is far more pessimistic than that of her previous works. However, in the conclusion she admits: "At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of overcoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true." While Jacobs idealized U.S. democracy, Dark Age Ahead echoes the skepticism and disappointment that led to her emigration to Canada in 1968. Later, she would indicate that North American cultures, among others, were grounded in a "plantation mentality" that was culturally and ecologically unsustainable.
Orthodox urbanism
Jane Jacobs asserts in her work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, that the sources of orthodox urbanism are:
Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Ebenezer Howard
The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford
Cities in Evolution, Sir Patrick Geddes
Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer
Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein
Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Sir Raymond Unwin
The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier
Writings
Constitutional chaff; rejected suggestions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with explanatory argument Compiled by Jane Butzner, (1941) Columbia University Press; Compiled by Jane Jacobs (Née Butzner), Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House.
The Economy of Cities (1969)
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books)
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985)
The Girl on the Hat (Children's Book Illustrated by Karen Reczuch), (June 1990) Oxford University Press.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)
A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska – The Story of Hannah Breece (1995) Random House of Canada.
The Nature of Economies (2000) New York: Random House, The Modern Library.
Dark Age Ahead (2004)
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs'' (2016) New York: Random House.
See also
David Crombie
Fred Gardiner
Innovation Economics
Urban secession
Urban vitality
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Jane Jacobs's Order of Canada Citation
Jane Jacobs's Papers at John J. Burns Library, Boston College
Jane Jacobs Oral History, 1997 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Jacobs's Legacy, City Journal online, July 31, 2009
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"What Happened to Jones may refer to:\n What Happened to Jones (1897 play), a play by George Broadhurst\n What Happened to Jones (1915 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1920 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1926 film), a silent film comedy",
"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"
]
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"Who did she write for",
"became a feature writer for the Office of War Information,",
"What happened after this",
"then a reporter for Amerika,",
"What is this",
"a publication of the U.S. State Department.",
"Who did she meet",
"Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr.,",
"What is special about him",
"Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman.",
"What happened to these too",
"They married"
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| C_ca305091629643729dbf4a1ce7ed809a_0 | What year | 7 | What year did Jane Jacobs and Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr. marry? | Jane Jacobs | She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard. Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist, and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On March 25, 1952, Jacobs delivered a now-famous response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said: The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe ... CANNOTANSWER | 1944. | {{Infobox person
|image = Jane Jacobs.jpg
|imagesize =
|caption = Jacobs as chair of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference
|name = Jane Jacobs
|honorific_suffix =
|birth_name = Jane Butzner
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|education = Graduate of Scranton Central High School; two years of undergraduate studies at Columbia University
|occupation = Journalist, author, urban theorist
|employer = Amerika, Architectural Forum
|notable_works = The Death and Life of Great American Cities
|organization = Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Carlos Moreno<ref>Willsher, Kim, Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign, The Guardian, Friday, February 7, 2020</ref>
|awards = OC, OOnt, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum
|spouse = Robert Jacobs
|children = Ned Jacobs, James Jacobs, Mary Burgin Jacobs
}}
Jane Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her concepts eventually was acknowledged by highly respected professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.
Early years
Jacobs was born Jane Isabel Butzner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bess Robison Butzner, a former teacher and nurse and John Decker Butzner, a physician. They were a Protestant family in a heavily Roman Catholic town. Her brother, John Decker Butzner, Jr., served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduation from Scranton High School, she worked for a year as the unpaid assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune.
New York City
In 1935, during the Great Depression, she moved to New York City with her sister Betty. Jane Butzner took an immediate liking to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which deviated some from the city's grid structure. The sisters soon moved there from Brooklyn.
During her early years in Manhattan, Jacobs held a variety of jobs working as a stenographer and freelance writer, writing about working districts in the city. These experiences, she later said, "gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city and what business was like, what work was like." Her first job was for a trade magazine, as a secretary, then an editor. She sold articles to the Sunday Herald Tribune, Cue magazine, and Vogue.
She studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, taking courses in geology, zoology, law, political science, and economics. About the freedom to pursue study across her wide-ranging interests, she said:
For the first time I liked school and for the first time I made good marks. This was almost my undoing because after I had garnered, statistically, a certain number of credits I became the property of Barnard College at Columbia, and once I was the property of Barnard I had to take, it seemed, what Barnard wanted me to take, not what I wanted to learn. Fortunately my high-school marks had been so bad that Barnard decided I could not belong to it and I was therefore allowed to continue getting an education.
Career
After attending Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, Butzner found a job at Iron Age magazine. Her 1943 article on economic decline in Scranton was well publicized and led the Murray Corporation of America to locate a warplane factory there. Encouraged by this success, Butzner petitioned the War Production Board to support more operations in Scranton. Experiencing job discrimination at Iron Age, she also advocated for equal pay for women and for the right of workers to unionize.
Amerika
She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department in the Russian language. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson Street. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect.
The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard.
Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On 25 March 1952, Jacobs delivered her response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said:
The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe...
Architectural Forum
Jacobs left Amerika in 1952 when it announced its relocation to Washington, D.C. She then found a well-paying job at Architectural Forum, published by Henry Luce of Time Inc. She was hired as an associate editor. After early success in that position, Jacobs began to take assignments on urban planning and "urban blight". In 1954, she was assigned to cover a development in Philadelphia designed by Edmund Bacon. Although her editors expected a positive story, Jacobs criticized Bacon's project, reacting against its lack of concern for the poor African Americans who were directly affected. When Bacon showed Jacobs examples of undeveloped and developed blocks, she determined that "development" seemed to end community life on the street. When Jacobs returned to the offices of Architectural Forum, she began to question the 1950s consensus on urban planning.
In 1955, Jacobs met William Kirk, an Episcopal minister who worked in East Harlem. Kirk came to the Architectural Forum offices to describe the impact that "revitalization" had on East Harlem, and he introduced Jacobs to the neighborhood.
In 1956, while standing in for Douglas Haskell of Architectural Forum, Jacobs delivered a lecture at Harvard University. She addressed leading architects, urban planners, and intellectuals (including Lewis Mumford), speaking on the topic of East Harlem. She urged this audience to "respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Contrary to her expectations, the talk was received with enthusiasm, but it also marked her as a threat to established urban planners, real estate owners, and developers. Architectural Forum printed the speech that year, along with photographs of East Harlem.
Rockefeller Foundation and Death and Life of Great American Cities
After reading her Harvard speech, William H. Whyte invited Jacobs to write an article for Fortune magazine. The resulting piece, "Downtown Is for People", appeared in a 1958 issue of Fortune, and marked her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Her criticism of the Lincoln Center was not popular with supporters of urban renewal at Architectural Forum and Fortune. C.D. Jackson, the publisher of Fortune, was outraged and over the telephone, demanded of Whyte: "Who is this crazy dame?"
The Fortune article brought Jacobs to the attention of Chadbourne Gilpatric, then associate director of the Humanities Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation had moved aggressively into urban topics, with a recent award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of urban aesthetics that would culminate in the publication of Kevin A. Lynch's Image of the City. In May 1958, Gilpatric invited Jacobs to begin serving as a reviewer for grant proposals. Later that year, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Jacobs to produce a critical study of city planning and urban life in the U.S. (From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the foundation's Humanities Division sponsored an "Urban Design Studies" research program, of which Jacobs was the best known grantee.) Gilpatric encouraged Jacobs to "explor[e] the field of urban design to look for ideas and actions which may improve thinking on how the design of cities might better serve urban life, including cultural and humane value." Affiliating with The New School (then called The New School for Social Research), she spent three years conducting research and writing drafts. In 1961, Random House published the result: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains one of the most influential books in the history of American city planning. She coined the terms "social capital", "mixed primary uses", and "eyes on the street", which were adopted professionally in urban design, sociology, and many other fields. Jacobs painted a devastating picture of the profession of city planning, labeling it a pseudoscience. This angered the male-dominated urban planning profession. Jacobs was criticized with ad hominem attacks, being called a "militant dame" and a "housewife": an amateur who had no right to interfere with an established discipline. One planner dismissed Jacobs's book as "bitter coffee-house rambling". Robert Moses, sent a copy, called it "intemperate and also libelous... Sell this junk to someone else."
Later, her book was criticized from the left for leaving out race and openly endorsing gentrification, which Jacobs referred to as "unslumming".
In 1962, she resigned her position at Architectural Forum to become a full-time author and concentrate on raising her children. In other political activities she became an opponent of the Vietnam War, marched on the Pentagon in October 1967, and criticized the construction of the World Trade Center as a disaster for Manhattan's waterfront.
Struggle for Greenwich Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, her home neighborhood of Greenwich Village was being transformed by city and state efforts to build housing (see, for example, Jacobs's 1961 fight to build the West Village Houses in lieu of large apartment houses), private developers, the expansion of New York University, and by the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. Moses' plan, funded as "slum clearance" by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, also called for several blocks to be razed and replaced with upscale high-rises. The plan forced 132 families out of their homes and displaced 1,000 small businesses—the result was Washington Square Village.
As part of his efforts to revitalize the area, Moses had proposed the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park in 1935. In the face of community opposition, Moses had shelved the project, but revived the idea in the 1950s. Moses argued that the Fifth Avenue extension would improve the flow of traffic through the neighborhood and provide access to the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), which would connect the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge with the Holland Tunnel.
In response, local activist Shirley Hayes created the "Committee to Save Washington Square Park", a coalition of dozens of local neighborhood groups that opposed the roadway extension. Raymond S. Rubinow eventually took over the organization, changing its name to the "Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic". Jacobs had joined the committee under Hayes, but she took a more prominent role under Rubinow, reaching out to media outlets such as The Village Voice, which provided more sympathetic coverage than The New York Times. The committee gained the support of Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte, as well as Carmine De Sapio, a Greenwich Village resident and influential Democratic leader. De Sapio's involvement proved decisive. On 25 June 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park to traffic, and the joint committee held a ribbon tying (not cutting) ceremony.
Plans for LOMEX expressway continued despite growing community opposition in areas such as Little Italy. In the 1960s, Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The New York Times was sympathetic to Moses, while The Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway. Jacobs continued to fight the expressway when plans resurfaced in 1962, 1965, and 1968, and she became a local hero for her opposition to the project. She was arrested by a plainclothes police officer on April 10, 1968, at a public hearing during which the crowd had charged the stage and destroyed the stenographer's notes. She was accused of inciting a riot, criminal mischief, and obstructing public administration. After months of trials conducted in New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.New York: A Documentary Film devoted an hour of the eight-part, seventeen-and-a-half-hour series to the battle between Moses and Jacobs. Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, gives only passing mention to this event, however, despite Jacobs's strong influence on Caro. In 2017, Caro told an interviewer about the difficulty in cutting more than 300,000 words from his initial manuscript: "The section that I wrote on Jane Jacobs disappeared. To this day, when someone says: 'There's hardly a mention of Jane Jacobs,' I think, 'But I wrote a lot about her.' Every time I'm asked about that, I have this sick feeling."
Life in Toronto
Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in part because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried about the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did not want to continue fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and offered employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that included so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".
She quickly became a leading figure in her new city and helped stop the proposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.
In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on Quebec's sovereignty in her book, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Separation. Jacobs was an advocate of a Province of Toronto to separate the city proper from Ontario. Jacobs said, "Cities, to thrive in the twenty-first century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas."
She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology section of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be given to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".
Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political support for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of Metro Toronto, fearing that individual neighborhoods would have less power with the new structure. She backed an ecologist, Tooker Gomberg, who lost Toronto's 2000 mayoralty race, and she was an adviser to David Miller's successful mayoral campaign in 2003, at a time when he was seen as a longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA). Following the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did upgrade the ferry service and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.
Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a plan of Royal St. George's College (an established school very close to the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district) to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the redesign be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the case during the hearing.
She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.
Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner (d. 2009); a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's statement noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".
Legacy
Jacobs is credited, along with Lewis Mumford, with inspiring the New Urbanist movement. She has been characterized as a major influence on decentralist and radical centrist thought. She discussed her legacy in an interview with Reason magazine.
While Jacobs saw her greatest legacy to be her contributions to economic theory, it is in the realm of urban planning that she has had her most extensive effect. Her observations about the ways in which cities function revolutionized the urban planning profession and discredited many accepted planning models that had dominated mid-century planning. The influential Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser, known for his work on urban studies, acknowledged that Jane Jacobs (1960s) had been prescient in attacking Moses for "replacing well-functioning neighborhoods with Le Corbusier-inspired towers". Glaeser agreed that these housing projects proved to be Moses' greatest failures, "Moses spent millions and evicted tens of thousands to create buildings that became centers of crime, poverty, and despair."
She also was famous for introducing concepts such as the "Ballet of the Sidewalk" and "Eyes on the Street", a reference to what would later be known as natural surveillance. The concept had a huge influence on planners and architects such as Oscar Newman, who prepared the idea through a series of studies that would culminate in his defensible space theory. The work of Jacobs and Newman would go on to affect American housing policy through the HOPE VI Program, an effort by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish the high-rise public housing projects so reviled by Jacobs and to replace them with low-rise, mixed-income housing.
Throughout her life, Jacobs fought to alter the way in which city development was approached. By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects were instrumental in discrediting these once universally supported planning practices.
Jacobs is remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities, and for leaving "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place".
Despite the fact that Jacobs mainly focused on New York City, her arguments have been identified as universal. For instance, her opposition against the demolition of urban neighborhoods for projects of urban renewal had "special resonance" in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne in the 1960s, resident associations fought against large-scale high-rise housing projects of the Housing Commission of Victoria, which they argued had little regard for the impact on local communities.
Jacobs fought an uphill battle against dominant trends of planning. Despite the United States remaining very much a suburban nation, the work of Jacobs has contributed to city living being rehabilitated and revitalized. Because of her ideas, today, many distressed urban neighborhoods are more likely to be gentrified than cleared for redevelopment.
Samuel R. Delany's book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue relies heavily on The Death and Life of Great American Cities in its analysis of the nature of social relations within the realm of urban studies.
Jane Jacobs Days
After the death of Jacobs in April 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a Jane Jacobs Day, held on June 28, 2006. The City of Toronto proclaimed her birthday the following year, May 4, 2007, as Jane Jacobs Day.
Jane's Walks
In connection with Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto, two dozen free neighborhood walks in the city were offered that weekend (5 May 2007) as an active memorial to Jacobs, and they were dubbed Jane's Walks. Later, a Jane's Walk event was held in New York on September 29–30, 2007. In 2008, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents. The interpretive walks typically apply ideas Jacobs identified or espoused to local areas, which are explored on foot and sometimes by bicycle. The walks normally take place in early May, on or close to her May 4 birth anniversary. Walks are organized and led by local volunteers, coordinated by a headquarters office in Toronto. There are more than 200 walks offered in Toronto, alone, in 2016, taking place on May 6, 7, and 8.
Exhibitions
In 2016, to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of Jane Jacobs, a Toronto gallery staged "Jane at Home", an exhibition running from April 29-May 8. Curated by Jane's son, Jim Jacobs, it offered glimpses of her home life, where she also worked. Her Toronto living room was represented, based on the one at her Albany Avenue house in The Annex, where she often spoke with noted thinkers and political leaders including Marshall McLuhan, Paul Martin, and the Queen of the Netherlands. On display were her typewriter, original manuscripts, rediscovered photographs demonstrating her distinctive styles, and personal mementos. The exhibit included furniture from previous homes in New York (her dining room is set up) and from Scranton, Pennsylvania.Jane at Home , Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, 2016
In 2007, the Municipal Art Society of New York partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to host an exhibit focusing on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York," which opened at the society in September that year. The exhibit aimed to educate the public on her writings and activism and used tools to encourage new generations to become active in issues involving their own neighborhoods. An accompanying exhibit publication included essays and articles by such architecture critics, artists, activists, and journalists as Malcolm Gladwell, Reverend Billy, Robert Neuwirth, Tom Wolfe, Thomas de Monchaux, and William McDonough. Many of these contributors participated in a series of panel discussions on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York".
Jane Jacobs Medal
As a tribute to Jacobs, the Rockefeller Foundation, which had awarded grants to Jacobs in the 1950s and 1960s, announced on February 9, 2007, the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, "to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City". Recipients include:
Barry Benepe, co-founder of the New York City Green Market program and a founding member of Transportation Alternatives, was awarded with the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and a $100,000 cash prize in September 2007. The inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism was awarded to Omar Freilla, the founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx; Mr. Freilla donated his $100,000 to his organization.
Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action, received the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, received the award for New Ideas and Activism. Both women received their medals and $100,000 awards at a dinner ceremony in September 2008 in New York City.
Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Richard Kahan, as founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, which created and manages 22 secondary public schools located in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York City, received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. Both received $100,000, in addition to the medal.
The 2010 recipients were Joshua David and Robert Hammond, whose work in establishing the High Line Park atop an unused elevated railroad line, led the foundation to award the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, along with $60,000 to each man. The 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership was given to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, for her longtime work as writer, park administrator, and co-founder of Central Park Conservancy. She received $80,000 as well.
The Canadian Urban Institute offers an award to honor her, the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize a person "who has had significant impact on the health of their region consistent with Jane Jacob's belief that successful cities foster a place-based, community-centered approach." The 2011 winner was Eberhard Zeidler, while his daughter, Margie Zeidler, won the 2015 award. In 2012, Anne Golden took the prize "for her long-standing leadership in public policy, her academic work and her varied leadership experience in business, not-for-profit and government sectors." William (Bill) Teron accepted the 2013 award "for his influential career in public policy and passionate advocacy for quality design and commitment to development in the Ottawa area." In 2014, Jack Diamond was recognized for his "contribution to improving the built form and advocacy for cities and the future of the Greater Toronto Area."
In April 2014, Spacing was appointed the stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize. Spacing, winners of the prize in 2010, has continued to provide the award with a new life and new ways of promoting (and finding) the winners.
Other honors
Jane Jacobs Way, West Village, New York City (Hudson Street and Eleventh Street, New York, New York)
Jane Jacobs Park, 11 Wellesley Street West, Toronto (construction began in 2016)
Jane Jacobs sculptural chairs, Victoria Memorial Square (St. John's Square), Toronto
Jane Jacobs Toronto Legacy Plaque, 69 Albany Avenue, Toronto
Jacobs' Ladder, rose bushes dedicated by Grassroots Albany (neighbors) in 1997, Toronto
Jane Jacobs Street, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jane Jacobs Street (Village of Cheshire) Black Mountain, North Carolina
a Google Doodle marked the 100th anniversary of Jacobs's birth, on May 4, 2016, and was featured on Google's homepage in 15 countries on four continents
a conference room at the offices of the New Economics Foundation in London is named in honor of Jacobs
Jacobs received the second Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.
Jacobs is the subject of the 2017 documentary film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which depicts her victories over Robert Moses and her philosophy of urban design.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of her is played by Alison Smith in a season 1 episode of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The community organizer played by Cherry Jones in Motherless Brooklyn has drawn comparisons to Jane Jacobs. The director, Edward Norton, has clarified that the composite character was partially based on Jacobs, but more so on Hortense Gabel who was active a decade earlier.
The URL of the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) is whatwouldjanejacobsdo.
Criticism
The planners and developers she fought against to preserve the West Village were among those who initially criticized her ideas. Robert Moses has generally been identified as her arch-rival during this period. Since then, Jacobs's ideas have been analysed many times, often in regard to the outcomes that their influences have produced.Glaeser, Edward L. (2010) Taller Buildings, Cheaper Homes. The New York Times, 4 May 2010 6:02 amOuroussoff, Nicolai (2006) Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York. The New York Times, Published 30 April 2006Bratishenko, Lev (2016) Jane Jacobs's Tunnel Vision Why our cities need less Jane Jacobs. Literary Review of Canada, October 2016
In places such as the West Village, the factors that she argued would maintain economic and cultural diversity have led instead to gentrification and some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Her family's conversion of an old candy shop into a home is an example of the gentrifying trend that would continue under the influence of Jacobs's ideas.
Gentrification also was caused, however, by "the completely unexpected influx of affluent residents back into the inner city". The extent to which her ideas facilitated this phenomenon was at the time unimaginable. For example, she advocated the preservation of older buildings specifically because their lack of economic value made them affordable for poor people. In this respect, she saw them as "guarantors of social diversity". That many of these older structures have increased in economic value solely due to their age was implausible in 1961. Issues of gentrification have dominated criticism of Jane Jacobs's planning ideas.
Economist Tyler Cowen has criticized her ideas for not addressing problems of scale or infrastructure, and suggests that economists disagree with some of her approaches to development. For example, although her ideas of planning were praised at times as "universal", they are now thought inapplicable when a city grows from one million to ten million (as has happened many times in developing nations). Such arguments suggest that her ideas apply only to cities with similar issues to those of New York, where Jacobs developed many of them.
Works
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. Her books include:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Death and Life of Great American Cities is her single-most influential book and, possibly, the most influential book on urban planning and cities. Published in 1961, this book was widely read by both planning professionals and the general public. The book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, which, she claimed, destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. In the book, she celebrates the diversity and complexity of old-mixed use neighborhoods while lamenting the monotony and sterility of modern planning. Jacobs advocated the abolition of zoning laws and restoration of free markets in land, which would result in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and she frequently cited New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community.
Robert Caro has cited it as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses, although Caro does not mention Jacobs by name in the book despite Jacobs's battles with Moses over his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Caro reportedly cut a chapter about Jacobs due to his book's length.
Beyond the practical lessons in city design and planning that Death and Life offers, the theoretical underpinnings of the work challenge the modern development mindset. Jane Jacobs defends her positions with common sense and anecdotes.
The Economy of Cities
The thesis of this book is that cities are the primary drivers of economic development. Her main argument is that explosive economic growth derives from urban import replacement. Import replacement is the process of producing goods locally that formerly were imported, e.g., Tokyo bicycle factories replacing Tokyo bicycle importers in the 1800s. Jacobs claims that import replacement builds up local infrastructure, skills, and production. Jacobs also claims that the increased production is subsequently exported to other cities, giving those other cities a new opportunity to engage in import replacement, thus producing a positive cycle of growth.
In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine, Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement. Critics erroneously claim that her ideas parrot the idea of import substitution advanced earlier by scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank. Import substitution was a national economic theory implying that if a nation substituted its imports with national production, the nation would become wealthier, whereas Jacob's idea is entirely about cities and could be called urban import substitution. However, even this would lead to confusion since in practice, import substitution in India and Latin America were government subsidized and mandated, whereas Jacobs's concept of import replacement is a free market process of discovery and division of labor within a city.
In the second part of the book, Jacobs argues that cities preceded agriculture. She argues that in cities trade in wild animals and grains allowed for the initial division of labor necessary for the discovery of husbandry and agriculture; these discoveries then moved out of the city due to land competition. Another interpretation of history, generally and erroneously considered to be contradictory to Jacobs's is supported by Marxist archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe and in recent times, by another historical materialist Charles Keith Maisels These writers argue that agriculture preceded cities. The apparent opposition between Childe and Jacobs theories rests in their definition of 'city', 'civilization', or 'urban'. Childe, like other materialists such as Maisels or Henri Lefebvre defines 'urban' or 'civilization' as Synoecism—as a literate, socially stratified, monolithic political community, whereas, as one can see from The Economy of Cities or from Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs defines the city purely along the lines of geographically dense trade giving way to entrepreneurial discovery and subsequent improvements in the division of labor. Without the requirements of literacy, monumental building, or the signs of specialized civil and armed forces, 'cities' can be accurately be interpreted to exists thousands of years before when Childe and Maisels place them. However, the Jacobs definition is supposition, since 'city' is defined simply as a large town or "a large human settlement" indicating permanence. The earliest remains of mankind uncovered by archaeologists do not give us more information other than that they were hunter-gatherers as there is no evidence yet of farming or settlement, implying nomadic lifestyles until further discoveries are found.
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty The Question of Separatism incorporated and expanded Jacobs's presentation of the 1979 Massey Lectures, entitled Canadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association. It was published in 1980 and reprinted in 2011 with a previously-unpublished 2005 interview with Robin Philpot on the subject in which she evokes the relative overlooking of that book among her usual readership. This was the first time Jacobs was requested to discuss it in an interview. Columnist Richard Gwyn advanced that while not openly criticizing her, English-speaking Canadians readers thought she did not understood how Canadian politics worked and that she was not being helpful in a time of distress for national unity (the 1980 referendum was just defeated by a vote of 60%). The Question of Separatism was also not mentioned in the bibliography of her 2006 obituary in The Globe and Mail.
Jacobs's book advances the view that Quebec's eventual independence is best for Montreal, Toronto, the rest of Canada, and the world; and that such independence can be achieved peacefully. As precedent, she cites Norway's secession from Sweden and how it enriched both nations. The origins of the contemporary secessionist-movement in the Quiet Revolution are examined, along with Canada's historical reliance on natural resources and foreign-owned manufacturing for its own economic development. Jacobs asserts that such an approach is colonial and hence backward, citing by example, Canada buying its skis and furniture from Norway or Norwegian-owned factories in Canada, the latter procedure being a product of Canadian tariffs designed specifically to foster such factories. The relevant public views of René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau are also critically analyzed, an example being their failure to recognize that two respective, independent currencies are essential to the success of an independent Quebec and a smaller resultant Canada, an issue that is central to her book. Jacobs stresses the need for Montreal to continue developing its leadership of Québécois culture, but that ultimately, such a need can never be fulfilled by Montreal's increasing tendencies toward regional-city status, tendencies foretelling economic, political, and cultural subservience to English-speaking Toronto. Such an outcome, Jacobs believed, would in the long run doom Quebec's independence as much as it would hinder Canada's own future. She concludes with her observation that the popular equating of political secession with political and economic failure is the result of the Enlightenment, which perceived nature as a force for "standardization, uniformity, universality, and immutability." Since then, naturalists and their readers have gradually realized that nature is a force for diversity, and that, "diversity itself is of the essence of excellence." The right kind of secession, Jacobs states, can lead to the right kind of diversity, and Quebec and Canada are capable of both, and must achieve both, to survive.
Cities and the Wealth of Nations Cities and the Wealth of Nations attempts to do for economics what The Death and Life of Great American Cities did for modern urban planning, although it has not received the same critical attention. Beginning with a concise treatment of classical economics, this book challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the greatest economists. Classical (and Neo-classical) economists consider the nation-state to be the main player in macroeconomics. Jacobs argues that it is not the nation-state, rather it is the city that is the true player in this worldwide game. She restates the idea of import replacement from her earlier book The Economy of Cities, while speculating on the further ramifications of considering the city first and the nation second, or not at all.
Systems of Survival Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work. As with her other work, she used an observational approach. This book is written as a Platonic dialogue. It appears that she (as described by characters in her book) took newspaper clippings of moral judgments related to work, collected and sorted them to find that they fit two patterns of moral behavior that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome, and "Moral Syndrome B", or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her system are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York subway police are paid bonuses here – reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
The Nature of Economies The Nature of Economies, a dialog between friends concerning the premise: "human beings exist wholly within nature as part of the natural order in every respect" (p. ix), argues that the same principles underlie both ecosystems and economies: "development and co-development through differentiation and their combinations; expansion through diverse, multiple uses of energy; and self-maintenance through self-refueling" (p. 82). Jacobs also comments on the nature of economic and biological diversity and its role in the development and growth of the two kinds of systems.
Jacobs's characters discuss the four methods by which "dynamically stable systems" may evade collapse: "bifurcations; positive-feedback loops; negative-feedback controls; and emergency adaptations" (p. 86). Their conversations also cover the "double nature of fitness for survival" (traits to avoid destroying one's own habitat as well as success in competition to feed and breed, p. 119), and unpredictability including the butterfly effect characterized in terms of multiplicity of variables as well as disproportional response to cause, and self-organization where "a system can be making itself up as it goes along" (p. 137).
The book is infused with many real-world economic and biological examples, which help keep the book "down to earth" and comprehensible, if dense. Concepts are furnished with both economic and biological examples, showing their coherence in both worlds.
One particularly interesting insight is the creation of "something from nothing" – an economy from nowhere. In the biological world, free energy is given through sunlight, but in the economic world human creativity and natural resources supply this free energy, or at least starter energy. Another interesting insight is the creation of economic diversity through the combination of different technologies, for example the typewriter and television as inputs and outputs of a computer system: this can lead to the creation of "new species of work".
Dark Age Ahead
Published in 2004 by Random House, Dark Age Ahead posits Jacobs's argument that "North American" civilization shows signs of a spiral decline comparable to the collapse of the Roman empire. Her discussion focuses on "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm", which can be summarized as the nuclear family and community; quality in education; free thought in science; representational government and responsible taxes; and corporate and professional accountability. As the title of this book suggests, Jacobs's outlook is far more pessimistic than that of her previous works. However, in the conclusion she admits: "At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of overcoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true." While Jacobs idealized U.S. democracy, Dark Age Ahead echoes the skepticism and disappointment that led to her emigration to Canada in 1968. Later, she would indicate that North American cultures, among others, were grounded in a "plantation mentality" that was culturally and ecologically unsustainable.
Orthodox urbanism
Jane Jacobs asserts in her work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, that the sources of orthodox urbanism are:
Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Ebenezer Howard
The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford
Cities in Evolution, Sir Patrick Geddes
Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer
Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein
Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Sir Raymond Unwin
The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier
Writings
Constitutional chaff; rejected suggestions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with explanatory argument Compiled by Jane Butzner, (1941) Columbia University Press; Compiled by Jane Jacobs (Née Butzner), Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House.
The Economy of Cities (1969)
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books)
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985)
The Girl on the Hat (Children's Book Illustrated by Karen Reczuch), (June 1990) Oxford University Press.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)
A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska – The Story of Hannah Breece (1995) Random House of Canada.
The Nature of Economies (2000) New York: Random House, The Modern Library.
Dark Age Ahead (2004)
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs'' (2016) New York: Random House.
See also
David Crombie
Fred Gardiner
Innovation Economics
Urban secession
Urban vitality
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Jane Jacobs's Order of Canada Citation
Jane Jacobs's Papers at John J. Burns Library, Boston College
Jane Jacobs Oral History, 1997 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Jacobs's Legacy, City Journal online, July 31, 2009
1916 births
2006 deaths
American architecture writers
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Tax resisters
Women urban planners
Anti-road protest
Canadian architecture writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers
Canadian social commentators
Interstate 78
Members of the Order of Ontario
Moral philosophers
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Radical centrist writers
Urban theorists
Environmental economists
Writers from Toronto
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
American emigrants to Canada
Women's page journalists | true | [
"What a Year was an Australian television documentary series, hosted by former ACA host Mike Munro and supermodel Megan Gale in 2006 and Bert Newton and Julia Zemiro in 2007. What a Year looked at the news, events, sporting achievements, entertainment and fads of a selected year in each episode. The hosts spoke to people who witnessed and experienced the particular events first-hand.\n\nHistory\nMike Munro and Megan Gale presented the 2006 series. They successfully hosted nine episodes and it attracted a lot of viewers. In 2007, Gale and Munro's show contracts expired, so Newton and Zemiro replaced them as presenters. However, it was cancelled by the Nine Network after coming last place in the nightly ratings on 6 August 2007 due to the big win for Channel Seven..\n\nIn a November issue of a TV Week magazine in 2007, Munro claimed he and Gale left the show because the programmers wanted to lighten up the show and make it more fun. Munro explained that he disliked wearing fashionable clothes for that era. But Newton loved wearing them, so he was hired instead of Munro.\n\nThe episodes that remained unaired after the show's axing were broadcast by Channel Nine over the summer non-ratings period, beginning the unaired episodes on 27 December 2007. The new episodes replaced plans to screen repeats of Australian travel series, Things To Try Before You Die.\n\nDuring March 2011, the Nine Network replayed the 1980 and 1999 themed episodes, on a Wednesday night at 7:30pm on their HD digital multi channel GEM after being abruptly cancelled and replaced with filler shows.\n\nAfter \"What A Year\"\n Gale continued her modelling career and has also done some acting.\n Munro hosted Missing Persons Unit from 2006 to 2008 and is now working on Sunday Night for Channel Seven.\n Newton hosted 20 to 1 from 2006 to 2011.\n Zemiro went to host RocKwiz on SBS.\n\nList of episodes\n\n2006\n What a Year – 1975 – 2 October 2006\n What a Year – 1983 – 9 October 2006\n What a Year – 1997 – 16 October 2006\n What a Year – 1969 – 23 October 2006\n What a Year – 1986 – 30 October 2006\n What a Year – 2001 – 6 November 2006\n What a Year – 1991 – 13 November 2006\n What a Year – 1977 – 20 November 2006\n What a Year – 1989 – 27 November 2006\n\n2007\n What a Year – 1980 – 30 July 2007\n What a Year – 1999 – 6 August 2007\n What a Year – 1976\n What a Year – 1994\n What a Year – 2002\n What a Year – 1988\n\nNine Network original programming\n2006 Australian television series debuts\n2007 Australian television series endings",
"What's Another Year is the second studio album by Australian-born Irish singer and composer Johnny Logan. The album includes his 1980 Eurovision Song Contest winning song \"What's Another Year\".\n\nThe album was released internationally under the titles What's Another Year and The Johnny Logan Album, which slightly different track listings.\n\nTrack listing\nLP/Cassette\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nJohnny Logan (singer) albums\n1980 albums"
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"a publication of the U.S. State Department.",
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| C_ca305091629643729dbf4a1ce7ed809a_0 | What happened to her after this | 8 | What happened to Jane Jacobs after marrying Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr.? | Jane Jacobs | She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard. Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist, and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On March 25, 1952, Jacobs delivered a now-famous response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said: The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe ... CANNOTANSWER | Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. | {{Infobox person
|image = Jane Jacobs.jpg
|imagesize =
|caption = Jacobs as chair of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference
|name = Jane Jacobs
|honorific_suffix =
|birth_name = Jane Butzner
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|education = Graduate of Scranton Central High School; two years of undergraduate studies at Columbia University
|occupation = Journalist, author, urban theorist
|employer = Amerika, Architectural Forum
|notable_works = The Death and Life of Great American Cities
|organization = Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Carlos Moreno<ref>Willsher, Kim, Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign, The Guardian, Friday, February 7, 2020</ref>
|awards = OC, OOnt, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum
|spouse = Robert Jacobs
|children = Ned Jacobs, James Jacobs, Mary Burgin Jacobs
}}
Jane Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her concepts eventually was acknowledged by highly respected professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.
Early years
Jacobs was born Jane Isabel Butzner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bess Robison Butzner, a former teacher and nurse and John Decker Butzner, a physician. They were a Protestant family in a heavily Roman Catholic town. Her brother, John Decker Butzner, Jr., served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduation from Scranton High School, she worked for a year as the unpaid assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune.
New York City
In 1935, during the Great Depression, she moved to New York City with her sister Betty. Jane Butzner took an immediate liking to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which deviated some from the city's grid structure. The sisters soon moved there from Brooklyn.
During her early years in Manhattan, Jacobs held a variety of jobs working as a stenographer and freelance writer, writing about working districts in the city. These experiences, she later said, "gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city and what business was like, what work was like." Her first job was for a trade magazine, as a secretary, then an editor. She sold articles to the Sunday Herald Tribune, Cue magazine, and Vogue.
She studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, taking courses in geology, zoology, law, political science, and economics. About the freedom to pursue study across her wide-ranging interests, she said:
For the first time I liked school and for the first time I made good marks. This was almost my undoing because after I had garnered, statistically, a certain number of credits I became the property of Barnard College at Columbia, and once I was the property of Barnard I had to take, it seemed, what Barnard wanted me to take, not what I wanted to learn. Fortunately my high-school marks had been so bad that Barnard decided I could not belong to it and I was therefore allowed to continue getting an education.
Career
After attending Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, Butzner found a job at Iron Age magazine. Her 1943 article on economic decline in Scranton was well publicized and led the Murray Corporation of America to locate a warplane factory there. Encouraged by this success, Butzner petitioned the War Production Board to support more operations in Scranton. Experiencing job discrimination at Iron Age, she also advocated for equal pay for women and for the right of workers to unionize.
Amerika
She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department in the Russian language. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson Street. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect.
The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard.
Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On 25 March 1952, Jacobs delivered her response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said:
The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe...
Architectural Forum
Jacobs left Amerika in 1952 when it announced its relocation to Washington, D.C. She then found a well-paying job at Architectural Forum, published by Henry Luce of Time Inc. She was hired as an associate editor. After early success in that position, Jacobs began to take assignments on urban planning and "urban blight". In 1954, she was assigned to cover a development in Philadelphia designed by Edmund Bacon. Although her editors expected a positive story, Jacobs criticized Bacon's project, reacting against its lack of concern for the poor African Americans who were directly affected. When Bacon showed Jacobs examples of undeveloped and developed blocks, she determined that "development" seemed to end community life on the street. When Jacobs returned to the offices of Architectural Forum, she began to question the 1950s consensus on urban planning.
In 1955, Jacobs met William Kirk, an Episcopal minister who worked in East Harlem. Kirk came to the Architectural Forum offices to describe the impact that "revitalization" had on East Harlem, and he introduced Jacobs to the neighborhood.
In 1956, while standing in for Douglas Haskell of Architectural Forum, Jacobs delivered a lecture at Harvard University. She addressed leading architects, urban planners, and intellectuals (including Lewis Mumford), speaking on the topic of East Harlem. She urged this audience to "respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Contrary to her expectations, the talk was received with enthusiasm, but it also marked her as a threat to established urban planners, real estate owners, and developers. Architectural Forum printed the speech that year, along with photographs of East Harlem.
Rockefeller Foundation and Death and Life of Great American Cities
After reading her Harvard speech, William H. Whyte invited Jacobs to write an article for Fortune magazine. The resulting piece, "Downtown Is for People", appeared in a 1958 issue of Fortune, and marked her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Her criticism of the Lincoln Center was not popular with supporters of urban renewal at Architectural Forum and Fortune. C.D. Jackson, the publisher of Fortune, was outraged and over the telephone, demanded of Whyte: "Who is this crazy dame?"
The Fortune article brought Jacobs to the attention of Chadbourne Gilpatric, then associate director of the Humanities Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation had moved aggressively into urban topics, with a recent award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of urban aesthetics that would culminate in the publication of Kevin A. Lynch's Image of the City. In May 1958, Gilpatric invited Jacobs to begin serving as a reviewer for grant proposals. Later that year, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Jacobs to produce a critical study of city planning and urban life in the U.S. (From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the foundation's Humanities Division sponsored an "Urban Design Studies" research program, of which Jacobs was the best known grantee.) Gilpatric encouraged Jacobs to "explor[e] the field of urban design to look for ideas and actions which may improve thinking on how the design of cities might better serve urban life, including cultural and humane value." Affiliating with The New School (then called The New School for Social Research), she spent three years conducting research and writing drafts. In 1961, Random House published the result: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains one of the most influential books in the history of American city planning. She coined the terms "social capital", "mixed primary uses", and "eyes on the street", which were adopted professionally in urban design, sociology, and many other fields. Jacobs painted a devastating picture of the profession of city planning, labeling it a pseudoscience. This angered the male-dominated urban planning profession. Jacobs was criticized with ad hominem attacks, being called a "militant dame" and a "housewife": an amateur who had no right to interfere with an established discipline. One planner dismissed Jacobs's book as "bitter coffee-house rambling". Robert Moses, sent a copy, called it "intemperate and also libelous... Sell this junk to someone else."
Later, her book was criticized from the left for leaving out race and openly endorsing gentrification, which Jacobs referred to as "unslumming".
In 1962, she resigned her position at Architectural Forum to become a full-time author and concentrate on raising her children. In other political activities she became an opponent of the Vietnam War, marched on the Pentagon in October 1967, and criticized the construction of the World Trade Center as a disaster for Manhattan's waterfront.
Struggle for Greenwich Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, her home neighborhood of Greenwich Village was being transformed by city and state efforts to build housing (see, for example, Jacobs's 1961 fight to build the West Village Houses in lieu of large apartment houses), private developers, the expansion of New York University, and by the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. Moses' plan, funded as "slum clearance" by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, also called for several blocks to be razed and replaced with upscale high-rises. The plan forced 132 families out of their homes and displaced 1,000 small businesses—the result was Washington Square Village.
As part of his efforts to revitalize the area, Moses had proposed the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park in 1935. In the face of community opposition, Moses had shelved the project, but revived the idea in the 1950s. Moses argued that the Fifth Avenue extension would improve the flow of traffic through the neighborhood and provide access to the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), which would connect the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge with the Holland Tunnel.
In response, local activist Shirley Hayes created the "Committee to Save Washington Square Park", a coalition of dozens of local neighborhood groups that opposed the roadway extension. Raymond S. Rubinow eventually took over the organization, changing its name to the "Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic". Jacobs had joined the committee under Hayes, but she took a more prominent role under Rubinow, reaching out to media outlets such as The Village Voice, which provided more sympathetic coverage than The New York Times. The committee gained the support of Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte, as well as Carmine De Sapio, a Greenwich Village resident and influential Democratic leader. De Sapio's involvement proved decisive. On 25 June 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park to traffic, and the joint committee held a ribbon tying (not cutting) ceremony.
Plans for LOMEX expressway continued despite growing community opposition in areas such as Little Italy. In the 1960s, Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The New York Times was sympathetic to Moses, while The Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway. Jacobs continued to fight the expressway when plans resurfaced in 1962, 1965, and 1968, and she became a local hero for her opposition to the project. She was arrested by a plainclothes police officer on April 10, 1968, at a public hearing during which the crowd had charged the stage and destroyed the stenographer's notes. She was accused of inciting a riot, criminal mischief, and obstructing public administration. After months of trials conducted in New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.New York: A Documentary Film devoted an hour of the eight-part, seventeen-and-a-half-hour series to the battle between Moses and Jacobs. Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, gives only passing mention to this event, however, despite Jacobs's strong influence on Caro. In 2017, Caro told an interviewer about the difficulty in cutting more than 300,000 words from his initial manuscript: "The section that I wrote on Jane Jacobs disappeared. To this day, when someone says: 'There's hardly a mention of Jane Jacobs,' I think, 'But I wrote a lot about her.' Every time I'm asked about that, I have this sick feeling."
Life in Toronto
Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in part because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried about the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did not want to continue fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and offered employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that included so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".
She quickly became a leading figure in her new city and helped stop the proposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.
In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on Quebec's sovereignty in her book, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Separation. Jacobs was an advocate of a Province of Toronto to separate the city proper from Ontario. Jacobs said, "Cities, to thrive in the twenty-first century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas."
She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology section of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be given to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".
Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political support for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of Metro Toronto, fearing that individual neighborhoods would have less power with the new structure. She backed an ecologist, Tooker Gomberg, who lost Toronto's 2000 mayoralty race, and she was an adviser to David Miller's successful mayoral campaign in 2003, at a time when he was seen as a longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA). Following the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did upgrade the ferry service and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.
Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a plan of Royal St. George's College (an established school very close to the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district) to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the redesign be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the case during the hearing.
She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.
Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner (d. 2009); a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's statement noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".
Legacy
Jacobs is credited, along with Lewis Mumford, with inspiring the New Urbanist movement. She has been characterized as a major influence on decentralist and radical centrist thought. She discussed her legacy in an interview with Reason magazine.
While Jacobs saw her greatest legacy to be her contributions to economic theory, it is in the realm of urban planning that she has had her most extensive effect. Her observations about the ways in which cities function revolutionized the urban planning profession and discredited many accepted planning models that had dominated mid-century planning. The influential Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser, known for his work on urban studies, acknowledged that Jane Jacobs (1960s) had been prescient in attacking Moses for "replacing well-functioning neighborhoods with Le Corbusier-inspired towers". Glaeser agreed that these housing projects proved to be Moses' greatest failures, "Moses spent millions and evicted tens of thousands to create buildings that became centers of crime, poverty, and despair."
She also was famous for introducing concepts such as the "Ballet of the Sidewalk" and "Eyes on the Street", a reference to what would later be known as natural surveillance. The concept had a huge influence on planners and architects such as Oscar Newman, who prepared the idea through a series of studies that would culminate in his defensible space theory. The work of Jacobs and Newman would go on to affect American housing policy through the HOPE VI Program, an effort by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish the high-rise public housing projects so reviled by Jacobs and to replace them with low-rise, mixed-income housing.
Throughout her life, Jacobs fought to alter the way in which city development was approached. By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects were instrumental in discrediting these once universally supported planning practices.
Jacobs is remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities, and for leaving "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place".
Despite the fact that Jacobs mainly focused on New York City, her arguments have been identified as universal. For instance, her opposition against the demolition of urban neighborhoods for projects of urban renewal had "special resonance" in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne in the 1960s, resident associations fought against large-scale high-rise housing projects of the Housing Commission of Victoria, which they argued had little regard for the impact on local communities.
Jacobs fought an uphill battle against dominant trends of planning. Despite the United States remaining very much a suburban nation, the work of Jacobs has contributed to city living being rehabilitated and revitalized. Because of her ideas, today, many distressed urban neighborhoods are more likely to be gentrified than cleared for redevelopment.
Samuel R. Delany's book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue relies heavily on The Death and Life of Great American Cities in its analysis of the nature of social relations within the realm of urban studies.
Jane Jacobs Days
After the death of Jacobs in April 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a Jane Jacobs Day, held on June 28, 2006. The City of Toronto proclaimed her birthday the following year, May 4, 2007, as Jane Jacobs Day.
Jane's Walks
In connection with Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto, two dozen free neighborhood walks in the city were offered that weekend (5 May 2007) as an active memorial to Jacobs, and they were dubbed Jane's Walks. Later, a Jane's Walk event was held in New York on September 29–30, 2007. In 2008, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents. The interpretive walks typically apply ideas Jacobs identified or espoused to local areas, which are explored on foot and sometimes by bicycle. The walks normally take place in early May, on or close to her May 4 birth anniversary. Walks are organized and led by local volunteers, coordinated by a headquarters office in Toronto. There are more than 200 walks offered in Toronto, alone, in 2016, taking place on May 6, 7, and 8.
Exhibitions
In 2016, to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of Jane Jacobs, a Toronto gallery staged "Jane at Home", an exhibition running from April 29-May 8. Curated by Jane's son, Jim Jacobs, it offered glimpses of her home life, where she also worked. Her Toronto living room was represented, based on the one at her Albany Avenue house in The Annex, where she often spoke with noted thinkers and political leaders including Marshall McLuhan, Paul Martin, and the Queen of the Netherlands. On display were her typewriter, original manuscripts, rediscovered photographs demonstrating her distinctive styles, and personal mementos. The exhibit included furniture from previous homes in New York (her dining room is set up) and from Scranton, Pennsylvania.Jane at Home , Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, 2016
In 2007, the Municipal Art Society of New York partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to host an exhibit focusing on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York," which opened at the society in September that year. The exhibit aimed to educate the public on her writings and activism and used tools to encourage new generations to become active in issues involving their own neighborhoods. An accompanying exhibit publication included essays and articles by such architecture critics, artists, activists, and journalists as Malcolm Gladwell, Reverend Billy, Robert Neuwirth, Tom Wolfe, Thomas de Monchaux, and William McDonough. Many of these contributors participated in a series of panel discussions on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York".
Jane Jacobs Medal
As a tribute to Jacobs, the Rockefeller Foundation, which had awarded grants to Jacobs in the 1950s and 1960s, announced on February 9, 2007, the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, "to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City". Recipients include:
Barry Benepe, co-founder of the New York City Green Market program and a founding member of Transportation Alternatives, was awarded with the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and a $100,000 cash prize in September 2007. The inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism was awarded to Omar Freilla, the founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx; Mr. Freilla donated his $100,000 to his organization.
Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action, received the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, received the award for New Ideas and Activism. Both women received their medals and $100,000 awards at a dinner ceremony in September 2008 in New York City.
Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Richard Kahan, as founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, which created and manages 22 secondary public schools located in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York City, received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. Both received $100,000, in addition to the medal.
The 2010 recipients were Joshua David and Robert Hammond, whose work in establishing the High Line Park atop an unused elevated railroad line, led the foundation to award the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, along with $60,000 to each man. The 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership was given to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, for her longtime work as writer, park administrator, and co-founder of Central Park Conservancy. She received $80,000 as well.
The Canadian Urban Institute offers an award to honor her, the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize a person "who has had significant impact on the health of their region consistent with Jane Jacob's belief that successful cities foster a place-based, community-centered approach." The 2011 winner was Eberhard Zeidler, while his daughter, Margie Zeidler, won the 2015 award. In 2012, Anne Golden took the prize "for her long-standing leadership in public policy, her academic work and her varied leadership experience in business, not-for-profit and government sectors." William (Bill) Teron accepted the 2013 award "for his influential career in public policy and passionate advocacy for quality design and commitment to development in the Ottawa area." In 2014, Jack Diamond was recognized for his "contribution to improving the built form and advocacy for cities and the future of the Greater Toronto Area."
In April 2014, Spacing was appointed the stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize. Spacing, winners of the prize in 2010, has continued to provide the award with a new life and new ways of promoting (and finding) the winners.
Other honors
Jane Jacobs Way, West Village, New York City (Hudson Street and Eleventh Street, New York, New York)
Jane Jacobs Park, 11 Wellesley Street West, Toronto (construction began in 2016)
Jane Jacobs sculptural chairs, Victoria Memorial Square (St. John's Square), Toronto
Jane Jacobs Toronto Legacy Plaque, 69 Albany Avenue, Toronto
Jacobs' Ladder, rose bushes dedicated by Grassroots Albany (neighbors) in 1997, Toronto
Jane Jacobs Street, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jane Jacobs Street (Village of Cheshire) Black Mountain, North Carolina
a Google Doodle marked the 100th anniversary of Jacobs's birth, on May 4, 2016, and was featured on Google's homepage in 15 countries on four continents
a conference room at the offices of the New Economics Foundation in London is named in honor of Jacobs
Jacobs received the second Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.
Jacobs is the subject of the 2017 documentary film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which depicts her victories over Robert Moses and her philosophy of urban design.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of her is played by Alison Smith in a season 1 episode of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The community organizer played by Cherry Jones in Motherless Brooklyn has drawn comparisons to Jane Jacobs. The director, Edward Norton, has clarified that the composite character was partially based on Jacobs, but more so on Hortense Gabel who was active a decade earlier.
The URL of the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) is whatwouldjanejacobsdo.
Criticism
The planners and developers she fought against to preserve the West Village were among those who initially criticized her ideas. Robert Moses has generally been identified as her arch-rival during this period. Since then, Jacobs's ideas have been analysed many times, often in regard to the outcomes that their influences have produced.Glaeser, Edward L. (2010) Taller Buildings, Cheaper Homes. The New York Times, 4 May 2010 6:02 amOuroussoff, Nicolai (2006) Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York. The New York Times, Published 30 April 2006Bratishenko, Lev (2016) Jane Jacobs's Tunnel Vision Why our cities need less Jane Jacobs. Literary Review of Canada, October 2016
In places such as the West Village, the factors that she argued would maintain economic and cultural diversity have led instead to gentrification and some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Her family's conversion of an old candy shop into a home is an example of the gentrifying trend that would continue under the influence of Jacobs's ideas.
Gentrification also was caused, however, by "the completely unexpected influx of affluent residents back into the inner city". The extent to which her ideas facilitated this phenomenon was at the time unimaginable. For example, she advocated the preservation of older buildings specifically because their lack of economic value made them affordable for poor people. In this respect, she saw them as "guarantors of social diversity". That many of these older structures have increased in economic value solely due to their age was implausible in 1961. Issues of gentrification have dominated criticism of Jane Jacobs's planning ideas.
Economist Tyler Cowen has criticized her ideas for not addressing problems of scale or infrastructure, and suggests that economists disagree with some of her approaches to development. For example, although her ideas of planning were praised at times as "universal", they are now thought inapplicable when a city grows from one million to ten million (as has happened many times in developing nations). Such arguments suggest that her ideas apply only to cities with similar issues to those of New York, where Jacobs developed many of them.
Works
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. Her books include:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Death and Life of Great American Cities is her single-most influential book and, possibly, the most influential book on urban planning and cities. Published in 1961, this book was widely read by both planning professionals and the general public. The book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, which, she claimed, destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. In the book, she celebrates the diversity and complexity of old-mixed use neighborhoods while lamenting the monotony and sterility of modern planning. Jacobs advocated the abolition of zoning laws and restoration of free markets in land, which would result in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and she frequently cited New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community.
Robert Caro has cited it as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses, although Caro does not mention Jacobs by name in the book despite Jacobs's battles with Moses over his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Caro reportedly cut a chapter about Jacobs due to his book's length.
Beyond the practical lessons in city design and planning that Death and Life offers, the theoretical underpinnings of the work challenge the modern development mindset. Jane Jacobs defends her positions with common sense and anecdotes.
The Economy of Cities
The thesis of this book is that cities are the primary drivers of economic development. Her main argument is that explosive economic growth derives from urban import replacement. Import replacement is the process of producing goods locally that formerly were imported, e.g., Tokyo bicycle factories replacing Tokyo bicycle importers in the 1800s. Jacobs claims that import replacement builds up local infrastructure, skills, and production. Jacobs also claims that the increased production is subsequently exported to other cities, giving those other cities a new opportunity to engage in import replacement, thus producing a positive cycle of growth.
In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine, Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement. Critics erroneously claim that her ideas parrot the idea of import substitution advanced earlier by scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank. Import substitution was a national economic theory implying that if a nation substituted its imports with national production, the nation would become wealthier, whereas Jacob's idea is entirely about cities and could be called urban import substitution. However, even this would lead to confusion since in practice, import substitution in India and Latin America were government subsidized and mandated, whereas Jacobs's concept of import replacement is a free market process of discovery and division of labor within a city.
In the second part of the book, Jacobs argues that cities preceded agriculture. She argues that in cities trade in wild animals and grains allowed for the initial division of labor necessary for the discovery of husbandry and agriculture; these discoveries then moved out of the city due to land competition. Another interpretation of history, generally and erroneously considered to be contradictory to Jacobs's is supported by Marxist archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe and in recent times, by another historical materialist Charles Keith Maisels These writers argue that agriculture preceded cities. The apparent opposition between Childe and Jacobs theories rests in their definition of 'city', 'civilization', or 'urban'. Childe, like other materialists such as Maisels or Henri Lefebvre defines 'urban' or 'civilization' as Synoecism—as a literate, socially stratified, monolithic political community, whereas, as one can see from The Economy of Cities or from Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs defines the city purely along the lines of geographically dense trade giving way to entrepreneurial discovery and subsequent improvements in the division of labor. Without the requirements of literacy, monumental building, or the signs of specialized civil and armed forces, 'cities' can be accurately be interpreted to exists thousands of years before when Childe and Maisels place them. However, the Jacobs definition is supposition, since 'city' is defined simply as a large town or "a large human settlement" indicating permanence. The earliest remains of mankind uncovered by archaeologists do not give us more information other than that they were hunter-gatherers as there is no evidence yet of farming or settlement, implying nomadic lifestyles until further discoveries are found.
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty The Question of Separatism incorporated and expanded Jacobs's presentation of the 1979 Massey Lectures, entitled Canadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association. It was published in 1980 and reprinted in 2011 with a previously-unpublished 2005 interview with Robin Philpot on the subject in which she evokes the relative overlooking of that book among her usual readership. This was the first time Jacobs was requested to discuss it in an interview. Columnist Richard Gwyn advanced that while not openly criticizing her, English-speaking Canadians readers thought she did not understood how Canadian politics worked and that she was not being helpful in a time of distress for national unity (the 1980 referendum was just defeated by a vote of 60%). The Question of Separatism was also not mentioned in the bibliography of her 2006 obituary in The Globe and Mail.
Jacobs's book advances the view that Quebec's eventual independence is best for Montreal, Toronto, the rest of Canada, and the world; and that such independence can be achieved peacefully. As precedent, she cites Norway's secession from Sweden and how it enriched both nations. The origins of the contemporary secessionist-movement in the Quiet Revolution are examined, along with Canada's historical reliance on natural resources and foreign-owned manufacturing for its own economic development. Jacobs asserts that such an approach is colonial and hence backward, citing by example, Canada buying its skis and furniture from Norway or Norwegian-owned factories in Canada, the latter procedure being a product of Canadian tariffs designed specifically to foster such factories. The relevant public views of René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau are also critically analyzed, an example being their failure to recognize that two respective, independent currencies are essential to the success of an independent Quebec and a smaller resultant Canada, an issue that is central to her book. Jacobs stresses the need for Montreal to continue developing its leadership of Québécois culture, but that ultimately, such a need can never be fulfilled by Montreal's increasing tendencies toward regional-city status, tendencies foretelling economic, political, and cultural subservience to English-speaking Toronto. Such an outcome, Jacobs believed, would in the long run doom Quebec's independence as much as it would hinder Canada's own future. She concludes with her observation that the popular equating of political secession with political and economic failure is the result of the Enlightenment, which perceived nature as a force for "standardization, uniformity, universality, and immutability." Since then, naturalists and their readers have gradually realized that nature is a force for diversity, and that, "diversity itself is of the essence of excellence." The right kind of secession, Jacobs states, can lead to the right kind of diversity, and Quebec and Canada are capable of both, and must achieve both, to survive.
Cities and the Wealth of Nations Cities and the Wealth of Nations attempts to do for economics what The Death and Life of Great American Cities did for modern urban planning, although it has not received the same critical attention. Beginning with a concise treatment of classical economics, this book challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the greatest economists. Classical (and Neo-classical) economists consider the nation-state to be the main player in macroeconomics. Jacobs argues that it is not the nation-state, rather it is the city that is the true player in this worldwide game. She restates the idea of import replacement from her earlier book The Economy of Cities, while speculating on the further ramifications of considering the city first and the nation second, or not at all.
Systems of Survival Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work. As with her other work, she used an observational approach. This book is written as a Platonic dialogue. It appears that she (as described by characters in her book) took newspaper clippings of moral judgments related to work, collected and sorted them to find that they fit two patterns of moral behavior that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome, and "Moral Syndrome B", or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her system are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York subway police are paid bonuses here – reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
The Nature of Economies The Nature of Economies, a dialog between friends concerning the premise: "human beings exist wholly within nature as part of the natural order in every respect" (p. ix), argues that the same principles underlie both ecosystems and economies: "development and co-development through differentiation and their combinations; expansion through diverse, multiple uses of energy; and self-maintenance through self-refueling" (p. 82). Jacobs also comments on the nature of economic and biological diversity and its role in the development and growth of the two kinds of systems.
Jacobs's characters discuss the four methods by which "dynamically stable systems" may evade collapse: "bifurcations; positive-feedback loops; negative-feedback controls; and emergency adaptations" (p. 86). Their conversations also cover the "double nature of fitness for survival" (traits to avoid destroying one's own habitat as well as success in competition to feed and breed, p. 119), and unpredictability including the butterfly effect characterized in terms of multiplicity of variables as well as disproportional response to cause, and self-organization where "a system can be making itself up as it goes along" (p. 137).
The book is infused with many real-world economic and biological examples, which help keep the book "down to earth" and comprehensible, if dense. Concepts are furnished with both economic and biological examples, showing their coherence in both worlds.
One particularly interesting insight is the creation of "something from nothing" – an economy from nowhere. In the biological world, free energy is given through sunlight, but in the economic world human creativity and natural resources supply this free energy, or at least starter energy. Another interesting insight is the creation of economic diversity through the combination of different technologies, for example the typewriter and television as inputs and outputs of a computer system: this can lead to the creation of "new species of work".
Dark Age Ahead
Published in 2004 by Random House, Dark Age Ahead posits Jacobs's argument that "North American" civilization shows signs of a spiral decline comparable to the collapse of the Roman empire. Her discussion focuses on "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm", which can be summarized as the nuclear family and community; quality in education; free thought in science; representational government and responsible taxes; and corporate and professional accountability. As the title of this book suggests, Jacobs's outlook is far more pessimistic than that of her previous works. However, in the conclusion she admits: "At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of overcoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true." While Jacobs idealized U.S. democracy, Dark Age Ahead echoes the skepticism and disappointment that led to her emigration to Canada in 1968. Later, she would indicate that North American cultures, among others, were grounded in a "plantation mentality" that was culturally and ecologically unsustainable.
Orthodox urbanism
Jane Jacobs asserts in her work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, that the sources of orthodox urbanism are:
Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Ebenezer Howard
The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford
Cities in Evolution, Sir Patrick Geddes
Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer
Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein
Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Sir Raymond Unwin
The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier
Writings
Constitutional chaff; rejected suggestions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with explanatory argument Compiled by Jane Butzner, (1941) Columbia University Press; Compiled by Jane Jacobs (Née Butzner), Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House.
The Economy of Cities (1969)
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books)
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985)
The Girl on the Hat (Children's Book Illustrated by Karen Reczuch), (June 1990) Oxford University Press.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)
A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska – The Story of Hannah Breece (1995) Random House of Canada.
The Nature of Economies (2000) New York: Random House, The Modern Library.
Dark Age Ahead (2004)
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs'' (2016) New York: Random House.
See also
David Crombie
Fred Gardiner
Innovation Economics
Urban secession
Urban vitality
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Jane Jacobs's Order of Canada Citation
Jane Jacobs's Papers at John J. Burns Library, Boston College
Jane Jacobs Oral History, 1997 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Jacobs's Legacy, City Journal online, July 31, 2009
1916 births
2006 deaths
American architecture writers
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Tax resisters
Women urban planners
Anti-road protest
Canadian architecture writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers
Canadian social commentators
Interstate 78
Members of the Order of Ontario
Moral philosophers
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Radical centrist writers
Urban theorists
Environmental economists
Writers from Toronto
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
American emigrants to Canada
Women's page journalists | 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 Jones may refer to:\n What Happened to Jones (1897 play), a play by George Broadhurst\n What Happened to Jones (1915 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1920 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1926 film), a silent film comedy"
]
|
[
"Jane Jacobs",
"Amerika",
"Who did she write for",
"became a feature writer for the Office of War Information,",
"What happened after this",
"then a reporter for Amerika,",
"What is this",
"a publication of the U.S. State Department.",
"Who did she meet",
"Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr.,",
"What is special about him",
"Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman.",
"What happened to these too",
"They married",
"What year",
"1944.",
"What happened to her after this",
"Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned."
]
| C_ca305091629643729dbf4a1ce7ed809a_0 | What did they do | 9 | What did Jane Jacobs and Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr. do after having kids? | Jane Jacobs | She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard. Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist, and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On March 25, 1952, Jacobs delivered a now-famous response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said: The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe ... CANNOTANSWER | They bought a three-story building | {{Infobox person
|image = Jane Jacobs.jpg
|imagesize =
|caption = Jacobs as chair of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference
|name = Jane Jacobs
|honorific_suffix =
|birth_name = Jane Butzner
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|education = Graduate of Scranton Central High School; two years of undergraduate studies at Columbia University
|occupation = Journalist, author, urban theorist
|employer = Amerika, Architectural Forum
|notable_works = The Death and Life of Great American Cities
|organization = Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Carlos Moreno<ref>Willsher, Kim, Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign, The Guardian, Friday, February 7, 2020</ref>
|awards = OC, OOnt, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum
|spouse = Robert Jacobs
|children = Ned Jacobs, James Jacobs, Mary Burgin Jacobs
}}
Jane Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her concepts eventually was acknowledged by highly respected professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.
Early years
Jacobs was born Jane Isabel Butzner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bess Robison Butzner, a former teacher and nurse and John Decker Butzner, a physician. They were a Protestant family in a heavily Roman Catholic town. Her brother, John Decker Butzner, Jr., served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduation from Scranton High School, she worked for a year as the unpaid assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune.
New York City
In 1935, during the Great Depression, she moved to New York City with her sister Betty. Jane Butzner took an immediate liking to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which deviated some from the city's grid structure. The sisters soon moved there from Brooklyn.
During her early years in Manhattan, Jacobs held a variety of jobs working as a stenographer and freelance writer, writing about working districts in the city. These experiences, she later said, "gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city and what business was like, what work was like." Her first job was for a trade magazine, as a secretary, then an editor. She sold articles to the Sunday Herald Tribune, Cue magazine, and Vogue.
She studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, taking courses in geology, zoology, law, political science, and economics. About the freedom to pursue study across her wide-ranging interests, she said:
For the first time I liked school and for the first time I made good marks. This was almost my undoing because after I had garnered, statistically, a certain number of credits I became the property of Barnard College at Columbia, and once I was the property of Barnard I had to take, it seemed, what Barnard wanted me to take, not what I wanted to learn. Fortunately my high-school marks had been so bad that Barnard decided I could not belong to it and I was therefore allowed to continue getting an education.
Career
After attending Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, Butzner found a job at Iron Age magazine. Her 1943 article on economic decline in Scranton was well publicized and led the Murray Corporation of America to locate a warplane factory there. Encouraged by this success, Butzner petitioned the War Production Board to support more operations in Scranton. Experiencing job discrimination at Iron Age, she also advocated for equal pay for women and for the right of workers to unionize.
Amerika
She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department in the Russian language. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson Street. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect.
The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard.
Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On 25 March 1952, Jacobs delivered her response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said:
The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe...
Architectural Forum
Jacobs left Amerika in 1952 when it announced its relocation to Washington, D.C. She then found a well-paying job at Architectural Forum, published by Henry Luce of Time Inc. She was hired as an associate editor. After early success in that position, Jacobs began to take assignments on urban planning and "urban blight". In 1954, she was assigned to cover a development in Philadelphia designed by Edmund Bacon. Although her editors expected a positive story, Jacobs criticized Bacon's project, reacting against its lack of concern for the poor African Americans who were directly affected. When Bacon showed Jacobs examples of undeveloped and developed blocks, she determined that "development" seemed to end community life on the street. When Jacobs returned to the offices of Architectural Forum, she began to question the 1950s consensus on urban planning.
In 1955, Jacobs met William Kirk, an Episcopal minister who worked in East Harlem. Kirk came to the Architectural Forum offices to describe the impact that "revitalization" had on East Harlem, and he introduced Jacobs to the neighborhood.
In 1956, while standing in for Douglas Haskell of Architectural Forum, Jacobs delivered a lecture at Harvard University. She addressed leading architects, urban planners, and intellectuals (including Lewis Mumford), speaking on the topic of East Harlem. She urged this audience to "respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Contrary to her expectations, the talk was received with enthusiasm, but it also marked her as a threat to established urban planners, real estate owners, and developers. Architectural Forum printed the speech that year, along with photographs of East Harlem.
Rockefeller Foundation and Death and Life of Great American Cities
After reading her Harvard speech, William H. Whyte invited Jacobs to write an article for Fortune magazine. The resulting piece, "Downtown Is for People", appeared in a 1958 issue of Fortune, and marked her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Her criticism of the Lincoln Center was not popular with supporters of urban renewal at Architectural Forum and Fortune. C.D. Jackson, the publisher of Fortune, was outraged and over the telephone, demanded of Whyte: "Who is this crazy dame?"
The Fortune article brought Jacobs to the attention of Chadbourne Gilpatric, then associate director of the Humanities Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation had moved aggressively into urban topics, with a recent award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of urban aesthetics that would culminate in the publication of Kevin A. Lynch's Image of the City. In May 1958, Gilpatric invited Jacobs to begin serving as a reviewer for grant proposals. Later that year, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Jacobs to produce a critical study of city planning and urban life in the U.S. (From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the foundation's Humanities Division sponsored an "Urban Design Studies" research program, of which Jacobs was the best known grantee.) Gilpatric encouraged Jacobs to "explor[e] the field of urban design to look for ideas and actions which may improve thinking on how the design of cities might better serve urban life, including cultural and humane value." Affiliating with The New School (then called The New School for Social Research), she spent three years conducting research and writing drafts. In 1961, Random House published the result: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains one of the most influential books in the history of American city planning. She coined the terms "social capital", "mixed primary uses", and "eyes on the street", which were adopted professionally in urban design, sociology, and many other fields. Jacobs painted a devastating picture of the profession of city planning, labeling it a pseudoscience. This angered the male-dominated urban planning profession. Jacobs was criticized with ad hominem attacks, being called a "militant dame" and a "housewife": an amateur who had no right to interfere with an established discipline. One planner dismissed Jacobs's book as "bitter coffee-house rambling". Robert Moses, sent a copy, called it "intemperate and also libelous... Sell this junk to someone else."
Later, her book was criticized from the left for leaving out race and openly endorsing gentrification, which Jacobs referred to as "unslumming".
In 1962, she resigned her position at Architectural Forum to become a full-time author and concentrate on raising her children. In other political activities she became an opponent of the Vietnam War, marched on the Pentagon in October 1967, and criticized the construction of the World Trade Center as a disaster for Manhattan's waterfront.
Struggle for Greenwich Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, her home neighborhood of Greenwich Village was being transformed by city and state efforts to build housing (see, for example, Jacobs's 1961 fight to build the West Village Houses in lieu of large apartment houses), private developers, the expansion of New York University, and by the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. Moses' plan, funded as "slum clearance" by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, also called for several blocks to be razed and replaced with upscale high-rises. The plan forced 132 families out of their homes and displaced 1,000 small businesses—the result was Washington Square Village.
As part of his efforts to revitalize the area, Moses had proposed the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park in 1935. In the face of community opposition, Moses had shelved the project, but revived the idea in the 1950s. Moses argued that the Fifth Avenue extension would improve the flow of traffic through the neighborhood and provide access to the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), which would connect the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge with the Holland Tunnel.
In response, local activist Shirley Hayes created the "Committee to Save Washington Square Park", a coalition of dozens of local neighborhood groups that opposed the roadway extension. Raymond S. Rubinow eventually took over the organization, changing its name to the "Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic". Jacobs had joined the committee under Hayes, but she took a more prominent role under Rubinow, reaching out to media outlets such as The Village Voice, which provided more sympathetic coverage than The New York Times. The committee gained the support of Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte, as well as Carmine De Sapio, a Greenwich Village resident and influential Democratic leader. De Sapio's involvement proved decisive. On 25 June 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park to traffic, and the joint committee held a ribbon tying (not cutting) ceremony.
Plans for LOMEX expressway continued despite growing community opposition in areas such as Little Italy. In the 1960s, Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The New York Times was sympathetic to Moses, while The Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway. Jacobs continued to fight the expressway when plans resurfaced in 1962, 1965, and 1968, and she became a local hero for her opposition to the project. She was arrested by a plainclothes police officer on April 10, 1968, at a public hearing during which the crowd had charged the stage and destroyed the stenographer's notes. She was accused of inciting a riot, criminal mischief, and obstructing public administration. After months of trials conducted in New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.New York: A Documentary Film devoted an hour of the eight-part, seventeen-and-a-half-hour series to the battle between Moses and Jacobs. Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, gives only passing mention to this event, however, despite Jacobs's strong influence on Caro. In 2017, Caro told an interviewer about the difficulty in cutting more than 300,000 words from his initial manuscript: "The section that I wrote on Jane Jacobs disappeared. To this day, when someone says: 'There's hardly a mention of Jane Jacobs,' I think, 'But I wrote a lot about her.' Every time I'm asked about that, I have this sick feeling."
Life in Toronto
Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in part because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried about the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did not want to continue fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and offered employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that included so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".
She quickly became a leading figure in her new city and helped stop the proposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.
In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on Quebec's sovereignty in her book, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Separation. Jacobs was an advocate of a Province of Toronto to separate the city proper from Ontario. Jacobs said, "Cities, to thrive in the twenty-first century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas."
She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology section of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be given to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".
Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political support for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of Metro Toronto, fearing that individual neighborhoods would have less power with the new structure. She backed an ecologist, Tooker Gomberg, who lost Toronto's 2000 mayoralty race, and she was an adviser to David Miller's successful mayoral campaign in 2003, at a time when he was seen as a longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA). Following the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did upgrade the ferry service and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.
Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a plan of Royal St. George's College (an established school very close to the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district) to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the redesign be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the case during the hearing.
She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.
Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner (d. 2009); a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's statement noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".
Legacy
Jacobs is credited, along with Lewis Mumford, with inspiring the New Urbanist movement. She has been characterized as a major influence on decentralist and radical centrist thought. She discussed her legacy in an interview with Reason magazine.
While Jacobs saw her greatest legacy to be her contributions to economic theory, it is in the realm of urban planning that she has had her most extensive effect. Her observations about the ways in which cities function revolutionized the urban planning profession and discredited many accepted planning models that had dominated mid-century planning. The influential Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser, known for his work on urban studies, acknowledged that Jane Jacobs (1960s) had been prescient in attacking Moses for "replacing well-functioning neighborhoods with Le Corbusier-inspired towers". Glaeser agreed that these housing projects proved to be Moses' greatest failures, "Moses spent millions and evicted tens of thousands to create buildings that became centers of crime, poverty, and despair."
She also was famous for introducing concepts such as the "Ballet of the Sidewalk" and "Eyes on the Street", a reference to what would later be known as natural surveillance. The concept had a huge influence on planners and architects such as Oscar Newman, who prepared the idea through a series of studies that would culminate in his defensible space theory. The work of Jacobs and Newman would go on to affect American housing policy through the HOPE VI Program, an effort by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish the high-rise public housing projects so reviled by Jacobs and to replace them with low-rise, mixed-income housing.
Throughout her life, Jacobs fought to alter the way in which city development was approached. By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects were instrumental in discrediting these once universally supported planning practices.
Jacobs is remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities, and for leaving "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place".
Despite the fact that Jacobs mainly focused on New York City, her arguments have been identified as universal. For instance, her opposition against the demolition of urban neighborhoods for projects of urban renewal had "special resonance" in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne in the 1960s, resident associations fought against large-scale high-rise housing projects of the Housing Commission of Victoria, which they argued had little regard for the impact on local communities.
Jacobs fought an uphill battle against dominant trends of planning. Despite the United States remaining very much a suburban nation, the work of Jacobs has contributed to city living being rehabilitated and revitalized. Because of her ideas, today, many distressed urban neighborhoods are more likely to be gentrified than cleared for redevelopment.
Samuel R. Delany's book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue relies heavily on The Death and Life of Great American Cities in its analysis of the nature of social relations within the realm of urban studies.
Jane Jacobs Days
After the death of Jacobs in April 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a Jane Jacobs Day, held on June 28, 2006. The City of Toronto proclaimed her birthday the following year, May 4, 2007, as Jane Jacobs Day.
Jane's Walks
In connection with Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto, two dozen free neighborhood walks in the city were offered that weekend (5 May 2007) as an active memorial to Jacobs, and they were dubbed Jane's Walks. Later, a Jane's Walk event was held in New York on September 29–30, 2007. In 2008, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents. The interpretive walks typically apply ideas Jacobs identified or espoused to local areas, which are explored on foot and sometimes by bicycle. The walks normally take place in early May, on or close to her May 4 birth anniversary. Walks are organized and led by local volunteers, coordinated by a headquarters office in Toronto. There are more than 200 walks offered in Toronto, alone, in 2016, taking place on May 6, 7, and 8.
Exhibitions
In 2016, to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of Jane Jacobs, a Toronto gallery staged "Jane at Home", an exhibition running from April 29-May 8. Curated by Jane's son, Jim Jacobs, it offered glimpses of her home life, where she also worked. Her Toronto living room was represented, based on the one at her Albany Avenue house in The Annex, where she often spoke with noted thinkers and political leaders including Marshall McLuhan, Paul Martin, and the Queen of the Netherlands. On display were her typewriter, original manuscripts, rediscovered photographs demonstrating her distinctive styles, and personal mementos. The exhibit included furniture from previous homes in New York (her dining room is set up) and from Scranton, Pennsylvania.Jane at Home , Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, 2016
In 2007, the Municipal Art Society of New York partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to host an exhibit focusing on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York," which opened at the society in September that year. The exhibit aimed to educate the public on her writings and activism and used tools to encourage new generations to become active in issues involving their own neighborhoods. An accompanying exhibit publication included essays and articles by such architecture critics, artists, activists, and journalists as Malcolm Gladwell, Reverend Billy, Robert Neuwirth, Tom Wolfe, Thomas de Monchaux, and William McDonough. Many of these contributors participated in a series of panel discussions on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York".
Jane Jacobs Medal
As a tribute to Jacobs, the Rockefeller Foundation, which had awarded grants to Jacobs in the 1950s and 1960s, announced on February 9, 2007, the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, "to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City". Recipients include:
Barry Benepe, co-founder of the New York City Green Market program and a founding member of Transportation Alternatives, was awarded with the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and a $100,000 cash prize in September 2007. The inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism was awarded to Omar Freilla, the founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx; Mr. Freilla donated his $100,000 to his organization.
Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action, received the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, received the award for New Ideas and Activism. Both women received their medals and $100,000 awards at a dinner ceremony in September 2008 in New York City.
Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Richard Kahan, as founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, which created and manages 22 secondary public schools located in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York City, received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. Both received $100,000, in addition to the medal.
The 2010 recipients were Joshua David and Robert Hammond, whose work in establishing the High Line Park atop an unused elevated railroad line, led the foundation to award the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, along with $60,000 to each man. The 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership was given to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, for her longtime work as writer, park administrator, and co-founder of Central Park Conservancy. She received $80,000 as well.
The Canadian Urban Institute offers an award to honor her, the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize a person "who has had significant impact on the health of their region consistent with Jane Jacob's belief that successful cities foster a place-based, community-centered approach." The 2011 winner was Eberhard Zeidler, while his daughter, Margie Zeidler, won the 2015 award. In 2012, Anne Golden took the prize "for her long-standing leadership in public policy, her academic work and her varied leadership experience in business, not-for-profit and government sectors." William (Bill) Teron accepted the 2013 award "for his influential career in public policy and passionate advocacy for quality design and commitment to development in the Ottawa area." In 2014, Jack Diamond was recognized for his "contribution to improving the built form and advocacy for cities and the future of the Greater Toronto Area."
In April 2014, Spacing was appointed the stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize. Spacing, winners of the prize in 2010, has continued to provide the award with a new life and new ways of promoting (and finding) the winners.
Other honors
Jane Jacobs Way, West Village, New York City (Hudson Street and Eleventh Street, New York, New York)
Jane Jacobs Park, 11 Wellesley Street West, Toronto (construction began in 2016)
Jane Jacobs sculptural chairs, Victoria Memorial Square (St. John's Square), Toronto
Jane Jacobs Toronto Legacy Plaque, 69 Albany Avenue, Toronto
Jacobs' Ladder, rose bushes dedicated by Grassroots Albany (neighbors) in 1997, Toronto
Jane Jacobs Street, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jane Jacobs Street (Village of Cheshire) Black Mountain, North Carolina
a Google Doodle marked the 100th anniversary of Jacobs's birth, on May 4, 2016, and was featured on Google's homepage in 15 countries on four continents
a conference room at the offices of the New Economics Foundation in London is named in honor of Jacobs
Jacobs received the second Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.
Jacobs is the subject of the 2017 documentary film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which depicts her victories over Robert Moses and her philosophy of urban design.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of her is played by Alison Smith in a season 1 episode of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The community organizer played by Cherry Jones in Motherless Brooklyn has drawn comparisons to Jane Jacobs. The director, Edward Norton, has clarified that the composite character was partially based on Jacobs, but more so on Hortense Gabel who was active a decade earlier.
The URL of the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) is whatwouldjanejacobsdo.
Criticism
The planners and developers she fought against to preserve the West Village were among those who initially criticized her ideas. Robert Moses has generally been identified as her arch-rival during this period. Since then, Jacobs's ideas have been analysed many times, often in regard to the outcomes that their influences have produced.Glaeser, Edward L. (2010) Taller Buildings, Cheaper Homes. The New York Times, 4 May 2010 6:02 amOuroussoff, Nicolai (2006) Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York. The New York Times, Published 30 April 2006Bratishenko, Lev (2016) Jane Jacobs's Tunnel Vision Why our cities need less Jane Jacobs. Literary Review of Canada, October 2016
In places such as the West Village, the factors that she argued would maintain economic and cultural diversity have led instead to gentrification and some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Her family's conversion of an old candy shop into a home is an example of the gentrifying trend that would continue under the influence of Jacobs's ideas.
Gentrification also was caused, however, by "the completely unexpected influx of affluent residents back into the inner city". The extent to which her ideas facilitated this phenomenon was at the time unimaginable. For example, she advocated the preservation of older buildings specifically because their lack of economic value made them affordable for poor people. In this respect, she saw them as "guarantors of social diversity". That many of these older structures have increased in economic value solely due to their age was implausible in 1961. Issues of gentrification have dominated criticism of Jane Jacobs's planning ideas.
Economist Tyler Cowen has criticized her ideas for not addressing problems of scale or infrastructure, and suggests that economists disagree with some of her approaches to development. For example, although her ideas of planning were praised at times as "universal", they are now thought inapplicable when a city grows from one million to ten million (as has happened many times in developing nations). Such arguments suggest that her ideas apply only to cities with similar issues to those of New York, where Jacobs developed many of them.
Works
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. Her books include:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Death and Life of Great American Cities is her single-most influential book and, possibly, the most influential book on urban planning and cities. Published in 1961, this book was widely read by both planning professionals and the general public. The book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, which, she claimed, destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. In the book, she celebrates the diversity and complexity of old-mixed use neighborhoods while lamenting the monotony and sterility of modern planning. Jacobs advocated the abolition of zoning laws and restoration of free markets in land, which would result in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and she frequently cited New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community.
Robert Caro has cited it as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses, although Caro does not mention Jacobs by name in the book despite Jacobs's battles with Moses over his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Caro reportedly cut a chapter about Jacobs due to his book's length.
Beyond the practical lessons in city design and planning that Death and Life offers, the theoretical underpinnings of the work challenge the modern development mindset. Jane Jacobs defends her positions with common sense and anecdotes.
The Economy of Cities
The thesis of this book is that cities are the primary drivers of economic development. Her main argument is that explosive economic growth derives from urban import replacement. Import replacement is the process of producing goods locally that formerly were imported, e.g., Tokyo bicycle factories replacing Tokyo bicycle importers in the 1800s. Jacobs claims that import replacement builds up local infrastructure, skills, and production. Jacobs also claims that the increased production is subsequently exported to other cities, giving those other cities a new opportunity to engage in import replacement, thus producing a positive cycle of growth.
In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine, Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement. Critics erroneously claim that her ideas parrot the idea of import substitution advanced earlier by scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank. Import substitution was a national economic theory implying that if a nation substituted its imports with national production, the nation would become wealthier, whereas Jacob's idea is entirely about cities and could be called urban import substitution. However, even this would lead to confusion since in practice, import substitution in India and Latin America were government subsidized and mandated, whereas Jacobs's concept of import replacement is a free market process of discovery and division of labor within a city.
In the second part of the book, Jacobs argues that cities preceded agriculture. She argues that in cities trade in wild animals and grains allowed for the initial division of labor necessary for the discovery of husbandry and agriculture; these discoveries then moved out of the city due to land competition. Another interpretation of history, generally and erroneously considered to be contradictory to Jacobs's is supported by Marxist archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe and in recent times, by another historical materialist Charles Keith Maisels These writers argue that agriculture preceded cities. The apparent opposition between Childe and Jacobs theories rests in their definition of 'city', 'civilization', or 'urban'. Childe, like other materialists such as Maisels or Henri Lefebvre defines 'urban' or 'civilization' as Synoecism—as a literate, socially stratified, monolithic political community, whereas, as one can see from The Economy of Cities or from Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs defines the city purely along the lines of geographically dense trade giving way to entrepreneurial discovery and subsequent improvements in the division of labor. Without the requirements of literacy, monumental building, or the signs of specialized civil and armed forces, 'cities' can be accurately be interpreted to exists thousands of years before when Childe and Maisels place them. However, the Jacobs definition is supposition, since 'city' is defined simply as a large town or "a large human settlement" indicating permanence. The earliest remains of mankind uncovered by archaeologists do not give us more information other than that they were hunter-gatherers as there is no evidence yet of farming or settlement, implying nomadic lifestyles until further discoveries are found.
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty The Question of Separatism incorporated and expanded Jacobs's presentation of the 1979 Massey Lectures, entitled Canadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association. It was published in 1980 and reprinted in 2011 with a previously-unpublished 2005 interview with Robin Philpot on the subject in which she evokes the relative overlooking of that book among her usual readership. This was the first time Jacobs was requested to discuss it in an interview. Columnist Richard Gwyn advanced that while not openly criticizing her, English-speaking Canadians readers thought she did not understood how Canadian politics worked and that she was not being helpful in a time of distress for national unity (the 1980 referendum was just defeated by a vote of 60%). The Question of Separatism was also not mentioned in the bibliography of her 2006 obituary in The Globe and Mail.
Jacobs's book advances the view that Quebec's eventual independence is best for Montreal, Toronto, the rest of Canada, and the world; and that such independence can be achieved peacefully. As precedent, she cites Norway's secession from Sweden and how it enriched both nations. The origins of the contemporary secessionist-movement in the Quiet Revolution are examined, along with Canada's historical reliance on natural resources and foreign-owned manufacturing for its own economic development. Jacobs asserts that such an approach is colonial and hence backward, citing by example, Canada buying its skis and furniture from Norway or Norwegian-owned factories in Canada, the latter procedure being a product of Canadian tariffs designed specifically to foster such factories. The relevant public views of René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau are also critically analyzed, an example being their failure to recognize that two respective, independent currencies are essential to the success of an independent Quebec and a smaller resultant Canada, an issue that is central to her book. Jacobs stresses the need for Montreal to continue developing its leadership of Québécois culture, but that ultimately, such a need can never be fulfilled by Montreal's increasing tendencies toward regional-city status, tendencies foretelling economic, political, and cultural subservience to English-speaking Toronto. Such an outcome, Jacobs believed, would in the long run doom Quebec's independence as much as it would hinder Canada's own future. She concludes with her observation that the popular equating of political secession with political and economic failure is the result of the Enlightenment, which perceived nature as a force for "standardization, uniformity, universality, and immutability." Since then, naturalists and their readers have gradually realized that nature is a force for diversity, and that, "diversity itself is of the essence of excellence." The right kind of secession, Jacobs states, can lead to the right kind of diversity, and Quebec and Canada are capable of both, and must achieve both, to survive.
Cities and the Wealth of Nations Cities and the Wealth of Nations attempts to do for economics what The Death and Life of Great American Cities did for modern urban planning, although it has not received the same critical attention. Beginning with a concise treatment of classical economics, this book challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the greatest economists. Classical (and Neo-classical) economists consider the nation-state to be the main player in macroeconomics. Jacobs argues that it is not the nation-state, rather it is the city that is the true player in this worldwide game. She restates the idea of import replacement from her earlier book The Economy of Cities, while speculating on the further ramifications of considering the city first and the nation second, or not at all.
Systems of Survival Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work. As with her other work, she used an observational approach. This book is written as a Platonic dialogue. It appears that she (as described by characters in her book) took newspaper clippings of moral judgments related to work, collected and sorted them to find that they fit two patterns of moral behavior that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome, and "Moral Syndrome B", or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her system are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York subway police are paid bonuses here – reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
The Nature of Economies The Nature of Economies, a dialog between friends concerning the premise: "human beings exist wholly within nature as part of the natural order in every respect" (p. ix), argues that the same principles underlie both ecosystems and economies: "development and co-development through differentiation and their combinations; expansion through diverse, multiple uses of energy; and self-maintenance through self-refueling" (p. 82). Jacobs also comments on the nature of economic and biological diversity and its role in the development and growth of the two kinds of systems.
Jacobs's characters discuss the four methods by which "dynamically stable systems" may evade collapse: "bifurcations; positive-feedback loops; negative-feedback controls; and emergency adaptations" (p. 86). Their conversations also cover the "double nature of fitness for survival" (traits to avoid destroying one's own habitat as well as success in competition to feed and breed, p. 119), and unpredictability including the butterfly effect characterized in terms of multiplicity of variables as well as disproportional response to cause, and self-organization where "a system can be making itself up as it goes along" (p. 137).
The book is infused with many real-world economic and biological examples, which help keep the book "down to earth" and comprehensible, if dense. Concepts are furnished with both economic and biological examples, showing their coherence in both worlds.
One particularly interesting insight is the creation of "something from nothing" – an economy from nowhere. In the biological world, free energy is given through sunlight, but in the economic world human creativity and natural resources supply this free energy, or at least starter energy. Another interesting insight is the creation of economic diversity through the combination of different technologies, for example the typewriter and television as inputs and outputs of a computer system: this can lead to the creation of "new species of work".
Dark Age Ahead
Published in 2004 by Random House, Dark Age Ahead posits Jacobs's argument that "North American" civilization shows signs of a spiral decline comparable to the collapse of the Roman empire. Her discussion focuses on "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm", which can be summarized as the nuclear family and community; quality in education; free thought in science; representational government and responsible taxes; and corporate and professional accountability. As the title of this book suggests, Jacobs's outlook is far more pessimistic than that of her previous works. However, in the conclusion she admits: "At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of overcoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true." While Jacobs idealized U.S. democracy, Dark Age Ahead echoes the skepticism and disappointment that led to her emigration to Canada in 1968. Later, she would indicate that North American cultures, among others, were grounded in a "plantation mentality" that was culturally and ecologically unsustainable.
Orthodox urbanism
Jane Jacobs asserts in her work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, that the sources of orthodox urbanism are:
Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Ebenezer Howard
The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford
Cities in Evolution, Sir Patrick Geddes
Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer
Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein
Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Sir Raymond Unwin
The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier
Writings
Constitutional chaff; rejected suggestions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with explanatory argument Compiled by Jane Butzner, (1941) Columbia University Press; Compiled by Jane Jacobs (Née Butzner), Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House.
The Economy of Cities (1969)
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books)
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985)
The Girl on the Hat (Children's Book Illustrated by Karen Reczuch), (June 1990) Oxford University Press.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)
A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska – The Story of Hannah Breece (1995) Random House of Canada.
The Nature of Economies (2000) New York: Random House, The Modern Library.
Dark Age Ahead (2004)
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs'' (2016) New York: Random House.
See also
David Crombie
Fred Gardiner
Innovation Economics
Urban secession
Urban vitality
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Jane Jacobs's Order of Canada Citation
Jane Jacobs's Papers at John J. Burns Library, Boston College
Jane Jacobs Oral History, 1997 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Jacobs's Legacy, City Journal online, July 31, 2009
1916 births
2006 deaths
American architecture writers
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Tax resisters
Women urban planners
Anti-road protest
Canadian architecture writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers
Canadian social commentators
Interstate 78
Members of the Order of Ontario
Moral philosophers
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Radical centrist writers
Urban theorists
Environmental economists
Writers from Toronto
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
American emigrants to Canada
Women's page journalists | 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 Would Steve Do?\" is the second single released by Mumm-Ra on Columbia Records, which was released on February 19, 2007. It is a re-recorded version of the self-release they did in April 2006. It reached #40 in the UK Singles Chart, making it their highest charting single.\n\nTrack listings\nAll songs written by Mumm-Ra.\n\nCD\n\"What Would Steve Do?\"\n\"Cute As\"\n\"Without You\"\n\n7\"\n\"What Would Steve Do?\"\n\"What Would Steve Do? (Floorboard Mix)\"\n\nGatefold 7\"\n\"What Would Steve Do?\"\n\"Cute As\"\n\nReferences\n\n2007 singles\nMumm-Ra (band) songs\n2006 songs\nColumbia Records singles"
]
|
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"Jane Jacobs",
"Amerika",
"Who did she write for",
"became a feature writer for the Office of War Information,",
"What happened after this",
"then a reporter for Amerika,",
"What is this",
"a publication of the U.S. State Department.",
"Who did she meet",
"Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr.,",
"What is special about him",
"Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman.",
"What happened to these too",
"They married",
"What year",
"1944.",
"What happened to her after this",
"Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned.",
"What did they do",
"They bought a three-story building"
]
| C_ca305091629643729dbf4a1ce7ed809a_0 | Where was this located at | 10 | Where was the building that Jane Jacobs and Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr.'s bought located? | Jane Jacobs | She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information, and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard. Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist, and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On March 25, 1952, Jacobs delivered a now-famous response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said: The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe ... CANNOTANSWER | 555 Hudson St. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect. | {{Infobox person
|image = Jane Jacobs.jpg
|imagesize =
|caption = Jacobs as chair of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference
|name = Jane Jacobs
|honorific_suffix =
|birth_name = Jane Butzner
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|education = Graduate of Scranton Central High School; two years of undergraduate studies at Columbia University
|occupation = Journalist, author, urban theorist
|employer = Amerika, Architectural Forum
|notable_works = The Death and Life of Great American Cities
|organization = Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Carlos Moreno<ref>Willsher, Kim, Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign, The Guardian, Friday, February 7, 2020</ref>
|awards = OC, OOnt, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum
|spouse = Robert Jacobs
|children = Ned Jacobs, James Jacobs, Mary Burgin Jacobs
}}
Jane Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her concepts eventually was acknowledged by highly respected professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.
Early years
Jacobs was born Jane Isabel Butzner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bess Robison Butzner, a former teacher and nurse and John Decker Butzner, a physician. They were a Protestant family in a heavily Roman Catholic town. Her brother, John Decker Butzner, Jr., served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduation from Scranton High School, she worked for a year as the unpaid assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune.
New York City
In 1935, during the Great Depression, she moved to New York City with her sister Betty. Jane Butzner took an immediate liking to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which deviated some from the city's grid structure. The sisters soon moved there from Brooklyn.
During her early years in Manhattan, Jacobs held a variety of jobs working as a stenographer and freelance writer, writing about working districts in the city. These experiences, she later said, "gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city and what business was like, what work was like." Her first job was for a trade magazine, as a secretary, then an editor. She sold articles to the Sunday Herald Tribune, Cue magazine, and Vogue.
She studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, taking courses in geology, zoology, law, political science, and economics. About the freedom to pursue study across her wide-ranging interests, she said:
For the first time I liked school and for the first time I made good marks. This was almost my undoing because after I had garnered, statistically, a certain number of credits I became the property of Barnard College at Columbia, and once I was the property of Barnard I had to take, it seemed, what Barnard wanted me to take, not what I wanted to learn. Fortunately my high-school marks had been so bad that Barnard decided I could not belong to it and I was therefore allowed to continue getting an education.
Career
After attending Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years, Butzner found a job at Iron Age magazine. Her 1943 article on economic decline in Scranton was well publicized and led the Murray Corporation of America to locate a warplane factory there. Encouraged by this success, Butzner petitioned the War Production Board to support more operations in Scranton. Experiencing job discrimination at Iron Age, she also advocated for equal pay for women and for the right of workers to unionize.
Amerika
She became a feature writer for the Office of War Information and then a reporter for Amerika, a publication of the U.S. State Department in the Russian language. While working there she met Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., a Columbia-educated architect who was designing warplanes for Grumman. They married in 1944. Together they had a daughter, Burgin, and two sons, James and Ned. They bought a three-story building at 555 Hudson Street. Jane continued to write for Amerika after the war, while Robert left Grumman and resumed work as an architect.
The Jacobses rejected the rapidly growing suburbs as "parasitic", choosing to remain in Greenwich Village. They renovated their house, in the middle of a mixed residential and commercial area, and created a garden in the backyard.
Working for the State Department during the McCarthy era, Jacobs received a questionnaire about her political beliefs and loyalties. Jacobs was anti-communist and had left the Federal Workers Union because of its apparent communist sympathies. Nevertheless, she was pro-union and purportedly appreciated the writing of Saul Alinsky; therefore she was under suspicion. On 25 March 1952, Jacobs delivered her response to Conrad E. Snow, chairman of the Loyalty Security Board at the United States Department of State. In her foreword to her answer, she said:
The other threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them. I do not agree with the extremists of either the left or the right, but I think they should be allowed to speak and to publish, both because they themselves have, and ought to have, rights, and once their rights are gone, the rights of the rest of us are hardly safe...
Architectural Forum
Jacobs left Amerika in 1952 when it announced its relocation to Washington, D.C. She then found a well-paying job at Architectural Forum, published by Henry Luce of Time Inc. She was hired as an associate editor. After early success in that position, Jacobs began to take assignments on urban planning and "urban blight". In 1954, she was assigned to cover a development in Philadelphia designed by Edmund Bacon. Although her editors expected a positive story, Jacobs criticized Bacon's project, reacting against its lack of concern for the poor African Americans who were directly affected. When Bacon showed Jacobs examples of undeveloped and developed blocks, she determined that "development" seemed to end community life on the street. When Jacobs returned to the offices of Architectural Forum, she began to question the 1950s consensus on urban planning.
In 1955, Jacobs met William Kirk, an Episcopal minister who worked in East Harlem. Kirk came to the Architectural Forum offices to describe the impact that "revitalization" had on East Harlem, and he introduced Jacobs to the neighborhood.
In 1956, while standing in for Douglas Haskell of Architectural Forum, Jacobs delivered a lecture at Harvard University. She addressed leading architects, urban planners, and intellectuals (including Lewis Mumford), speaking on the topic of East Harlem. She urged this audience to "respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Contrary to her expectations, the talk was received with enthusiasm, but it also marked her as a threat to established urban planners, real estate owners, and developers. Architectural Forum printed the speech that year, along with photographs of East Harlem.
Rockefeller Foundation and Death and Life of Great American Cities
After reading her Harvard speech, William H. Whyte invited Jacobs to write an article for Fortune magazine. The resulting piece, "Downtown Is for People", appeared in a 1958 issue of Fortune, and marked her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Her criticism of the Lincoln Center was not popular with supporters of urban renewal at Architectural Forum and Fortune. C.D. Jackson, the publisher of Fortune, was outraged and over the telephone, demanded of Whyte: "Who is this crazy dame?"
The Fortune article brought Jacobs to the attention of Chadbourne Gilpatric, then associate director of the Humanities Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation had moved aggressively into urban topics, with a recent award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for studies of urban aesthetics that would culminate in the publication of Kevin A. Lynch's Image of the City. In May 1958, Gilpatric invited Jacobs to begin serving as a reviewer for grant proposals. Later that year, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Jacobs to produce a critical study of city planning and urban life in the U.S. (From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the foundation's Humanities Division sponsored an "Urban Design Studies" research program, of which Jacobs was the best known grantee.) Gilpatric encouraged Jacobs to "explor[e] the field of urban design to look for ideas and actions which may improve thinking on how the design of cities might better serve urban life, including cultural and humane value." Affiliating with The New School (then called The New School for Social Research), she spent three years conducting research and writing drafts. In 1961, Random House published the result: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains one of the most influential books in the history of American city planning. She coined the terms "social capital", "mixed primary uses", and "eyes on the street", which were adopted professionally in urban design, sociology, and many other fields. Jacobs painted a devastating picture of the profession of city planning, labeling it a pseudoscience. This angered the male-dominated urban planning profession. Jacobs was criticized with ad hominem attacks, being called a "militant dame" and a "housewife": an amateur who had no right to interfere with an established discipline. One planner dismissed Jacobs's book as "bitter coffee-house rambling". Robert Moses, sent a copy, called it "intemperate and also libelous... Sell this junk to someone else."
Later, her book was criticized from the left for leaving out race and openly endorsing gentrification, which Jacobs referred to as "unslumming".
In 1962, she resigned her position at Architectural Forum to become a full-time author and concentrate on raising her children. In other political activities she became an opponent of the Vietnam War, marched on the Pentagon in October 1967, and criticized the construction of the World Trade Center as a disaster for Manhattan's waterfront.
Struggle for Greenwich Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, her home neighborhood of Greenwich Village was being transformed by city and state efforts to build housing (see, for example, Jacobs's 1961 fight to build the West Village Houses in lieu of large apartment houses), private developers, the expansion of New York University, and by the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. Moses' plan, funded as "slum clearance" by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, also called for several blocks to be razed and replaced with upscale high-rises. The plan forced 132 families out of their homes and displaced 1,000 small businesses—the result was Washington Square Village.
As part of his efforts to revitalize the area, Moses had proposed the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park in 1935. In the face of community opposition, Moses had shelved the project, but revived the idea in the 1950s. Moses argued that the Fifth Avenue extension would improve the flow of traffic through the neighborhood and provide access to the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), which would connect the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge with the Holland Tunnel.
In response, local activist Shirley Hayes created the "Committee to Save Washington Square Park", a coalition of dozens of local neighborhood groups that opposed the roadway extension. Raymond S. Rubinow eventually took over the organization, changing its name to the "Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic". Jacobs had joined the committee under Hayes, but she took a more prominent role under Rubinow, reaching out to media outlets such as The Village Voice, which provided more sympathetic coverage than The New York Times. The committee gained the support of Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte, as well as Carmine De Sapio, a Greenwich Village resident and influential Democratic leader. De Sapio's involvement proved decisive. On 25 June 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park to traffic, and the joint committee held a ribbon tying (not cutting) ceremony.
Plans for LOMEX expressway continued despite growing community opposition in areas such as Little Italy. In the 1960s, Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The New York Times was sympathetic to Moses, while The Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway. Jacobs continued to fight the expressway when plans resurfaced in 1962, 1965, and 1968, and she became a local hero for her opposition to the project. She was arrested by a plainclothes police officer on April 10, 1968, at a public hearing during which the crowd had charged the stage and destroyed the stenographer's notes. She was accused of inciting a riot, criminal mischief, and obstructing public administration. After months of trials conducted in New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.New York: A Documentary Film devoted an hour of the eight-part, seventeen-and-a-half-hour series to the battle between Moses and Jacobs. Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, gives only passing mention to this event, however, despite Jacobs's strong influence on Caro. In 2017, Caro told an interviewer about the difficulty in cutting more than 300,000 words from his initial manuscript: "The section that I wrote on Jane Jacobs disappeared. To this day, when someone says: 'There's hardly a mention of Jane Jacobs,' I think, 'But I wrote a lot about her.' Every time I'm asked about that, I have this sick feeling."
Life in Toronto
Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in part because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried about the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did not want to continue fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and offered employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that included so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".
She quickly became a leading figure in her new city and helped stop the proposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.
In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on Quebec's sovereignty in her book, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Separation. Jacobs was an advocate of a Province of Toronto to separate the city proper from Ontario. Jacobs said, "Cities, to thrive in the twenty-first century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas."
She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology section of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be given to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".
Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political support for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of Metro Toronto, fearing that individual neighborhoods would have less power with the new structure. She backed an ecologist, Tooker Gomberg, who lost Toronto's 2000 mayoralty race, and she was an adviser to David Miller's successful mayoral campaign in 2003, at a time when he was seen as a longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA). Following the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did upgrade the ferry service and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.
Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a plan of Royal St. George's College (an established school very close to the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district) to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the redesign be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the case during the hearing.
She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.
Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner (d. 2009); a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's statement noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".
Legacy
Jacobs is credited, along with Lewis Mumford, with inspiring the New Urbanist movement. She has been characterized as a major influence on decentralist and radical centrist thought. She discussed her legacy in an interview with Reason magazine.
While Jacobs saw her greatest legacy to be her contributions to economic theory, it is in the realm of urban planning that she has had her most extensive effect. Her observations about the ways in which cities function revolutionized the urban planning profession and discredited many accepted planning models that had dominated mid-century planning. The influential Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser, known for his work on urban studies, acknowledged that Jane Jacobs (1960s) had been prescient in attacking Moses for "replacing well-functioning neighborhoods with Le Corbusier-inspired towers". Glaeser agreed that these housing projects proved to be Moses' greatest failures, "Moses spent millions and evicted tens of thousands to create buildings that became centers of crime, poverty, and despair."
She also was famous for introducing concepts such as the "Ballet of the Sidewalk" and "Eyes on the Street", a reference to what would later be known as natural surveillance. The concept had a huge influence on planners and architects such as Oscar Newman, who prepared the idea through a series of studies that would culminate in his defensible space theory. The work of Jacobs and Newman would go on to affect American housing policy through the HOPE VI Program, an effort by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish the high-rise public housing projects so reviled by Jacobs and to replace them with low-rise, mixed-income housing.
Throughout her life, Jacobs fought to alter the way in which city development was approached. By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects were instrumental in discrediting these once universally supported planning practices.
Jacobs is remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities, and for leaving "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place".
Despite the fact that Jacobs mainly focused on New York City, her arguments have been identified as universal. For instance, her opposition against the demolition of urban neighborhoods for projects of urban renewal had "special resonance" in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne in the 1960s, resident associations fought against large-scale high-rise housing projects of the Housing Commission of Victoria, which they argued had little regard for the impact on local communities.
Jacobs fought an uphill battle against dominant trends of planning. Despite the United States remaining very much a suburban nation, the work of Jacobs has contributed to city living being rehabilitated and revitalized. Because of her ideas, today, many distressed urban neighborhoods are more likely to be gentrified than cleared for redevelopment.
Samuel R. Delany's book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue relies heavily on The Death and Life of Great American Cities in its analysis of the nature of social relations within the realm of urban studies.
Jane Jacobs Days
After the death of Jacobs in April 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a Jane Jacobs Day, held on June 28, 2006. The City of Toronto proclaimed her birthday the following year, May 4, 2007, as Jane Jacobs Day.
Jane's Walks
In connection with Jane Jacobs Day in Toronto, two dozen free neighborhood walks in the city were offered that weekend (5 May 2007) as an active memorial to Jacobs, and they were dubbed Jane's Walks. Later, a Jane's Walk event was held in New York on September 29–30, 2007. In 2008, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents. The interpretive walks typically apply ideas Jacobs identified or espoused to local areas, which are explored on foot and sometimes by bicycle. The walks normally take place in early May, on or close to her May 4 birth anniversary. Walks are organized and led by local volunteers, coordinated by a headquarters office in Toronto. There are more than 200 walks offered in Toronto, alone, in 2016, taking place on May 6, 7, and 8.
Exhibitions
In 2016, to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of Jane Jacobs, a Toronto gallery staged "Jane at Home", an exhibition running from April 29-May 8. Curated by Jane's son, Jim Jacobs, it offered glimpses of her home life, where she also worked. Her Toronto living room was represented, based on the one at her Albany Avenue house in The Annex, where she often spoke with noted thinkers and political leaders including Marshall McLuhan, Paul Martin, and the Queen of the Netherlands. On display were her typewriter, original manuscripts, rediscovered photographs demonstrating her distinctive styles, and personal mementos. The exhibit included furniture from previous homes in New York (her dining room is set up) and from Scranton, Pennsylvania.Jane at Home , Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, 2016
In 2007, the Municipal Art Society of New York partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to host an exhibit focusing on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York," which opened at the society in September that year. The exhibit aimed to educate the public on her writings and activism and used tools to encourage new generations to become active in issues involving their own neighborhoods. An accompanying exhibit publication included essays and articles by such architecture critics, artists, activists, and journalists as Malcolm Gladwell, Reverend Billy, Robert Neuwirth, Tom Wolfe, Thomas de Monchaux, and William McDonough. Many of these contributors participated in a series of panel discussions on "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York".
Jane Jacobs Medal
As a tribute to Jacobs, the Rockefeller Foundation, which had awarded grants to Jacobs in the 1950s and 1960s, announced on February 9, 2007, the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, "to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City". Recipients include:
Barry Benepe, co-founder of the New York City Green Market program and a founding member of Transportation Alternatives, was awarded with the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and a $100,000 cash prize in September 2007. The inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism was awarded to Omar Freilla, the founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx; Mr. Freilla donated his $100,000 to his organization.
Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action, received the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, received the award for New Ideas and Activism. Both women received their medals and $100,000 awards at a dinner ceremony in September 2008 in New York City.
Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Richard Kahan, as founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, which created and manages 22 secondary public schools located in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York City, received the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. Both received $100,000, in addition to the medal.
The 2010 recipients were Joshua David and Robert Hammond, whose work in establishing the High Line Park atop an unused elevated railroad line, led the foundation to award the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, along with $60,000 to each man. The 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership was given to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, for her longtime work as writer, park administrator, and co-founder of Central Park Conservancy. She received $80,000 as well.
The Canadian Urban Institute offers an award to honor her, the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, to recognize a person "who has had significant impact on the health of their region consistent with Jane Jacob's belief that successful cities foster a place-based, community-centered approach." The 2011 winner was Eberhard Zeidler, while his daughter, Margie Zeidler, won the 2015 award. In 2012, Anne Golden took the prize "for her long-standing leadership in public policy, her academic work and her varied leadership experience in business, not-for-profit and government sectors." William (Bill) Teron accepted the 2013 award "for his influential career in public policy and passionate advocacy for quality design and commitment to development in the Ottawa area." In 2014, Jack Diamond was recognized for his "contribution to improving the built form and advocacy for cities and the future of the Greater Toronto Area."
In April 2014, Spacing was appointed the stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize. Spacing, winners of the prize in 2010, has continued to provide the award with a new life and new ways of promoting (and finding) the winners.
Other honors
Jane Jacobs Way, West Village, New York City (Hudson Street and Eleventh Street, New York, New York)
Jane Jacobs Park, 11 Wellesley Street West, Toronto (construction began in 2016)
Jane Jacobs sculptural chairs, Victoria Memorial Square (St. John's Square), Toronto
Jane Jacobs Toronto Legacy Plaque, 69 Albany Avenue, Toronto
Jacobs' Ladder, rose bushes dedicated by Grassroots Albany (neighbors) in 1997, Toronto
Jane Jacobs Street, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jane Jacobs Street (Village of Cheshire) Black Mountain, North Carolina
a Google Doodle marked the 100th anniversary of Jacobs's birth, on May 4, 2016, and was featured on Google's homepage in 15 countries on four continents
a conference room at the offices of the New Economics Foundation in London is named in honor of Jacobs
Jacobs received the second Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.
Jacobs is the subject of the 2017 documentary film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which depicts her victories over Robert Moses and her philosophy of urban design.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of her is played by Alison Smith in a season 1 episode of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The community organizer played by Cherry Jones in Motherless Brooklyn has drawn comparisons to Jane Jacobs. The director, Edward Norton, has clarified that the composite character was partially based on Jacobs, but more so on Hortense Gabel who was active a decade earlier.
The URL of the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) is whatwouldjanejacobsdo.
Criticism
The planners and developers she fought against to preserve the West Village were among those who initially criticized her ideas. Robert Moses has generally been identified as her arch-rival during this period. Since then, Jacobs's ideas have been analysed many times, often in regard to the outcomes that their influences have produced.Glaeser, Edward L. (2010) Taller Buildings, Cheaper Homes. The New York Times, 4 May 2010 6:02 amOuroussoff, Nicolai (2006) Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York. The New York Times, Published 30 April 2006Bratishenko, Lev (2016) Jane Jacobs's Tunnel Vision Why our cities need less Jane Jacobs. Literary Review of Canada, October 2016
In places such as the West Village, the factors that she argued would maintain economic and cultural diversity have led instead to gentrification and some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Her family's conversion of an old candy shop into a home is an example of the gentrifying trend that would continue under the influence of Jacobs's ideas.
Gentrification also was caused, however, by "the completely unexpected influx of affluent residents back into the inner city". The extent to which her ideas facilitated this phenomenon was at the time unimaginable. For example, she advocated the preservation of older buildings specifically because their lack of economic value made them affordable for poor people. In this respect, she saw them as "guarantors of social diversity". That many of these older structures have increased in economic value solely due to their age was implausible in 1961. Issues of gentrification have dominated criticism of Jane Jacobs's planning ideas.
Economist Tyler Cowen has criticized her ideas for not addressing problems of scale or infrastructure, and suggests that economists disagree with some of her approaches to development. For example, although her ideas of planning were praised at times as "universal", they are now thought inapplicable when a city grows from one million to ten million (as has happened many times in developing nations). Such arguments suggest that her ideas apply only to cities with similar issues to those of New York, where Jacobs developed many of them.
Works
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. Her books include:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Death and Life of Great American Cities is her single-most influential book and, possibly, the most influential book on urban planning and cities. Published in 1961, this book was widely read by both planning professionals and the general public. The book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, which, she claimed, destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. In the book, she celebrates the diversity and complexity of old-mixed use neighborhoods while lamenting the monotony and sterility of modern planning. Jacobs advocated the abolition of zoning laws and restoration of free markets in land, which would result in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and she frequently cited New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community.
Robert Caro has cited it as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses, although Caro does not mention Jacobs by name in the book despite Jacobs's battles with Moses over his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Caro reportedly cut a chapter about Jacobs due to his book's length.
Beyond the practical lessons in city design and planning that Death and Life offers, the theoretical underpinnings of the work challenge the modern development mindset. Jane Jacobs defends her positions with common sense and anecdotes.
The Economy of Cities
The thesis of this book is that cities are the primary drivers of economic development. Her main argument is that explosive economic growth derives from urban import replacement. Import replacement is the process of producing goods locally that formerly were imported, e.g., Tokyo bicycle factories replacing Tokyo bicycle importers in the 1800s. Jacobs claims that import replacement builds up local infrastructure, skills, and production. Jacobs also claims that the increased production is subsequently exported to other cities, giving those other cities a new opportunity to engage in import replacement, thus producing a positive cycle of growth.
In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine, Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement. Critics erroneously claim that her ideas parrot the idea of import substitution advanced earlier by scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank. Import substitution was a national economic theory implying that if a nation substituted its imports with national production, the nation would become wealthier, whereas Jacob's idea is entirely about cities and could be called urban import substitution. However, even this would lead to confusion since in practice, import substitution in India and Latin America were government subsidized and mandated, whereas Jacobs's concept of import replacement is a free market process of discovery and division of labor within a city.
In the second part of the book, Jacobs argues that cities preceded agriculture. She argues that in cities trade in wild animals and grains allowed for the initial division of labor necessary for the discovery of husbandry and agriculture; these discoveries then moved out of the city due to land competition. Another interpretation of history, generally and erroneously considered to be contradictory to Jacobs's is supported by Marxist archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe and in recent times, by another historical materialist Charles Keith Maisels These writers argue that agriculture preceded cities. The apparent opposition between Childe and Jacobs theories rests in their definition of 'city', 'civilization', or 'urban'. Childe, like other materialists such as Maisels or Henri Lefebvre defines 'urban' or 'civilization' as Synoecism—as a literate, socially stratified, monolithic political community, whereas, as one can see from The Economy of Cities or from Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs defines the city purely along the lines of geographically dense trade giving way to entrepreneurial discovery and subsequent improvements in the division of labor. Without the requirements of literacy, monumental building, or the signs of specialized civil and armed forces, 'cities' can be accurately be interpreted to exists thousands of years before when Childe and Maisels place them. However, the Jacobs definition is supposition, since 'city' is defined simply as a large town or "a large human settlement" indicating permanence. The earliest remains of mankind uncovered by archaeologists do not give us more information other than that they were hunter-gatherers as there is no evidence yet of farming or settlement, implying nomadic lifestyles until further discoveries are found.
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty The Question of Separatism incorporated and expanded Jacobs's presentation of the 1979 Massey Lectures, entitled Canadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association. It was published in 1980 and reprinted in 2011 with a previously-unpublished 2005 interview with Robin Philpot on the subject in which she evokes the relative overlooking of that book among her usual readership. This was the first time Jacobs was requested to discuss it in an interview. Columnist Richard Gwyn advanced that while not openly criticizing her, English-speaking Canadians readers thought she did not understood how Canadian politics worked and that she was not being helpful in a time of distress for national unity (the 1980 referendum was just defeated by a vote of 60%). The Question of Separatism was also not mentioned in the bibliography of her 2006 obituary in The Globe and Mail.
Jacobs's book advances the view that Quebec's eventual independence is best for Montreal, Toronto, the rest of Canada, and the world; and that such independence can be achieved peacefully. As precedent, she cites Norway's secession from Sweden and how it enriched both nations. The origins of the contemporary secessionist-movement in the Quiet Revolution are examined, along with Canada's historical reliance on natural resources and foreign-owned manufacturing for its own economic development. Jacobs asserts that such an approach is colonial and hence backward, citing by example, Canada buying its skis and furniture from Norway or Norwegian-owned factories in Canada, the latter procedure being a product of Canadian tariffs designed specifically to foster such factories. The relevant public views of René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau are also critically analyzed, an example being their failure to recognize that two respective, independent currencies are essential to the success of an independent Quebec and a smaller resultant Canada, an issue that is central to her book. Jacobs stresses the need for Montreal to continue developing its leadership of Québécois culture, but that ultimately, such a need can never be fulfilled by Montreal's increasing tendencies toward regional-city status, tendencies foretelling economic, political, and cultural subservience to English-speaking Toronto. Such an outcome, Jacobs believed, would in the long run doom Quebec's independence as much as it would hinder Canada's own future. She concludes with her observation that the popular equating of political secession with political and economic failure is the result of the Enlightenment, which perceived nature as a force for "standardization, uniformity, universality, and immutability." Since then, naturalists and their readers have gradually realized that nature is a force for diversity, and that, "diversity itself is of the essence of excellence." The right kind of secession, Jacobs states, can lead to the right kind of diversity, and Quebec and Canada are capable of both, and must achieve both, to survive.
Cities and the Wealth of Nations Cities and the Wealth of Nations attempts to do for economics what The Death and Life of Great American Cities did for modern urban planning, although it has not received the same critical attention. Beginning with a concise treatment of classical economics, this book challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the greatest economists. Classical (and Neo-classical) economists consider the nation-state to be the main player in macroeconomics. Jacobs argues that it is not the nation-state, rather it is the city that is the true player in this worldwide game. She restates the idea of import replacement from her earlier book The Economy of Cities, while speculating on the further ramifications of considering the city first and the nation second, or not at all.
Systems of Survival Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work. As with her other work, she used an observational approach. This book is written as a Platonic dialogue. It appears that she (as described by characters in her book) took newspaper clippings of moral judgments related to work, collected and sorted them to find that they fit two patterns of moral behavior that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome, and "Moral Syndrome B", or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her system are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York subway police are paid bonuses here – reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
The Nature of Economies The Nature of Economies, a dialog between friends concerning the premise: "human beings exist wholly within nature as part of the natural order in every respect" (p. ix), argues that the same principles underlie both ecosystems and economies: "development and co-development through differentiation and their combinations; expansion through diverse, multiple uses of energy; and self-maintenance through self-refueling" (p. 82). Jacobs also comments on the nature of economic and biological diversity and its role in the development and growth of the two kinds of systems.
Jacobs's characters discuss the four methods by which "dynamically stable systems" may evade collapse: "bifurcations; positive-feedback loops; negative-feedback controls; and emergency adaptations" (p. 86). Their conversations also cover the "double nature of fitness for survival" (traits to avoid destroying one's own habitat as well as success in competition to feed and breed, p. 119), and unpredictability including the butterfly effect characterized in terms of multiplicity of variables as well as disproportional response to cause, and self-organization where "a system can be making itself up as it goes along" (p. 137).
The book is infused with many real-world economic and biological examples, which help keep the book "down to earth" and comprehensible, if dense. Concepts are furnished with both economic and biological examples, showing their coherence in both worlds.
One particularly interesting insight is the creation of "something from nothing" – an economy from nowhere. In the biological world, free energy is given through sunlight, but in the economic world human creativity and natural resources supply this free energy, or at least starter energy. Another interesting insight is the creation of economic diversity through the combination of different technologies, for example the typewriter and television as inputs and outputs of a computer system: this can lead to the creation of "new species of work".
Dark Age Ahead
Published in 2004 by Random House, Dark Age Ahead posits Jacobs's argument that "North American" civilization shows signs of a spiral decline comparable to the collapse of the Roman empire. Her discussion focuses on "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm", which can be summarized as the nuclear family and community; quality in education; free thought in science; representational government and responsible taxes; and corporate and professional accountability. As the title of this book suggests, Jacobs's outlook is far more pessimistic than that of her previous works. However, in the conclusion she admits: "At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of overcoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true." While Jacobs idealized U.S. democracy, Dark Age Ahead echoes the skepticism and disappointment that led to her emigration to Canada in 1968. Later, she would indicate that North American cultures, among others, were grounded in a "plantation mentality" that was culturally and ecologically unsustainable.
Orthodox urbanism
Jane Jacobs asserts in her work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, that the sources of orthodox urbanism are:
Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Ebenezer Howard
The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford
Cities in Evolution, Sir Patrick Geddes
Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer
Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein
Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Sir Raymond Unwin
The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier
Writings
Constitutional chaff; rejected suggestions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with explanatory argument Compiled by Jane Butzner, (1941) Columbia University Press; Compiled by Jane Jacobs (Née Butzner), Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House.
The Economy of Cities (1969)
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books)
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985)
The Girl on the Hat (Children's Book Illustrated by Karen Reczuch), (June 1990) Oxford University Press.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)
A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska – The Story of Hannah Breece (1995) Random House of Canada.
The Nature of Economies (2000) New York: Random House, The Modern Library.
Dark Age Ahead (2004)
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs'' (2016) New York: Random House.
See also
David Crombie
Fred Gardiner
Innovation Economics
Urban secession
Urban vitality
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Jane Jacobs's Order of Canada Citation
Jane Jacobs's Papers at John J. Burns Library, Boston College
Jane Jacobs Oral History, 1997 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Jacobs's Legacy, City Journal online, July 31, 2009
1916 births
2006 deaths
American architecture writers
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Tax resisters
Women urban planners
Anti-road protest
Canadian architecture writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers
Canadian social commentators
Interstate 78
Members of the Order of Ontario
Moral philosophers
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Greenwich Village
Writers from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Radical centrist writers
Urban theorists
Environmental economists
Writers from Toronto
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
American emigrants to Canada
Women's page journalists | false | [
"This is a list, which includes a photographic gallery, of some of the remaining historic properties in the town of Casa Grande, Arizona. Some of the structures in the list were made of fieldstone by local stonemason Michael Sullivan. Many of the historic structures in this list are listed either in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) or the Casa Grande Historic Register.\n\nAlso listed are two of the Corona Satellite Calibration Targets built in the 1960s in the desolate desert, in and around Casa Grande that helped to calibrate satellites of the Corona spy satellite program.\n\nIncluded are the images of the Casa Grande Domes which were built in the 1970s for a computer manufacturing company, but were never completed. The Domes, some of which resemble flying saucers and giant caterpillars, are in a state of abandonment. The Domes were featured in Season 11, Episode 9 of the Travel Channel series \"Ghost Adventures\"\n\nBrief history\nCasa Grande (Spanish for big house) is a city in Pinal County, which was founded in 1879 during the Arizona mining boom. Initially called Terminus it was an outpost and the end of the Railroad line for awhile. Then. was named after the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, which is actually located in Coolidge. The presence of the Southern Pacific Railroad contributed to the growth of the town.\n\nThe Casa Grande Valley Historical Society was founded in 1964 to preserve and exhibit the history of the Casa Grande region.\nThe city has numerous historic properties which have been listed either in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) or have been identified as historical by the Casa Grande Historic Preservation Program. The Historic Preservation Office works together with the Historic Preservation. They determine which properties meet the criteria for inclusion in the Casa Grande Historic Property Register. \nHowever, the preservation office does not have the ability to deny a demolition permit. Therefore, the owner of a property, listed in the National Historic Property Register, may demolish the historical property if he or she so wishes.\nAmong the properties which are listed in the NRHP and which have been demolished are the following:\n The John C. Loss House which was built in 1880 and which was located at 107 W. Main Ave. It was listed in the NRHP in 1992, reference #85000889.\n The Shonessy Building/Don Chun Wo Store which was built in 1913 and which was located at 121 W. Main Ave. It was listed in the NRHP in 1985, reference #85000893.\n The Souva—Cruz House which was located at 310 W. Main St. It was listed in the NRHP in 1985, reference #85003688.\n\nEndangered properties\nThe Arizona Preservation Foundation is an agency which identifies critically endangered cultural resources of major historical significance to the state. In 2012, the foundation identified the following properties in Casa Grande as endangered:\n The Fisher Memorial Home.*\n The Meehan/Gaar House.\n\nBuildings\nThe following is a brief description with the images of the buildings listed.\n\nFieldstone structures\n\nMichael Sullivan was a local stonemason who in the 1920s built various structures of fieldstone in Casa Grande. The stones collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally. The stones used as fieldstones are building construction materials which are collected from the surface of fields where they occur naturally. Sullivan's last completed project was the Pvt. Matthew B. Juan monument in the town of Sacaton, Arizona. Sullivan did not see the dedication of this monument as he died on February 25, 1928, of a heart attack while en route to Sacaton for a visit. Among the structures which he built are the following:\n The Emil and Caroline Meyer House, built in 1920 and located at 222 9th St.\n The House at 320 West Eighth Street a.k.a. The Stone Barber Shop , was built in 1920 and is located at 320 W. 8th St.\n The Stone Bungalow was built in 1921 and is located at 515 E. 3rd St.\n The Stone Warehouse was built in 1922 and is located in the rear of the building at 119 Florence St.\n The Casa Grande Woman's Club Building, built in 1924 and located at 407 N. Sacaton St.\n The Casa Grande Stone Church, built in 1927 and located at 110 W. Florence Boulevard.\n The Fisher Memorial Home, built in 1927 and located at 300 E. 8th St. (see \"Notes section\").\n The Vasquez House, was built in 1927 and located at 114 E. Florence Boulevard.\n\nHouses of religious worship\nThe following are the houses of religious worship in Casa Grande listed in the NRHP:\n The Casa Grande Stone Church (Heritage Hall) – was built in 1927 and is located at 110 W. Florence Boulevard. NRHP-listed in 1978.\n Saint Anthony's Church – was built in 1935 and is located at 215 N. Picacho St. NRHP-listed in 1985.\n Saint Anthony's Church Rectory – was built in 1935 and is located at 201 N. Picacho St. NRHP-listed in 1985.\n The First Baptist Church – was built in 1938 and is located at 218 E. 8th St. NRHP-listed in 2002.\n The Church of the Nazarene – was built in 1949 and is located at 305 E. 4th St. NRHP-listed in 2002.\n\nCommercial and other historic buildings\n The Cruz Trading Post – was built in 1888 and is located at 200 W. Main St. It was listed in the NRHP in 1985, reference #85000883.\n The Casa Grande Hotel – was built in 1898 and is located at 201 W. Main Ave. (behind the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot) It was listed in the NRHP in 1985, reference #85000881.\n Johnston's Grocery Store – was built in 1907 and is located at 301 N. Picacho St. It was listed as \"Johnson's Grocery Store\" in the NRHP in 1985, reference #85000885.\n Ward's Variety Store – was built in 1914 and is located at 112 N. Sacaton St. It was listed in the NRHP in 1985, reference #85000898.\n The Central Creditors Association Building – was built in 1914 and is located at 118 N. Sacaton St. It was listed in the NRHP in 1985, reference #85000882 .\n The Casa Grande Union High School – was built in 1920 and is located at 510 E. Florence Boulevard. The building now serves as the Casa Grande City Hall. NRHP listed in 1986, reference #86000821.\n The Casa Grande Garage – was built in 1922 and is located at 117 N. Sacaton St. it is listed in the Casa Grande Historic Register.\n The Pioneer Market – was built in 1922 and is located at 119 N. Florence St. It was listed in the NRHP in 1985, reference #85000919.\n The Stone Warehouse – was built in 1922 and is located in the rear of the building at 119 Florence St. It was listed in the NRHP in 1985, reference #85000896.\n The Building at 121 North Florence Street – was built in 1923 and is located at 121 N. Florence St. It was listed in the NRHP in 2002, reference #02000737.\n The Casa Grande Woman's Club Building – was built in 1924 and is located at 407 N. Sacaton St. NRHP listed in 1979, reference #79000425.\n The Southern Pacific Railroad Depot – was built in 1925 and is located at 201 W. Main St. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000734.\n The Fisher Memorial Home – a house and funeral home, was built in 1927 and is located at 300 E. 8th St. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000884. It was destroyed by a fire in 2017.\n The Casa Grande Hospital – was built in 1928 and is located at 601 N. Cameron Ave. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000740.\n The Prettyman's Meat Market and Grocery/Brigg's Jeweler – was built in 1929 and is located at 110 W. Main Ave. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000891.\n The Paramount Theatre – was built in 1929 and is located at 420 N. Florence St. NRHP listed in 1999, reference #990001067.\n The Casa Grande Dispatch Building – was built in 1929 and is located at 109 E. 2nd St. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000747.\n The Southside Elementary School – was built in 1930 and is located at 501 S. Florence St. It is listed in the Casa Grande Historic Register.\n The Rebecca Dalis School House – was built in 1934 and is located at 110 W. Florence Blvd. It is listed in the Casa Grande Historic Register.\n The Mandell and Meyer Building – was built in 1937 and is located at 211 N. Florence St. It was listed in the NRHP in 2002, reference #02000736.\n The Lincoln Hospital – was built in 1940 and is located at 112 N. Brown Ave. It was listed in the NRHP in 2002, reference #02000741.\n The S.S. Blinky Jr. Building – was built in 1946 and is located at 465 W. Gila Bend Highway. It was listed in the NRHP in 2002, reference #02000748.\n The V.W. Kilcrease Building – was built in 1948 and is located at 139 W. 1st St. It was listed in the NRHP on November 20, 2002, reference #02000754.\n The William Cox Building – was built in 1948 and is located at 501 N. Marshall St. It was listed in the NRHP in 1999, reference #99001068.\n The Valley National Bank building – was built in 1950 and is located at 221 N. Florence St. It was listed in the NRHP in 2002, reference #02000733.\n The Building at 400 East Third Street (once the Church of Christ) – was built in 1950 and is located at 400 E. 3rd St. It was listed in the NRHP in 2002, reference #02000749.\n\nHouses\nThe following is a brief description with the images of the houses listed:\n The Bien/McNatt House – was built in 1880 and is located at 208 W. 1st St. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000880.\n The Judge William T. Day House – was built in 1886 and is located at 306 W. 1st St. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85001624.\n The Shonessy House – was built in 1900 and is located at 115 W. Main Ave. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000894.\n The Meehan/Gaar House – was built in 1903 and is located at 200 W. 1st St. Fanne Gaar bought the house in 1920. She became mayor of Casa Grande in 1927, a first for a woman in Arizona. Gaar lived in the house until her death in 1971. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000890.\n The BeDillions House – built in 1917 and located at 800 Park Ave. It is listed in the Casa Grande Historic Register.\n The House at 323 West Eighth St. – was built in 1918 and is located at 323 W. 8th St. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000744.\n The House at 736 North Center Avenue – was built in 1919 and is located at 736 N. Center Ave. It was listed in the NRHP in 2002, reference #02000738.\n The House at 320 West Eighth Street a.k.a. The Stone Barber Shop – was built in 1920 and is located at 320 W. 8th St. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000745.\n The Wilbur O. Bayless/Grasty House – was built in 1920 and is located at 221 N. Cameron St. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000879.\n The Gus Kratzka House (now the Casa Grande Art Museum) – was built in 1929 and is located at 319 W. 3rd Street. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000886.\n The Henry and Anna Kochsmeier House – was built in 1929 and is located at 403 W. 2nd Ave. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000746.\n The Stone Bungalow – was built in 1921 and is located at 515 E. 3rd St. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000995.\n The Earl Bayless House – was built in 1922 and is located at 211 N. Cameron St. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000878.\n Extension of the Earl Bayless House – was used as a store and is located at 211 N. Cameron St. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000878.\n The House at North Lehmberg Avenue a.k.a. Spanish Eclectic House – was built in 1925 and is located at 1105 N. Lehmberg Ave. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000735.\n The Period Revival House – was built in 1927 and is located at 905 N. Lehmberg St. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #850001623.\n The Vasquez House – was built in 1927 and is located at 114 E. Florence Boulevard. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000897.\n The House at 59 North Brown Avenue a.k.a. Fieldstone House – was built in 1928 and is located at 59 N. Brown Ave. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000742.\n The Benjamin Templeton House – was built in 1929 and is located at 923 N. Center Ave. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000739\n The House at 317 East Eighth Street – was built in 1929 and is located at 317 E. 8th St. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000753.\n The Emil and Caroline Meyer House – was built in 1920 and is located at 222 W. 9th St. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #0200073.\n The Dr. H. B. Lehmberg House – was built in 1929 and is located at 929 N. Lehmberg St. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000888.\n The White House – was built in 1929 and is located at 901 N. Morrison. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000899.\n The C. J. (Blinky) Wilson House was built in 1929 and is located at 223 W. 10th St. NRHP listed in 1985, reference #85000900.\n The Walter Wilbur House – was built in 1939 and is located at 904 E. 8th St. NRHP listed in 2002, reference #02000752.\n\nHistoric fire truck\n Historic Casa Grande Fire Department Engine #1 – a 1928 American LaFrance fire truck is on display in the Casa Grande Historical Society Museum at 110 W Florence Blvd.\n\nCorona Satellite Calibration Targets\n\nThe Corona Satellite Calibration Targets refer to two hundred and seventy two (272) concrete markers, built in the 1960s in the desolate Arizona desert, in and around Casa Grande, Arizona that helped to calibrate satellites of the Corona spy satellite program. They are large concrete crosses in the ground with a resemblance of a large Maltese Cross. The targets are only visible if one walked up to them or passed over them from a great height, like space.\n\nEach of the targets has a manhole with a cement cover and rebar handles. The manhole is located on the west arm of the cross. According to Gary Morgan, member of the Cold War Museum in Warrenton VA., the 6 pieces of rebar, which protrude at an equal distance from each other, may have been used to hold laser lighting to give a more accurate fix on each target.\n\nThe targets were abandoned following the end of the program in 1972. About half of the targets were either destroyed or demolished. Pictured are two of the remaining targets which have survived. The first one pictured (Y47) is located on the southeast corner of South Montgomery and West Cornman Roads and the second (Y4-) one on the northeast corner of West Cornman Road and Carmel Blvd.\n\nThe Casa Grande Domes\nThe Casa Grande Domes, located on South Thornton Road, were built in 1982 for the California-based electronics manufacturing company InnerConn Technology Inc's new headquarters. The company's then-current headquarters in Mountain View, California was to become a branch plant. At the ground breaking event for the domes in 1982, owner of InnerConn Technology Patricia Zebb stated:\n\nInnerConn opened one office in the structures, but production never started after it defaulted on a loan and the bank took possession of the property. The domes were abandoned and never completed. In later years, the iconic and crumbling structures, some which resemble flying saucers and giant caterpillars, became an attraction to vandals, graffiti artists and others. The domes were featured in Season 12, Episode 9 of the Travel Channel series \"Ghost Adventures\" In 2017, the county officials ordered the demolition of the dilapidated domes.\n\nSee also\n\n Casa Grande, Arizona\n Michael Sullivan\n National Register of Historic Places listings in Pinal County, Arizona\n\nNotes\n\nFurther reading\n\nReferences\n\nHistory of Pinal County, Arizona\nCasa Grande\nBuildings and structures in Casa Grande, Arizona",
"Lykkesholms Allé is a street in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs from Gammel Kongevej in the south to Danasvej in the north and is intersected by Niels Ebbesens Vej.\n\nHistory\n \n\nThe land where the street is located was acquired by the composer Emil Horneman who had become moderately wealthy through his thriving music business and second marriage. He created the street in around 1850. It was named after the country house Lykkesholm which was, however, not located at the site but at present-day Tesdorpfsvej. The street was initially named Lykkesholmsvej but this name was changed to Lykkesholms Allé in 1890. Horneman was together with Georg Carstensen also an investor in the nearby entertainment venue Alhambra.\n\nDen Praktiske Tjenestepigeskole, a maids' school, was located at the corner of Lykkesholms Allé and Niels Ebbesens Bej. It relocated to new premises at Emiliegade in 1875. G. J. V. Bense operated a timber retail business in the courtyard of No. 11 from circa 1896 to 1904.\n\nBuildings\n\n \nAmaliehåb (No. 11) was built in 1852-53 by two master carpenters named Hasenjäger and Schütte. They named the building after the landowner, Amalie Jensen. Krogerup (No. 7) is from 1850.\n\nKaptajn Johnsens Skole, a private school, has been based at No. 3A since 1936.\n\nLe Printemps (No. 13), a house from 1870, was designed by Vilhelm Dahlerup. No. 6 is from 1905 and was designed by the architect Ole Boye.\n\nNotable people\n Hans Vilhelm Kaalundm poet, spent his last years at No. 7.\n Erik Bøghm journalist and playwright, lived at No. 3A ub 1891-99.\n Gotfred Christensenm landscape painter, lived at No. 8 in 1879-88.\n Harald Foss, landscape painter, lived for many years at No. 15.\n\nSee also\n Forhåbningsholms Allé\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Source\n\nStreets in Frederiksberg"
]
|
[
"Extras (TV series)",
"When the Whistle Blows"
]
| C_0c5a9ca4fd4a437aa3cc79656398701a_0 | What is When the Whistle Blows? | 1 | What is When the Whistle Blows? | Extras (TV series) | When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it Where the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show. When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?," is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry. Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!" The presence of studio audiences/canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On". CANNOTANSWER | When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. | Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO and was written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. Extras follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his platonic friend Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen) and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-level sitcom star.
Extras has two series of six episodes each as well as a Christmas Special. The first episode aired in the UK on 21 July 2005 on BBC Two and on 25 September 2005 on HBO in the US. The second series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 14 September 2006 and began airing in the US on HBO and in Australia on ABC on 14 February 2007. The Christmas Special aired on 27 December 2007 on BBC One and on 16 December 2007 on HBO. Both series are available on DVD and, at various times, through streaming services in the UK and the US.
The series is filmed in a more traditional sitcom style than the mockumentary style used by Gervais and Merchant in their previous series The Office. Each episode has at least one guest star: a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves; an exaggerated or inverted parody of their public personas. The show has been critically acclaimed, and has a Metacritic score of 81/100.
Cast and characters
Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman
Ashley Jensen as Maggie Jacobs
Stephen Merchant as Darren Lamb (credited as "Agent")
Shaun Williamson as Barry from EastEnders (himself)
Shaun Pye as Greg Lindley-Jones
Plot
Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an aspiring actor who can only find work as an extra, which he calls being a "background artist" as a means of making the work seem more dignified. Andy is accompanied on his various projects by his platonic best friend and fellow extra, Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen). Maggie is well-meaning but ditzy, often missing obvious social cues and failing to exhibit appropriate tact and subtlety in conversations. Unlike Andy, Maggie has no aspirations toward being anything more than an extra. Andy's agent, Darren Lamb (Stephen Merchant), has no real experience in the field of entertainment. He is incompetent, often taking no steps at all to find work for Andy, and even discouraging potential employers from hiring his client due to his flabby physique, age, and lack of acting experience. Darren is assisted by former soap opera star Shaun Williamson, who plays himself. Lamb frequently tries to undermine Andy by suggesting Williamson (who Lamb refers to by his former EastEnders character name, "Barry") is better suited for various acting roles that are offered to Andy.
Fed up with life as an extra who is always being cut out of scenes just as he manages to get his face on camera, Andy shamelessly kisses up to celebrities and producers in an effort to try to get screen time or a line of dialogue. Although often successful in these endeavours, circumstances always arise that prevent Andy from advancing his career. Reasons include celebrities confessing that they have no real power to help, or (more often) Andy inadvertently offending the star which results in his immediate dismissal from the set. In the conclusion of season one, Andy delivers a sitcom script he has written to Patrick Stewart, who, in turn, passes it along to the BBC through his production company. Andy gets a meeting with BBC comedy producers who greenlight his project and agree to allow him to play the starring role in the show.
Series Two largely chronicles Andy's frustrations with his sitcom—When the Whistle Blows—which is heavily rewritten by BBC producers, resulting in it being a lowest-common-denominator comedy that relies on a multitude of catchphrases, offensive stereotypes and silly costumes for cheap laughs. Although the sitcom is commercially successful, pulling six million weekly viewers, it is a flop with critics who mercilessly bash both it and Andy. Andy periodically gets a chance to expand his repertoire in film and on stage but manages to ruin every opportunity that comes his way by either refusing to take direction, or by once again offending bigger stars than himself.
In the series' 90-minute finale, the sitcom has made Andy financially successful and recognisable to many but he is increasingly frustrated with the show's quality and with his career not moving forward. Andy is convinced to fire Darren as his agent and become a client of a larger, more professional firm which he believes will accelerate his path upward. After taping a Christmas Special for When the Whistle Blows, he announces to the live studio audience that he is quitting the series effective immediately. His career falls into total stagnation and Andy is forced to take bit parts on various long-running British television series such as Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon. Eventually, his agent ceases to take his calls. Andy's relationship with Maggie sours as he frequently ignores her and spends all of the time they spend together complaining about not getting the opportunities he feels he deserves.
When he crashes his agent's lunch meeting at a posh restaurant, he is bluntly told that he will never realise his dreams of having fame, fortune, prestige and respect. Crushed, Andy reluctantly agrees to lower his expectations for the sake of remaining modestly famous and successful and is cast in Celebrity Big Brother. While staying in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Andy openly reflects upon the price of fame and grows increasingly disenchanted with the culture of celebrity worship that has manifested itself throughout Western society.
His despondency culminates in an emotional breakdown during a conversation with the other housemates. He tearfully turns to the camera and apologises to Maggie, who is watching the broadcast from her flat, for ignoring her and not heeding her advice to be grateful for the things he has managed to achieve. He voluntarily departs the house, ending his tenure on the show. Moved by the unexpected outpouring of emotion, a group of journalists eagerly awaits Andy's appearance at a press conference. Andy's agent returns and tells him that his emotional turn has instantly skyrocketed Andy's profile and that a number of A-list stars are requesting to meet him. As his agent prepares to introduce him to the throng of waiting press, Andy quietly slips out the back door of the studio where Maggie is waiting for him in her car. They drive off together with Andy seemingly turning his back on show business and accepting a life of anonymity.
Episodes
There are twelve regular episodes and a 90-minute Christmas special.
When the first series was originally broadcast in the UK, the episode featuring Ben Stiller was broadcast first, followed by the Ross Kemp and Vinnie Jones episode the following week.
When the first series was shown in North America, another order was used:
Kate Winslet
Ben Stiller
Ross Kemp & Vinnie Jones
Les Dennis
Samuel L. Jackson
Patrick Stewart
When the Whistle Blows
When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it When the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first-season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show.
When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry.
Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!"
The presence of studio audiences, canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On".
Music
The closing title track is called "Tea for the Tillerman", which is written and performed by Cat Stevens and is the title track of his album Tea for the Tillerman. The fourth episode of the second series of the show features a cover of the song performed by Chris Martin of Coldplay. The same episode also uses the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison.
The song in the Christmas Special highlighting Maggie's depression after she hits bottom and quits acting is "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush. When Andy is having a bad time at The Ivy restaurant and leaves Maggie on her own, The Smiths' song "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" can be heard.
Guest star cancellations and replacements
According to a segment in the extras section of the Series 1 DVD, Jude Law was scheduled to appear in one of the episodes, after meeting Gervais backstage on the Late Show with David Letterman, but had to pull out due to film commitments. This resulted in Gervais and Merchant having to scramble to find a replacement actor at the last minute, with Leonardo DiCaprio being considered and doggedly pursued. A featurette on the first series DVD release, "Finding Leo", consists of late-night video camera footage (shot mostly by Merchant) chronicling Gervais' desperate but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to contact DiCaprio's representatives. Law was ultimately replaced by Patrick Stewart in the series 1 finale, although a poster for the Jude Law film Alfie appeared at the end. Other actors who did not appear in Extras despite initial reports from Gervais that they would appear include Madonna, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise. Keith Harris turned down the part eventually given to Keith Chegwin having read the script, telling The Independent "This isn't clever writing, it's pure filth".
Awards and nominations
Overall, Extras has been received very well by critics in the UK. The show received 3 BAFTA Award nominations in 2006 including Best Comedy Performance for Ashley Jensen, Best Writer for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and Best Situation Comedy. In 2007, both Gervais and Merchant were nominated, separately, for Best Comedy Performance, with Gervais ultimately winning the award.
The show has also received accolades in the US. In 2006, the show received four nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards. Ben Stiller and Patrick Stewart received nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and both lost to Leslie Jordan on Will & Grace. Kate Winslet received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and lost to Cloris Leachman for Malcolm in the Middle. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode with Kate Winslet. They lost to Greg Garcia for writing the pilot episode of My Name Is Earl.
In 2007, the show received four nominations at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. Gervais was nominated for and won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Ian McKellen was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Daniel Radcliffe and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for Orlando Bloom. Extras made the Top 10 list of Outstanding Comedy Series but was not nominated in the Top 5.
In 2008, the finale earned five nominations at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. The special was nominated for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, losing out to Recount. On the acting side, Gervais was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, losing to Paul Giamatti in John Adams, while Jensen received her first Emmy nomination with a nod in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie category. She lost out to Eileen Atkins in Cranford. Gervais and Merchant received nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special, as well as in the Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special category, but lost the former to Jay Roach for Recount and the latter to Kirk Ellis for John Adams.
References
External links
2005 British television series debuts
2007 British television series endings
2000s British satirical television series
2000s British sitcoms
2000s British workplace comedy television series
BBC television sitcoms
Best Musical or Comedy Series Golden Globe winners
English-language television shows
HBO original programming
Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series
Television series about actors
Television series about show business
Television series about television
Television series produced at Pinewood Studios
Television series created by Ricky Gervais
Television series created by Stephen Merchant | true | [
"\"Give a Little Whistle\" is a song written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for Walt Disney's 1940 adaptation of Pinocchio. The original version was sung by Cliff Edwards in the character of Jiminy Cricket and Dickie Jones in the character of Pinocchio, and is teaching how to whistle in the film.\n\nIn the film\nJiminy Cricket hopped on Pinocchio's toes, attempts the whistle on the two failures. Jiminy whistles three times for Pinocchio on the last whistle. Jiminy starts to dance and hopped on to the shelf to sing to him, blows the whistle on his top hat into the echo and dances on the shelf. Pinocchio blows his hat and there's nothing in there. Jiminy says, \"Pucker up and blow!\" and he's on the jug to blows it like the bass music. Pinocchio stands up to sing. Until Jiminy Cricket balances on the violin with the violin string on his feet to slide up and down before he walked to sing, \"And always let your conscience be your guide!\" And the string breaks to snapped him out of the scene.\n\nIn the scenes of Jiminy Cricket, he's goofing around with his red umbrella for the imitating trombone and he looked at the pipe to smell on his nose to going reel around the circle until Jiminy is falling off the shelf. Until the saw is on the wooden plane on the workbench. Jiminy Cricket is falling from the shelf and lands on to the saw, as he jumped up before the saw is whistling. Before, Jiminy Cricket has two legs up to bounce and lands on the saw for legs split on his crotch and his butt on the seesaw as his pants or diapers. The saw lifts him up and Jiminy fixed his yellow necktie and lands on the saw again to fly up highest like a bird. Until Jiminy Cricket is ready to dive on the saw like the springboard to spring into the cuckoo clock to make the tap dancing to fixed the hand on 11:30, as he knocked on the door and marched like the band leader with the Swiss family and cow and a maid. When Jiminy finished the song to her and followed her to sing, \"And always let your conscience be your guide!\" And the door closed to Jiminy's face.\n\nPinocchio dances to sing, \"And always let your conscience be your guide!\" And he tripped over the cans to fall from the workbench into the floor with the junk is crashing while Geppetto and the animals wake to hear the noise.\n\nOther versions\n Doris Day - included on her 1964 album With a Smile and a Song.\n Julie London - for her album Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast (1967)\n June Christy - on her 1960 album The Cool School.\n\n1940 songs\nSongs based on fairy tales\nSongs with music by Leigh Harline\nSongs with lyrics by Ned Washington\nDisney songs\nSongs written for animated films\nPinocchio (1940 film)",
"Time on in Australian rules football is the portion of each quarter allocated for extra play which could not occur due to time being stopped.\n\nEach quarter has a specific length of playing time, which can vary in different forms of the game, but at senior level is usually 20 minutes. When the umpire stops play for a score, injury, the blood rule, to award a 50-metre penalty or to reset play for a mark or free kick, he raises one hand above his head and blows his whistle; this is called blowing time off. This tells the timekeeper to stop his clock and stop counting down playing time. When the umpire again raises his hand and blows his whistle, called blowing time on, or when the ball is bounced or thrown in, the timekeeper starts his clock again.\n\nTime on was first introduced to the Laws of the Game by the Australian National Football Council for the 1928 season. From 1928 until 1994, quarters lasted 25 minutes playing time, and time on was called only for scores and injuries; the rule of thumb was that there would be roughly one minute of time-on for every goal scored. From 1994, the AFL Commission adopted the shorter 20 minute quarter, and introduced time-on for many other stoppages, including a ball-up or boundary throw-in.\n\nThe timekeeper's twenty-minute count-down clock is not displayed at a football game. Rather, a count-up clock is displayed, which is not stopped when the umpire blows time off. As such, patrons and players at a football game never know exactly when the siren is going to sound, which makes close games particularly tense. Typically, a twenty-minute quarter will last between 27 and 33 minutes; the time period between the 20 minute mark and the siren is referred to as time on. The coaches' boxes and television networks are provided with a feed to the timekeeper's count-down clock in professional games.\n\nIf the umpire has blown time off to reset a free kick, the player cannot take his free kick until the time has been blown back on, in fairness to the defending team. Often, in his haste to move the ball quickly to an open teammate, a player will take a kick before time is blown on; in these circumstances, the umpire is forced to call the ball back and force the player to take another kick.\n\nReferences\n\nAustralian rules football terminology\nLaws of Australian rules football"
]
|
[
"Extras (TV series)",
"When the Whistle Blows",
"What is When the Whistle Blows?",
"When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman."
]
| C_0c5a9ca4fd4a437aa3cc79656398701a_0 | What was When the Whistle Blows about? | 2 | What was When the Whistle Blows about? | Extras (TV series) | When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it Where the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show. When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?," is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry. Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!" The presence of studio audiences/canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On". CANNOTANSWER | When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. | Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO and was written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. Extras follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his platonic friend Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen) and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-level sitcom star.
Extras has two series of six episodes each as well as a Christmas Special. The first episode aired in the UK on 21 July 2005 on BBC Two and on 25 September 2005 on HBO in the US. The second series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 14 September 2006 and began airing in the US on HBO and in Australia on ABC on 14 February 2007. The Christmas Special aired on 27 December 2007 on BBC One and on 16 December 2007 on HBO. Both series are available on DVD and, at various times, through streaming services in the UK and the US.
The series is filmed in a more traditional sitcom style than the mockumentary style used by Gervais and Merchant in their previous series The Office. Each episode has at least one guest star: a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves; an exaggerated or inverted parody of their public personas. The show has been critically acclaimed, and has a Metacritic score of 81/100.
Cast and characters
Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman
Ashley Jensen as Maggie Jacobs
Stephen Merchant as Darren Lamb (credited as "Agent")
Shaun Williamson as Barry from EastEnders (himself)
Shaun Pye as Greg Lindley-Jones
Plot
Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an aspiring actor who can only find work as an extra, which he calls being a "background artist" as a means of making the work seem more dignified. Andy is accompanied on his various projects by his platonic best friend and fellow extra, Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen). Maggie is well-meaning but ditzy, often missing obvious social cues and failing to exhibit appropriate tact and subtlety in conversations. Unlike Andy, Maggie has no aspirations toward being anything more than an extra. Andy's agent, Darren Lamb (Stephen Merchant), has no real experience in the field of entertainment. He is incompetent, often taking no steps at all to find work for Andy, and even discouraging potential employers from hiring his client due to his flabby physique, age, and lack of acting experience. Darren is assisted by former soap opera star Shaun Williamson, who plays himself. Lamb frequently tries to undermine Andy by suggesting Williamson (who Lamb refers to by his former EastEnders character name, "Barry") is better suited for various acting roles that are offered to Andy.
Fed up with life as an extra who is always being cut out of scenes just as he manages to get his face on camera, Andy shamelessly kisses up to celebrities and producers in an effort to try to get screen time or a line of dialogue. Although often successful in these endeavours, circumstances always arise that prevent Andy from advancing his career. Reasons include celebrities confessing that they have no real power to help, or (more often) Andy inadvertently offending the star which results in his immediate dismissal from the set. In the conclusion of season one, Andy delivers a sitcom script he has written to Patrick Stewart, who, in turn, passes it along to the BBC through his production company. Andy gets a meeting with BBC comedy producers who greenlight his project and agree to allow him to play the starring role in the show.
Series Two largely chronicles Andy's frustrations with his sitcom—When the Whistle Blows—which is heavily rewritten by BBC producers, resulting in it being a lowest-common-denominator comedy that relies on a multitude of catchphrases, offensive stereotypes and silly costumes for cheap laughs. Although the sitcom is commercially successful, pulling six million weekly viewers, it is a flop with critics who mercilessly bash both it and Andy. Andy periodically gets a chance to expand his repertoire in film and on stage but manages to ruin every opportunity that comes his way by either refusing to take direction, or by once again offending bigger stars than himself.
In the series' 90-minute finale, the sitcom has made Andy financially successful and recognisable to many but he is increasingly frustrated with the show's quality and with his career not moving forward. Andy is convinced to fire Darren as his agent and become a client of a larger, more professional firm which he believes will accelerate his path upward. After taping a Christmas Special for When the Whistle Blows, he announces to the live studio audience that he is quitting the series effective immediately. His career falls into total stagnation and Andy is forced to take bit parts on various long-running British television series such as Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon. Eventually, his agent ceases to take his calls. Andy's relationship with Maggie sours as he frequently ignores her and spends all of the time they spend together complaining about not getting the opportunities he feels he deserves.
When he crashes his agent's lunch meeting at a posh restaurant, he is bluntly told that he will never realise his dreams of having fame, fortune, prestige and respect. Crushed, Andy reluctantly agrees to lower his expectations for the sake of remaining modestly famous and successful and is cast in Celebrity Big Brother. While staying in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Andy openly reflects upon the price of fame and grows increasingly disenchanted with the culture of celebrity worship that has manifested itself throughout Western society.
His despondency culminates in an emotional breakdown during a conversation with the other housemates. He tearfully turns to the camera and apologises to Maggie, who is watching the broadcast from her flat, for ignoring her and not heeding her advice to be grateful for the things he has managed to achieve. He voluntarily departs the house, ending his tenure on the show. Moved by the unexpected outpouring of emotion, a group of journalists eagerly awaits Andy's appearance at a press conference. Andy's agent returns and tells him that his emotional turn has instantly skyrocketed Andy's profile and that a number of A-list stars are requesting to meet him. As his agent prepares to introduce him to the throng of waiting press, Andy quietly slips out the back door of the studio where Maggie is waiting for him in her car. They drive off together with Andy seemingly turning his back on show business and accepting a life of anonymity.
Episodes
There are twelve regular episodes and a 90-minute Christmas special.
When the first series was originally broadcast in the UK, the episode featuring Ben Stiller was broadcast first, followed by the Ross Kemp and Vinnie Jones episode the following week.
When the first series was shown in North America, another order was used:
Kate Winslet
Ben Stiller
Ross Kemp & Vinnie Jones
Les Dennis
Samuel L. Jackson
Patrick Stewart
When the Whistle Blows
When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it When the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first-season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show.
When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry.
Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!"
The presence of studio audiences, canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On".
Music
The closing title track is called "Tea for the Tillerman", which is written and performed by Cat Stevens and is the title track of his album Tea for the Tillerman. The fourth episode of the second series of the show features a cover of the song performed by Chris Martin of Coldplay. The same episode also uses the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison.
The song in the Christmas Special highlighting Maggie's depression after she hits bottom and quits acting is "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush. When Andy is having a bad time at The Ivy restaurant and leaves Maggie on her own, The Smiths' song "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" can be heard.
Guest star cancellations and replacements
According to a segment in the extras section of the Series 1 DVD, Jude Law was scheduled to appear in one of the episodes, after meeting Gervais backstage on the Late Show with David Letterman, but had to pull out due to film commitments. This resulted in Gervais and Merchant having to scramble to find a replacement actor at the last minute, with Leonardo DiCaprio being considered and doggedly pursued. A featurette on the first series DVD release, "Finding Leo", consists of late-night video camera footage (shot mostly by Merchant) chronicling Gervais' desperate but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to contact DiCaprio's representatives. Law was ultimately replaced by Patrick Stewart in the series 1 finale, although a poster for the Jude Law film Alfie appeared at the end. Other actors who did not appear in Extras despite initial reports from Gervais that they would appear include Madonna, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise. Keith Harris turned down the part eventually given to Keith Chegwin having read the script, telling The Independent "This isn't clever writing, it's pure filth".
Awards and nominations
Overall, Extras has been received very well by critics in the UK. The show received 3 BAFTA Award nominations in 2006 including Best Comedy Performance for Ashley Jensen, Best Writer for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and Best Situation Comedy. In 2007, both Gervais and Merchant were nominated, separately, for Best Comedy Performance, with Gervais ultimately winning the award.
The show has also received accolades in the US. In 2006, the show received four nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards. Ben Stiller and Patrick Stewart received nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and both lost to Leslie Jordan on Will & Grace. Kate Winslet received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and lost to Cloris Leachman for Malcolm in the Middle. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode with Kate Winslet. They lost to Greg Garcia for writing the pilot episode of My Name Is Earl.
In 2007, the show received four nominations at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. Gervais was nominated for and won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Ian McKellen was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Daniel Radcliffe and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for Orlando Bloom. Extras made the Top 10 list of Outstanding Comedy Series but was not nominated in the Top 5.
In 2008, the finale earned five nominations at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. The special was nominated for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, losing out to Recount. On the acting side, Gervais was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, losing to Paul Giamatti in John Adams, while Jensen received her first Emmy nomination with a nod in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie category. She lost out to Eileen Atkins in Cranford. Gervais and Merchant received nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special, as well as in the Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special category, but lost the former to Jay Roach for Recount and the latter to Kirk Ellis for John Adams.
References
External links
2005 British television series debuts
2007 British television series endings
2000s British satirical television series
2000s British sitcoms
2000s British workplace comedy television series
BBC television sitcoms
Best Musical or Comedy Series Golden Globe winners
English-language television shows
HBO original programming
Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series
Television series about actors
Television series about show business
Television series about television
Television series produced at Pinewood Studios
Television series created by Ricky Gervais
Television series created by Stephen Merchant | true | [
"\"There It Go (The Whistle Song)\" is a song by American rapper Juelz Santana, released as the second single from his second studio album What the Game's Been Missing!. It is his highest-charting single to date, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was featured in the film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift but was not included on the soundtrack. A recognizable aspect of the song is the whistling that occurs during the chorus. The song does not have any melody, only the drums (kicks and claps) and percussions (whistles, shakes and cowbells).\n\nThe song first hit Billboard \"Bubbling Under\" chart at number 119 on October 7, 2005. The next week, it crossed over to the Hot 100 chart at number 88, rising to number 6 on January 27, 2006. The song showed its staying power by peaking at number 6 on Billboard Recurrent Hot 100 on March 31, 2006. The New York Times quoted Santana as saying about the song's structure, \"I decided to simplify a little bit more. I knew that the whistle would be something that people could come back to – and be distinctive.\"\n\nMusic video\nThe song also had a music video, in which Santana is about to attend a nightclub, when he gives a little boy, who is his nephew, Ja, a whistle. When asked on what it does, Santana suggests to \"blow it and see what happens\". Apparently, Santana himself is oblivious to what the whistle does. Throughout the video clip, Santana is seen going to nightclubs and parties, hanging out with attractive women, when all of a sudden they mysteriously leave him and his friends after the sound of a whistle, only to later discover that all the girls he was with ended up being around this nephew, from him blowing the whistle, Santana comes to the realization that the whistle he gave his nephew had the ability to attract any girl who was within the radius of the sound. Keyshia Cole makes a brief cameo during the beginning of the video.\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nOther versions \n\nAmerican singer Jonn Hart released a single called \"Whistle\" featuring Too Short in August 2018, which heavily samples both \"The Whistle Song\" and Too Short's song, \"Freaky Tales\". A remix of the song featuring Santana was later released in November 2018.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2005 singles\nJuelz Santana songs\nDef Jam Recordings singles\n2005 songs\nSongs written by Juelz Santana",
"Crimson Records was an American reissue independent record label founded by Jerry Greene in the early 1960s, and was a sister label of Lost Nite Records. Disc jockey Jerry Blavat was a co-owner of the label until the late 1960s. The label was known for releasing rare and hard-to-find doo-wop and R&B records. During its existence, Crimson released two LPs and approximately 18 singles. The most popular single released by the label was \"Expressway to Your Heart\" by The Soul Survivors.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n LP-501 Jerry Blavat Presents Guess What? by Various Artists (issued December 1966)\n LP-502 When The Whistle Blows Anything Goes by The Soul Survivors (issued November 1967)\n\nSingles\n 1010 \"Expressway to Your Heart\" by The Soul Survivors\n 1012 \"Explosion (In My Soul)\" by The Soul Survivors b/w \"Dathon's Theme\"\n 1016 \"Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible)\" by The Soul Survivors\n 1008 \"I Need Your Love\" b/w \"Not My Baby\" by The Masters (with John Oates)\n\nSee also\n Lost Nite Records\n List of record labels\n\nReferences\n\nCompanies based in Philadelphia\nAmerican independent record labels\nDefunct record labels of the United States\nReissue record labels\nDefunct companies based in Pennsylvania"
]
|
[
"Extras (TV series)",
"When the Whistle Blows",
"What is When the Whistle Blows?",
"When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman.",
"What was When the Whistle Blows about?",
"When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms."
]
| C_0c5a9ca4fd4a437aa3cc79656398701a_0 | How did When the Whistle Blows compare to Extras? | 3 | How did When the Whistle Blows compare to Extras? | Extras (TV series) | When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it Where the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show. When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?," is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry. Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!" The presence of studio audiences/canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On". CANNOTANSWER | The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, | Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO and was written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. Extras follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his platonic friend Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen) and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-level sitcom star.
Extras has two series of six episodes each as well as a Christmas Special. The first episode aired in the UK on 21 July 2005 on BBC Two and on 25 September 2005 on HBO in the US. The second series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 14 September 2006 and began airing in the US on HBO and in Australia on ABC on 14 February 2007. The Christmas Special aired on 27 December 2007 on BBC One and on 16 December 2007 on HBO. Both series are available on DVD and, at various times, through streaming services in the UK and the US.
The series is filmed in a more traditional sitcom style than the mockumentary style used by Gervais and Merchant in their previous series The Office. Each episode has at least one guest star: a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves; an exaggerated or inverted parody of their public personas. The show has been critically acclaimed, and has a Metacritic score of 81/100.
Cast and characters
Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman
Ashley Jensen as Maggie Jacobs
Stephen Merchant as Darren Lamb (credited as "Agent")
Shaun Williamson as Barry from EastEnders (himself)
Shaun Pye as Greg Lindley-Jones
Plot
Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an aspiring actor who can only find work as an extra, which he calls being a "background artist" as a means of making the work seem more dignified. Andy is accompanied on his various projects by his platonic best friend and fellow extra, Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen). Maggie is well-meaning but ditzy, often missing obvious social cues and failing to exhibit appropriate tact and subtlety in conversations. Unlike Andy, Maggie has no aspirations toward being anything more than an extra. Andy's agent, Darren Lamb (Stephen Merchant), has no real experience in the field of entertainment. He is incompetent, often taking no steps at all to find work for Andy, and even discouraging potential employers from hiring his client due to his flabby physique, age, and lack of acting experience. Darren is assisted by former soap opera star Shaun Williamson, who plays himself. Lamb frequently tries to undermine Andy by suggesting Williamson (who Lamb refers to by his former EastEnders character name, "Barry") is better suited for various acting roles that are offered to Andy.
Fed up with life as an extra who is always being cut out of scenes just as he manages to get his face on camera, Andy shamelessly kisses up to celebrities and producers in an effort to try to get screen time or a line of dialogue. Although often successful in these endeavours, circumstances always arise that prevent Andy from advancing his career. Reasons include celebrities confessing that they have no real power to help, or (more often) Andy inadvertently offending the star which results in his immediate dismissal from the set. In the conclusion of season one, Andy delivers a sitcom script he has written to Patrick Stewart, who, in turn, passes it along to the BBC through his production company. Andy gets a meeting with BBC comedy producers who greenlight his project and agree to allow him to play the starring role in the show.
Series Two largely chronicles Andy's frustrations with his sitcom—When the Whistle Blows—which is heavily rewritten by BBC producers, resulting in it being a lowest-common-denominator comedy that relies on a multitude of catchphrases, offensive stereotypes and silly costumes for cheap laughs. Although the sitcom is commercially successful, pulling six million weekly viewers, it is a flop with critics who mercilessly bash both it and Andy. Andy periodically gets a chance to expand his repertoire in film and on stage but manages to ruin every opportunity that comes his way by either refusing to take direction, or by once again offending bigger stars than himself.
In the series' 90-minute finale, the sitcom has made Andy financially successful and recognisable to many but he is increasingly frustrated with the show's quality and with his career not moving forward. Andy is convinced to fire Darren as his agent and become a client of a larger, more professional firm which he believes will accelerate his path upward. After taping a Christmas Special for When the Whistle Blows, he announces to the live studio audience that he is quitting the series effective immediately. His career falls into total stagnation and Andy is forced to take bit parts on various long-running British television series such as Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon. Eventually, his agent ceases to take his calls. Andy's relationship with Maggie sours as he frequently ignores her and spends all of the time they spend together complaining about not getting the opportunities he feels he deserves.
When he crashes his agent's lunch meeting at a posh restaurant, he is bluntly told that he will never realise his dreams of having fame, fortune, prestige and respect. Crushed, Andy reluctantly agrees to lower his expectations for the sake of remaining modestly famous and successful and is cast in Celebrity Big Brother. While staying in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Andy openly reflects upon the price of fame and grows increasingly disenchanted with the culture of celebrity worship that has manifested itself throughout Western society.
His despondency culminates in an emotional breakdown during a conversation with the other housemates. He tearfully turns to the camera and apologises to Maggie, who is watching the broadcast from her flat, for ignoring her and not heeding her advice to be grateful for the things he has managed to achieve. He voluntarily departs the house, ending his tenure on the show. Moved by the unexpected outpouring of emotion, a group of journalists eagerly awaits Andy's appearance at a press conference. Andy's agent returns and tells him that his emotional turn has instantly skyrocketed Andy's profile and that a number of A-list stars are requesting to meet him. As his agent prepares to introduce him to the throng of waiting press, Andy quietly slips out the back door of the studio where Maggie is waiting for him in her car. They drive off together with Andy seemingly turning his back on show business and accepting a life of anonymity.
Episodes
There are twelve regular episodes and a 90-minute Christmas special.
When the first series was originally broadcast in the UK, the episode featuring Ben Stiller was broadcast first, followed by the Ross Kemp and Vinnie Jones episode the following week.
When the first series was shown in North America, another order was used:
Kate Winslet
Ben Stiller
Ross Kemp & Vinnie Jones
Les Dennis
Samuel L. Jackson
Patrick Stewart
When the Whistle Blows
When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it When the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first-season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show.
When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry.
Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!"
The presence of studio audiences, canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On".
Music
The closing title track is called "Tea for the Tillerman", which is written and performed by Cat Stevens and is the title track of his album Tea for the Tillerman. The fourth episode of the second series of the show features a cover of the song performed by Chris Martin of Coldplay. The same episode also uses the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison.
The song in the Christmas Special highlighting Maggie's depression after she hits bottom and quits acting is "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush. When Andy is having a bad time at The Ivy restaurant and leaves Maggie on her own, The Smiths' song "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" can be heard.
Guest star cancellations and replacements
According to a segment in the extras section of the Series 1 DVD, Jude Law was scheduled to appear in one of the episodes, after meeting Gervais backstage on the Late Show with David Letterman, but had to pull out due to film commitments. This resulted in Gervais and Merchant having to scramble to find a replacement actor at the last minute, with Leonardo DiCaprio being considered and doggedly pursued. A featurette on the first series DVD release, "Finding Leo", consists of late-night video camera footage (shot mostly by Merchant) chronicling Gervais' desperate but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to contact DiCaprio's representatives. Law was ultimately replaced by Patrick Stewart in the series 1 finale, although a poster for the Jude Law film Alfie appeared at the end. Other actors who did not appear in Extras despite initial reports from Gervais that they would appear include Madonna, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise. Keith Harris turned down the part eventually given to Keith Chegwin having read the script, telling The Independent "This isn't clever writing, it's pure filth".
Awards and nominations
Overall, Extras has been received very well by critics in the UK. The show received 3 BAFTA Award nominations in 2006 including Best Comedy Performance for Ashley Jensen, Best Writer for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and Best Situation Comedy. In 2007, both Gervais and Merchant were nominated, separately, for Best Comedy Performance, with Gervais ultimately winning the award.
The show has also received accolades in the US. In 2006, the show received four nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards. Ben Stiller and Patrick Stewart received nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and both lost to Leslie Jordan on Will & Grace. Kate Winslet received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and lost to Cloris Leachman for Malcolm in the Middle. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode with Kate Winslet. They lost to Greg Garcia for writing the pilot episode of My Name Is Earl.
In 2007, the show received four nominations at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. Gervais was nominated for and won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Ian McKellen was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Daniel Radcliffe and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for Orlando Bloom. Extras made the Top 10 list of Outstanding Comedy Series but was not nominated in the Top 5.
In 2008, the finale earned five nominations at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. The special was nominated for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, losing out to Recount. On the acting side, Gervais was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, losing to Paul Giamatti in John Adams, while Jensen received her first Emmy nomination with a nod in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie category. She lost out to Eileen Atkins in Cranford. Gervais and Merchant received nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special, as well as in the Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special category, but lost the former to Jay Roach for Recount and the latter to Kirk Ellis for John Adams.
References
External links
2005 British television series debuts
2007 British television series endings
2000s British satirical television series
2000s British sitcoms
2000s British workplace comedy television series
BBC television sitcoms
Best Musical or Comedy Series Golden Globe winners
English-language television shows
HBO original programming
Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series
Television series about actors
Television series about show business
Television series about television
Television series produced at Pinewood Studios
Television series created by Ricky Gervais
Television series created by Stephen Merchant | true | [
"Natalie Hallam (born 7 April 1972) is a British actress. She has worked as an actress in film and TV since 2002. Parts include five of the eight of the Harry Potter films.\n\nLife\nNatalie Hallam was born in Nottingham, England to Paul Hallam and Glynis Cook. Natalie wished to be an actress from an early age. First of all acquiring a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1991 and giving up the place due to grant problems. She finally attended the London Method School (Now London Method Studio) in 2002.\n\nParts include New Tricks, Beautiful People, Extras, EastEnders and parts in five of the eight of the Harry Potter films.\n\nFilmography\nThe Four Feathers as High Class Lady (2002)\nThe Gathering Storm as 40's Cinema woman (2002)\nWheeling Dealing as Javelin Thrower (2004)\nStage Beauty as Auditioning Actress (2004)\nHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Wizard Teacher (2005)\nPerfect Parents as Catholic School Nun (2006)\nExtras as When the Whistle Blows Floor Manager (TV episodes, 2006–2007)\nHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as Wizard Teacher (2007)\nSon of Rambow as Mary's Mother Flashback (2007)\nThe Dark Knight as Ferry Passenger (2008)\nLove Soup as Security guard (TV episode, 2008)\nThe Day of the Triffids as Blind Woman (TV episode, 2009)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nhttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm1900568/\n\nLiving people\n1972 births\nPeople from Nottingham\nEnglish film actresses\nEnglish television actresses\nActresses from Nottinghamshire",
"\"Give a Little Whistle\" is a song written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for Walt Disney's 1940 adaptation of Pinocchio. The original version was sung by Cliff Edwards in the character of Jiminy Cricket and Dickie Jones in the character of Pinocchio, and is teaching how to whistle in the film.\n\nIn the film\nJiminy Cricket hopped on Pinocchio's toes, attempts the whistle on the two failures. Jiminy whistles three times for Pinocchio on the last whistle. Jiminy starts to dance and hopped on to the shelf to sing to him, blows the whistle on his top hat into the echo and dances on the shelf. Pinocchio blows his hat and there's nothing in there. Jiminy says, \"Pucker up and blow!\" and he's on the jug to blows it like the bass music. Pinocchio stands up to sing. Until Jiminy Cricket balances on the violin with the violin string on his feet to slide up and down before he walked to sing, \"And always let your conscience be your guide!\" And the string breaks to snapped him out of the scene.\n\nIn the scenes of Jiminy Cricket, he's goofing around with his red umbrella for the imitating trombone and he looked at the pipe to smell on his nose to going reel around the circle until Jiminy is falling off the shelf. Until the saw is on the wooden plane on the workbench. Jiminy Cricket is falling from the shelf and lands on to the saw, as he jumped up before the saw is whistling. Before, Jiminy Cricket has two legs up to bounce and lands on the saw for legs split on his crotch and his butt on the seesaw as his pants or diapers. The saw lifts him up and Jiminy fixed his yellow necktie and lands on the saw again to fly up highest like a bird. Until Jiminy Cricket is ready to dive on the saw like the springboard to spring into the cuckoo clock to make the tap dancing to fixed the hand on 11:30, as he knocked on the door and marched like the band leader with the Swiss family and cow and a maid. When Jiminy finished the song to her and followed her to sing, \"And always let your conscience be your guide!\" And the door closed to Jiminy's face.\n\nPinocchio dances to sing, \"And always let your conscience be your guide!\" And he tripped over the cans to fall from the workbench into the floor with the junk is crashing while Geppetto and the animals wake to hear the noise.\n\nOther versions\n Doris Day - included on her 1964 album With a Smile and a Song.\n Julie London - for her album Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast (1967)\n June Christy - on her 1960 album The Cool School.\n\n1940 songs\nSongs based on fairy tales\nSongs with music by Leigh Harline\nSongs with lyrics by Ned Washington\nDisney songs\nSongs written for animated films\nPinocchio (1940 film)"
]
|
[
"Extras (TV series)",
"When the Whistle Blows",
"What is When the Whistle Blows?",
"When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman.",
"What was When the Whistle Blows about?",
"When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms.",
"How did When the Whistle Blows compare to Extras?",
"The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers,"
]
| C_0c5a9ca4fd4a437aa3cc79656398701a_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 4 | Besides Milman suspecting that When the Whistle Blows is there simply to make up the numbers, are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Extras (TV series) | When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it Where the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show. When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?," is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry. Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!" The presence of studio audiences/canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On". CANNOTANSWER | Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. | Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO and was written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. Extras follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his platonic friend Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen) and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-level sitcom star.
Extras has two series of six episodes each as well as a Christmas Special. The first episode aired in the UK on 21 July 2005 on BBC Two and on 25 September 2005 on HBO in the US. The second series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 14 September 2006 and began airing in the US on HBO and in Australia on ABC on 14 February 2007. The Christmas Special aired on 27 December 2007 on BBC One and on 16 December 2007 on HBO. Both series are available on DVD and, at various times, through streaming services in the UK and the US.
The series is filmed in a more traditional sitcom style than the mockumentary style used by Gervais and Merchant in their previous series The Office. Each episode has at least one guest star: a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves; an exaggerated or inverted parody of their public personas. The show has been critically acclaimed, and has a Metacritic score of 81/100.
Cast and characters
Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman
Ashley Jensen as Maggie Jacobs
Stephen Merchant as Darren Lamb (credited as "Agent")
Shaun Williamson as Barry from EastEnders (himself)
Shaun Pye as Greg Lindley-Jones
Plot
Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an aspiring actor who can only find work as an extra, which he calls being a "background artist" as a means of making the work seem more dignified. Andy is accompanied on his various projects by his platonic best friend and fellow extra, Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen). Maggie is well-meaning but ditzy, often missing obvious social cues and failing to exhibit appropriate tact and subtlety in conversations. Unlike Andy, Maggie has no aspirations toward being anything more than an extra. Andy's agent, Darren Lamb (Stephen Merchant), has no real experience in the field of entertainment. He is incompetent, often taking no steps at all to find work for Andy, and even discouraging potential employers from hiring his client due to his flabby physique, age, and lack of acting experience. Darren is assisted by former soap opera star Shaun Williamson, who plays himself. Lamb frequently tries to undermine Andy by suggesting Williamson (who Lamb refers to by his former EastEnders character name, "Barry") is better suited for various acting roles that are offered to Andy.
Fed up with life as an extra who is always being cut out of scenes just as he manages to get his face on camera, Andy shamelessly kisses up to celebrities and producers in an effort to try to get screen time or a line of dialogue. Although often successful in these endeavours, circumstances always arise that prevent Andy from advancing his career. Reasons include celebrities confessing that they have no real power to help, or (more often) Andy inadvertently offending the star which results in his immediate dismissal from the set. In the conclusion of season one, Andy delivers a sitcom script he has written to Patrick Stewart, who, in turn, passes it along to the BBC through his production company. Andy gets a meeting with BBC comedy producers who greenlight his project and agree to allow him to play the starring role in the show.
Series Two largely chronicles Andy's frustrations with his sitcom—When the Whistle Blows—which is heavily rewritten by BBC producers, resulting in it being a lowest-common-denominator comedy that relies on a multitude of catchphrases, offensive stereotypes and silly costumes for cheap laughs. Although the sitcom is commercially successful, pulling six million weekly viewers, it is a flop with critics who mercilessly bash both it and Andy. Andy periodically gets a chance to expand his repertoire in film and on stage but manages to ruin every opportunity that comes his way by either refusing to take direction, or by once again offending bigger stars than himself.
In the series' 90-minute finale, the sitcom has made Andy financially successful and recognisable to many but he is increasingly frustrated with the show's quality and with his career not moving forward. Andy is convinced to fire Darren as his agent and become a client of a larger, more professional firm which he believes will accelerate his path upward. After taping a Christmas Special for When the Whistle Blows, he announces to the live studio audience that he is quitting the series effective immediately. His career falls into total stagnation and Andy is forced to take bit parts on various long-running British television series such as Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon. Eventually, his agent ceases to take his calls. Andy's relationship with Maggie sours as he frequently ignores her and spends all of the time they spend together complaining about not getting the opportunities he feels he deserves.
When he crashes his agent's lunch meeting at a posh restaurant, he is bluntly told that he will never realise his dreams of having fame, fortune, prestige and respect. Crushed, Andy reluctantly agrees to lower his expectations for the sake of remaining modestly famous and successful and is cast in Celebrity Big Brother. While staying in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Andy openly reflects upon the price of fame and grows increasingly disenchanted with the culture of celebrity worship that has manifested itself throughout Western society.
His despondency culminates in an emotional breakdown during a conversation with the other housemates. He tearfully turns to the camera and apologises to Maggie, who is watching the broadcast from her flat, for ignoring her and not heeding her advice to be grateful for the things he has managed to achieve. He voluntarily departs the house, ending his tenure on the show. Moved by the unexpected outpouring of emotion, a group of journalists eagerly awaits Andy's appearance at a press conference. Andy's agent returns and tells him that his emotional turn has instantly skyrocketed Andy's profile and that a number of A-list stars are requesting to meet him. As his agent prepares to introduce him to the throng of waiting press, Andy quietly slips out the back door of the studio where Maggie is waiting for him in her car. They drive off together with Andy seemingly turning his back on show business and accepting a life of anonymity.
Episodes
There are twelve regular episodes and a 90-minute Christmas special.
When the first series was originally broadcast in the UK, the episode featuring Ben Stiller was broadcast first, followed by the Ross Kemp and Vinnie Jones episode the following week.
When the first series was shown in North America, another order was used:
Kate Winslet
Ben Stiller
Ross Kemp & Vinnie Jones
Les Dennis
Samuel L. Jackson
Patrick Stewart
When the Whistle Blows
When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it When the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first-season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show.
When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry.
Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!"
The presence of studio audiences, canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On".
Music
The closing title track is called "Tea for the Tillerman", which is written and performed by Cat Stevens and is the title track of his album Tea for the Tillerman. The fourth episode of the second series of the show features a cover of the song performed by Chris Martin of Coldplay. The same episode also uses the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison.
The song in the Christmas Special highlighting Maggie's depression after she hits bottom and quits acting is "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush. When Andy is having a bad time at The Ivy restaurant and leaves Maggie on her own, The Smiths' song "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" can be heard.
Guest star cancellations and replacements
According to a segment in the extras section of the Series 1 DVD, Jude Law was scheduled to appear in one of the episodes, after meeting Gervais backstage on the Late Show with David Letterman, but had to pull out due to film commitments. This resulted in Gervais and Merchant having to scramble to find a replacement actor at the last minute, with Leonardo DiCaprio being considered and doggedly pursued. A featurette on the first series DVD release, "Finding Leo", consists of late-night video camera footage (shot mostly by Merchant) chronicling Gervais' desperate but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to contact DiCaprio's representatives. Law was ultimately replaced by Patrick Stewart in the series 1 finale, although a poster for the Jude Law film Alfie appeared at the end. Other actors who did not appear in Extras despite initial reports from Gervais that they would appear include Madonna, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise. Keith Harris turned down the part eventually given to Keith Chegwin having read the script, telling The Independent "This isn't clever writing, it's pure filth".
Awards and nominations
Overall, Extras has been received very well by critics in the UK. The show received 3 BAFTA Award nominations in 2006 including Best Comedy Performance for Ashley Jensen, Best Writer for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and Best Situation Comedy. In 2007, both Gervais and Merchant were nominated, separately, for Best Comedy Performance, with Gervais ultimately winning the award.
The show has also received accolades in the US. In 2006, the show received four nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards. Ben Stiller and Patrick Stewart received nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and both lost to Leslie Jordan on Will & Grace. Kate Winslet received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and lost to Cloris Leachman for Malcolm in the Middle. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode with Kate Winslet. They lost to Greg Garcia for writing the pilot episode of My Name Is Earl.
In 2007, the show received four nominations at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. Gervais was nominated for and won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Ian McKellen was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Daniel Radcliffe and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for Orlando Bloom. Extras made the Top 10 list of Outstanding Comedy Series but was not nominated in the Top 5.
In 2008, the finale earned five nominations at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. The special was nominated for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, losing out to Recount. On the acting side, Gervais was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, losing to Paul Giamatti in John Adams, while Jensen received her first Emmy nomination with a nod in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie category. She lost out to Eileen Atkins in Cranford. Gervais and Merchant received nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special, as well as in the Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special category, but lost the former to Jay Roach for Recount and the latter to Kirk Ellis for John Adams.
References
External links
2005 British television series debuts
2007 British television series endings
2000s British satirical television series
2000s British sitcoms
2000s British workplace comedy television series
BBC television sitcoms
Best Musical or Comedy Series Golden Globe winners
English-language television shows
HBO original programming
Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series
Television series about actors
Television series about show business
Television series about television
Television series produced at Pinewood Studios
Television series created by Ricky Gervais
Television series created by Stephen Merchant | 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"
]
|
[
"Extras (TV series)",
"When the Whistle Blows",
"What is When the Whistle Blows?",
"When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman.",
"What was When the Whistle Blows about?",
"When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms.",
"How did When the Whistle Blows compare to Extras?",
"The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings."
]
| C_0c5a9ca4fd4a437aa3cc79656398701a_0 | Does Millman ever stop working on the show? | 5 | Does Millman ever stop working on When the Whistle Blows show? | Extras (TV series) | When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it Where the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show. When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?," is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry. Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!" The presence of studio audiences/canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO and was written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. Extras follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his platonic friend Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen) and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-level sitcom star.
Extras has two series of six episodes each as well as a Christmas Special. The first episode aired in the UK on 21 July 2005 on BBC Two and on 25 September 2005 on HBO in the US. The second series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 14 September 2006 and began airing in the US on HBO and in Australia on ABC on 14 February 2007. The Christmas Special aired on 27 December 2007 on BBC One and on 16 December 2007 on HBO. Both series are available on DVD and, at various times, through streaming services in the UK and the US.
The series is filmed in a more traditional sitcom style than the mockumentary style used by Gervais and Merchant in their previous series The Office. Each episode has at least one guest star: a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves; an exaggerated or inverted parody of their public personas. The show has been critically acclaimed, and has a Metacritic score of 81/100.
Cast and characters
Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman
Ashley Jensen as Maggie Jacobs
Stephen Merchant as Darren Lamb (credited as "Agent")
Shaun Williamson as Barry from EastEnders (himself)
Shaun Pye as Greg Lindley-Jones
Plot
Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an aspiring actor who can only find work as an extra, which he calls being a "background artist" as a means of making the work seem more dignified. Andy is accompanied on his various projects by his platonic best friend and fellow extra, Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen). Maggie is well-meaning but ditzy, often missing obvious social cues and failing to exhibit appropriate tact and subtlety in conversations. Unlike Andy, Maggie has no aspirations toward being anything more than an extra. Andy's agent, Darren Lamb (Stephen Merchant), has no real experience in the field of entertainment. He is incompetent, often taking no steps at all to find work for Andy, and even discouraging potential employers from hiring his client due to his flabby physique, age, and lack of acting experience. Darren is assisted by former soap opera star Shaun Williamson, who plays himself. Lamb frequently tries to undermine Andy by suggesting Williamson (who Lamb refers to by his former EastEnders character name, "Barry") is better suited for various acting roles that are offered to Andy.
Fed up with life as an extra who is always being cut out of scenes just as he manages to get his face on camera, Andy shamelessly kisses up to celebrities and producers in an effort to try to get screen time or a line of dialogue. Although often successful in these endeavours, circumstances always arise that prevent Andy from advancing his career. Reasons include celebrities confessing that they have no real power to help, or (more often) Andy inadvertently offending the star which results in his immediate dismissal from the set. In the conclusion of season one, Andy delivers a sitcom script he has written to Patrick Stewart, who, in turn, passes it along to the BBC through his production company. Andy gets a meeting with BBC comedy producers who greenlight his project and agree to allow him to play the starring role in the show.
Series Two largely chronicles Andy's frustrations with his sitcom—When the Whistle Blows—which is heavily rewritten by BBC producers, resulting in it being a lowest-common-denominator comedy that relies on a multitude of catchphrases, offensive stereotypes and silly costumes for cheap laughs. Although the sitcom is commercially successful, pulling six million weekly viewers, it is a flop with critics who mercilessly bash both it and Andy. Andy periodically gets a chance to expand his repertoire in film and on stage but manages to ruin every opportunity that comes his way by either refusing to take direction, or by once again offending bigger stars than himself.
In the series' 90-minute finale, the sitcom has made Andy financially successful and recognisable to many but he is increasingly frustrated with the show's quality and with his career not moving forward. Andy is convinced to fire Darren as his agent and become a client of a larger, more professional firm which he believes will accelerate his path upward. After taping a Christmas Special for When the Whistle Blows, he announces to the live studio audience that he is quitting the series effective immediately. His career falls into total stagnation and Andy is forced to take bit parts on various long-running British television series such as Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon. Eventually, his agent ceases to take his calls. Andy's relationship with Maggie sours as he frequently ignores her and spends all of the time they spend together complaining about not getting the opportunities he feels he deserves.
When he crashes his agent's lunch meeting at a posh restaurant, he is bluntly told that he will never realise his dreams of having fame, fortune, prestige and respect. Crushed, Andy reluctantly agrees to lower his expectations for the sake of remaining modestly famous and successful and is cast in Celebrity Big Brother. While staying in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Andy openly reflects upon the price of fame and grows increasingly disenchanted with the culture of celebrity worship that has manifested itself throughout Western society.
His despondency culminates in an emotional breakdown during a conversation with the other housemates. He tearfully turns to the camera and apologises to Maggie, who is watching the broadcast from her flat, for ignoring her and not heeding her advice to be grateful for the things he has managed to achieve. He voluntarily departs the house, ending his tenure on the show. Moved by the unexpected outpouring of emotion, a group of journalists eagerly awaits Andy's appearance at a press conference. Andy's agent returns and tells him that his emotional turn has instantly skyrocketed Andy's profile and that a number of A-list stars are requesting to meet him. As his agent prepares to introduce him to the throng of waiting press, Andy quietly slips out the back door of the studio where Maggie is waiting for him in her car. They drive off together with Andy seemingly turning his back on show business and accepting a life of anonymity.
Episodes
There are twelve regular episodes and a 90-minute Christmas special.
When the first series was originally broadcast in the UK, the episode featuring Ben Stiller was broadcast first, followed by the Ross Kemp and Vinnie Jones episode the following week.
When the first series was shown in North America, another order was used:
Kate Winslet
Ben Stiller
Ross Kemp & Vinnie Jones
Les Dennis
Samuel L. Jackson
Patrick Stewart
When the Whistle Blows
When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it When the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first-season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show.
When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry.
Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!"
The presence of studio audiences, canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On".
Music
The closing title track is called "Tea for the Tillerman", which is written and performed by Cat Stevens and is the title track of his album Tea for the Tillerman. The fourth episode of the second series of the show features a cover of the song performed by Chris Martin of Coldplay. The same episode also uses the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison.
The song in the Christmas Special highlighting Maggie's depression after she hits bottom and quits acting is "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush. When Andy is having a bad time at The Ivy restaurant and leaves Maggie on her own, The Smiths' song "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" can be heard.
Guest star cancellations and replacements
According to a segment in the extras section of the Series 1 DVD, Jude Law was scheduled to appear in one of the episodes, after meeting Gervais backstage on the Late Show with David Letterman, but had to pull out due to film commitments. This resulted in Gervais and Merchant having to scramble to find a replacement actor at the last minute, with Leonardo DiCaprio being considered and doggedly pursued. A featurette on the first series DVD release, "Finding Leo", consists of late-night video camera footage (shot mostly by Merchant) chronicling Gervais' desperate but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to contact DiCaprio's representatives. Law was ultimately replaced by Patrick Stewart in the series 1 finale, although a poster for the Jude Law film Alfie appeared at the end. Other actors who did not appear in Extras despite initial reports from Gervais that they would appear include Madonna, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise. Keith Harris turned down the part eventually given to Keith Chegwin having read the script, telling The Independent "This isn't clever writing, it's pure filth".
Awards and nominations
Overall, Extras has been received very well by critics in the UK. The show received 3 BAFTA Award nominations in 2006 including Best Comedy Performance for Ashley Jensen, Best Writer for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and Best Situation Comedy. In 2007, both Gervais and Merchant were nominated, separately, for Best Comedy Performance, with Gervais ultimately winning the award.
The show has also received accolades in the US. In 2006, the show received four nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards. Ben Stiller and Patrick Stewart received nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and both lost to Leslie Jordan on Will & Grace. Kate Winslet received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and lost to Cloris Leachman for Malcolm in the Middle. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode with Kate Winslet. They lost to Greg Garcia for writing the pilot episode of My Name Is Earl.
In 2007, the show received four nominations at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. Gervais was nominated for and won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Ian McKellen was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Daniel Radcliffe and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for Orlando Bloom. Extras made the Top 10 list of Outstanding Comedy Series but was not nominated in the Top 5.
In 2008, the finale earned five nominations at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. The special was nominated for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, losing out to Recount. On the acting side, Gervais was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, losing to Paul Giamatti in John Adams, while Jensen received her first Emmy nomination with a nod in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie category. She lost out to Eileen Atkins in Cranford. Gervais and Merchant received nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special, as well as in the Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special category, but lost the former to Jay Roach for Recount and the latter to Kirk Ellis for John Adams.
References
External links
2005 British television series debuts
2007 British television series endings
2000s British satirical television series
2000s British sitcoms
2000s British workplace comedy television series
BBC television sitcoms
Best Musical or Comedy Series Golden Globe winners
English-language television shows
HBO original programming
Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series
Television series about actors
Television series about show business
Television series about television
Television series produced at Pinewood Studios
Television series created by Ricky Gervais
Television series created by Stephen Merchant | false | [
"Gregory J. Millman (born in St. Louis, Missouri) is a freelance journalist and author of books on financial markets and on homeschooling. \nMillman graduated in 1975 from the University of Missouri in St. Louis, with a B.A. degree in French. He worked as a factory laborer, then earned MBA and MA (Asian Studies) Degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and went to Taiwan where he continued studies in Chinese and began to work as a freelance writer for business publications. He returned to the United States in 1981, where he worked in banking, consulting, and project finance before returning to journalism in 1988.\n\nShortly after an article he wrote for the September 1991 issue of Corporate Finance Magazine cited non-public documents, agents from the U.S. Department of the Treasury showed up at the door of his home demanding that he reveal his source. When Millman refused, the Justice Department issued subpoenas for his telephone records and the records of people he had called.\n\nThe investigation extended to include the telephone records of the Alicia Patterson Foundation, which awarded Millman a fellowship for 1992. Foundation chairman Joseph Albright and director Margaret Engel recounted in the Washington Post how the IRS obtained a thirteen-month record of the Foundation's telephone calls – even though neither Millman nor his sources had ever used that telephone. A subsequent conference on telephone privacy at the National Press Club addressed this and similar instances of surveillance of reporters.\n\nIn May 1993, Millman testified at Congressional hearings on a draft version of the Telephone Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 1993, sponsored by Representative Edward John \"Ed\" Markey. which included requirements for notification when telephone records were subpoenaed.\n\nIn 1995, the Free Press published Millman's The Vandal’s Crown: How Rebel Currency Traders Overthrew the World’s Central Banks, an investigation of the new financial markets and their power, and it was translated into ten languages. It was published in the United Kingdom under the title Around the World on a Trillion Dollars a Day. In 1999, Times Books published his The Day Traders: the Untold Story of the Extreme Investors and How They Changed Wall Street Forever.\n\nIn 2008, Tarcher/Penguin published Homeschooling: A Family’s Journey, a journalistic memoir of homeschooling six children, co-authored by Gregory J. Millman and his wife, Martine Parmer Millman. The book recounts the experience of homeschooling children through elementary and high school, and also puts the experience in context with reporting on contemporary social, economic, and educational issues.\n\nBibliography\n Homeschooling: A Family's Journey (2008) co-author Martine Millman\n The Day Traders: The Untold Story of the Extreme Investors and How They Changed Wall Street Forever (1999)\n The Vandal's Crown: How Rebel Currency Traders Overthrew the World's Central Banks (published in UK as Around the World on a Trillion Dollars a Day) (1995)\n The Floating Battlefield: Corporate Strategies in the Currency Wars (1990)\n\nNotes\n\nExternal links\n \n Bio of Gregory Millman\n Home is Where the School is (Washington Post 03/23/08)\n\nAmerican male journalists\nUniversity of Missouri alumni\nWriters from St. Louis\n1951 births\nLiving people",
"Michael G. Millman (July 9, 1939 – May 31, 2014) was an American criminal defense lawyer, founder of the California Appellate Project, and an anti-death penalty activist.\n\nFamily and education\nMichael Millman was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and he grew up in Summit, N.J. Millman was the only child of Sidney, a physicist, and Dorothy, a teacher. Millman graduated from Harvard University in 1960 with a degree in physics and obtained a master's degree in physics from UC Berkeley. Moved by the social justice activism of the 1960s, Millman decided to study law—instead of science—and graduated from Yale Law School in 1969. During the civil rights movement he worked with, and was deeply inspired by, Alabama Attorney Fred Gray, who had represented Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and other movement leaders.\n\nMillman married Cynthia Taylor Millman. He had three children Dr. Laura Dillard, David Millman, and Matthew Millman. He had three stepchildren from his marriage to Cynthia; and 13 grandchildren.\n\nLegal career\nAfter law school, Millman worked for the Alameda County public defender for about six years. He then joined the Office of the State Public Defender and became its death penalty coordinator after state lawmakers reinstated capital punishment in 1977.\n\nIn 1983, The State Bar of California created The California Appellate Project as a legal resource center to implement the constitutional right to counsel for indigent persons facing Capital punishment in California. At around the time of its founding, Millman became the director of CAP. Millman served as director of CAP for 30 years. In his role at CAP, he oversaw the efforts to assist private lawyers representing the more than 700 people on California's death row. He had a close, direct relationship with the California Supreme Court for more than 25 years in his role as the executive director of CAP.\n\nMillman was also active in the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, serving as President of its Board of Governors in 1984. He also served on a Supreme Court committee formed to improve the timely handling of capital case appeals and habeas corpus petitions. In 2013, Millman was awarded CACJ's Significant Contributions to Criminal Justice Lifetime Achievement Award.\n\nMichael Millman was a founding member of Death Penalty Focus, which is committed to the abolition of the death penalty through public education, grassroots organizing and political advocacy,\nmedia outreach, and domestic and international coalition building. Millman was also affiliated with the Death Penalty Information Center—working with Anthony Amsterdam and other death penalty litigation leaders—and served as President of its board. In April 2014, Death Penalty Focus awarded Mr. Millman a Lifetime Achievement Award for his \"unwavering commitment to providing high-quality representation to indigent people on death row.\" He occasionally lectured at bay area law schools, such as Stanford Law School and others.\n\nDeath and tributes\nOn May 31, 2014, Mr. Millman died from pancreatic cancer. Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye said of Millman: \"Michael Millman was a pillar of the capital defense bar, a hero to many, and a true gentleman. He will be sorely missed, and we are deeply saddened by this great loss.\" Lance Lindsey, the administrative director of CAP, said: \"Michael was a profoundly kind and big-hearted man who dedicated his whole life to advancing social justice and, especially, to 'being the change we wish to see in the world' by daily acts of compassion and generosity.\" The President of the American Bar Association James Silkenat paid tribute to Millman: \"As someone who also cares deeply about justice, I thank\nyou for all that you have done to make this world a better place. You are the kind of lawyer and human being that we all aspire to be.\"\n\nQuotes\n \"I'm a lawyer. I try to persuade people by appeals to the logic, the fairness, of the law. I have not been very successful. The California Supreme Court affirms virtually every capital case it decides. It finds there was no error in the trial proceedings, or that any possible error was harmless.\"\n \"The America I believe in does not torture or execute people.\"\n \"We have not gone gentle into that good night. We do not roll over…. Our commitment will overwhelm indifference and inertia.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Appellate Project Celebrates 20 years\n Tribute to Michael Millman\n\nAmerican anti–death penalty activists\n1939 births\n2014 deaths\nPublic defenders\nHarvard University alumni\nYale Law School alumni\nUniversity of California, Berkeley alumni\nPeople from Summit, New Jersey\nCriminal defense lawyers\nLawyers from San Francisco\n20th-century American lawyers"
]
|
[
"Extras (TV series)",
"When the Whistle Blows",
"What is When the Whistle Blows?",
"When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman.",
"What was When the Whistle Blows about?",
"When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms.",
"How did When the Whistle Blows compare to Extras?",
"The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings.",
"Does Millman ever stop working on the show?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_0c5a9ca4fd4a437aa3cc79656398701a_0 | Who does Millman feel interfered with his original ideas? | 6 | Who does Millman feel interfered with his original ideas on When the Whistle Blows show? | Extras (TV series) | When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it Where the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show. When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?," is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry. Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!" The presence of studio audiences/canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On". CANNOTANSWER | After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare | Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO and was written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. Extras follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his platonic friend Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen) and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-level sitcom star.
Extras has two series of six episodes each as well as a Christmas Special. The first episode aired in the UK on 21 July 2005 on BBC Two and on 25 September 2005 on HBO in the US. The second series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 14 September 2006 and began airing in the US on HBO and in Australia on ABC on 14 February 2007. The Christmas Special aired on 27 December 2007 on BBC One and on 16 December 2007 on HBO. Both series are available on DVD and, at various times, through streaming services in the UK and the US.
The series is filmed in a more traditional sitcom style than the mockumentary style used by Gervais and Merchant in their previous series The Office. Each episode has at least one guest star: a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves; an exaggerated or inverted parody of their public personas. The show has been critically acclaimed, and has a Metacritic score of 81/100.
Cast and characters
Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman
Ashley Jensen as Maggie Jacobs
Stephen Merchant as Darren Lamb (credited as "Agent")
Shaun Williamson as Barry from EastEnders (himself)
Shaun Pye as Greg Lindley-Jones
Plot
Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an aspiring actor who can only find work as an extra, which he calls being a "background artist" as a means of making the work seem more dignified. Andy is accompanied on his various projects by his platonic best friend and fellow extra, Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen). Maggie is well-meaning but ditzy, often missing obvious social cues and failing to exhibit appropriate tact and subtlety in conversations. Unlike Andy, Maggie has no aspirations toward being anything more than an extra. Andy's agent, Darren Lamb (Stephen Merchant), has no real experience in the field of entertainment. He is incompetent, often taking no steps at all to find work for Andy, and even discouraging potential employers from hiring his client due to his flabby physique, age, and lack of acting experience. Darren is assisted by former soap opera star Shaun Williamson, who plays himself. Lamb frequently tries to undermine Andy by suggesting Williamson (who Lamb refers to by his former EastEnders character name, "Barry") is better suited for various acting roles that are offered to Andy.
Fed up with life as an extra who is always being cut out of scenes just as he manages to get his face on camera, Andy shamelessly kisses up to celebrities and producers in an effort to try to get screen time or a line of dialogue. Although often successful in these endeavours, circumstances always arise that prevent Andy from advancing his career. Reasons include celebrities confessing that they have no real power to help, or (more often) Andy inadvertently offending the star which results in his immediate dismissal from the set. In the conclusion of season one, Andy delivers a sitcom script he has written to Patrick Stewart, who, in turn, passes it along to the BBC through his production company. Andy gets a meeting with BBC comedy producers who greenlight his project and agree to allow him to play the starring role in the show.
Series Two largely chronicles Andy's frustrations with his sitcom—When the Whistle Blows—which is heavily rewritten by BBC producers, resulting in it being a lowest-common-denominator comedy that relies on a multitude of catchphrases, offensive stereotypes and silly costumes for cheap laughs. Although the sitcom is commercially successful, pulling six million weekly viewers, it is a flop with critics who mercilessly bash both it and Andy. Andy periodically gets a chance to expand his repertoire in film and on stage but manages to ruin every opportunity that comes his way by either refusing to take direction, or by once again offending bigger stars than himself.
In the series' 90-minute finale, the sitcom has made Andy financially successful and recognisable to many but he is increasingly frustrated with the show's quality and with his career not moving forward. Andy is convinced to fire Darren as his agent and become a client of a larger, more professional firm which he believes will accelerate his path upward. After taping a Christmas Special for When the Whistle Blows, he announces to the live studio audience that he is quitting the series effective immediately. His career falls into total stagnation and Andy is forced to take bit parts on various long-running British television series such as Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon. Eventually, his agent ceases to take his calls. Andy's relationship with Maggie sours as he frequently ignores her and spends all of the time they spend together complaining about not getting the opportunities he feels he deserves.
When he crashes his agent's lunch meeting at a posh restaurant, he is bluntly told that he will never realise his dreams of having fame, fortune, prestige and respect. Crushed, Andy reluctantly agrees to lower his expectations for the sake of remaining modestly famous and successful and is cast in Celebrity Big Brother. While staying in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Andy openly reflects upon the price of fame and grows increasingly disenchanted with the culture of celebrity worship that has manifested itself throughout Western society.
His despondency culminates in an emotional breakdown during a conversation with the other housemates. He tearfully turns to the camera and apologises to Maggie, who is watching the broadcast from her flat, for ignoring her and not heeding her advice to be grateful for the things he has managed to achieve. He voluntarily departs the house, ending his tenure on the show. Moved by the unexpected outpouring of emotion, a group of journalists eagerly awaits Andy's appearance at a press conference. Andy's agent returns and tells him that his emotional turn has instantly skyrocketed Andy's profile and that a number of A-list stars are requesting to meet him. As his agent prepares to introduce him to the throng of waiting press, Andy quietly slips out the back door of the studio where Maggie is waiting for him in her car. They drive off together with Andy seemingly turning his back on show business and accepting a life of anonymity.
Episodes
There are twelve regular episodes and a 90-minute Christmas special.
When the first series was originally broadcast in the UK, the episode featuring Ben Stiller was broadcast first, followed by the Ross Kemp and Vinnie Jones episode the following week.
When the first series was shown in North America, another order was used:
Kate Winslet
Ben Stiller
Ross Kemp & Vinnie Jones
Les Dennis
Samuel L. Jackson
Patrick Stewart
When the Whistle Blows
When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it When the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first-season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show.
When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry.
Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!"
The presence of studio audiences, canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On".
Music
The closing title track is called "Tea for the Tillerman", which is written and performed by Cat Stevens and is the title track of his album Tea for the Tillerman. The fourth episode of the second series of the show features a cover of the song performed by Chris Martin of Coldplay. The same episode also uses the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison.
The song in the Christmas Special highlighting Maggie's depression after she hits bottom and quits acting is "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush. When Andy is having a bad time at The Ivy restaurant and leaves Maggie on her own, The Smiths' song "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" can be heard.
Guest star cancellations and replacements
According to a segment in the extras section of the Series 1 DVD, Jude Law was scheduled to appear in one of the episodes, after meeting Gervais backstage on the Late Show with David Letterman, but had to pull out due to film commitments. This resulted in Gervais and Merchant having to scramble to find a replacement actor at the last minute, with Leonardo DiCaprio being considered and doggedly pursued. A featurette on the first series DVD release, "Finding Leo", consists of late-night video camera footage (shot mostly by Merchant) chronicling Gervais' desperate but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to contact DiCaprio's representatives. Law was ultimately replaced by Patrick Stewart in the series 1 finale, although a poster for the Jude Law film Alfie appeared at the end. Other actors who did not appear in Extras despite initial reports from Gervais that they would appear include Madonna, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise. Keith Harris turned down the part eventually given to Keith Chegwin having read the script, telling The Independent "This isn't clever writing, it's pure filth".
Awards and nominations
Overall, Extras has been received very well by critics in the UK. The show received 3 BAFTA Award nominations in 2006 including Best Comedy Performance for Ashley Jensen, Best Writer for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and Best Situation Comedy. In 2007, both Gervais and Merchant were nominated, separately, for Best Comedy Performance, with Gervais ultimately winning the award.
The show has also received accolades in the US. In 2006, the show received four nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards. Ben Stiller and Patrick Stewart received nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and both lost to Leslie Jordan on Will & Grace. Kate Winslet received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and lost to Cloris Leachman for Malcolm in the Middle. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode with Kate Winslet. They lost to Greg Garcia for writing the pilot episode of My Name Is Earl.
In 2007, the show received four nominations at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. Gervais was nominated for and won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Ian McKellen was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Daniel Radcliffe and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for Orlando Bloom. Extras made the Top 10 list of Outstanding Comedy Series but was not nominated in the Top 5.
In 2008, the finale earned five nominations at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. The special was nominated for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, losing out to Recount. On the acting side, Gervais was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, losing to Paul Giamatti in John Adams, while Jensen received her first Emmy nomination with a nod in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie category. She lost out to Eileen Atkins in Cranford. Gervais and Merchant received nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special, as well as in the Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special category, but lost the former to Jay Roach for Recount and the latter to Kirk Ellis for John Adams.
References
External links
2005 British television series debuts
2007 British television series endings
2000s British satirical television series
2000s British sitcoms
2000s British workplace comedy television series
BBC television sitcoms
Best Musical or Comedy Series Golden Globe winners
English-language television shows
HBO original programming
Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series
Television series about actors
Television series about show business
Television series about television
Television series produced at Pinewood Studios
Television series created by Ricky Gervais
Television series created by Stephen Merchant | true | [
"Michael G. Millman (July 9, 1939 – May 31, 2014) was an American criminal defense lawyer, founder of the California Appellate Project, and an anti-death penalty activist.\n\nFamily and education\nMichael Millman was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and he grew up in Summit, N.J. Millman was the only child of Sidney, a physicist, and Dorothy, a teacher. Millman graduated from Harvard University in 1960 with a degree in physics and obtained a master's degree in physics from UC Berkeley. Moved by the social justice activism of the 1960s, Millman decided to study law—instead of science—and graduated from Yale Law School in 1969. During the civil rights movement he worked with, and was deeply inspired by, Alabama Attorney Fred Gray, who had represented Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and other movement leaders.\n\nMillman married Cynthia Taylor Millman. He had three children Dr. Laura Dillard, David Millman, and Matthew Millman. He had three stepchildren from his marriage to Cynthia; and 13 grandchildren.\n\nLegal career\nAfter law school, Millman worked for the Alameda County public defender for about six years. He then joined the Office of the State Public Defender and became its death penalty coordinator after state lawmakers reinstated capital punishment in 1977.\n\nIn 1983, The State Bar of California created The California Appellate Project as a legal resource center to implement the constitutional right to counsel for indigent persons facing Capital punishment in California. At around the time of its founding, Millman became the director of CAP. Millman served as director of CAP for 30 years. In his role at CAP, he oversaw the efforts to assist private lawyers representing the more than 700 people on California's death row. He had a close, direct relationship with the California Supreme Court for more than 25 years in his role as the executive director of CAP.\n\nMillman was also active in the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, serving as President of its Board of Governors in 1984. He also served on a Supreme Court committee formed to improve the timely handling of capital case appeals and habeas corpus petitions. In 2013, Millman was awarded CACJ's Significant Contributions to Criminal Justice Lifetime Achievement Award.\n\nMichael Millman was a founding member of Death Penalty Focus, which is committed to the abolition of the death penalty through public education, grassroots organizing and political advocacy,\nmedia outreach, and domestic and international coalition building. Millman was also affiliated with the Death Penalty Information Center—working with Anthony Amsterdam and other death penalty litigation leaders—and served as President of its board. In April 2014, Death Penalty Focus awarded Mr. Millman a Lifetime Achievement Award for his \"unwavering commitment to providing high-quality representation to indigent people on death row.\" He occasionally lectured at bay area law schools, such as Stanford Law School and others.\n\nDeath and tributes\nOn May 31, 2014, Mr. Millman died from pancreatic cancer. Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye said of Millman: \"Michael Millman was a pillar of the capital defense bar, a hero to many, and a true gentleman. He will be sorely missed, and we are deeply saddened by this great loss.\" Lance Lindsey, the administrative director of CAP, said: \"Michael was a profoundly kind and big-hearted man who dedicated his whole life to advancing social justice and, especially, to 'being the change we wish to see in the world' by daily acts of compassion and generosity.\" The President of the American Bar Association James Silkenat paid tribute to Millman: \"As someone who also cares deeply about justice, I thank\nyou for all that you have done to make this world a better place. You are the kind of lawyer and human being that we all aspire to be.\"\n\nQuotes\n \"I'm a lawyer. I try to persuade people by appeals to the logic, the fairness, of the law. I have not been very successful. The California Supreme Court affirms virtually every capital case it decides. It finds there was no error in the trial proceedings, or that any possible error was harmless.\"\n \"The America I believe in does not torture or execute people.\"\n \"We have not gone gentle into that good night. We do not roll over…. Our commitment will overwhelm indifference and inertia.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Appellate Project Celebrates 20 years\n Tribute to Michael Millman\n\nAmerican anti–death penalty activists\n1939 births\n2014 deaths\nPublic defenders\nHarvard University alumni\nYale Law School alumni\nUniversity of California, Berkeley alumni\nPeople from Summit, New Jersey\nCriminal defense lawyers\nLawyers from San Francisco\n20th-century American lawyers",
"Millman is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:\n\nDan Millman (born 1946), American author and lecturer\nDick Millman, American chief executive\nMichael Millman (1939–2014), American criminal defense lawyer\nJacob Millman (1911–1991), electronics engineer\nJohn Millman (born 1989), Australian tennis player\nPeter Millman (1906–1990), Canadian astronomer"
]
|
[
"Extras (TV series)",
"When the Whistle Blows",
"What is When the Whistle Blows?",
"When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman.",
"What was When the Whistle Blows about?",
"When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms.",
"How did When the Whistle Blows compare to Extras?",
"The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings.",
"Does Millman ever stop working on the show?",
"I don't know.",
"Who does Millman feel interfered with his original ideas?",
"After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare"
]
| C_0c5a9ca4fd4a437aa3cc79656398701a_0 | After the compromises did the show get better ratings? | 7 | After the compromises of Millman, did When the Whistle Blows get better ratings? | Extras (TV series) | When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it Where the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show. When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?," is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry. Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!" The presence of studio audiences/canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO and was written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. Extras follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his platonic friend Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen) and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-level sitcom star.
Extras has two series of six episodes each as well as a Christmas Special. The first episode aired in the UK on 21 July 2005 on BBC Two and on 25 September 2005 on HBO in the US. The second series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 14 September 2006 and began airing in the US on HBO and in Australia on ABC on 14 February 2007. The Christmas Special aired on 27 December 2007 on BBC One and on 16 December 2007 on HBO. Both series are available on DVD and, at various times, through streaming services in the UK and the US.
The series is filmed in a more traditional sitcom style than the mockumentary style used by Gervais and Merchant in their previous series The Office. Each episode has at least one guest star: a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves; an exaggerated or inverted parody of their public personas. The show has been critically acclaimed, and has a Metacritic score of 81/100.
Cast and characters
Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman
Ashley Jensen as Maggie Jacobs
Stephen Merchant as Darren Lamb (credited as "Agent")
Shaun Williamson as Barry from EastEnders (himself)
Shaun Pye as Greg Lindley-Jones
Plot
Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an aspiring actor who can only find work as an extra, which he calls being a "background artist" as a means of making the work seem more dignified. Andy is accompanied on his various projects by his platonic best friend and fellow extra, Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen). Maggie is well-meaning but ditzy, often missing obvious social cues and failing to exhibit appropriate tact and subtlety in conversations. Unlike Andy, Maggie has no aspirations toward being anything more than an extra. Andy's agent, Darren Lamb (Stephen Merchant), has no real experience in the field of entertainment. He is incompetent, often taking no steps at all to find work for Andy, and even discouraging potential employers from hiring his client due to his flabby physique, age, and lack of acting experience. Darren is assisted by former soap opera star Shaun Williamson, who plays himself. Lamb frequently tries to undermine Andy by suggesting Williamson (who Lamb refers to by his former EastEnders character name, "Barry") is better suited for various acting roles that are offered to Andy.
Fed up with life as an extra who is always being cut out of scenes just as he manages to get his face on camera, Andy shamelessly kisses up to celebrities and producers in an effort to try to get screen time or a line of dialogue. Although often successful in these endeavours, circumstances always arise that prevent Andy from advancing his career. Reasons include celebrities confessing that they have no real power to help, or (more often) Andy inadvertently offending the star which results in his immediate dismissal from the set. In the conclusion of season one, Andy delivers a sitcom script he has written to Patrick Stewart, who, in turn, passes it along to the BBC through his production company. Andy gets a meeting with BBC comedy producers who greenlight his project and agree to allow him to play the starring role in the show.
Series Two largely chronicles Andy's frustrations with his sitcom—When the Whistle Blows—which is heavily rewritten by BBC producers, resulting in it being a lowest-common-denominator comedy that relies on a multitude of catchphrases, offensive stereotypes and silly costumes for cheap laughs. Although the sitcom is commercially successful, pulling six million weekly viewers, it is a flop with critics who mercilessly bash both it and Andy. Andy periodically gets a chance to expand his repertoire in film and on stage but manages to ruin every opportunity that comes his way by either refusing to take direction, or by once again offending bigger stars than himself.
In the series' 90-minute finale, the sitcom has made Andy financially successful and recognisable to many but he is increasingly frustrated with the show's quality and with his career not moving forward. Andy is convinced to fire Darren as his agent and become a client of a larger, more professional firm which he believes will accelerate his path upward. After taping a Christmas Special for When the Whistle Blows, he announces to the live studio audience that he is quitting the series effective immediately. His career falls into total stagnation and Andy is forced to take bit parts on various long-running British television series such as Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon. Eventually, his agent ceases to take his calls. Andy's relationship with Maggie sours as he frequently ignores her and spends all of the time they spend together complaining about not getting the opportunities he feels he deserves.
When he crashes his agent's lunch meeting at a posh restaurant, he is bluntly told that he will never realise his dreams of having fame, fortune, prestige and respect. Crushed, Andy reluctantly agrees to lower his expectations for the sake of remaining modestly famous and successful and is cast in Celebrity Big Brother. While staying in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Andy openly reflects upon the price of fame and grows increasingly disenchanted with the culture of celebrity worship that has manifested itself throughout Western society.
His despondency culminates in an emotional breakdown during a conversation with the other housemates. He tearfully turns to the camera and apologises to Maggie, who is watching the broadcast from her flat, for ignoring her and not heeding her advice to be grateful for the things he has managed to achieve. He voluntarily departs the house, ending his tenure on the show. Moved by the unexpected outpouring of emotion, a group of journalists eagerly awaits Andy's appearance at a press conference. Andy's agent returns and tells him that his emotional turn has instantly skyrocketed Andy's profile and that a number of A-list stars are requesting to meet him. As his agent prepares to introduce him to the throng of waiting press, Andy quietly slips out the back door of the studio where Maggie is waiting for him in her car. They drive off together with Andy seemingly turning his back on show business and accepting a life of anonymity.
Episodes
There are twelve regular episodes and a 90-minute Christmas special.
When the first series was originally broadcast in the UK, the episode featuring Ben Stiller was broadcast first, followed by the Ross Kemp and Vinnie Jones episode the following week.
When the first series was shown in North America, another order was used:
Kate Winslet
Ben Stiller
Ross Kemp & Vinnie Jones
Les Dennis
Samuel L. Jackson
Patrick Stewart
When the Whistle Blows
When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it When the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first-season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show.
When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry.
Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!"
The presence of studio audiences, canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On".
Music
The closing title track is called "Tea for the Tillerman", which is written and performed by Cat Stevens and is the title track of his album Tea for the Tillerman. The fourth episode of the second series of the show features a cover of the song performed by Chris Martin of Coldplay. The same episode also uses the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison.
The song in the Christmas Special highlighting Maggie's depression after she hits bottom and quits acting is "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush. When Andy is having a bad time at The Ivy restaurant and leaves Maggie on her own, The Smiths' song "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" can be heard.
Guest star cancellations and replacements
According to a segment in the extras section of the Series 1 DVD, Jude Law was scheduled to appear in one of the episodes, after meeting Gervais backstage on the Late Show with David Letterman, but had to pull out due to film commitments. This resulted in Gervais and Merchant having to scramble to find a replacement actor at the last minute, with Leonardo DiCaprio being considered and doggedly pursued. A featurette on the first series DVD release, "Finding Leo", consists of late-night video camera footage (shot mostly by Merchant) chronicling Gervais' desperate but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to contact DiCaprio's representatives. Law was ultimately replaced by Patrick Stewart in the series 1 finale, although a poster for the Jude Law film Alfie appeared at the end. Other actors who did not appear in Extras despite initial reports from Gervais that they would appear include Madonna, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise. Keith Harris turned down the part eventually given to Keith Chegwin having read the script, telling The Independent "This isn't clever writing, it's pure filth".
Awards and nominations
Overall, Extras has been received very well by critics in the UK. The show received 3 BAFTA Award nominations in 2006 including Best Comedy Performance for Ashley Jensen, Best Writer for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and Best Situation Comedy. In 2007, both Gervais and Merchant were nominated, separately, for Best Comedy Performance, with Gervais ultimately winning the award.
The show has also received accolades in the US. In 2006, the show received four nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards. Ben Stiller and Patrick Stewart received nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and both lost to Leslie Jordan on Will & Grace. Kate Winslet received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and lost to Cloris Leachman for Malcolm in the Middle. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode with Kate Winslet. They lost to Greg Garcia for writing the pilot episode of My Name Is Earl.
In 2007, the show received four nominations at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. Gervais was nominated for and won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Ian McKellen was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Daniel Radcliffe and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for Orlando Bloom. Extras made the Top 10 list of Outstanding Comedy Series but was not nominated in the Top 5.
In 2008, the finale earned five nominations at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. The special was nominated for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, losing out to Recount. On the acting side, Gervais was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, losing to Paul Giamatti in John Adams, while Jensen received her first Emmy nomination with a nod in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie category. She lost out to Eileen Atkins in Cranford. Gervais and Merchant received nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special, as well as in the Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special category, but lost the former to Jay Roach for Recount and the latter to Kirk Ellis for John Adams.
References
External links
2005 British television series debuts
2007 British television series endings
2000s British satirical television series
2000s British sitcoms
2000s British workplace comedy television series
BBC television sitcoms
Best Musical or Comedy Series Golden Globe winners
English-language television shows
HBO original programming
Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series
Television series about actors
Television series about show business
Television series about television
Television series produced at Pinewood Studios
Television series created by Ricky Gervais
Television series created by Stephen Merchant | false | [
"The first series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! was broadcast on ITV from 25 August to 8 September 2002. Ant & Dec presented the main show on ITV, whilst Louise Loughman hosted the spin-off show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW! on ITV2. The winner of this series was radio DJ Tony Blackburn.\n\nCelebrities\nThe show began with eight celebrity contestants. They were:\n\nResults and elimination\n Indicates that the celebrity received the fewest votes and was eliminated immediately (no bottom two).\n Indicates that the celebrity was named as being in the bottom two.\n Indicates that the celebrity had the highest number of votes that day.\n\nBushtucker Trials\nThe contestants take part in daily trials to earn food\n\n The public voted for who they wanted to face the trial\n The contestants decided who did which trial\n The trial was compulsory and no-one decided who took part\n\nStar count\n\nRatings \n\nAll ratings are taken from the UK Programme Ratings website, BARB.\n\nSeries average = 7.57 million viewers.\n\nReferences \n\n2002 British television seasons\n01",
"\"Parents\" is the seventh episode of the American television comedy series, Up All Night. The episode originally aired on November 2, 2011 on NBC.\n\nPlot\nReagan attempts to have a better relationship with her parents to set a good example for Amy. When a crew member on Ava's talk show dies, Ava attempts to get along better with her crew. Meanwhile, in fear of his life being cut short, Chris decides to make some lifestyle changes.\n\nProduction\nOn September 27, 2011, Entertainment Weekly reported that Richard Schiff would appear on the show as Christina Applegate's dad.\n\nReception\n\nRatings\nIn its original American broadcast, \"Parents\" was viewed by an estimated 4.78 million households and received a 1.8 rating/5% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This means that it was seen by 1.8% of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 5% of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. This marked a 14% drop in the ratings from the previous episode, \"Birth\", marking a series low in the ratings. The episode ranked fourth in its timeslot, only beating a rerun of the CW drama series, Ringer. Added with DVR viewers who viewed the episode within three days of the original broadcast, the episode received a 2.7 rating in the 18–49 demographic, adding a 0.9 rating to the original viewership.\n\nReferences\n\n2011 American television episodes\nUp All Night (TV series) episodes"
]
|
[
"Extras (TV series)",
"When the Whistle Blows",
"What is When the Whistle Blows?",
"When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman.",
"What was When the Whistle Blows about?",
"When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms.",
"How did When the Whistle Blows compare to Extras?",
"The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings.",
"Does Millman ever stop working on the show?",
"I don't know.",
"Who does Millman feel interfered with his original ideas?",
"After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare",
"After the compromises did the show get better ratings?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_0c5a9ca4fd4a437aa3cc79656398701a_0 | How did the rest of the people working on When the Whistle Blows feel about the changes? | 8 | How did the rest of the people working on When the Whistle Blows feel about the changes? | Extras (TV series) | When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it Where the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show. When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?," is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry. Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!" The presence of studio audiences/canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO and was written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. Extras follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his platonic friend Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen) and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-level sitcom star.
Extras has two series of six episodes each as well as a Christmas Special. The first episode aired in the UK on 21 July 2005 on BBC Two and on 25 September 2005 on HBO in the US. The second series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 14 September 2006 and began airing in the US on HBO and in Australia on ABC on 14 February 2007. The Christmas Special aired on 27 December 2007 on BBC One and on 16 December 2007 on HBO. Both series are available on DVD and, at various times, through streaming services in the UK and the US.
The series is filmed in a more traditional sitcom style than the mockumentary style used by Gervais and Merchant in their previous series The Office. Each episode has at least one guest star: a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves; an exaggerated or inverted parody of their public personas. The show has been critically acclaimed, and has a Metacritic score of 81/100.
Cast and characters
Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman
Ashley Jensen as Maggie Jacobs
Stephen Merchant as Darren Lamb (credited as "Agent")
Shaun Williamson as Barry from EastEnders (himself)
Shaun Pye as Greg Lindley-Jones
Plot
Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an aspiring actor who can only find work as an extra, which he calls being a "background artist" as a means of making the work seem more dignified. Andy is accompanied on his various projects by his platonic best friend and fellow extra, Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen). Maggie is well-meaning but ditzy, often missing obvious social cues and failing to exhibit appropriate tact and subtlety in conversations. Unlike Andy, Maggie has no aspirations toward being anything more than an extra. Andy's agent, Darren Lamb (Stephen Merchant), has no real experience in the field of entertainment. He is incompetent, often taking no steps at all to find work for Andy, and even discouraging potential employers from hiring his client due to his flabby physique, age, and lack of acting experience. Darren is assisted by former soap opera star Shaun Williamson, who plays himself. Lamb frequently tries to undermine Andy by suggesting Williamson (who Lamb refers to by his former EastEnders character name, "Barry") is better suited for various acting roles that are offered to Andy.
Fed up with life as an extra who is always being cut out of scenes just as he manages to get his face on camera, Andy shamelessly kisses up to celebrities and producers in an effort to try to get screen time or a line of dialogue. Although often successful in these endeavours, circumstances always arise that prevent Andy from advancing his career. Reasons include celebrities confessing that they have no real power to help, or (more often) Andy inadvertently offending the star which results in his immediate dismissal from the set. In the conclusion of season one, Andy delivers a sitcom script he has written to Patrick Stewart, who, in turn, passes it along to the BBC through his production company. Andy gets a meeting with BBC comedy producers who greenlight his project and agree to allow him to play the starring role in the show.
Series Two largely chronicles Andy's frustrations with his sitcom—When the Whistle Blows—which is heavily rewritten by BBC producers, resulting in it being a lowest-common-denominator comedy that relies on a multitude of catchphrases, offensive stereotypes and silly costumes for cheap laughs. Although the sitcom is commercially successful, pulling six million weekly viewers, it is a flop with critics who mercilessly bash both it and Andy. Andy periodically gets a chance to expand his repertoire in film and on stage but manages to ruin every opportunity that comes his way by either refusing to take direction, or by once again offending bigger stars than himself.
In the series' 90-minute finale, the sitcom has made Andy financially successful and recognisable to many but he is increasingly frustrated with the show's quality and with his career not moving forward. Andy is convinced to fire Darren as his agent and become a client of a larger, more professional firm which he believes will accelerate his path upward. After taping a Christmas Special for When the Whistle Blows, he announces to the live studio audience that he is quitting the series effective immediately. His career falls into total stagnation and Andy is forced to take bit parts on various long-running British television series such as Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon. Eventually, his agent ceases to take his calls. Andy's relationship with Maggie sours as he frequently ignores her and spends all of the time they spend together complaining about not getting the opportunities he feels he deserves.
When he crashes his agent's lunch meeting at a posh restaurant, he is bluntly told that he will never realise his dreams of having fame, fortune, prestige and respect. Crushed, Andy reluctantly agrees to lower his expectations for the sake of remaining modestly famous and successful and is cast in Celebrity Big Brother. While staying in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Andy openly reflects upon the price of fame and grows increasingly disenchanted with the culture of celebrity worship that has manifested itself throughout Western society.
His despondency culminates in an emotional breakdown during a conversation with the other housemates. He tearfully turns to the camera and apologises to Maggie, who is watching the broadcast from her flat, for ignoring her and not heeding her advice to be grateful for the things he has managed to achieve. He voluntarily departs the house, ending his tenure on the show. Moved by the unexpected outpouring of emotion, a group of journalists eagerly awaits Andy's appearance at a press conference. Andy's agent returns and tells him that his emotional turn has instantly skyrocketed Andy's profile and that a number of A-list stars are requesting to meet him. As his agent prepares to introduce him to the throng of waiting press, Andy quietly slips out the back door of the studio where Maggie is waiting for him in her car. They drive off together with Andy seemingly turning his back on show business and accepting a life of anonymity.
Episodes
There are twelve regular episodes and a 90-minute Christmas special.
When the first series was originally broadcast in the UK, the episode featuring Ben Stiller was broadcast first, followed by the Ross Kemp and Vinnie Jones episode the following week.
When the first series was shown in North America, another order was used:
Kate Winslet
Ben Stiller
Ross Kemp & Vinnie Jones
Les Dennis
Samuel L. Jackson
Patrick Stewart
When the Whistle Blows
When the Whistle Blows is the show-within-a-show sitcom created, co-written by and starring Andy Millman. It was first mentioned in episode 1.3, as a script that Millman had written and given to Darren, who neglected to read it (in a recurring joke, he would frequently forget the name of the show, often calling it When the Wind Blows and even confusing it with The Wind in the Willows). The script was turned into a sitcom on BBC One in the first-season finale, after Millman gave the script to Patrick Stewart. Excerpts from the sitcom are featured in the second season, and many of the Extras second season plotlines revolve around Millman's experiences on and around the show.
When the Whistle Blows is set in a Wigan factory canteen. The humour is broad and lowbrow in the manner of many catchphrase-based sitcoms. The main catchphrase of the show, "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" is spoken by Millman. The show is unpopular with critics but popular with the public. It does receive a BAFTA nomination, although Millman suspects it is there simply to make up the numbers, and in the end it loses to an unspecified programme by Stephen Fry.
Millman is deeply unhappy with the show, feeling that too many people have interfered with his original ideas in the hunt for ratings. It appears that Millman originally set out to do a comedy similar to The Office, with true-to-life characters in a realistic work environment, without a studio audience or canned laughter. After being forced to collaborate and compromise many of his ideas with producers at the BBC, the show is transformed into lowest common denominator fare with each character having his/her own catchphrase which are repeated ad nauseam to the delight of its 6 million viewers. The show is further debased by the unexplained guest appearance of Coldplay's Chris Martin, in episode 2.4, which bears no relation to the plot and which Millman openly opposes, going so far as to utter the on-camera line, "Chris Martin, what are you doing in a factory in Wigan? It's mental!"
The presence of studio audiences, canned laughter, and the reliance on funny wigs, costumes and catchphrases for humour is a comment on British comedy hits such as Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. Many people that Millman sees at the recording of the pilot wear T-shirts displaying comedy catchphrases, such as "Wassup", "It's Chico Time", "I'm a lady!", "Am I bovvered?" and "Garlic bread?." (These shirts are not shown in the US version of Extras.) Some of the reviews that the show gets refer to it as a "time warp comedy", and Millman's character talks about 1970s catchphrases such as Mr Humphreys' "I'm Free" (from Are You Being Served?) and Frank Spencer's "Ooh Betty" (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), suggesting that it is also partly sending up 1970s British comedy. In episode 2.5, Germaine Greer suggests that When the Whistle Blows is "sub Carry On".
Music
The closing title track is called "Tea for the Tillerman", which is written and performed by Cat Stevens and is the title track of his album Tea for the Tillerman. The fourth episode of the second series of the show features a cover of the song performed by Chris Martin of Coldplay. The same episode also uses the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison.
The song in the Christmas Special highlighting Maggie's depression after she hits bottom and quits acting is "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush. When Andy is having a bad time at The Ivy restaurant and leaves Maggie on her own, The Smiths' song "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" can be heard.
Guest star cancellations and replacements
According to a segment in the extras section of the Series 1 DVD, Jude Law was scheduled to appear in one of the episodes, after meeting Gervais backstage on the Late Show with David Letterman, but had to pull out due to film commitments. This resulted in Gervais and Merchant having to scramble to find a replacement actor at the last minute, with Leonardo DiCaprio being considered and doggedly pursued. A featurette on the first series DVD release, "Finding Leo", consists of late-night video camera footage (shot mostly by Merchant) chronicling Gervais' desperate but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to contact DiCaprio's representatives. Law was ultimately replaced by Patrick Stewart in the series 1 finale, although a poster for the Jude Law film Alfie appeared at the end. Other actors who did not appear in Extras despite initial reports from Gervais that they would appear include Madonna, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise. Keith Harris turned down the part eventually given to Keith Chegwin having read the script, telling The Independent "This isn't clever writing, it's pure filth".
Awards and nominations
Overall, Extras has been received very well by critics in the UK. The show received 3 BAFTA Award nominations in 2006 including Best Comedy Performance for Ashley Jensen, Best Writer for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and Best Situation Comedy. In 2007, both Gervais and Merchant were nominated, separately, for Best Comedy Performance, with Gervais ultimately winning the award.
The show has also received accolades in the US. In 2006, the show received four nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards. Ben Stiller and Patrick Stewart received nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and both lost to Leslie Jordan on Will & Grace. Kate Winslet received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and lost to Cloris Leachman for Malcolm in the Middle. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode with Kate Winslet. They lost to Greg Garcia for writing the pilot episode of My Name Is Earl.
In 2007, the show received four nominations at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. Gervais was nominated for and won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Ian McKellen was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Gervais and Merchant were also nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Daniel Radcliffe and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for Orlando Bloom. Extras made the Top 10 list of Outstanding Comedy Series but was not nominated in the Top 5.
In 2008, the finale earned five nominations at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. The special was nominated for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, losing out to Recount. On the acting side, Gervais was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, losing to Paul Giamatti in John Adams, while Jensen received her first Emmy nomination with a nod in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie category. She lost out to Eileen Atkins in Cranford. Gervais and Merchant received nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special, as well as in the Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special category, but lost the former to Jay Roach for Recount and the latter to Kirk Ellis for John Adams.
References
External links
2005 British television series debuts
2007 British television series endings
2000s British satirical television series
2000s British sitcoms
2000s British workplace comedy television series
BBC television sitcoms
Best Musical or Comedy Series Golden Globe winners
English-language television shows
HBO original programming
Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series
Television series about actors
Television series about show business
Television series about television
Television series produced at Pinewood Studios
Television series created by Ricky Gervais
Television series created by Stephen Merchant | false | [
"A firedamp whistle (German: Schlagwetterpfeife) is an instrument for the prophylactic indication of firedamp — flammable gases often present in coal mines.\n\nHistory \n\nThe German Emperor Wilhelm II asked Fritz Haber in 1912, shortly after the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin, for the construction of a warning system for the presence of firedamp.\n\nWithin a year Haber developed the methane whistle and presented it to the emperor in a lecture on October 28, 1913. Haber tried hard to market the device and eventually signed a contract with the Auergesellschaft. Unfortunately, the device did not prevail, since the calibration of the pipes under working conditions in a colliery was not practical.\n\nMode of operation \nThe simultaneous use of two equally-tuned pipes, of which one is blown with atmospheric air and the second with another gas, results in two only slightly different tones, called a beat. The function of the methane whistle is based on the fact that the sound when blowing a whistle depends on the speed of sound in the gas. The sound velocities of methane and air differ by about 31%. For a 1% methane-air mixture, the speed of sound is about 1.0031 times as high as in air. If the pipes are tuned to 440 Hz in air, the air-methane pipe has a frequency of 440 Hz × 1.0031 = 441.4 Hz. If two identically tuned pipes are blown by air and an air-methane mixture, the only slightly different tones produce a clearly audible beat. If the gas mixture changes in the resonator, then its resonance spectrum changes. By means of an absorber, interfering constituents of air such as humidity and carbon dioxide are removed. The methane whistle indicated methane levels in the mine air from 1 vol% and above.\n\nExternal links \nSteven Garrett: Sonic gas analyzers for hydrogen and methane\n\nReferences \n\nMine safety\nHistory of mining in Germany",
"\"Give a Little Whistle\" is a song written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for Walt Disney's 1940 adaptation of Pinocchio. The original version was sung by Cliff Edwards in the character of Jiminy Cricket and Dickie Jones in the character of Pinocchio, and is teaching how to whistle in the film.\n\nIn the film\nJiminy Cricket hopped on Pinocchio's toes, attempts the whistle on the two failures. Jiminy whistles three times for Pinocchio on the last whistle. Jiminy starts to dance and hopped on to the shelf to sing to him, blows the whistle on his top hat into the echo and dances on the shelf. Pinocchio blows his hat and there's nothing in there. Jiminy says, \"Pucker up and blow!\" and he's on the jug to blows it like the bass music. Pinocchio stands up to sing. Until Jiminy Cricket balances on the violin with the violin string on his feet to slide up and down before he walked to sing, \"And always let your conscience be your guide!\" And the string breaks to snapped him out of the scene.\n\nIn the scenes of Jiminy Cricket, he's goofing around with his red umbrella for the imitating trombone and he looked at the pipe to smell on his nose to going reel around the circle until Jiminy is falling off the shelf. Until the saw is on the wooden plane on the workbench. Jiminy Cricket is falling from the shelf and lands on to the saw, as he jumped up before the saw is whistling. Before, Jiminy Cricket has two legs up to bounce and lands on the saw for legs split on his crotch and his butt on the seesaw as his pants or diapers. The saw lifts him up and Jiminy fixed his yellow necktie and lands on the saw again to fly up highest like a bird. Until Jiminy Cricket is ready to dive on the saw like the springboard to spring into the cuckoo clock to make the tap dancing to fixed the hand on 11:30, as he knocked on the door and marched like the band leader with the Swiss family and cow and a maid. When Jiminy finished the song to her and followed her to sing, \"And always let your conscience be your guide!\" And the door closed to Jiminy's face.\n\nPinocchio dances to sing, \"And always let your conscience be your guide!\" And he tripped over the cans to fall from the workbench into the floor with the junk is crashing while Geppetto and the animals wake to hear the noise.\n\nOther versions\n Doris Day - included on her 1964 album With a Smile and a Song.\n Julie London - for her album Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast (1967)\n June Christy - on her 1960 album The Cool School.\n\n1940 songs\nSongs based on fairy tales\nSongs with music by Leigh Harline\nSongs with lyrics by Ned Washington\nDisney songs\nSongs written for animated films\nPinocchio (1940 film)"
]
|
[
"The Bella Twins",
"Divas Champions (2011-2012)"
]
| C_70ae421b29c944d1936f9af142452d7e_1 | Can you tell me about the Divas Champions? | 1 | Can you tell me about the Divas Champions (2011-2012)? | The Bella Twins | The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match between Torres and Natalya on the February 14 episode of Raw. Following the match, they attacked Torres backstage before Gail Kim and Natalya stopped them. The next week, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. The following week, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship, and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7. On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. Brie went on to successfully defend the championship against Kelly Kelly at Over the Limit, after switching places with Nikki. On a special "Power to the People" episode of Raw on June 20, Brie defended her WWE Divas Championship against Kelly, who was selected by voters. Kelly then defeated Brie and won the championship. On July 17, Brie challenged Kelly for the championship in a rematch at Money in the Bank, but failed to win. The twins spent the majority of the rest of the year in tag team matches, regularly facing Kelly and Torres. The Bellas began to show friction for the second time since joining WWE in March 2012, after both twins lost to AJ Lee in singles competition. After Brie's match with Lee, Nikki revealed that Brie was rooting for Team Johnny in the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII, whilst Nikki was rooting for Team Teddy, thus furthering their dissension. On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Nikki defeated the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match, after Kelly Kelly distracted Phoenix. On April 23, Nikki defeated Phoenix in a lumberjill match on Raw to win the Divas Championship for the first time. Brie lost Nikki's championship to Layla at Extreme Rules after Twin Magic failed, ending her Divas Championship reign after only a week. The following night on Raw, they competed in their last match with the WWE, failing to win back the Divas Championship from Layla in a triple threat match. Later that night, WWE announced on their website that the twins had been fired by Executive Administrator Eve Torres. CANNOTANSWER | The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match | The Bella Twins were a professional wrestling tag team who performed on WWE and consisted of identical twin sisters Brie Bella and Nikki Bella (real names Brianna and Nicole). The Bella Twins are both former Divas Champions, with Brie becoming the first twin in WWE History to win the WWE Divas Championship once, while Nikki holding it twice. Nikki is also the longest-reigning holder of that title.
Both sisters signed with WWE in 2007 (then known as World Wrestling Entertainment) and were assigned to the farm territory Florida Championship Wrestling. As Brie Bella, Brianna was called up to the main roster in 2008. She began to wrestle and, during her matches, she switched places with her sister to win. Weeks later, it was revealed that they were twins and Nicole began to work as Nikki Bella. During the next years, they worked together as a team and won the WWE Divas Championship one time each one, but in 2012, when they were released. The Bella Twins made their return in 2013 and featured the reality show Total Divas. While in 2014 they disbanded the team and feud between them, they reunited in 2015 and Nikki won the Divas Championship for a second time. She retained the title for 301 days, the longest reign of the title. After 2015, they began to appear less in WWE shows until they announced their retirement in 2019. In 2021, they were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class.
In November 2015, Nikki was ranked No. 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrateds Female 50.
Early lives and careers
Nicole and Brianna Garcia-Colace were born sixteen minutes apart on November 21, 1983, in San Diego, California and raised on a farm in the outskirts of Scottsdale, Arizona. They are of Mexican and Italian descent and played soccer in their youth. The twins graduated from Chaparral High School in 2002. They returned to San Diego for college, where Nicole continued playing soccer for Grossmont College, with both twins also working at Hooters. A year later, the twins relocated to Los Angeles in pursuit of acting and modeling opportunities, making ends meet doing various gigs from marketing for a now defunct record label, to cocktail waitressing at the Mondrian Hotel.
They then made their first national TV appearance on the Fox reality show Meet My Folks. Following this appearance, the twins were hired to be the World Cup Twins for Budweiser and were photographed holding the World Cup trophy. They were contestants in the 2006 "International Body Doubles twins search". They participated in the 2006 WWE Diva Search, but did not make the cut.
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
Florida Championship Wrestling (2007–2008)
The Bella Twins were signed to developmental contracts by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in June 2007 and were assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's then-developmental territory, in Tampa, Florida. On September 14, the twins made their in-ring debut defeating Nattie Neidhart and Krissy Vaine with Victoria Crawford as the special guest referee. As a part of their on-screen personas, they switched places behind the referee's back if one of them was hurt. This was called "Twin Magic". They also occasionally competed in mixed tag team matches, teaming with male wrestlers including Kofi Kingston and Robert Anthony. They also made some non-wrestling appearances on Heath Miller's Happy Hour promo segment.
Starting in December 2007, they managed Derrick Linkin, but this storyline was cut short when Linkin was released in January 2008. They then resumed their feud with Neidhart and Crawford, wrestling them throughout much of 2008. In FCW, the twins competed in bikini contests and wrestled against Katie Lea Burchill, Milena Roucka, and Nattie Neidhart. Their last FCW appearance was on September 2, when they competed in a Divas battle royal won by Miss Angela.
Various storylines (2008–2011)
On the August 29 episode of SmackDown, Brianna debuted as Brie Bella and defeated Victoria. She had a series of matches with Victoria and Victoria's accomplice Natalya. In each match, Brie would roll out of the ring and go underneath it, emerging revived as she would then win the match. On the November 7 episode of SmackDown, Brie picked up a win against Victoria and then ran under the ring to escape Natalya and Victoria, but Victoria and Natalya both reached for Brie under the ring, resulting in both Nicole and Brie being pulled out. Nicole was then introduced as Nikki Bella. The twins had their first official match as a team on the November 21 episode of SmackDown, defeating Victoria and Natalya. They continued competing in tag team matches over the following months.
Starting in November, the twins developed an on-screen relationship with The Colóns (Carlito and Primo). In February 2009, the storyline expanded to include John Morrison and The Miz, who flirted with the Bellas and took them on a date for Valentine's Day. The date provoked a rivalry between the teams of The Miz and Morrison and Primo and Carlito, with the four competing for the affection of the twins, who were seemingly unable to choose between them. On March 17 on ECW, Carlito and Primo, aiming for Morrison and The Miz, accidentally spat apples in the face of Brie. Nikki began to laugh at Brie's misfortune, and a fight broke out between the two, which led to Nikki leaving with The Miz and Morrison while Brie stayed with Primo and Carlito. Brie won her first match over Nikki in a six-person intergender tag team match on SmackDown the following week. On ECW on March 31, Nikki pinned Brie in their first singles match against each other after a distraction from Morrison and The Miz.
On April 15, The Bella Twins were both drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 supplemental draft. On April 27, Brie made her Raw in-ring debut in an eight-Diva tag team match, which her team won. Nikki also made an appearance, reuniting with her twin, as she was under the ring to help Brie during the match. Nikki then made her in-ring debut for the brand the following month in a battle royal, but was eliminated by Beth Phoenix.
On June 29, they were both traded to the ECW brand. They debuted on ECW the following night on The Abraham Washington Show, as the special guests. They quickly developed a storyline feud with Katie Lea Burchill, when Nikki defeated her in a match by switching places with Brie behind the referee's back. The following week on Superstars, Brie defeated Burchill after a similar fashion, and the feud ended in September, when Nikki defeated Burchill on Superstars.
On October 12, the Bellas were traded back to Raw as part of a tri-branded Divas trade, where they predominately appeared in backstages segments with the weekly guest stars and only occasionally competed in matches. In June 2010, they developed a feud with Jillian Hall, when Brie defeated her after switching places with Nikki. The following week, Nikki defeated Hall after switching with Brie. The feud was exacerbated when the Bellas acted as the special guest referees during one of Hall's matches. During the match, Hall attacked both twins, but lost the match when Nikki made a fast count, allowing her to be pinned by Gail Kim. The next week on Superstars, the twins defeated Hall and Maryse in a tag team match to end the storyline.
On August 31, The Bella Twins announced they would be part of the all-female third season of NXT, mentoring Jamie. Jamie was the first rookie Diva eliminated on the October 5 episode of NXT. In November, the twins began a storyline with Daniel Bryan, when Brie accompanied him to the ring for his match. Following his win, Nikki ran out and the two fought over Bryan's affection, until Bryan broke it up and had them hug each other. They began to manage Bryan and frequently accompanied him to the ring over the next two months. In January 2011, they discovered Bryan kissing Gail Kim backstage and assaulted her. They continued to attack Kim, both at the Royal Rumble on January 30 and the following night on Raw. On February 7, they teamed with Melina in a losing effort to Kim, Eve Torres and Tamina.
Divas Champions (2011–2012)
The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match between Torres and Natalya on the February 14 episode of Raw. Following the match, they attacked Torres backstage before Gail Kim and Natalya stopped them. The next week on Raw, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. The following week on Raw, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7.
On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. On May 22, Brie went on to successfully defend the championship against Kelly Kelly at Over the Limit after switching places with Nikki. On a special "Power to the People" episode of Raw on June 20, Brie defended her WWE Divas Championship against Kelly (who was selected by voters), losing the title and ending her reign at 70 days. On July 17, Brie challenged Kelly for the championship in a rematch at Money in the Bank on July 17, but she failed to win.
The Bellas began to show friction in March 2012 after both twins lost to AJ Lee in singles competition. After Brie's match with Lee, Nikki revealed that Brie was rooting for Team Johnny in the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII on April 1 whilst Nikki was rooting for Team Teddy, thus furthering their dissension.
On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Nikki defeated the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match after Kelly Kelly distracted Phoenix. On April 23, Nikki defeated Phoenix in a lumberjill match on Raw to win the Divas Championship for the first time. Brie lost Nikki's championship to Layla at Extreme Rules on April 29 after Twin Magic failed, ending her Divas Championship reign after only a week. The following night on Raw, they competed in their last match with the WWE, failing to win back the Divas Championship from Layla in a triple threat match. Later that night, WWE announced on their website that the twins had been fired by Executive Administrator Eve Torres.
Independent circuit promotions (2012–2013)
On May 1, 2012, the twins appeared at their first independent wrestling show in Newburgh, New York at Northeast Wrestling. They later appeared for CTWE Pro Wrestling at the Season Beatings pay-per-view on December 15, each accompanying a different wrestler to the ring.
Return to WWE
Total Divas storylines (2013–2014)
The Bella Twins returned to WWE on the March 11, 2013, episode of Raw in a backstage segment with Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow). On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, the twins attacked The Funkadactyls (Cameron and Naomi) and the following week interfered in matches between Team Rhodes Scholars and Brodus Clay and Tensai, but were attacked by The Funkadactyls. The twins made their in-ring return defeating The Funkadactyls on the March 27 episode of Main Event after interference from Cody Rhodes. The Bella Twins were scheduled to participate in an eight-person tag team match with Team Rhodes Scholars against Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai) and The Funkadactyls at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, but the match was canceled due to time restraints and instead took place the following night on Raw, where The Bella Twins and Team Rhodes Scholars were defeated. In June, Nikki suffered a fractured tibia.
Upon the debut of the Total Divas reality television program in July, The Bellas began a feud with their co-star on the show Natalya, with Brie and Natalya trading victories in singles competition on Raw and at SummerSlam on August 18. The cast of Total Divas then transitioned into a scripted feud with Divas Champion AJ Lee, who mocked the show and cast. At Night of Champions on September 15, Brie unsuccessfully challenged Lee for the Divas Championship in a four-way match, which also involved Natalya and Naomi. Continuing their feud into October, Brie and Lee faced off at Battleground and Hell in a Cell for the Divas Championship, but Brie was unsuccessful. Nikki returned to in-ring action on the October 25 episode of SmackDown, losing to Lee. At Survivor Series on November 24, the twins were part of the victorious Team Total Divas. On April 6, they failed to win the Divas Championship again at WrestleMania XXX in the Divas Invitational match, which was won by Lee.
Brief split (2014)
In April 2014, Brie became involved in her real-life husband Daniel Bryan's ongoing storyline with Stephanie McMahon and Kane, whereas part of the storyline McMahon threatened to fire Brie if an injured Bryan did not relinquish the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Payback on June 1, which forced Brie to "quit" WWE before slapping McMahon in the face. After Brie "quit", McMahon put Nikki in several handicap matches as punishment. After a month absence, Brie returned to WWE television, appearing in the crowd on July 21 and starting a confrontation with McMahon who slapped Brie and was subsequently arrested. In order to have Brie drop the "charges", Brie was rehired and received a match against McMahon at SummerSlam.
Nikki attacked Brie at the event on August 17, which allowed McMahon to win the match. The next several weeks saw the twins fight in several backstage and in-ring segments, including a cameo appearance from Jerry Springer on Raw on September 8. As part of the storyline, McMahon declared Nikki the face of the WWE Divas division and granted her a match at Night of Champions for the Divas Championship, which she failed to win. At Hell in a Cell, Nikki defeated Brie in a match where the loser was forced to become the winner's personal assistant for 30 days.
Nikki and Brie reunited at Survivor Series on November 23 when Nikki defeated AJ Lee with Brie's help to become a two-time Divas Champion. Nikki retained her championship in three separate occasions—against Lee in a rematch at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 14, against Naomi two days later on SmackDown and against Paige on February 22, 2015, at Fastlane. Paige and Lee then formed an alliance against the Bellas which led to a tag team match at WrestleMania 31 on March 29, which the Bellas lost.
Team Bella (2015)
After Nikki retained her title over Naomi at Extreme Rules on April 26, Nikki started a feud with Naomi after she aligned with the returning Tamina to even the odds against Bellas. This led to a tag team match between the two teams at Payback on May 17, which Naomi and Tamina won. At Elimination Chamber on May 31, Nikki retained her title against Naomi and Paige in a triple threat match, with Brie banned from ringside.
In June, The Bella Twins became villains once again by employing Twin Magic, which helped Nikki retain the title against Paige on the June 1 episode of Raw and at Money in the Bank on June 14. During the feud with Paige, Alicia Fox allied with them to form Team Bella. At The Beast in the East on July 4, Nikki retained the title against Paige and Tamina.
After weeks of Team Bella outnumbering Paige, Naomi and Tamina, Stephanie McMahon called for a "revolution" in the WWE Divas division and introduced the debuting Charlotte and Becky Lynch as Paige's allies while NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks debuted as an ally to Naomi and Tamina, which led to a brawl between the three teams. Nikki then lost to Charlotte in a tag team match on the August 3 episode of Raw and to Banks on the August 17 episode of Raw in a non-title match. On August 23, the three teams faced off at SummerSlam in a three team elimination match in which Team Bella first eliminated Team B.A.D. before Team PCB's win.
On the September 14 episode of Raw, Nikki defended her title against Charlotte, who pinned Brie after the twins had switched places to win the match, but she retained the championship since the title cannot change hands by disqualification and in the process became the new longest reigning Divas Champion in history, surpassing AJ Lee's previous record of 295 days.
Injuries, retirements and sporadic appearances (2015–2019)
On September 20, Nikki dropped the championship to Charlotte at Night of Champions, ending her reign at 301 days and failing to regain the title in a rematch at Hell in a Cell on October 25. Shortly after, Nikki went on a hiatus from both television and in-ring competition due to a neck injury which would require surgery, but returned for one night on December 21 to accept the Slammy Award for Diva of the Year. During Nikki's absence, Brie continued to compete in singles competition and in tag team matches with Fox. Brie was unsuccessful in winning the Divas Championship at Fastlane on February 21 in a match against Charlotte. During that time, Team Bella quietly disbanded.
In March 2016, Brie was placed in a feud with Lana, who argued that Brie's fans only supported her out of pity for having a "bad husband". Brie then aligned herself with fellow Total Divas cast members Alicia Fox, Natalya, Paige and Eva Marie while Lana aligned herself with Team B.A.D. (Naomi and Tamina), Summer Rae and Emma (which was officially called Team B.A.D. and Blonde), leading to a 10-woman tag team match on the WrestleMania 32 kickoff show on April 3, which Team Total Divas would win when Naomi submitted to Brie. After the match, Nikki returned and celebrated with her co-stars. On April 6, Brie confirmed that she would be taking an extended break from in-ring competition, citing family reasons while also stating that she will continue working for WWE as an ambassador.
On January 22, 2018, on the Raw 25 Years special episode, The Bella Twins were honored as part of a segment involving women considered legends that contributed to the company's success. At the Royal Rumble on January 28, Brie and Nikki participated in the first ever women's Royal Rumble match at No. 28 and No. 27, respectively, making it into the final four with Asuka and Sasha Banks, with Nikki eliminating Brie before being eliminated herself by the winner Asuka. On the September 3 episode of Raw, The Bella Twins competed for the first time in three years, defeating The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan). The Bellas teamed with Ronda Rousey to defeat The Riott Squad at WWE Super Show-Down on October 6, and won the rematch two nights later on Raw. After the rematch, the Bellas attacked Rousey. Nikki received a title opportunity against Rousey at WWE Evolution on October 28, but was unsuccessful. In March 2019, both Bellas announced on Total Bellas that they had retired from in-ring competition with Brie making the announcement on the March 10 episode and Nikki announcing her retirement on the season finale on March 24. At February 21, 2020 edition of SmackDown, it was announced that both Bellas will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, during A Moment of Bliss segment. Due to the COVID Pandemic, the ceremony took place the next year.
Other media
Guest appearances
Prior to working with WWE, the twins appeared on Meet My Folks. Both twins also appeared in the music video for "Right Side of the Bed" by the band Atreyu. They were regulars on the VH1 show Best Week Ever. The twins made a guest appearance on the MTV series Ridiculousness in October 2012. They also appeared in the music video for "Na Na" by Trey Songz in 2014.
The twins guest starred on the television series Psych, in the 2014 episode "A Nightmare on State Street". Nikki and Brie are part of the main cast for the reality television show Total Divas, which began airing in July 2013. In April 2016, it was announced that Total Bellas, a spin-off of Total Divas starring the twins, would begin airing in fall 2016.
Nikki and Brie co-starred in the 2014 independent film Confessions of a Womanizer and provided voices for the 2015 movie The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!.
Nikki appeared at the Miss USA 2013 pageant as one of the celebrity judges. They appeared at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards, where they presented the award for Best Female. The twins were both nominated for Choice Female Athlete at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. The following year at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards, The Bella Twins won Choice Female Athlete. Brie appeared alongside Paige, Natalya, and the Chrisley family on the 88th Academy Awards edition of E! Countdown to the Red Carpet in February 2016.
The Bella Twins have appeared in ten WWE video games, making their in-game debut at WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and appearing in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, WWE '12 (DLC), WWE '13, WWE 2K14 (DLC), WWE 2K15, WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18, WWE 2K19, WWE 2K20 and WWE 2K Battlegrounds. Animated versions of the Bella Twins were included in WWE Network's series Camp WWE.
YouTube
Both twins appeared on the WWE YouTube show The JBL & Cole Show.
On November 21, 2016, Nikki and Brie unveiled their new YouTube channel which features daily fashion, beauty, travel, fitness, relationship and health videos along with daily video blogs, created by the twins themselves.
The Bella Twins appeared in YouTuber iiSuperwomanii's video "When Someone Tries to Steal Your BFF" on March 2, 2017.
On April 16, 2020, the twins were featured on the hit YouTube channel "First We Feast", appearing a Truth or Dab edition of Hot Ones.
Lifestyle
On August 21, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched their own wine label called Belle Radici in collaboration with Hill Family Estates and Gauge Branding. Later that year on November 1, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched Birdiebee, a lifestyle intimates and activewear brand. The line includes transitional intimates, activewear and loungewear aimed at "empowering and educating women through mirroring the twins' passion for life, strength, women's health and wellness, and fun".
On January 28, 2019, Nikki and Brie launched Nicole + Brizee, a body and beauty line. On March 27, 2019, Nikki and Brie launched their own podcast.
In March 2020, Nikki and Brie released their memoir Incomparable.
In 2021, Nikki and Brie launched another wine label called Bonita Bonita Wine.
In 2021, Nikki and Brie launched their own baby gear collection in partnership with Colugo. Nikki and Brie also announced that they joined Colugo as investors and creative advisors.
Personal life
On May 9, 2017, Brie gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Birdie Joe Danielson. In January 2020, the twins announced they were both pregnant, with due dates a week and a half apart. On July 31, Nikki gave birth to Matteo Artemovich Chigvintsev. 22 hours later, Brie gave birth to Buddy Dessert Danielson on August 1.
Bibliography
Incomparable (2020)
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Championships and accomplishments
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI ranked Brie Bella No. 12 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015
PWI ranked Nikki Bella No. 1 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone named Nikki Bella as the Diva of the Year in 2015
Rolling Stone named Nikki Bella as the Most Improved Wrestler in 2015
Teen Choice Awards
Choice Female Athlete (2016)
WrestleCrap
Gooker Award (2014) Feud between each other (co-winner with Vince McMahon)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Worst Feud of the Year (2014) Brie vs. Nikki
Worst Feud of the Year (2015) Team PCB vs. Team B.A.D. vs. Team Bella
Worst Worked Match of the Year (2013) with Cameron, Eva Marie, JoJo, Naomi, and Natalya vs. AJ Lee, Aksana, Alicia Fox, Kaitlyn, Rosa Mendes, Summer Rae and Tamina Snuka on November 24
WWE
WWE Divas Championship (3 times) – Brie Bella (1), Nikki Bella (2)
Slammy Award (4 times)
Couple of the Year (2013, 2014)
Diva of the Year (2013)
Diva of the Year (2015)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2020)
References
External links
1983 births
American female professional wrestlers
American professional wrestlers of Italian descent
American professional wrestlers of Mexican descent
American YouTubers
ECW (WWE) teams and stables
Identical twin females
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from San Diego
Sportspeople from Scottsdale, Arizona
Twin people from the United States
Twin sportspeople
Women's wrestling teams and stables
WWE teams and stables
WWE Diva Search contestants
WWE Hall of Fame team inductees
Professional wrestlers from California
21st-century American women
American actresses of Mexican descent | true | [
"Monifa Carter (born January 26, 1972), also known as Monifah, is an American R&B singer. She is best known for her association with the late rapper Heavy D. and her music from the mid-1990s, including \"I Miss You (Come Back Home)\", \"You\" and \"Touch It\", which was released in 1998. She starred on TV One's reality show R&B Divas: Atlanta.\n\nEarly life \nMonifah was born and raised in New York City.\n\nCareer \nIn 1996, her gold certified debut album, Moods...Moments was released. In 1997, she contributed the Heavy D.-produced \"I Still Love You\" to the soundtrack of the film, Sprung. Monifah's second album was Mo'hogany. Released in the last quarter of 1998, it featured \"Touch It\". The track peaked at No. 29 in the UK Singles Chart. Monifah's third album Home, released in 2000 contained \"I Can Tell\", \"Brown Eyes\" and \"Fairytales\". In 2003, she played a supporting role in Michael Baisden's Men Cry in the Dark stage play. In August 2012, Monifah and R&B singers Syleena Johnson, Faith Evans , Keke Wyatt, LaTocha Scott, Angie Stone, and Nicci Gilbert appeared in a reality show for TV One called R&B Divas. It was later retitled R&B Divas: Atlanta and Monifah has appeared on the subsequent second and third seasons, with LaTavia Roberson and Kameelah Williams joining the cast in season 3 on April 23, 2014. In 2012, she appeared on Faith Evans' compilation album R&B Divas on the single \"Lovin' Me\" in addition to her solo track \"She's Me\". The album was later nominated for a Grammy. She released a new single \"The Other Side\" which premiered in June 2014. In 2015, Monifah signed with and released a single \"One Moment\" with Famous Records / Famous Music Group based out of Sunrise, Florida who distributes via Universal.\n\nPersonal life \nOn R&B Divas: Atlanta, Monifah publicly revealed she is in a same-sex relationship. In the third-season finale of R&B Divas: Atlanta, she married her longtime partner Terez on April 4, 2014. Monifah has a daughter born in 1991 from a previous heterosexual relationship.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n\nSingles\n\nReferences \n\n1972 births\nAfrican-American women singer-songwriters\nAmerican dance musicians\nAmerican soul singers\nLGBT people from New York (state)\nLGBT songwriters\nLGBT African Americans\nLGBT singers from the United States\nLiving people\nAmerican contemporary R&B singers\nPeople from East Harlem\n21st-century African-American women singers\n20th-century African-American women singers\nSinger-songwriters from New York (state)",
"You Can Hold Me Down is the debut album by William Tell, first released on March 13, 2007 through Universal Records and New Door Records.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Jeannie\" (William Tell) 3:01\n \"Slipping Under (Sing Along to Your Favorite Song)\" (PJ Smith, William Tell) 3:34\n \"Trouble\" (William Tell) 2:55\n \"Fairfax (You’re Still the Same)\" (William Tell) 2:49\n \"Like You, Only Sweeter\" (Darren Tehrani, William Tell) 3:41\n \"Maybe Tonight\" (William Tell, Mike Green) 3:13\n \"Young at Heart\" (William Tell) 2:46\n \"Sounds\" (William Tell, PJ Smith) 3:05\n \"Just For You\" (William Tell, Mike Green) 3:33\n \"You Can Hold Me Down\" (William Tell, Darren Tehrani) 3:23\n\nBest Buy hidden track:\n<li> \"You Can Hold Me Down\" (Tell, Tehrani) – 9:31\n features the hidden track \"After All\", beginning at about 4:30\n\niTunes Store bonus track:\n<li> \"Yesterday is Calling\" (James Bourne, Smith) – 3:43\n\nTarget bonus track:\n<li> \"Young at Heart (Acoustic)\" (Tell) – 2:46\n\nWal-Mart bonus tracks:\n<li> \"This Mess\" – 3:23\n<li> \"Katie (Where'd You Go?)\" – 3:48\n\nPersonnel\nWilliam Tell - vocals, guitars, bass\nBrian Ireland - drums, percussion\nAndrew McMahon - piano\n\nReferences\n\nYou Can Hold Me Down (William Tell album)"
]
|
[
"The Bella Twins",
"Divas Champions (2011-2012)",
"Can you tell me about the Divas Champions?",
"The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match"
]
| C_70ae421b29c944d1936f9af142452d7e_1 | How bad was the controversy involving this situation? | 2 | How bad was the controversy involving The Bellas' feud with Eve Torres? | The Bella Twins | The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match between Torres and Natalya on the February 14 episode of Raw. Following the match, they attacked Torres backstage before Gail Kim and Natalya stopped them. The next week, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. The following week, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship, and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7. On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. Brie went on to successfully defend the championship against Kelly Kelly at Over the Limit, after switching places with Nikki. On a special "Power to the People" episode of Raw on June 20, Brie defended her WWE Divas Championship against Kelly, who was selected by voters. Kelly then defeated Brie and won the championship. On July 17, Brie challenged Kelly for the championship in a rematch at Money in the Bank, but failed to win. The twins spent the majority of the rest of the year in tag team matches, regularly facing Kelly and Torres. The Bellas began to show friction for the second time since joining WWE in March 2012, after both twins lost to AJ Lee in singles competition. After Brie's match with Lee, Nikki revealed that Brie was rooting for Team Johnny in the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII, whilst Nikki was rooting for Team Teddy, thus furthering their dissension. On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Nikki defeated the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match, after Kelly Kelly distracted Phoenix. On April 23, Nikki defeated Phoenix in a lumberjill match on Raw to win the Divas Championship for the first time. Brie lost Nikki's championship to Layla at Extreme Rules after Twin Magic failed, ending her Divas Championship reign after only a week. The following night on Raw, they competed in their last match with the WWE, failing to win back the Divas Championship from Layla in a triple threat match. Later that night, WWE announced on their website that the twins had been fired by Executive Administrator Eve Torres. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | The Bella Twins were a professional wrestling tag team who performed on WWE and consisted of identical twin sisters Brie Bella and Nikki Bella (real names Brianna and Nicole). The Bella Twins are both former Divas Champions, with Brie becoming the first twin in WWE History to win the WWE Divas Championship once, while Nikki holding it twice. Nikki is also the longest-reigning holder of that title.
Both sisters signed with WWE in 2007 (then known as World Wrestling Entertainment) and were assigned to the farm territory Florida Championship Wrestling. As Brie Bella, Brianna was called up to the main roster in 2008. She began to wrestle and, during her matches, she switched places with her sister to win. Weeks later, it was revealed that they were twins and Nicole began to work as Nikki Bella. During the next years, they worked together as a team and won the WWE Divas Championship one time each one, but in 2012, when they were released. The Bella Twins made their return in 2013 and featured the reality show Total Divas. While in 2014 they disbanded the team and feud between them, they reunited in 2015 and Nikki won the Divas Championship for a second time. She retained the title for 301 days, the longest reign of the title. After 2015, they began to appear less in WWE shows until they announced their retirement in 2019. In 2021, they were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class.
In November 2015, Nikki was ranked No. 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrateds Female 50.
Early lives and careers
Nicole and Brianna Garcia-Colace were born sixteen minutes apart on November 21, 1983, in San Diego, California and raised on a farm in the outskirts of Scottsdale, Arizona. They are of Mexican and Italian descent and played soccer in their youth. The twins graduated from Chaparral High School in 2002. They returned to San Diego for college, where Nicole continued playing soccer for Grossmont College, with both twins also working at Hooters. A year later, the twins relocated to Los Angeles in pursuit of acting and modeling opportunities, making ends meet doing various gigs from marketing for a now defunct record label, to cocktail waitressing at the Mondrian Hotel.
They then made their first national TV appearance on the Fox reality show Meet My Folks. Following this appearance, the twins were hired to be the World Cup Twins for Budweiser and were photographed holding the World Cup trophy. They were contestants in the 2006 "International Body Doubles twins search". They participated in the 2006 WWE Diva Search, but did not make the cut.
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
Florida Championship Wrestling (2007–2008)
The Bella Twins were signed to developmental contracts by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in June 2007 and were assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's then-developmental territory, in Tampa, Florida. On September 14, the twins made their in-ring debut defeating Nattie Neidhart and Krissy Vaine with Victoria Crawford as the special guest referee. As a part of their on-screen personas, they switched places behind the referee's back if one of them was hurt. This was called "Twin Magic". They also occasionally competed in mixed tag team matches, teaming with male wrestlers including Kofi Kingston and Robert Anthony. They also made some non-wrestling appearances on Heath Miller's Happy Hour promo segment.
Starting in December 2007, they managed Derrick Linkin, but this storyline was cut short when Linkin was released in January 2008. They then resumed their feud with Neidhart and Crawford, wrestling them throughout much of 2008. In FCW, the twins competed in bikini contests and wrestled against Katie Lea Burchill, Milena Roucka, and Nattie Neidhart. Their last FCW appearance was on September 2, when they competed in a Divas battle royal won by Miss Angela.
Various storylines (2008–2011)
On the August 29 episode of SmackDown, Brianna debuted as Brie Bella and defeated Victoria. She had a series of matches with Victoria and Victoria's accomplice Natalya. In each match, Brie would roll out of the ring and go underneath it, emerging revived as she would then win the match. On the November 7 episode of SmackDown, Brie picked up a win against Victoria and then ran under the ring to escape Natalya and Victoria, but Victoria and Natalya both reached for Brie under the ring, resulting in both Nicole and Brie being pulled out. Nicole was then introduced as Nikki Bella. The twins had their first official match as a team on the November 21 episode of SmackDown, defeating Victoria and Natalya. They continued competing in tag team matches over the following months.
Starting in November, the twins developed an on-screen relationship with The Colóns (Carlito and Primo). In February 2009, the storyline expanded to include John Morrison and The Miz, who flirted with the Bellas and took them on a date for Valentine's Day. The date provoked a rivalry between the teams of The Miz and Morrison and Primo and Carlito, with the four competing for the affection of the twins, who were seemingly unable to choose between them. On March 17 on ECW, Carlito and Primo, aiming for Morrison and The Miz, accidentally spat apples in the face of Brie. Nikki began to laugh at Brie's misfortune, and a fight broke out between the two, which led to Nikki leaving with The Miz and Morrison while Brie stayed with Primo and Carlito. Brie won her first match over Nikki in a six-person intergender tag team match on SmackDown the following week. On ECW on March 31, Nikki pinned Brie in their first singles match against each other after a distraction from Morrison and The Miz.
On April 15, The Bella Twins were both drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 supplemental draft. On April 27, Brie made her Raw in-ring debut in an eight-Diva tag team match, which her team won. Nikki also made an appearance, reuniting with her twin, as she was under the ring to help Brie during the match. Nikki then made her in-ring debut for the brand the following month in a battle royal, but was eliminated by Beth Phoenix.
On June 29, they were both traded to the ECW brand. They debuted on ECW the following night on The Abraham Washington Show, as the special guests. They quickly developed a storyline feud with Katie Lea Burchill, when Nikki defeated her in a match by switching places with Brie behind the referee's back. The following week on Superstars, Brie defeated Burchill after a similar fashion, and the feud ended in September, when Nikki defeated Burchill on Superstars.
On October 12, the Bellas were traded back to Raw as part of a tri-branded Divas trade, where they predominately appeared in backstages segments with the weekly guest stars and only occasionally competed in matches. In June 2010, they developed a feud with Jillian Hall, when Brie defeated her after switching places with Nikki. The following week, Nikki defeated Hall after switching with Brie. The feud was exacerbated when the Bellas acted as the special guest referees during one of Hall's matches. During the match, Hall attacked both twins, but lost the match when Nikki made a fast count, allowing her to be pinned by Gail Kim. The next week on Superstars, the twins defeated Hall and Maryse in a tag team match to end the storyline.
On August 31, The Bella Twins announced they would be part of the all-female third season of NXT, mentoring Jamie. Jamie was the first rookie Diva eliminated on the October 5 episode of NXT. In November, the twins began a storyline with Daniel Bryan, when Brie accompanied him to the ring for his match. Following his win, Nikki ran out and the two fought over Bryan's affection, until Bryan broke it up and had them hug each other. They began to manage Bryan and frequently accompanied him to the ring over the next two months. In January 2011, they discovered Bryan kissing Gail Kim backstage and assaulted her. They continued to attack Kim, both at the Royal Rumble on January 30 and the following night on Raw. On February 7, they teamed with Melina in a losing effort to Kim, Eve Torres and Tamina.
Divas Champions (2011–2012)
The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match between Torres and Natalya on the February 14 episode of Raw. Following the match, they attacked Torres backstage before Gail Kim and Natalya stopped them. The next week on Raw, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. The following week on Raw, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7.
On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. On May 22, Brie went on to successfully defend the championship against Kelly Kelly at Over the Limit after switching places with Nikki. On a special "Power to the People" episode of Raw on June 20, Brie defended her WWE Divas Championship against Kelly (who was selected by voters), losing the title and ending her reign at 70 days. On July 17, Brie challenged Kelly for the championship in a rematch at Money in the Bank on July 17, but she failed to win.
The Bellas began to show friction in March 2012 after both twins lost to AJ Lee in singles competition. After Brie's match with Lee, Nikki revealed that Brie was rooting for Team Johnny in the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII on April 1 whilst Nikki was rooting for Team Teddy, thus furthering their dissension.
On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Nikki defeated the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match after Kelly Kelly distracted Phoenix. On April 23, Nikki defeated Phoenix in a lumberjill match on Raw to win the Divas Championship for the first time. Brie lost Nikki's championship to Layla at Extreme Rules on April 29 after Twin Magic failed, ending her Divas Championship reign after only a week. The following night on Raw, they competed in their last match with the WWE, failing to win back the Divas Championship from Layla in a triple threat match. Later that night, WWE announced on their website that the twins had been fired by Executive Administrator Eve Torres.
Independent circuit promotions (2012–2013)
On May 1, 2012, the twins appeared at their first independent wrestling show in Newburgh, New York at Northeast Wrestling. They later appeared for CTWE Pro Wrestling at the Season Beatings pay-per-view on December 15, each accompanying a different wrestler to the ring.
Return to WWE
Total Divas storylines (2013–2014)
The Bella Twins returned to WWE on the March 11, 2013, episode of Raw in a backstage segment with Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow). On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, the twins attacked The Funkadactyls (Cameron and Naomi) and the following week interfered in matches between Team Rhodes Scholars and Brodus Clay and Tensai, but were attacked by The Funkadactyls. The twins made their in-ring return defeating The Funkadactyls on the March 27 episode of Main Event after interference from Cody Rhodes. The Bella Twins were scheduled to participate in an eight-person tag team match with Team Rhodes Scholars against Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai) and The Funkadactyls at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, but the match was canceled due to time restraints and instead took place the following night on Raw, where The Bella Twins and Team Rhodes Scholars were defeated. In June, Nikki suffered a fractured tibia.
Upon the debut of the Total Divas reality television program in July, The Bellas began a feud with their co-star on the show Natalya, with Brie and Natalya trading victories in singles competition on Raw and at SummerSlam on August 18. The cast of Total Divas then transitioned into a scripted feud with Divas Champion AJ Lee, who mocked the show and cast. At Night of Champions on September 15, Brie unsuccessfully challenged Lee for the Divas Championship in a four-way match, which also involved Natalya and Naomi. Continuing their feud into October, Brie and Lee faced off at Battleground and Hell in a Cell for the Divas Championship, but Brie was unsuccessful. Nikki returned to in-ring action on the October 25 episode of SmackDown, losing to Lee. At Survivor Series on November 24, the twins were part of the victorious Team Total Divas. On April 6, they failed to win the Divas Championship again at WrestleMania XXX in the Divas Invitational match, which was won by Lee.
Brief split (2014)
In April 2014, Brie became involved in her real-life husband Daniel Bryan's ongoing storyline with Stephanie McMahon and Kane, whereas part of the storyline McMahon threatened to fire Brie if an injured Bryan did not relinquish the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Payback on June 1, which forced Brie to "quit" WWE before slapping McMahon in the face. After Brie "quit", McMahon put Nikki in several handicap matches as punishment. After a month absence, Brie returned to WWE television, appearing in the crowd on July 21 and starting a confrontation with McMahon who slapped Brie and was subsequently arrested. In order to have Brie drop the "charges", Brie was rehired and received a match against McMahon at SummerSlam.
Nikki attacked Brie at the event on August 17, which allowed McMahon to win the match. The next several weeks saw the twins fight in several backstage and in-ring segments, including a cameo appearance from Jerry Springer on Raw on September 8. As part of the storyline, McMahon declared Nikki the face of the WWE Divas division and granted her a match at Night of Champions for the Divas Championship, which she failed to win. At Hell in a Cell, Nikki defeated Brie in a match where the loser was forced to become the winner's personal assistant for 30 days.
Nikki and Brie reunited at Survivor Series on November 23 when Nikki defeated AJ Lee with Brie's help to become a two-time Divas Champion. Nikki retained her championship in three separate occasions—against Lee in a rematch at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 14, against Naomi two days later on SmackDown and against Paige on February 22, 2015, at Fastlane. Paige and Lee then formed an alliance against the Bellas which led to a tag team match at WrestleMania 31 on March 29, which the Bellas lost.
Team Bella (2015)
After Nikki retained her title over Naomi at Extreme Rules on April 26, Nikki started a feud with Naomi after she aligned with the returning Tamina to even the odds against Bellas. This led to a tag team match between the two teams at Payback on May 17, which Naomi and Tamina won. At Elimination Chamber on May 31, Nikki retained her title against Naomi and Paige in a triple threat match, with Brie banned from ringside.
In June, The Bella Twins became villains once again by employing Twin Magic, which helped Nikki retain the title against Paige on the June 1 episode of Raw and at Money in the Bank on June 14. During the feud with Paige, Alicia Fox allied with them to form Team Bella. At The Beast in the East on July 4, Nikki retained the title against Paige and Tamina.
After weeks of Team Bella outnumbering Paige, Naomi and Tamina, Stephanie McMahon called for a "revolution" in the WWE Divas division and introduced the debuting Charlotte and Becky Lynch as Paige's allies while NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks debuted as an ally to Naomi and Tamina, which led to a brawl between the three teams. Nikki then lost to Charlotte in a tag team match on the August 3 episode of Raw and to Banks on the August 17 episode of Raw in a non-title match. On August 23, the three teams faced off at SummerSlam in a three team elimination match in which Team Bella first eliminated Team B.A.D. before Team PCB's win.
On the September 14 episode of Raw, Nikki defended her title against Charlotte, who pinned Brie after the twins had switched places to win the match, but she retained the championship since the title cannot change hands by disqualification and in the process became the new longest reigning Divas Champion in history, surpassing AJ Lee's previous record of 295 days.
Injuries, retirements and sporadic appearances (2015–2019)
On September 20, Nikki dropped the championship to Charlotte at Night of Champions, ending her reign at 301 days and failing to regain the title in a rematch at Hell in a Cell on October 25. Shortly after, Nikki went on a hiatus from both television and in-ring competition due to a neck injury which would require surgery, but returned for one night on December 21 to accept the Slammy Award for Diva of the Year. During Nikki's absence, Brie continued to compete in singles competition and in tag team matches with Fox. Brie was unsuccessful in winning the Divas Championship at Fastlane on February 21 in a match against Charlotte. During that time, Team Bella quietly disbanded.
In March 2016, Brie was placed in a feud with Lana, who argued that Brie's fans only supported her out of pity for having a "bad husband". Brie then aligned herself with fellow Total Divas cast members Alicia Fox, Natalya, Paige and Eva Marie while Lana aligned herself with Team B.A.D. (Naomi and Tamina), Summer Rae and Emma (which was officially called Team B.A.D. and Blonde), leading to a 10-woman tag team match on the WrestleMania 32 kickoff show on April 3, which Team Total Divas would win when Naomi submitted to Brie. After the match, Nikki returned and celebrated with her co-stars. On April 6, Brie confirmed that she would be taking an extended break from in-ring competition, citing family reasons while also stating that she will continue working for WWE as an ambassador.
On January 22, 2018, on the Raw 25 Years special episode, The Bella Twins were honored as part of a segment involving women considered legends that contributed to the company's success. At the Royal Rumble on January 28, Brie and Nikki participated in the first ever women's Royal Rumble match at No. 28 and No. 27, respectively, making it into the final four with Asuka and Sasha Banks, with Nikki eliminating Brie before being eliminated herself by the winner Asuka. On the September 3 episode of Raw, The Bella Twins competed for the first time in three years, defeating The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan). The Bellas teamed with Ronda Rousey to defeat The Riott Squad at WWE Super Show-Down on October 6, and won the rematch two nights later on Raw. After the rematch, the Bellas attacked Rousey. Nikki received a title opportunity against Rousey at WWE Evolution on October 28, but was unsuccessful. In March 2019, both Bellas announced on Total Bellas that they had retired from in-ring competition with Brie making the announcement on the March 10 episode and Nikki announcing her retirement on the season finale on March 24. At February 21, 2020 edition of SmackDown, it was announced that both Bellas will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, during A Moment of Bliss segment. Due to the COVID Pandemic, the ceremony took place the next year.
Other media
Guest appearances
Prior to working with WWE, the twins appeared on Meet My Folks. Both twins also appeared in the music video for "Right Side of the Bed" by the band Atreyu. They were regulars on the VH1 show Best Week Ever. The twins made a guest appearance on the MTV series Ridiculousness in October 2012. They also appeared in the music video for "Na Na" by Trey Songz in 2014.
The twins guest starred on the television series Psych, in the 2014 episode "A Nightmare on State Street". Nikki and Brie are part of the main cast for the reality television show Total Divas, which began airing in July 2013. In April 2016, it was announced that Total Bellas, a spin-off of Total Divas starring the twins, would begin airing in fall 2016.
Nikki and Brie co-starred in the 2014 independent film Confessions of a Womanizer and provided voices for the 2015 movie The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!.
Nikki appeared at the Miss USA 2013 pageant as one of the celebrity judges. They appeared at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards, where they presented the award for Best Female. The twins were both nominated for Choice Female Athlete at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. The following year at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards, The Bella Twins won Choice Female Athlete. Brie appeared alongside Paige, Natalya, and the Chrisley family on the 88th Academy Awards edition of E! Countdown to the Red Carpet in February 2016.
The Bella Twins have appeared in ten WWE video games, making their in-game debut at WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and appearing in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, WWE '12 (DLC), WWE '13, WWE 2K14 (DLC), WWE 2K15, WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18, WWE 2K19, WWE 2K20 and WWE 2K Battlegrounds. Animated versions of the Bella Twins were included in WWE Network's series Camp WWE.
YouTube
Both twins appeared on the WWE YouTube show The JBL & Cole Show.
On November 21, 2016, Nikki and Brie unveiled their new YouTube channel which features daily fashion, beauty, travel, fitness, relationship and health videos along with daily video blogs, created by the twins themselves.
The Bella Twins appeared in YouTuber iiSuperwomanii's video "When Someone Tries to Steal Your BFF" on March 2, 2017.
On April 16, 2020, the twins were featured on the hit YouTube channel "First We Feast", appearing a Truth or Dab edition of Hot Ones.
Lifestyle
On August 21, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched their own wine label called Belle Radici in collaboration with Hill Family Estates and Gauge Branding. Later that year on November 1, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched Birdiebee, a lifestyle intimates and activewear brand. The line includes transitional intimates, activewear and loungewear aimed at "empowering and educating women through mirroring the twins' passion for life, strength, women's health and wellness, and fun".
On January 28, 2019, Nikki and Brie launched Nicole + Brizee, a body and beauty line. On March 27, 2019, Nikki and Brie launched their own podcast.
In March 2020, Nikki and Brie released their memoir Incomparable.
In 2021, Nikki and Brie launched another wine label called Bonita Bonita Wine.
In 2021, Nikki and Brie launched their own baby gear collection in partnership with Colugo. Nikki and Brie also announced that they joined Colugo as investors and creative advisors.
Personal life
On May 9, 2017, Brie gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Birdie Joe Danielson. In January 2020, the twins announced they were both pregnant, with due dates a week and a half apart. On July 31, Nikki gave birth to Matteo Artemovich Chigvintsev. 22 hours later, Brie gave birth to Buddy Dessert Danielson on August 1.
Bibliography
Incomparable (2020)
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Championships and accomplishments
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI ranked Brie Bella No. 12 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015
PWI ranked Nikki Bella No. 1 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone named Nikki Bella as the Diva of the Year in 2015
Rolling Stone named Nikki Bella as the Most Improved Wrestler in 2015
Teen Choice Awards
Choice Female Athlete (2016)
WrestleCrap
Gooker Award (2014) Feud between each other (co-winner with Vince McMahon)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Worst Feud of the Year (2014) Brie vs. Nikki
Worst Feud of the Year (2015) Team PCB vs. Team B.A.D. vs. Team Bella
Worst Worked Match of the Year (2013) with Cameron, Eva Marie, JoJo, Naomi, and Natalya vs. AJ Lee, Aksana, Alicia Fox, Kaitlyn, Rosa Mendes, Summer Rae and Tamina Snuka on November 24
WWE
WWE Divas Championship (3 times) – Brie Bella (1), Nikki Bella (2)
Slammy Award (4 times)
Couple of the Year (2013, 2014)
Diva of the Year (2013)
Diva of the Year (2015)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2020)
References
External links
1983 births
American female professional wrestlers
American professional wrestlers of Italian descent
American professional wrestlers of Mexican descent
American YouTubers
ECW (WWE) teams and stables
Identical twin females
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from San Diego
Sportspeople from Scottsdale, Arizona
Twin people from the United States
Twin sportspeople
Women's wrestling teams and stables
WWE teams and stables
WWE Diva Search contestants
WWE Hall of Fame team inductees
Professional wrestlers from California
21st-century American women
American actresses of Mexican descent | false | [
"Tusen gånger starkare (A Thousand Times Stronger) is a 2006 young adult novel written by Christina Herrström. It was nominated to the August Prize the same year.\n\nPlot\nThe book is about the power between the two sexes (boys and girls).\n\nIn the 15-year-old girl Signe's class the \"bad\" boys and the popular girl Mimi have much power. When a new girl, Saga, comes to the class, the situation is changed; she breaks the \"rules\" for showing how girls should act. At first the teachers like her actions but when the other girls follow her advice, the situation becomes chaotic.\n\nFilm\nIn 2010 a film based on the book was produced.\n\nReferences\n\n2006 Swedish novels\nYoung adult novels\nSwedish-language novels\nSwedish novels adapted into films",
"The Battle of Brindisi (1156) was fought by the Byzantine Empire and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily over control of Southern Italy. \n\nThe battle was part of a Byzantine campaign orchestrated by the emperor Manuel I Komnenos to recover Apulia and Calabria for the Byzantine Empire by taking advantage of the chaotic political situation in Norman Sicily following the death of Roger II and the succession of the William 'the Bad'. While the Byzantine forces managed to take control of numerous southern Italian cities, including Bari, the defeat at Brindisi, inflicted during a protracted Byzantine siege of the city, effectively put an end to the Byzantine attempt at reconquest. \n\nFollowing the defeat, the Byzantine diplomat Alexios Axouch arrived at the Byzantine base of Ancona in order to negotiate a favorable treaty with William. He was incredibly successful, and his negotiations allowed Manuel to exit the war with honor, despite a series of large-scale, successful Norman raids of the Aegean coasts of Greece and the consolidation of Norman Sicily under William.\n\nReferences\n\nSources \n \n\n1150s in the Byzantine Empire\nConflicts in 1156\nWars involving the Byzantine Empire\nWars involving the Kingdom of Sicily\n12th century in Italy\nManuel I Komnenos\nBrindisi"
]
|
[
"The Bella Twins",
"Divas Champions (2011-2012)",
"Can you tell me about the Divas Champions?",
"The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match",
"How bad was the controversy involving this situation?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_70ae421b29c944d1936f9af142452d7e_1 | What are some other important things to know about the Diva Champions? | 3 | What are some other important things to know about the Diva Champions (2011-2012) other than the feud between The Bellas and Eve Torres? | The Bella Twins | The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match between Torres and Natalya on the February 14 episode of Raw. Following the match, they attacked Torres backstage before Gail Kim and Natalya stopped them. The next week, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. The following week, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship, and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7. On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. Brie went on to successfully defend the championship against Kelly Kelly at Over the Limit, after switching places with Nikki. On a special "Power to the People" episode of Raw on June 20, Brie defended her WWE Divas Championship against Kelly, who was selected by voters. Kelly then defeated Brie and won the championship. On July 17, Brie challenged Kelly for the championship in a rematch at Money in the Bank, but failed to win. The twins spent the majority of the rest of the year in tag team matches, regularly facing Kelly and Torres. The Bellas began to show friction for the second time since joining WWE in March 2012, after both twins lost to AJ Lee in singles competition. After Brie's match with Lee, Nikki revealed that Brie was rooting for Team Johnny in the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII, whilst Nikki was rooting for Team Teddy, thus furthering their dissension. On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Nikki defeated the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match, after Kelly Kelly distracted Phoenix. On April 23, Nikki defeated Phoenix in a lumberjill match on Raw to win the Divas Championship for the first time. Brie lost Nikki's championship to Layla at Extreme Rules after Twin Magic failed, ending her Divas Championship reign after only a week. The following night on Raw, they competed in their last match with the WWE, failing to win back the Divas Championship from Layla in a triple threat match. Later that night, WWE announced on their website that the twins had been fired by Executive Administrator Eve Torres. CANNOTANSWER | The next week, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. | The Bella Twins were a professional wrestling tag team who performed on WWE and consisted of identical twin sisters Brie Bella and Nikki Bella (real names Brianna and Nicole). The Bella Twins are both former Divas Champions, with Brie becoming the first twin in WWE History to win the WWE Divas Championship once, while Nikki holding it twice. Nikki is also the longest-reigning holder of that title.
Both sisters signed with WWE in 2007 (then known as World Wrestling Entertainment) and were assigned to the farm territory Florida Championship Wrestling. As Brie Bella, Brianna was called up to the main roster in 2008. She began to wrestle and, during her matches, she switched places with her sister to win. Weeks later, it was revealed that they were twins and Nicole began to work as Nikki Bella. During the next years, they worked together as a team and won the WWE Divas Championship one time each one, but in 2012, when they were released. The Bella Twins made their return in 2013 and featured the reality show Total Divas. While in 2014 they disbanded the team and feud between them, they reunited in 2015 and Nikki won the Divas Championship for a second time. She retained the title for 301 days, the longest reign of the title. After 2015, they began to appear less in WWE shows until they announced their retirement in 2019. In 2021, they were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class.
In November 2015, Nikki was ranked No. 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrateds Female 50.
Early lives and careers
Nicole and Brianna Garcia-Colace were born sixteen minutes apart on November 21, 1983, in San Diego, California and raised on a farm in the outskirts of Scottsdale, Arizona. They are of Mexican and Italian descent and played soccer in their youth. The twins graduated from Chaparral High School in 2002. They returned to San Diego for college, where Nicole continued playing soccer for Grossmont College, with both twins also working at Hooters. A year later, the twins relocated to Los Angeles in pursuit of acting and modeling opportunities, making ends meet doing various gigs from marketing for a now defunct record label, to cocktail waitressing at the Mondrian Hotel.
They then made their first national TV appearance on the Fox reality show Meet My Folks. Following this appearance, the twins were hired to be the World Cup Twins for Budweiser and were photographed holding the World Cup trophy. They were contestants in the 2006 "International Body Doubles twins search". They participated in the 2006 WWE Diva Search, but did not make the cut.
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
Florida Championship Wrestling (2007–2008)
The Bella Twins were signed to developmental contracts by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in June 2007 and were assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's then-developmental territory, in Tampa, Florida. On September 14, the twins made their in-ring debut defeating Nattie Neidhart and Krissy Vaine with Victoria Crawford as the special guest referee. As a part of their on-screen personas, they switched places behind the referee's back if one of them was hurt. This was called "Twin Magic". They also occasionally competed in mixed tag team matches, teaming with male wrestlers including Kofi Kingston and Robert Anthony. They also made some non-wrestling appearances on Heath Miller's Happy Hour promo segment.
Starting in December 2007, they managed Derrick Linkin, but this storyline was cut short when Linkin was released in January 2008. They then resumed their feud with Neidhart and Crawford, wrestling them throughout much of 2008. In FCW, the twins competed in bikini contests and wrestled against Katie Lea Burchill, Milena Roucka, and Nattie Neidhart. Their last FCW appearance was on September 2, when they competed in a Divas battle royal won by Miss Angela.
Various storylines (2008–2011)
On the August 29 episode of SmackDown, Brianna debuted as Brie Bella and defeated Victoria. She had a series of matches with Victoria and Victoria's accomplice Natalya. In each match, Brie would roll out of the ring and go underneath it, emerging revived as she would then win the match. On the November 7 episode of SmackDown, Brie picked up a win against Victoria and then ran under the ring to escape Natalya and Victoria, but Victoria and Natalya both reached for Brie under the ring, resulting in both Nicole and Brie being pulled out. Nicole was then introduced as Nikki Bella. The twins had their first official match as a team on the November 21 episode of SmackDown, defeating Victoria and Natalya. They continued competing in tag team matches over the following months.
Starting in November, the twins developed an on-screen relationship with The Colóns (Carlito and Primo). In February 2009, the storyline expanded to include John Morrison and The Miz, who flirted with the Bellas and took them on a date for Valentine's Day. The date provoked a rivalry between the teams of The Miz and Morrison and Primo and Carlito, with the four competing for the affection of the twins, who were seemingly unable to choose between them. On March 17 on ECW, Carlito and Primo, aiming for Morrison and The Miz, accidentally spat apples in the face of Brie. Nikki began to laugh at Brie's misfortune, and a fight broke out between the two, which led to Nikki leaving with The Miz and Morrison while Brie stayed with Primo and Carlito. Brie won her first match over Nikki in a six-person intergender tag team match on SmackDown the following week. On ECW on March 31, Nikki pinned Brie in their first singles match against each other after a distraction from Morrison and The Miz.
On April 15, The Bella Twins were both drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 supplemental draft. On April 27, Brie made her Raw in-ring debut in an eight-Diva tag team match, which her team won. Nikki also made an appearance, reuniting with her twin, as she was under the ring to help Brie during the match. Nikki then made her in-ring debut for the brand the following month in a battle royal, but was eliminated by Beth Phoenix.
On June 29, they were both traded to the ECW brand. They debuted on ECW the following night on The Abraham Washington Show, as the special guests. They quickly developed a storyline feud with Katie Lea Burchill, when Nikki defeated her in a match by switching places with Brie behind the referee's back. The following week on Superstars, Brie defeated Burchill after a similar fashion, and the feud ended in September, when Nikki defeated Burchill on Superstars.
On October 12, the Bellas were traded back to Raw as part of a tri-branded Divas trade, where they predominately appeared in backstages segments with the weekly guest stars and only occasionally competed in matches. In June 2010, they developed a feud with Jillian Hall, when Brie defeated her after switching places with Nikki. The following week, Nikki defeated Hall after switching with Brie. The feud was exacerbated when the Bellas acted as the special guest referees during one of Hall's matches. During the match, Hall attacked both twins, but lost the match when Nikki made a fast count, allowing her to be pinned by Gail Kim. The next week on Superstars, the twins defeated Hall and Maryse in a tag team match to end the storyline.
On August 31, The Bella Twins announced they would be part of the all-female third season of NXT, mentoring Jamie. Jamie was the first rookie Diva eliminated on the October 5 episode of NXT. In November, the twins began a storyline with Daniel Bryan, when Brie accompanied him to the ring for his match. Following his win, Nikki ran out and the two fought over Bryan's affection, until Bryan broke it up and had them hug each other. They began to manage Bryan and frequently accompanied him to the ring over the next two months. In January 2011, they discovered Bryan kissing Gail Kim backstage and assaulted her. They continued to attack Kim, both at the Royal Rumble on January 30 and the following night on Raw. On February 7, they teamed with Melina in a losing effort to Kim, Eve Torres and Tamina.
Divas Champions (2011–2012)
The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match between Torres and Natalya on the February 14 episode of Raw. Following the match, they attacked Torres backstage before Gail Kim and Natalya stopped them. The next week on Raw, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. The following week on Raw, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7.
On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. On May 22, Brie went on to successfully defend the championship against Kelly Kelly at Over the Limit after switching places with Nikki. On a special "Power to the People" episode of Raw on June 20, Brie defended her WWE Divas Championship against Kelly (who was selected by voters), losing the title and ending her reign at 70 days. On July 17, Brie challenged Kelly for the championship in a rematch at Money in the Bank on July 17, but she failed to win.
The Bellas began to show friction in March 2012 after both twins lost to AJ Lee in singles competition. After Brie's match with Lee, Nikki revealed that Brie was rooting for Team Johnny in the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII on April 1 whilst Nikki was rooting for Team Teddy, thus furthering their dissension.
On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Nikki defeated the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match after Kelly Kelly distracted Phoenix. On April 23, Nikki defeated Phoenix in a lumberjill match on Raw to win the Divas Championship for the first time. Brie lost Nikki's championship to Layla at Extreme Rules on April 29 after Twin Magic failed, ending her Divas Championship reign after only a week. The following night on Raw, they competed in their last match with the WWE, failing to win back the Divas Championship from Layla in a triple threat match. Later that night, WWE announced on their website that the twins had been fired by Executive Administrator Eve Torres.
Independent circuit promotions (2012–2013)
On May 1, 2012, the twins appeared at their first independent wrestling show in Newburgh, New York at Northeast Wrestling. They later appeared for CTWE Pro Wrestling at the Season Beatings pay-per-view on December 15, each accompanying a different wrestler to the ring.
Return to WWE
Total Divas storylines (2013–2014)
The Bella Twins returned to WWE on the March 11, 2013, episode of Raw in a backstage segment with Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow). On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, the twins attacked The Funkadactyls (Cameron and Naomi) and the following week interfered in matches between Team Rhodes Scholars and Brodus Clay and Tensai, but were attacked by The Funkadactyls. The twins made their in-ring return defeating The Funkadactyls on the March 27 episode of Main Event after interference from Cody Rhodes. The Bella Twins were scheduled to participate in an eight-person tag team match with Team Rhodes Scholars against Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai) and The Funkadactyls at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, but the match was canceled due to time restraints and instead took place the following night on Raw, where The Bella Twins and Team Rhodes Scholars were defeated. In June, Nikki suffered a fractured tibia.
Upon the debut of the Total Divas reality television program in July, The Bellas began a feud with their co-star on the show Natalya, with Brie and Natalya trading victories in singles competition on Raw and at SummerSlam on August 18. The cast of Total Divas then transitioned into a scripted feud with Divas Champion AJ Lee, who mocked the show and cast. At Night of Champions on September 15, Brie unsuccessfully challenged Lee for the Divas Championship in a four-way match, which also involved Natalya and Naomi. Continuing their feud into October, Brie and Lee faced off at Battleground and Hell in a Cell for the Divas Championship, but Brie was unsuccessful. Nikki returned to in-ring action on the October 25 episode of SmackDown, losing to Lee. At Survivor Series on November 24, the twins were part of the victorious Team Total Divas. On April 6, they failed to win the Divas Championship again at WrestleMania XXX in the Divas Invitational match, which was won by Lee.
Brief split (2014)
In April 2014, Brie became involved in her real-life husband Daniel Bryan's ongoing storyline with Stephanie McMahon and Kane, whereas part of the storyline McMahon threatened to fire Brie if an injured Bryan did not relinquish the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Payback on June 1, which forced Brie to "quit" WWE before slapping McMahon in the face. After Brie "quit", McMahon put Nikki in several handicap matches as punishment. After a month absence, Brie returned to WWE television, appearing in the crowd on July 21 and starting a confrontation with McMahon who slapped Brie and was subsequently arrested. In order to have Brie drop the "charges", Brie was rehired and received a match against McMahon at SummerSlam.
Nikki attacked Brie at the event on August 17, which allowed McMahon to win the match. The next several weeks saw the twins fight in several backstage and in-ring segments, including a cameo appearance from Jerry Springer on Raw on September 8. As part of the storyline, McMahon declared Nikki the face of the WWE Divas division and granted her a match at Night of Champions for the Divas Championship, which she failed to win. At Hell in a Cell, Nikki defeated Brie in a match where the loser was forced to become the winner's personal assistant for 30 days.
Nikki and Brie reunited at Survivor Series on November 23 when Nikki defeated AJ Lee with Brie's help to become a two-time Divas Champion. Nikki retained her championship in three separate occasions—against Lee in a rematch at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 14, against Naomi two days later on SmackDown and against Paige on February 22, 2015, at Fastlane. Paige and Lee then formed an alliance against the Bellas which led to a tag team match at WrestleMania 31 on March 29, which the Bellas lost.
Team Bella (2015)
After Nikki retained her title over Naomi at Extreme Rules on April 26, Nikki started a feud with Naomi after she aligned with the returning Tamina to even the odds against Bellas. This led to a tag team match between the two teams at Payback on May 17, which Naomi and Tamina won. At Elimination Chamber on May 31, Nikki retained her title against Naomi and Paige in a triple threat match, with Brie banned from ringside.
In June, The Bella Twins became villains once again by employing Twin Magic, which helped Nikki retain the title against Paige on the June 1 episode of Raw and at Money in the Bank on June 14. During the feud with Paige, Alicia Fox allied with them to form Team Bella. At The Beast in the East on July 4, Nikki retained the title against Paige and Tamina.
After weeks of Team Bella outnumbering Paige, Naomi and Tamina, Stephanie McMahon called for a "revolution" in the WWE Divas division and introduced the debuting Charlotte and Becky Lynch as Paige's allies while NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks debuted as an ally to Naomi and Tamina, which led to a brawl between the three teams. Nikki then lost to Charlotte in a tag team match on the August 3 episode of Raw and to Banks on the August 17 episode of Raw in a non-title match. On August 23, the three teams faced off at SummerSlam in a three team elimination match in which Team Bella first eliminated Team B.A.D. before Team PCB's win.
On the September 14 episode of Raw, Nikki defended her title against Charlotte, who pinned Brie after the twins had switched places to win the match, but she retained the championship since the title cannot change hands by disqualification and in the process became the new longest reigning Divas Champion in history, surpassing AJ Lee's previous record of 295 days.
Injuries, retirements and sporadic appearances (2015–2019)
On September 20, Nikki dropped the championship to Charlotte at Night of Champions, ending her reign at 301 days and failing to regain the title in a rematch at Hell in a Cell on October 25. Shortly after, Nikki went on a hiatus from both television and in-ring competition due to a neck injury which would require surgery, but returned for one night on December 21 to accept the Slammy Award for Diva of the Year. During Nikki's absence, Brie continued to compete in singles competition and in tag team matches with Fox. Brie was unsuccessful in winning the Divas Championship at Fastlane on February 21 in a match against Charlotte. During that time, Team Bella quietly disbanded.
In March 2016, Brie was placed in a feud with Lana, who argued that Brie's fans only supported her out of pity for having a "bad husband". Brie then aligned herself with fellow Total Divas cast members Alicia Fox, Natalya, Paige and Eva Marie while Lana aligned herself with Team B.A.D. (Naomi and Tamina), Summer Rae and Emma (which was officially called Team B.A.D. and Blonde), leading to a 10-woman tag team match on the WrestleMania 32 kickoff show on April 3, which Team Total Divas would win when Naomi submitted to Brie. After the match, Nikki returned and celebrated with her co-stars. On April 6, Brie confirmed that she would be taking an extended break from in-ring competition, citing family reasons while also stating that she will continue working for WWE as an ambassador.
On January 22, 2018, on the Raw 25 Years special episode, The Bella Twins were honored as part of a segment involving women considered legends that contributed to the company's success. At the Royal Rumble on January 28, Brie and Nikki participated in the first ever women's Royal Rumble match at No. 28 and No. 27, respectively, making it into the final four with Asuka and Sasha Banks, with Nikki eliminating Brie before being eliminated herself by the winner Asuka. On the September 3 episode of Raw, The Bella Twins competed for the first time in three years, defeating The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan). The Bellas teamed with Ronda Rousey to defeat The Riott Squad at WWE Super Show-Down on October 6, and won the rematch two nights later on Raw. After the rematch, the Bellas attacked Rousey. Nikki received a title opportunity against Rousey at WWE Evolution on October 28, but was unsuccessful. In March 2019, both Bellas announced on Total Bellas that they had retired from in-ring competition with Brie making the announcement on the March 10 episode and Nikki announcing her retirement on the season finale on March 24. At February 21, 2020 edition of SmackDown, it was announced that both Bellas will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, during A Moment of Bliss segment. Due to the COVID Pandemic, the ceremony took place the next year.
Other media
Guest appearances
Prior to working with WWE, the twins appeared on Meet My Folks. Both twins also appeared in the music video for "Right Side of the Bed" by the band Atreyu. They were regulars on the VH1 show Best Week Ever. The twins made a guest appearance on the MTV series Ridiculousness in October 2012. They also appeared in the music video for "Na Na" by Trey Songz in 2014.
The twins guest starred on the television series Psych, in the 2014 episode "A Nightmare on State Street". Nikki and Brie are part of the main cast for the reality television show Total Divas, which began airing in July 2013. In April 2016, it was announced that Total Bellas, a spin-off of Total Divas starring the twins, would begin airing in fall 2016.
Nikki and Brie co-starred in the 2014 independent film Confessions of a Womanizer and provided voices for the 2015 movie The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!.
Nikki appeared at the Miss USA 2013 pageant as one of the celebrity judges. They appeared at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards, where they presented the award for Best Female. The twins were both nominated for Choice Female Athlete at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. The following year at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards, The Bella Twins won Choice Female Athlete. Brie appeared alongside Paige, Natalya, and the Chrisley family on the 88th Academy Awards edition of E! Countdown to the Red Carpet in February 2016.
The Bella Twins have appeared in ten WWE video games, making their in-game debut at WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and appearing in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, WWE '12 (DLC), WWE '13, WWE 2K14 (DLC), WWE 2K15, WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18, WWE 2K19, WWE 2K20 and WWE 2K Battlegrounds. Animated versions of the Bella Twins were included in WWE Network's series Camp WWE.
YouTube
Both twins appeared on the WWE YouTube show The JBL & Cole Show.
On November 21, 2016, Nikki and Brie unveiled their new YouTube channel which features daily fashion, beauty, travel, fitness, relationship and health videos along with daily video blogs, created by the twins themselves.
The Bella Twins appeared in YouTuber iiSuperwomanii's video "When Someone Tries to Steal Your BFF" on March 2, 2017.
On April 16, 2020, the twins were featured on the hit YouTube channel "First We Feast", appearing a Truth or Dab edition of Hot Ones.
Lifestyle
On August 21, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched their own wine label called Belle Radici in collaboration with Hill Family Estates and Gauge Branding. Later that year on November 1, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched Birdiebee, a lifestyle intimates and activewear brand. The line includes transitional intimates, activewear and loungewear aimed at "empowering and educating women through mirroring the twins' passion for life, strength, women's health and wellness, and fun".
On January 28, 2019, Nikki and Brie launched Nicole + Brizee, a body and beauty line. On March 27, 2019, Nikki and Brie launched their own podcast.
In March 2020, Nikki and Brie released their memoir Incomparable.
In 2021, Nikki and Brie launched another wine label called Bonita Bonita Wine.
In 2021, Nikki and Brie launched their own baby gear collection in partnership with Colugo. Nikki and Brie also announced that they joined Colugo as investors and creative advisors.
Personal life
On May 9, 2017, Brie gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Birdie Joe Danielson. In January 2020, the twins announced they were both pregnant, with due dates a week and a half apart. On July 31, Nikki gave birth to Matteo Artemovich Chigvintsev. 22 hours later, Brie gave birth to Buddy Dessert Danielson on August 1.
Bibliography
Incomparable (2020)
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Championships and accomplishments
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI ranked Brie Bella No. 12 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015
PWI ranked Nikki Bella No. 1 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone named Nikki Bella as the Diva of the Year in 2015
Rolling Stone named Nikki Bella as the Most Improved Wrestler in 2015
Teen Choice Awards
Choice Female Athlete (2016)
WrestleCrap
Gooker Award (2014) Feud between each other (co-winner with Vince McMahon)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Worst Feud of the Year (2014) Brie vs. Nikki
Worst Feud of the Year (2015) Team PCB vs. Team B.A.D. vs. Team Bella
Worst Worked Match of the Year (2013) with Cameron, Eva Marie, JoJo, Naomi, and Natalya vs. AJ Lee, Aksana, Alicia Fox, Kaitlyn, Rosa Mendes, Summer Rae and Tamina Snuka on November 24
WWE
WWE Divas Championship (3 times) – Brie Bella (1), Nikki Bella (2)
Slammy Award (4 times)
Couple of the Year (2013, 2014)
Diva of the Year (2013)
Diva of the Year (2015)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2020)
References
External links
1983 births
American female professional wrestlers
American professional wrestlers of Italian descent
American professional wrestlers of Mexican descent
American YouTubers
ECW (WWE) teams and stables
Identical twin females
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from San Diego
Sportspeople from Scottsdale, Arizona
Twin people from the United States
Twin sportspeople
Women's wrestling teams and stables
WWE teams and stables
WWE Diva Search contestants
WWE Hall of Fame team inductees
Professional wrestlers from California
21st-century American women
American actresses of Mexican descent | false | [
"Roa rumsfeldi is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to the family Chaetodontidae. It is the fifth known species of the genus Roa and was discovered in Anilao, Philippines in 2016. This species has vertical white and brown stripes and has a black spine on the ventral fin contrary to the other Roa specimens. The specific name honours the former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, because his quote “there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know” applies to the describers view on what is known about mesophotic fish species.\n\nReferences\n\nMarine fish of Southeast Asia\nChaetodontidae\nFish described in 2016\nFish of the Philippines\n\nTaxa named by Luiz A. Rocha",
"Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative is a book on coming up with creative ideas written by Austin Kleon and published in 2012 from Workman Publishing. The book, has since then become a New York Times Bestseller. Kleon presents himself as a young writer and artist emphasizing that creativity is everywhere and is for everyone. In his own words, \"You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself\".\n\nBackdrop\nWhen Mr. Kleon was asked to address college students at Broome Community College in upstate New York in 2011, he shaped his speech around a simple list of ten things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out at their age. They were: 'Steal like an artist; Don't wait until you know who you are to start making things; Write the book you want to read; Use your hands; Side projects are important; Do good work and put it where people can see it; Geography is no longer our master; Be nice (the world is a small town.); Be boring (it's the only way to get work done.); and, Creativity is subtraction.\nAfter giving the speech, he posted the text and slides of the talk to his popular blog.\nThe talk went viral, and Kleon dug deeper and expanded to create the book, for anyone attempting to make things - art, a career, a life - in the digital age.\n\nThe Book\nKleon describes ten basic principles to boost your creativity. He lists them on the back cover of the book so that they're easily referenced. The book is small, full of illustrations and several poems in the style of his newspaper cutouts by Kleon.\n\nKleon responds by writing, “the reason to copy your heroes and their style is so that you might somehow get a glimpse into their minds\". Kleon reminds throughout his book that “nothing is original… all creative work builds on what came before.” This sentiment is also a foundation for effective ELA teaching: From our past experiences as readers and writers, we can design better learning conditions for our students.\n\nEach chapter is dedicated to one of the ten principles, which are represented by the following:\n\n1. Steal like an artist:\nThe author cautions that he does not mean ‘steal’ as in plagiarise, skim or rip off — but study, credit, remix, mash up and transform. Creative work builds on what came before, and thus nothing is completely original.\n\n2. Don't wait until you know who you are to start making things:\nYou have to start doing the work you want to be doing, you have to immerse, internalise and even dress like the person you aspire to be. “You don’t have to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes,” Kleon urges. Go beyond imitation to emulation.\n\n3. Write the book you want to read:\nIt is important to do what you want to do, and insert your take on things of art.\n\n4. Use your hands:\nIt is important to step away from the screen and immerse in actual physical work. “Computers have robbed us of the feeling that we’re actually making things,” Kleon cautions. \"Involve your full body, and not just your brains.\"\n\n5. Side projects are important:\nHobbies are important because they keep you happy. “A hobby is something that gives but doesn’t take,” Kleon says.\n\n6. Do good work and put it where people can see it:\nSharing your work and even your thoughts about what you like help you get good feedback and more ideas.\n\n7. Geography is no longer our master:\n“Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our brains work harder,” Kleon explains. Constraints can also act favorably – bad winters or summers can force you to be indoors and work on your projects.\n\n8. Be nice (the world is a small town.):\nStop fighting and channel your rage into a creative pursuit. Show appreciation for the good things you see around you.\n\n9. Be boring (it's the only way to get work done.):\nYou can’t be creative all the time, so set a routine – for example, with a regular day job which sets a fixed schedule and exposes you to new people and skills.\n\n10. Creativity is subtraction\":\nIn an age of information overload and abundance, focus is important. Choose what you want to leave out of your key work. “Nothing is more paralysing than the idea of limitless possibilities. The best way to get over creative block is to simply place some constraints on yourself,” Kleon says.\n\nReferences\n\n2012 non-fiction books\nAmerican non-fiction books\nBooks about creativity"
]
|
[
"The Bella Twins",
"Divas Champions (2011-2012)",
"Can you tell me about the Divas Champions?",
"The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match",
"How bad was the controversy involving this situation?",
"I don't know.",
"What are some other important things to know about the Diva Champions?",
"The next week, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match."
]
| C_70ae421b29c944d1936f9af142452d7e_1 | Were they apart of any more important matches? | 4 | Were The Bella Twins apart of any more important matches other than their defeat of Torres and Kim? | The Bella Twins | The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match between Torres and Natalya on the February 14 episode of Raw. Following the match, they attacked Torres backstage before Gail Kim and Natalya stopped them. The next week, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. The following week, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship, and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7. On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. Brie went on to successfully defend the championship against Kelly Kelly at Over the Limit, after switching places with Nikki. On a special "Power to the People" episode of Raw on June 20, Brie defended her WWE Divas Championship against Kelly, who was selected by voters. Kelly then defeated Brie and won the championship. On July 17, Brie challenged Kelly for the championship in a rematch at Money in the Bank, but failed to win. The twins spent the majority of the rest of the year in tag team matches, regularly facing Kelly and Torres. The Bellas began to show friction for the second time since joining WWE in March 2012, after both twins lost to AJ Lee in singles competition. After Brie's match with Lee, Nikki revealed that Brie was rooting for Team Johnny in the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII, whilst Nikki was rooting for Team Teddy, thus furthering their dissension. On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Nikki defeated the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match, after Kelly Kelly distracted Phoenix. On April 23, Nikki defeated Phoenix in a lumberjill match on Raw to win the Divas Championship for the first time. Brie lost Nikki's championship to Layla at Extreme Rules after Twin Magic failed, ending her Divas Championship reign after only a week. The following night on Raw, they competed in their last match with the WWE, failing to win back the Divas Championship from Layla in a triple threat match. Later that night, WWE announced on their website that the twins had been fired by Executive Administrator Eve Torres. CANNOTANSWER | The following week, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship, and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7. | The Bella Twins were a professional wrestling tag team who performed on WWE and consisted of identical twin sisters Brie Bella and Nikki Bella (real names Brianna and Nicole). The Bella Twins are both former Divas Champions, with Brie becoming the first twin in WWE History to win the WWE Divas Championship once, while Nikki holding it twice. Nikki is also the longest-reigning holder of that title.
Both sisters signed with WWE in 2007 (then known as World Wrestling Entertainment) and were assigned to the farm territory Florida Championship Wrestling. As Brie Bella, Brianna was called up to the main roster in 2008. She began to wrestle and, during her matches, she switched places with her sister to win. Weeks later, it was revealed that they were twins and Nicole began to work as Nikki Bella. During the next years, they worked together as a team and won the WWE Divas Championship one time each one, but in 2012, when they were released. The Bella Twins made their return in 2013 and featured the reality show Total Divas. While in 2014 they disbanded the team and feud between them, they reunited in 2015 and Nikki won the Divas Championship for a second time. She retained the title for 301 days, the longest reign of the title. After 2015, they began to appear less in WWE shows until they announced their retirement in 2019. In 2021, they were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class.
In November 2015, Nikki was ranked No. 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrateds Female 50.
Early lives and careers
Nicole and Brianna Garcia-Colace were born sixteen minutes apart on November 21, 1983, in San Diego, California and raised on a farm in the outskirts of Scottsdale, Arizona. They are of Mexican and Italian descent and played soccer in their youth. The twins graduated from Chaparral High School in 2002. They returned to San Diego for college, where Nicole continued playing soccer for Grossmont College, with both twins also working at Hooters. A year later, the twins relocated to Los Angeles in pursuit of acting and modeling opportunities, making ends meet doing various gigs from marketing for a now defunct record label, to cocktail waitressing at the Mondrian Hotel.
They then made their first national TV appearance on the Fox reality show Meet My Folks. Following this appearance, the twins were hired to be the World Cup Twins for Budweiser and were photographed holding the World Cup trophy. They were contestants in the 2006 "International Body Doubles twins search". They participated in the 2006 WWE Diva Search, but did not make the cut.
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
Florida Championship Wrestling (2007–2008)
The Bella Twins were signed to developmental contracts by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in June 2007 and were assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's then-developmental territory, in Tampa, Florida. On September 14, the twins made their in-ring debut defeating Nattie Neidhart and Krissy Vaine with Victoria Crawford as the special guest referee. As a part of their on-screen personas, they switched places behind the referee's back if one of them was hurt. This was called "Twin Magic". They also occasionally competed in mixed tag team matches, teaming with male wrestlers including Kofi Kingston and Robert Anthony. They also made some non-wrestling appearances on Heath Miller's Happy Hour promo segment.
Starting in December 2007, they managed Derrick Linkin, but this storyline was cut short when Linkin was released in January 2008. They then resumed their feud with Neidhart and Crawford, wrestling them throughout much of 2008. In FCW, the twins competed in bikini contests and wrestled against Katie Lea Burchill, Milena Roucka, and Nattie Neidhart. Their last FCW appearance was on September 2, when they competed in a Divas battle royal won by Miss Angela.
Various storylines (2008–2011)
On the August 29 episode of SmackDown, Brianna debuted as Brie Bella and defeated Victoria. She had a series of matches with Victoria and Victoria's accomplice Natalya. In each match, Brie would roll out of the ring and go underneath it, emerging revived as she would then win the match. On the November 7 episode of SmackDown, Brie picked up a win against Victoria and then ran under the ring to escape Natalya and Victoria, but Victoria and Natalya both reached for Brie under the ring, resulting in both Nicole and Brie being pulled out. Nicole was then introduced as Nikki Bella. The twins had their first official match as a team on the November 21 episode of SmackDown, defeating Victoria and Natalya. They continued competing in tag team matches over the following months.
Starting in November, the twins developed an on-screen relationship with The Colóns (Carlito and Primo). In February 2009, the storyline expanded to include John Morrison and The Miz, who flirted with the Bellas and took them on a date for Valentine's Day. The date provoked a rivalry between the teams of The Miz and Morrison and Primo and Carlito, with the four competing for the affection of the twins, who were seemingly unable to choose between them. On March 17 on ECW, Carlito and Primo, aiming for Morrison and The Miz, accidentally spat apples in the face of Brie. Nikki began to laugh at Brie's misfortune, and a fight broke out between the two, which led to Nikki leaving with The Miz and Morrison while Brie stayed with Primo and Carlito. Brie won her first match over Nikki in a six-person intergender tag team match on SmackDown the following week. On ECW on March 31, Nikki pinned Brie in their first singles match against each other after a distraction from Morrison and The Miz.
On April 15, The Bella Twins were both drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 supplemental draft. On April 27, Brie made her Raw in-ring debut in an eight-Diva tag team match, which her team won. Nikki also made an appearance, reuniting with her twin, as she was under the ring to help Brie during the match. Nikki then made her in-ring debut for the brand the following month in a battle royal, but was eliminated by Beth Phoenix.
On June 29, they were both traded to the ECW brand. They debuted on ECW the following night on The Abraham Washington Show, as the special guests. They quickly developed a storyline feud with Katie Lea Burchill, when Nikki defeated her in a match by switching places with Brie behind the referee's back. The following week on Superstars, Brie defeated Burchill after a similar fashion, and the feud ended in September, when Nikki defeated Burchill on Superstars.
On October 12, the Bellas were traded back to Raw as part of a tri-branded Divas trade, where they predominately appeared in backstages segments with the weekly guest stars and only occasionally competed in matches. In June 2010, they developed a feud with Jillian Hall, when Brie defeated her after switching places with Nikki. The following week, Nikki defeated Hall after switching with Brie. The feud was exacerbated when the Bellas acted as the special guest referees during one of Hall's matches. During the match, Hall attacked both twins, but lost the match when Nikki made a fast count, allowing her to be pinned by Gail Kim. The next week on Superstars, the twins defeated Hall and Maryse in a tag team match to end the storyline.
On August 31, The Bella Twins announced they would be part of the all-female third season of NXT, mentoring Jamie. Jamie was the first rookie Diva eliminated on the October 5 episode of NXT. In November, the twins began a storyline with Daniel Bryan, when Brie accompanied him to the ring for his match. Following his win, Nikki ran out and the two fought over Bryan's affection, until Bryan broke it up and had them hug each other. They began to manage Bryan and frequently accompanied him to the ring over the next two months. In January 2011, they discovered Bryan kissing Gail Kim backstage and assaulted her. They continued to attack Kim, both at the Royal Rumble on January 30 and the following night on Raw. On February 7, they teamed with Melina in a losing effort to Kim, Eve Torres and Tamina.
Divas Champions (2011–2012)
The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match between Torres and Natalya on the February 14 episode of Raw. Following the match, they attacked Torres backstage before Gail Kim and Natalya stopped them. The next week on Raw, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. The following week on Raw, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7.
On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. On May 22, Brie went on to successfully defend the championship against Kelly Kelly at Over the Limit after switching places with Nikki. On a special "Power to the People" episode of Raw on June 20, Brie defended her WWE Divas Championship against Kelly (who was selected by voters), losing the title and ending her reign at 70 days. On July 17, Brie challenged Kelly for the championship in a rematch at Money in the Bank on July 17, but she failed to win.
The Bellas began to show friction in March 2012 after both twins lost to AJ Lee in singles competition. After Brie's match with Lee, Nikki revealed that Brie was rooting for Team Johnny in the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII on April 1 whilst Nikki was rooting for Team Teddy, thus furthering their dissension.
On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Nikki defeated the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match after Kelly Kelly distracted Phoenix. On April 23, Nikki defeated Phoenix in a lumberjill match on Raw to win the Divas Championship for the first time. Brie lost Nikki's championship to Layla at Extreme Rules on April 29 after Twin Magic failed, ending her Divas Championship reign after only a week. The following night on Raw, they competed in their last match with the WWE, failing to win back the Divas Championship from Layla in a triple threat match. Later that night, WWE announced on their website that the twins had been fired by Executive Administrator Eve Torres.
Independent circuit promotions (2012–2013)
On May 1, 2012, the twins appeared at their first independent wrestling show in Newburgh, New York at Northeast Wrestling. They later appeared for CTWE Pro Wrestling at the Season Beatings pay-per-view on December 15, each accompanying a different wrestler to the ring.
Return to WWE
Total Divas storylines (2013–2014)
The Bella Twins returned to WWE on the March 11, 2013, episode of Raw in a backstage segment with Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow). On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, the twins attacked The Funkadactyls (Cameron and Naomi) and the following week interfered in matches between Team Rhodes Scholars and Brodus Clay and Tensai, but were attacked by The Funkadactyls. The twins made their in-ring return defeating The Funkadactyls on the March 27 episode of Main Event after interference from Cody Rhodes. The Bella Twins were scheduled to participate in an eight-person tag team match with Team Rhodes Scholars against Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai) and The Funkadactyls at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, but the match was canceled due to time restraints and instead took place the following night on Raw, where The Bella Twins and Team Rhodes Scholars were defeated. In June, Nikki suffered a fractured tibia.
Upon the debut of the Total Divas reality television program in July, The Bellas began a feud with their co-star on the show Natalya, with Brie and Natalya trading victories in singles competition on Raw and at SummerSlam on August 18. The cast of Total Divas then transitioned into a scripted feud with Divas Champion AJ Lee, who mocked the show and cast. At Night of Champions on September 15, Brie unsuccessfully challenged Lee for the Divas Championship in a four-way match, which also involved Natalya and Naomi. Continuing their feud into October, Brie and Lee faced off at Battleground and Hell in a Cell for the Divas Championship, but Brie was unsuccessful. Nikki returned to in-ring action on the October 25 episode of SmackDown, losing to Lee. At Survivor Series on November 24, the twins were part of the victorious Team Total Divas. On April 6, they failed to win the Divas Championship again at WrestleMania XXX in the Divas Invitational match, which was won by Lee.
Brief split (2014)
In April 2014, Brie became involved in her real-life husband Daniel Bryan's ongoing storyline with Stephanie McMahon and Kane, whereas part of the storyline McMahon threatened to fire Brie if an injured Bryan did not relinquish the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Payback on June 1, which forced Brie to "quit" WWE before slapping McMahon in the face. After Brie "quit", McMahon put Nikki in several handicap matches as punishment. After a month absence, Brie returned to WWE television, appearing in the crowd on July 21 and starting a confrontation with McMahon who slapped Brie and was subsequently arrested. In order to have Brie drop the "charges", Brie was rehired and received a match against McMahon at SummerSlam.
Nikki attacked Brie at the event on August 17, which allowed McMahon to win the match. The next several weeks saw the twins fight in several backstage and in-ring segments, including a cameo appearance from Jerry Springer on Raw on September 8. As part of the storyline, McMahon declared Nikki the face of the WWE Divas division and granted her a match at Night of Champions for the Divas Championship, which she failed to win. At Hell in a Cell, Nikki defeated Brie in a match where the loser was forced to become the winner's personal assistant for 30 days.
Nikki and Brie reunited at Survivor Series on November 23 when Nikki defeated AJ Lee with Brie's help to become a two-time Divas Champion. Nikki retained her championship in three separate occasions—against Lee in a rematch at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 14, against Naomi two days later on SmackDown and against Paige on February 22, 2015, at Fastlane. Paige and Lee then formed an alliance against the Bellas which led to a tag team match at WrestleMania 31 on March 29, which the Bellas lost.
Team Bella (2015)
After Nikki retained her title over Naomi at Extreme Rules on April 26, Nikki started a feud with Naomi after she aligned with the returning Tamina to even the odds against Bellas. This led to a tag team match between the two teams at Payback on May 17, which Naomi and Tamina won. At Elimination Chamber on May 31, Nikki retained her title against Naomi and Paige in a triple threat match, with Brie banned from ringside.
In June, The Bella Twins became villains once again by employing Twin Magic, which helped Nikki retain the title against Paige on the June 1 episode of Raw and at Money in the Bank on June 14. During the feud with Paige, Alicia Fox allied with them to form Team Bella. At The Beast in the East on July 4, Nikki retained the title against Paige and Tamina.
After weeks of Team Bella outnumbering Paige, Naomi and Tamina, Stephanie McMahon called for a "revolution" in the WWE Divas division and introduced the debuting Charlotte and Becky Lynch as Paige's allies while NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks debuted as an ally to Naomi and Tamina, which led to a brawl between the three teams. Nikki then lost to Charlotte in a tag team match on the August 3 episode of Raw and to Banks on the August 17 episode of Raw in a non-title match. On August 23, the three teams faced off at SummerSlam in a three team elimination match in which Team Bella first eliminated Team B.A.D. before Team PCB's win.
On the September 14 episode of Raw, Nikki defended her title against Charlotte, who pinned Brie after the twins had switched places to win the match, but she retained the championship since the title cannot change hands by disqualification and in the process became the new longest reigning Divas Champion in history, surpassing AJ Lee's previous record of 295 days.
Injuries, retirements and sporadic appearances (2015–2019)
On September 20, Nikki dropped the championship to Charlotte at Night of Champions, ending her reign at 301 days and failing to regain the title in a rematch at Hell in a Cell on October 25. Shortly after, Nikki went on a hiatus from both television and in-ring competition due to a neck injury which would require surgery, but returned for one night on December 21 to accept the Slammy Award for Diva of the Year. During Nikki's absence, Brie continued to compete in singles competition and in tag team matches with Fox. Brie was unsuccessful in winning the Divas Championship at Fastlane on February 21 in a match against Charlotte. During that time, Team Bella quietly disbanded.
In March 2016, Brie was placed in a feud with Lana, who argued that Brie's fans only supported her out of pity for having a "bad husband". Brie then aligned herself with fellow Total Divas cast members Alicia Fox, Natalya, Paige and Eva Marie while Lana aligned herself with Team B.A.D. (Naomi and Tamina), Summer Rae and Emma (which was officially called Team B.A.D. and Blonde), leading to a 10-woman tag team match on the WrestleMania 32 kickoff show on April 3, which Team Total Divas would win when Naomi submitted to Brie. After the match, Nikki returned and celebrated with her co-stars. On April 6, Brie confirmed that she would be taking an extended break from in-ring competition, citing family reasons while also stating that she will continue working for WWE as an ambassador.
On January 22, 2018, on the Raw 25 Years special episode, The Bella Twins were honored as part of a segment involving women considered legends that contributed to the company's success. At the Royal Rumble on January 28, Brie and Nikki participated in the first ever women's Royal Rumble match at No. 28 and No. 27, respectively, making it into the final four with Asuka and Sasha Banks, with Nikki eliminating Brie before being eliminated herself by the winner Asuka. On the September 3 episode of Raw, The Bella Twins competed for the first time in three years, defeating The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan). The Bellas teamed with Ronda Rousey to defeat The Riott Squad at WWE Super Show-Down on October 6, and won the rematch two nights later on Raw. After the rematch, the Bellas attacked Rousey. Nikki received a title opportunity against Rousey at WWE Evolution on October 28, but was unsuccessful. In March 2019, both Bellas announced on Total Bellas that they had retired from in-ring competition with Brie making the announcement on the March 10 episode and Nikki announcing her retirement on the season finale on March 24. At February 21, 2020 edition of SmackDown, it was announced that both Bellas will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, during A Moment of Bliss segment. Due to the COVID Pandemic, the ceremony took place the next year.
Other media
Guest appearances
Prior to working with WWE, the twins appeared on Meet My Folks. Both twins also appeared in the music video for "Right Side of the Bed" by the band Atreyu. They were regulars on the VH1 show Best Week Ever. The twins made a guest appearance on the MTV series Ridiculousness in October 2012. They also appeared in the music video for "Na Na" by Trey Songz in 2014.
The twins guest starred on the television series Psych, in the 2014 episode "A Nightmare on State Street". Nikki and Brie are part of the main cast for the reality television show Total Divas, which began airing in July 2013. In April 2016, it was announced that Total Bellas, a spin-off of Total Divas starring the twins, would begin airing in fall 2016.
Nikki and Brie co-starred in the 2014 independent film Confessions of a Womanizer and provided voices for the 2015 movie The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!.
Nikki appeared at the Miss USA 2013 pageant as one of the celebrity judges. They appeared at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards, where they presented the award for Best Female. The twins were both nominated for Choice Female Athlete at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. The following year at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards, The Bella Twins won Choice Female Athlete. Brie appeared alongside Paige, Natalya, and the Chrisley family on the 88th Academy Awards edition of E! Countdown to the Red Carpet in February 2016.
The Bella Twins have appeared in ten WWE video games, making their in-game debut at WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and appearing in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, WWE '12 (DLC), WWE '13, WWE 2K14 (DLC), WWE 2K15, WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18, WWE 2K19, WWE 2K20 and WWE 2K Battlegrounds. Animated versions of the Bella Twins were included in WWE Network's series Camp WWE.
YouTube
Both twins appeared on the WWE YouTube show The JBL & Cole Show.
On November 21, 2016, Nikki and Brie unveiled their new YouTube channel which features daily fashion, beauty, travel, fitness, relationship and health videos along with daily video blogs, created by the twins themselves.
The Bella Twins appeared in YouTuber iiSuperwomanii's video "When Someone Tries to Steal Your BFF" on March 2, 2017.
On April 16, 2020, the twins were featured on the hit YouTube channel "First We Feast", appearing a Truth or Dab edition of Hot Ones.
Lifestyle
On August 21, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched their own wine label called Belle Radici in collaboration with Hill Family Estates and Gauge Branding. Later that year on November 1, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched Birdiebee, a lifestyle intimates and activewear brand. The line includes transitional intimates, activewear and loungewear aimed at "empowering and educating women through mirroring the twins' passion for life, strength, women's health and wellness, and fun".
On January 28, 2019, Nikki and Brie launched Nicole + Brizee, a body and beauty line. On March 27, 2019, Nikki and Brie launched their own podcast.
In March 2020, Nikki and Brie released their memoir Incomparable.
In 2021, Nikki and Brie launched another wine label called Bonita Bonita Wine.
In 2021, Nikki and Brie launched their own baby gear collection in partnership with Colugo. Nikki and Brie also announced that they joined Colugo as investors and creative advisors.
Personal life
On May 9, 2017, Brie gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Birdie Joe Danielson. In January 2020, the twins announced they were both pregnant, with due dates a week and a half apart. On July 31, Nikki gave birth to Matteo Artemovich Chigvintsev. 22 hours later, Brie gave birth to Buddy Dessert Danielson on August 1.
Bibliography
Incomparable (2020)
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Championships and accomplishments
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI ranked Brie Bella No. 12 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015
PWI ranked Nikki Bella No. 1 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone named Nikki Bella as the Diva of the Year in 2015
Rolling Stone named Nikki Bella as the Most Improved Wrestler in 2015
Teen Choice Awards
Choice Female Athlete (2016)
WrestleCrap
Gooker Award (2014) Feud between each other (co-winner with Vince McMahon)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Worst Feud of the Year (2014) Brie vs. Nikki
Worst Feud of the Year (2015) Team PCB vs. Team B.A.D. vs. Team Bella
Worst Worked Match of the Year (2013) with Cameron, Eva Marie, JoJo, Naomi, and Natalya vs. AJ Lee, Aksana, Alicia Fox, Kaitlyn, Rosa Mendes, Summer Rae and Tamina Snuka on November 24
WWE
WWE Divas Championship (3 times) – Brie Bella (1), Nikki Bella (2)
Slammy Award (4 times)
Couple of the Year (2013, 2014)
Diva of the Year (2013)
Diva of the Year (2015)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2020)
References
External links
1983 births
American female professional wrestlers
American professional wrestlers of Italian descent
American professional wrestlers of Mexican descent
American YouTubers
ECW (WWE) teams and stables
Identical twin females
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from San Diego
Sportspeople from Scottsdale, Arizona
Twin people from the United States
Twin sportspeople
Women's wrestling teams and stables
WWE teams and stables
WWE Diva Search contestants
WWE Hall of Fame team inductees
Professional wrestlers from California
21st-century American women
American actresses of Mexican descent | false | [
"FCM Bacău is an association football club based in Bacău, Romania. The club was founded in 1950 and was promoted for the first to the top league of Romanian football in the 1956 season.\n\nFCM Bacău played their first top league fixture on 18 March 1956 against Dinamo București. Since that game they have played in 1319 first league matches and have faced 52 different sides. Their most regular opponents have been Dinamo București, whom they have played against on 84 occasions. The club has won 31 of the league matches against Argeș Pitești which represents the most Bacău have won against any team. They have drawn more matches with Brașov than with any other club, with 20 of their meetings finishing without a winner. Steaua București are the side that has defeated Bacău in more league games than any other club, having won 52 of their encounters.\n\nKey\n The table includes results of matches played by FCM Bacău in Liga I.\n Clubs with this background and symbol in the \"Club\" column are defunct\n The name used for each opponent is the name they had when FCM Bacău most recently played a league match against them. Results against each opponent include results against that club under any former name. For example, results against Universitatea Cluj include matches played against Știința Cluj.\n P = matches played; W = matches won; D = matches drawn; L = matches lost; F = goals for; A = goals against; Win% = percentage of total matches won\n The columns headed \"First\" and \"Last\" contain the first and most recent seasons in which FCM Bacău played league matches against each opponent\n\nAll-time league record\nStatistics correct as of matches played on season 2005-06.\n\nReferences\n\nGeneral\n \n \n\nFCM Bacău\nRomanian football club league records by opponent",
"Asociația Supporter Club Oțelul Galați is a professional association football club based in Galați, Romania. The club was founded in 1964.\n\nOțelul Galați played their first top league fixture on 17 August 1986 against Victoria București. Since that game they have played in 894 first league matches and have faced 60 different sides. Their most regular opponents have been Dinamo București, whom they have played against on 54 occasions. The club has won 22 of the league matches against SR Brașov which represents the most Oțelul have won against any team. They have drawn more matches with Argeș Pitești than with any other club, with 11 of their meetings finishing without a winner. Dinamo București are the side that has defeated Oțelul in more league games than any other club, having won 34 of their encounters.\n\nKey\n The table includes results of matches played by Oțelul Galați in Liga I.\n Clubs with this background and symbol in the \"Club\" column are defunct\n The name used for each opponent is the name they had when Oțelul Galați most recently played a league match against them. Results against each opponent include results against that club under any former name. For example, results against Universitatea Cluj include matches played against Știința Cluj.\n P = matches played; W = matches won; D = matches drawn; L = matches lost; F = goals for; A = goals against; Win% = percentage of total matches won\n The columns headed \"First\" and \"Last\" contain the first and most recent seasons in which Oțelul Galați played league matches against each opponent\n\nAll-time league record\nStatistics correct as of matches played on season 2016–17.\n\nReferences\n\nGeneral\n \n \n\nASC Oțelul Galați\nRomanian football club league records by opponent"
]
|
[
"The Bella Twins",
"Divas Champions (2011-2012)",
"Can you tell me about the Divas Champions?",
"The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match",
"How bad was the controversy involving this situation?",
"I don't know.",
"What are some other important things to know about the Diva Champions?",
"The next week, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match.",
"Were they apart of any more important matches?",
"The following week, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship, and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7."
]
| C_70ae421b29c944d1936f9af142452d7e_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 5 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article on The Bella Twins other than the feud with Eve Torres? | The Bella Twins | The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match between Torres and Natalya on the February 14 episode of Raw. Following the match, they attacked Torres backstage before Gail Kim and Natalya stopped them. The next week, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. The following week, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship, and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7. On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. Brie went on to successfully defend the championship against Kelly Kelly at Over the Limit, after switching places with Nikki. On a special "Power to the People" episode of Raw on June 20, Brie defended her WWE Divas Championship against Kelly, who was selected by voters. Kelly then defeated Brie and won the championship. On July 17, Brie challenged Kelly for the championship in a rematch at Money in the Bank, but failed to win. The twins spent the majority of the rest of the year in tag team matches, regularly facing Kelly and Torres. The Bellas began to show friction for the second time since joining WWE in March 2012, after both twins lost to AJ Lee in singles competition. After Brie's match with Lee, Nikki revealed that Brie was rooting for Team Johnny in the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII, whilst Nikki was rooting for Team Teddy, thus furthering their dissension. On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Nikki defeated the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match, after Kelly Kelly distracted Phoenix. On April 23, Nikki defeated Phoenix in a lumberjill match on Raw to win the Divas Championship for the first time. Brie lost Nikki's championship to Layla at Extreme Rules after Twin Magic failed, ending her Divas Championship reign after only a week. The following night on Raw, they competed in their last match with the WWE, failing to win back the Divas Championship from Layla in a triple threat match. Later that night, WWE announced on their website that the twins had been fired by Executive Administrator Eve Torres. CANNOTANSWER | On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. | The Bella Twins were a professional wrestling tag team who performed on WWE and consisted of identical twin sisters Brie Bella and Nikki Bella (real names Brianna and Nicole). The Bella Twins are both former Divas Champions, with Brie becoming the first twin in WWE History to win the WWE Divas Championship once, while Nikki holding it twice. Nikki is also the longest-reigning holder of that title.
Both sisters signed with WWE in 2007 (then known as World Wrestling Entertainment) and were assigned to the farm territory Florida Championship Wrestling. As Brie Bella, Brianna was called up to the main roster in 2008. She began to wrestle and, during her matches, she switched places with her sister to win. Weeks later, it was revealed that they were twins and Nicole began to work as Nikki Bella. During the next years, they worked together as a team and won the WWE Divas Championship one time each one, but in 2012, when they were released. The Bella Twins made their return in 2013 and featured the reality show Total Divas. While in 2014 they disbanded the team and feud between them, they reunited in 2015 and Nikki won the Divas Championship for a second time. She retained the title for 301 days, the longest reign of the title. After 2015, they began to appear less in WWE shows until they announced their retirement in 2019. In 2021, they were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class.
In November 2015, Nikki was ranked No. 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrateds Female 50.
Early lives and careers
Nicole and Brianna Garcia-Colace were born sixteen minutes apart on November 21, 1983, in San Diego, California and raised on a farm in the outskirts of Scottsdale, Arizona. They are of Mexican and Italian descent and played soccer in their youth. The twins graduated from Chaparral High School in 2002. They returned to San Diego for college, where Nicole continued playing soccer for Grossmont College, with both twins also working at Hooters. A year later, the twins relocated to Los Angeles in pursuit of acting and modeling opportunities, making ends meet doing various gigs from marketing for a now defunct record label, to cocktail waitressing at the Mondrian Hotel.
They then made their first national TV appearance on the Fox reality show Meet My Folks. Following this appearance, the twins were hired to be the World Cup Twins for Budweiser and were photographed holding the World Cup trophy. They were contestants in the 2006 "International Body Doubles twins search". They participated in the 2006 WWE Diva Search, but did not make the cut.
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
Florida Championship Wrestling (2007–2008)
The Bella Twins were signed to developmental contracts by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in June 2007 and were assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's then-developmental territory, in Tampa, Florida. On September 14, the twins made their in-ring debut defeating Nattie Neidhart and Krissy Vaine with Victoria Crawford as the special guest referee. As a part of their on-screen personas, they switched places behind the referee's back if one of them was hurt. This was called "Twin Magic". They also occasionally competed in mixed tag team matches, teaming with male wrestlers including Kofi Kingston and Robert Anthony. They also made some non-wrestling appearances on Heath Miller's Happy Hour promo segment.
Starting in December 2007, they managed Derrick Linkin, but this storyline was cut short when Linkin was released in January 2008. They then resumed their feud with Neidhart and Crawford, wrestling them throughout much of 2008. In FCW, the twins competed in bikini contests and wrestled against Katie Lea Burchill, Milena Roucka, and Nattie Neidhart. Their last FCW appearance was on September 2, when they competed in a Divas battle royal won by Miss Angela.
Various storylines (2008–2011)
On the August 29 episode of SmackDown, Brianna debuted as Brie Bella and defeated Victoria. She had a series of matches with Victoria and Victoria's accomplice Natalya. In each match, Brie would roll out of the ring and go underneath it, emerging revived as she would then win the match. On the November 7 episode of SmackDown, Brie picked up a win against Victoria and then ran under the ring to escape Natalya and Victoria, but Victoria and Natalya both reached for Brie under the ring, resulting in both Nicole and Brie being pulled out. Nicole was then introduced as Nikki Bella. The twins had their first official match as a team on the November 21 episode of SmackDown, defeating Victoria and Natalya. They continued competing in tag team matches over the following months.
Starting in November, the twins developed an on-screen relationship with The Colóns (Carlito and Primo). In February 2009, the storyline expanded to include John Morrison and The Miz, who flirted with the Bellas and took them on a date for Valentine's Day. The date provoked a rivalry between the teams of The Miz and Morrison and Primo and Carlito, with the four competing for the affection of the twins, who were seemingly unable to choose between them. On March 17 on ECW, Carlito and Primo, aiming for Morrison and The Miz, accidentally spat apples in the face of Brie. Nikki began to laugh at Brie's misfortune, and a fight broke out between the two, which led to Nikki leaving with The Miz and Morrison while Brie stayed with Primo and Carlito. Brie won her first match over Nikki in a six-person intergender tag team match on SmackDown the following week. On ECW on March 31, Nikki pinned Brie in their first singles match against each other after a distraction from Morrison and The Miz.
On April 15, The Bella Twins were both drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 supplemental draft. On April 27, Brie made her Raw in-ring debut in an eight-Diva tag team match, which her team won. Nikki also made an appearance, reuniting with her twin, as she was under the ring to help Brie during the match. Nikki then made her in-ring debut for the brand the following month in a battle royal, but was eliminated by Beth Phoenix.
On June 29, they were both traded to the ECW brand. They debuted on ECW the following night on The Abraham Washington Show, as the special guests. They quickly developed a storyline feud with Katie Lea Burchill, when Nikki defeated her in a match by switching places with Brie behind the referee's back. The following week on Superstars, Brie defeated Burchill after a similar fashion, and the feud ended in September, when Nikki defeated Burchill on Superstars.
On October 12, the Bellas were traded back to Raw as part of a tri-branded Divas trade, where they predominately appeared in backstages segments with the weekly guest stars and only occasionally competed in matches. In June 2010, they developed a feud with Jillian Hall, when Brie defeated her after switching places with Nikki. The following week, Nikki defeated Hall after switching with Brie. The feud was exacerbated when the Bellas acted as the special guest referees during one of Hall's matches. During the match, Hall attacked both twins, but lost the match when Nikki made a fast count, allowing her to be pinned by Gail Kim. The next week on Superstars, the twins defeated Hall and Maryse in a tag team match to end the storyline.
On August 31, The Bella Twins announced they would be part of the all-female third season of NXT, mentoring Jamie. Jamie was the first rookie Diva eliminated on the October 5 episode of NXT. In November, the twins began a storyline with Daniel Bryan, when Brie accompanied him to the ring for his match. Following his win, Nikki ran out and the two fought over Bryan's affection, until Bryan broke it up and had them hug each other. They began to manage Bryan and frequently accompanied him to the ring over the next two months. In January 2011, they discovered Bryan kissing Gail Kim backstage and assaulted her. They continued to attack Kim, both at the Royal Rumble on January 30 and the following night on Raw. On February 7, they teamed with Melina in a losing effort to Kim, Eve Torres and Tamina.
Divas Champions (2011–2012)
The Bellas began feuding with Eve Torres after they appeared as lumberjills during a Divas Championship match between Torres and Natalya on the February 14 episode of Raw. Following the match, they attacked Torres backstage before Gail Kim and Natalya stopped them. The next week on Raw, the twins defeated Torres and Kim in a tag team match. The following week on Raw, Nikki won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship and unsuccessfully challenged Torres for the championship on March 7.
On April 11, Brie defeated Torres to win the Divas Championship, marking the first time either twin had held a championship in WWE. On May 22, Brie went on to successfully defend the championship against Kelly Kelly at Over the Limit after switching places with Nikki. On a special "Power to the People" episode of Raw on June 20, Brie defended her WWE Divas Championship against Kelly (who was selected by voters), losing the title and ending her reign at 70 days. On July 17, Brie challenged Kelly for the championship in a rematch at Money in the Bank on July 17, but she failed to win.
The Bellas began to show friction in March 2012 after both twins lost to AJ Lee in singles competition. After Brie's match with Lee, Nikki revealed that Brie was rooting for Team Johnny in the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII on April 1 whilst Nikki was rooting for Team Teddy, thus furthering their dissension.
On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Nikki defeated the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match after Kelly Kelly distracted Phoenix. On April 23, Nikki defeated Phoenix in a lumberjill match on Raw to win the Divas Championship for the first time. Brie lost Nikki's championship to Layla at Extreme Rules on April 29 after Twin Magic failed, ending her Divas Championship reign after only a week. The following night on Raw, they competed in their last match with the WWE, failing to win back the Divas Championship from Layla in a triple threat match. Later that night, WWE announced on their website that the twins had been fired by Executive Administrator Eve Torres.
Independent circuit promotions (2012–2013)
On May 1, 2012, the twins appeared at their first independent wrestling show in Newburgh, New York at Northeast Wrestling. They later appeared for CTWE Pro Wrestling at the Season Beatings pay-per-view on December 15, each accompanying a different wrestler to the ring.
Return to WWE
Total Divas storylines (2013–2014)
The Bella Twins returned to WWE on the March 11, 2013, episode of Raw in a backstage segment with Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow). On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, the twins attacked The Funkadactyls (Cameron and Naomi) and the following week interfered in matches between Team Rhodes Scholars and Brodus Clay and Tensai, but were attacked by The Funkadactyls. The twins made their in-ring return defeating The Funkadactyls on the March 27 episode of Main Event after interference from Cody Rhodes. The Bella Twins were scheduled to participate in an eight-person tag team match with Team Rhodes Scholars against Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai) and The Funkadactyls at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, but the match was canceled due to time restraints and instead took place the following night on Raw, where The Bella Twins and Team Rhodes Scholars were defeated. In June, Nikki suffered a fractured tibia.
Upon the debut of the Total Divas reality television program in July, The Bellas began a feud with their co-star on the show Natalya, with Brie and Natalya trading victories in singles competition on Raw and at SummerSlam on August 18. The cast of Total Divas then transitioned into a scripted feud with Divas Champion AJ Lee, who mocked the show and cast. At Night of Champions on September 15, Brie unsuccessfully challenged Lee for the Divas Championship in a four-way match, which also involved Natalya and Naomi. Continuing their feud into October, Brie and Lee faced off at Battleground and Hell in a Cell for the Divas Championship, but Brie was unsuccessful. Nikki returned to in-ring action on the October 25 episode of SmackDown, losing to Lee. At Survivor Series on November 24, the twins were part of the victorious Team Total Divas. On April 6, they failed to win the Divas Championship again at WrestleMania XXX in the Divas Invitational match, which was won by Lee.
Brief split (2014)
In April 2014, Brie became involved in her real-life husband Daniel Bryan's ongoing storyline with Stephanie McMahon and Kane, whereas part of the storyline McMahon threatened to fire Brie if an injured Bryan did not relinquish the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Payback on June 1, which forced Brie to "quit" WWE before slapping McMahon in the face. After Brie "quit", McMahon put Nikki in several handicap matches as punishment. After a month absence, Brie returned to WWE television, appearing in the crowd on July 21 and starting a confrontation with McMahon who slapped Brie and was subsequently arrested. In order to have Brie drop the "charges", Brie was rehired and received a match against McMahon at SummerSlam.
Nikki attacked Brie at the event on August 17, which allowed McMahon to win the match. The next several weeks saw the twins fight in several backstage and in-ring segments, including a cameo appearance from Jerry Springer on Raw on September 8. As part of the storyline, McMahon declared Nikki the face of the WWE Divas division and granted her a match at Night of Champions for the Divas Championship, which she failed to win. At Hell in a Cell, Nikki defeated Brie in a match where the loser was forced to become the winner's personal assistant for 30 days.
Nikki and Brie reunited at Survivor Series on November 23 when Nikki defeated AJ Lee with Brie's help to become a two-time Divas Champion. Nikki retained her championship in three separate occasions—against Lee in a rematch at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 14, against Naomi two days later on SmackDown and against Paige on February 22, 2015, at Fastlane. Paige and Lee then formed an alliance against the Bellas which led to a tag team match at WrestleMania 31 on March 29, which the Bellas lost.
Team Bella (2015)
After Nikki retained her title over Naomi at Extreme Rules on April 26, Nikki started a feud with Naomi after she aligned with the returning Tamina to even the odds against Bellas. This led to a tag team match between the two teams at Payback on May 17, which Naomi and Tamina won. At Elimination Chamber on May 31, Nikki retained her title against Naomi and Paige in a triple threat match, with Brie banned from ringside.
In June, The Bella Twins became villains once again by employing Twin Magic, which helped Nikki retain the title against Paige on the June 1 episode of Raw and at Money in the Bank on June 14. During the feud with Paige, Alicia Fox allied with them to form Team Bella. At The Beast in the East on July 4, Nikki retained the title against Paige and Tamina.
After weeks of Team Bella outnumbering Paige, Naomi and Tamina, Stephanie McMahon called for a "revolution" in the WWE Divas division and introduced the debuting Charlotte and Becky Lynch as Paige's allies while NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks debuted as an ally to Naomi and Tamina, which led to a brawl between the three teams. Nikki then lost to Charlotte in a tag team match on the August 3 episode of Raw and to Banks on the August 17 episode of Raw in a non-title match. On August 23, the three teams faced off at SummerSlam in a three team elimination match in which Team Bella first eliminated Team B.A.D. before Team PCB's win.
On the September 14 episode of Raw, Nikki defended her title against Charlotte, who pinned Brie after the twins had switched places to win the match, but she retained the championship since the title cannot change hands by disqualification and in the process became the new longest reigning Divas Champion in history, surpassing AJ Lee's previous record of 295 days.
Injuries, retirements and sporadic appearances (2015–2019)
On September 20, Nikki dropped the championship to Charlotte at Night of Champions, ending her reign at 301 days and failing to regain the title in a rematch at Hell in a Cell on October 25. Shortly after, Nikki went on a hiatus from both television and in-ring competition due to a neck injury which would require surgery, but returned for one night on December 21 to accept the Slammy Award for Diva of the Year. During Nikki's absence, Brie continued to compete in singles competition and in tag team matches with Fox. Brie was unsuccessful in winning the Divas Championship at Fastlane on February 21 in a match against Charlotte. During that time, Team Bella quietly disbanded.
In March 2016, Brie was placed in a feud with Lana, who argued that Brie's fans only supported her out of pity for having a "bad husband". Brie then aligned herself with fellow Total Divas cast members Alicia Fox, Natalya, Paige and Eva Marie while Lana aligned herself with Team B.A.D. (Naomi and Tamina), Summer Rae and Emma (which was officially called Team B.A.D. and Blonde), leading to a 10-woman tag team match on the WrestleMania 32 kickoff show on April 3, which Team Total Divas would win when Naomi submitted to Brie. After the match, Nikki returned and celebrated with her co-stars. On April 6, Brie confirmed that she would be taking an extended break from in-ring competition, citing family reasons while also stating that she will continue working for WWE as an ambassador.
On January 22, 2018, on the Raw 25 Years special episode, The Bella Twins were honored as part of a segment involving women considered legends that contributed to the company's success. At the Royal Rumble on January 28, Brie and Nikki participated in the first ever women's Royal Rumble match at No. 28 and No. 27, respectively, making it into the final four with Asuka and Sasha Banks, with Nikki eliminating Brie before being eliminated herself by the winner Asuka. On the September 3 episode of Raw, The Bella Twins competed for the first time in three years, defeating The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan). The Bellas teamed with Ronda Rousey to defeat The Riott Squad at WWE Super Show-Down on October 6, and won the rematch two nights later on Raw. After the rematch, the Bellas attacked Rousey. Nikki received a title opportunity against Rousey at WWE Evolution on October 28, but was unsuccessful. In March 2019, both Bellas announced on Total Bellas that they had retired from in-ring competition with Brie making the announcement on the March 10 episode and Nikki announcing her retirement on the season finale on March 24. At February 21, 2020 edition of SmackDown, it was announced that both Bellas will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, during A Moment of Bliss segment. Due to the COVID Pandemic, the ceremony took place the next year.
Other media
Guest appearances
Prior to working with WWE, the twins appeared on Meet My Folks. Both twins also appeared in the music video for "Right Side of the Bed" by the band Atreyu. They were regulars on the VH1 show Best Week Ever. The twins made a guest appearance on the MTV series Ridiculousness in October 2012. They also appeared in the music video for "Na Na" by Trey Songz in 2014.
The twins guest starred on the television series Psych, in the 2014 episode "A Nightmare on State Street". Nikki and Brie are part of the main cast for the reality television show Total Divas, which began airing in July 2013. In April 2016, it was announced that Total Bellas, a spin-off of Total Divas starring the twins, would begin airing in fall 2016.
Nikki and Brie co-starred in the 2014 independent film Confessions of a Womanizer and provided voices for the 2015 movie The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!.
Nikki appeared at the Miss USA 2013 pageant as one of the celebrity judges. They appeared at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards, where they presented the award for Best Female. The twins were both nominated for Choice Female Athlete at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. The following year at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards, The Bella Twins won Choice Female Athlete. Brie appeared alongside Paige, Natalya, and the Chrisley family on the 88th Academy Awards edition of E! Countdown to the Red Carpet in February 2016.
The Bella Twins have appeared in ten WWE video games, making their in-game debut at WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and appearing in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, WWE '12 (DLC), WWE '13, WWE 2K14 (DLC), WWE 2K15, WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18, WWE 2K19, WWE 2K20 and WWE 2K Battlegrounds. Animated versions of the Bella Twins were included in WWE Network's series Camp WWE.
YouTube
Both twins appeared on the WWE YouTube show The JBL & Cole Show.
On November 21, 2016, Nikki and Brie unveiled their new YouTube channel which features daily fashion, beauty, travel, fitness, relationship and health videos along with daily video blogs, created by the twins themselves.
The Bella Twins appeared in YouTuber iiSuperwomanii's video "When Someone Tries to Steal Your BFF" on March 2, 2017.
On April 16, 2020, the twins were featured on the hit YouTube channel "First We Feast", appearing a Truth or Dab edition of Hot Ones.
Lifestyle
On August 21, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched their own wine label called Belle Radici in collaboration with Hill Family Estates and Gauge Branding. Later that year on November 1, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched Birdiebee, a lifestyle intimates and activewear brand. The line includes transitional intimates, activewear and loungewear aimed at "empowering and educating women through mirroring the twins' passion for life, strength, women's health and wellness, and fun".
On January 28, 2019, Nikki and Brie launched Nicole + Brizee, a body and beauty line. On March 27, 2019, Nikki and Brie launched their own podcast.
In March 2020, Nikki and Brie released their memoir Incomparable.
In 2021, Nikki and Brie launched another wine label called Bonita Bonita Wine.
In 2021, Nikki and Brie launched their own baby gear collection in partnership with Colugo. Nikki and Brie also announced that they joined Colugo as investors and creative advisors.
Personal life
On May 9, 2017, Brie gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Birdie Joe Danielson. In January 2020, the twins announced they were both pregnant, with due dates a week and a half apart. On July 31, Nikki gave birth to Matteo Artemovich Chigvintsev. 22 hours later, Brie gave birth to Buddy Dessert Danielson on August 1.
Bibliography
Incomparable (2020)
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Championships and accomplishments
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI ranked Brie Bella No. 12 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015
PWI ranked Nikki Bella No. 1 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone named Nikki Bella as the Diva of the Year in 2015
Rolling Stone named Nikki Bella as the Most Improved Wrestler in 2015
Teen Choice Awards
Choice Female Athlete (2016)
WrestleCrap
Gooker Award (2014) Feud between each other (co-winner with Vince McMahon)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Worst Feud of the Year (2014) Brie vs. Nikki
Worst Feud of the Year (2015) Team PCB vs. Team B.A.D. vs. Team Bella
Worst Worked Match of the Year (2013) with Cameron, Eva Marie, JoJo, Naomi, and Natalya vs. AJ Lee, Aksana, Alicia Fox, Kaitlyn, Rosa Mendes, Summer Rae and Tamina Snuka on November 24
WWE
WWE Divas Championship (3 times) – Brie Bella (1), Nikki Bella (2)
Slammy Award (4 times)
Couple of the Year (2013, 2014)
Diva of the Year (2013)
Diva of the Year (2015)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2020)
References
External links
1983 births
American female professional wrestlers
American professional wrestlers of Italian descent
American professional wrestlers of Mexican descent
American YouTubers
ECW (WWE) teams and stables
Identical twin females
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from San Diego
Sportspeople from Scottsdale, Arizona
Twin people from the United States
Twin sportspeople
Women's wrestling teams and stables
WWE teams and stables
WWE Diva Search contestants
WWE Hall of Fame team inductees
Professional wrestlers from California
21st-century American women
American actresses of Mexican descent | 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"
]
|
[
"Ruth Etting",
"Stage, screen and radio"
]
| C_e87bf039373e40e08c9070a42f1dccf9_0 | Where was Etting born? | 1 | Where was Ruth Etting born? | Ruth Etting | The couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. Irving Berlin had recommended her to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Etting nervously prepared to sing for Ziegfeld at the audition. However, he did not ask her to sing at all; only to walk up and down the room. She was hired on that basis because Ziegfeld did not hire women with big ankles. While the original plan for the show was for Etting to do a tap dance after singing "Shaking the Blues Away", she later remembered she was not a very good dancer. At the show's final rehearsal, Flo Ziegfeld told her, "Ruth, when you get through singing, just walk off the stage". Etting also appeared in Ziegfeld's last "Follies" in 1931. She went on to appear in a number of other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld's Simple Simon and Whoopee!. Etting was not originally signed to perform in Simple Simon; she became part of the cast at the last minute when vocalist Lee Morse was too intoxicated to perform. Ziegfeld asked Etting to replace Morse; she hurried to Boston, where the show was being tried out prior to Broadway. When Etting arrived, songwriters Rodgers and Hart discovered that the song "Ten Cents a Dance" was not written for Etting's voice range. The three spent the night rewriting the song so Etting could perform it. Toward the end of Simple Simon's Broadway run, Etting persuaded Ziegfeld to add "Love Me Or Leave Me" to the show though the song was originally written for Whoopee!. She had recorded the song in 1928, but Etting's new version of it was impressive enough to earn her a Vitaphone contract to make film shorts. In Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. She described the short films as either having a simple plot to allow for her to sing two songs or with no plot at all. The idea was to have Etting sing at least two songs in the film. While she received a marquee billing for Roman Scandals, Etting had only two lines in the film and sang just one song. Etting believed she might have had more success in full-length films if she had been given some acting lessons. Her perception was that the studios viewed her only as a vocalist. She later recalled, "I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song". In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm. Etting quit the show because she and the other performers had not been paid. Etting was first heard on radio station WLS when she was living in Chicago. Her appearance drew so much fan mail, the station signed her to a year's contract for twice weekly performances. She had her own twice weekly 15 minute radio show on CBS in the 1930s. By 1934, she was on NBC with sports announcer Ted Husing doing the announcing and Oldsmobile sponsoring her program. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as "America's sweetheart of song", her signature tunes were "Shine On, Harvest Moon", "Ten Cents a Dance" and "Love Me or Leave Me".
As a young girl in Nebraska, Etting had wanted to become an artist; she drew and sketched all the time. At sixteen, her grandparents decided to send her to art school in Chicago. While Etting attended class, she found a job at the Marigold Gardens nightclub; after a short time there, Etting gave up art classes in favor of a career in show business. Etting, who enjoyed singing in school and church, never took voice lessons. She quickly became a featured vocalist at the club. Etting was then managed by Moe Snyder, whom she married in 1922. Snyder made arrangements for Etting's recording and film contracts as well as her personal and radio appearances. She became nationally known when she appeared in Flo Ziegfeld's Follies of 1927.
Etting intended to retire from performing in 1935, but this did not happen until after her divorce from Snyder in 1937. Harry Myrl Alderman, Etting's pianist, was separated from his wife when he and Etting began a relationship. Snyder did not like seeing his former wife in the company of other men and began making telephone threats to Etting in January 1938. By October, Snyder traveled to Los Angeles and detained Alderman after he left a local radio station; he forced the pianist to take him to the home of his ex-wife at gunpoint. Saying he intended to kill Etting, Alderman, and his own daughter, Edith, who worked for Etting, Snyder shot Alderman. Three days after Alderman was shot, his wife filed suit against Etting for alienation of affections.
While Alderman and Etting claimed to have been married in Mexico in July 1938, Alderman's divorce would not be final until December of that year. The couple married during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder in December 1938. Etting and Alderman relocated to a farm outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they were out of the spotlight for most of their lives. Her fictionalized story was told in the musical film Love Me Or Leave Me (1955) with Doris Day as Ruth Etting and James Cagney as Snyder.
Biography
Etting was born on November 23, 1896, in David City, Nebraska, to Alfred Etting, a banker, and Winifred (née Kleinhan). Her mother died when she was five years old and she then lived with her paternal grandparents, George and Hannah Etting. Her father remarried and moved away from David City and was no longer a part of his daughter's life. Etting's grandfather, George, owned the Etting Roller Mills; to the delight of his granddaughter, George Etting allowed traveling circuses and shows to use the lot behind the mills for performances.
Etting was interested in drawing at an early age; she drew and sketched anywhere she was able. Her grandparents were asked to buy the textbooks she had used at the end of a school term because Etting had filled them with her drawings. She left David City at the age of sixteen to attend art school in Chicago. Etting gained a job designing costumes at the Marigold Gardens nightclub, which led to employment singing and dancing in the chorus. She gave up art school soon after beginning to work at Marigold Gardens. Before turning exclusively to performing, Etting worked as a designer for the owner of a costume shop in Chicago's Loop; she was successful enough to earn a partnership in the shop through her work.
While she enjoyed singing at school and in church, Etting never took voice lessons. She said that she had patterned her song styling after Marion Harris, but created her own unique style by alternating tempos and by varying some notes and phrases. Describing herself as a "high, squeaky soprano" during her days in David City, Etting developed a lower range singing voice after her arrival in Chicago which led to her success. Her big moment came when a featured vocalist suddenly became ill and was unable to perform. With no other replacement available, Etting was asked to fill in. She quickly changed into the costume and scanned the music arrangements; the performer was male, so Etting tried to adjust by singing in a lower register. She became a featured vocalist at the nightclub.
Etting described herself as a young, naive girl when she arrived in Chicago. Due to her inexperience in the ways of the big city, she became reliant on Snyder after their meeting. Etting met gangster Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder in 1922, when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. Snyder, who divorced his first wife to marry Etting, was well-acquainted with Chicago's nightclubs and the entertainers who worked in them; he once served as a bodyguard to Al Jolson. Snyder also used his political connections to gain bookings for Etting, who was called "Miss City Hall" because of Snyder's influence in Chicago. Etting married Snyder on July 17, 1922 in Crown Point, Indiana. She later said she married him "nine-tenths out of fear and one-tenth out of pity." Etting later told her friends, "If I leave him, he'll kill me." He managed her career, booking radio appearances and eventually had her signed to an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Records.
Stage, screen and radio
The couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. Irving Berlin had recommended her to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Etting nervously prepared to sing for Ziegfeld at the audition. However, he did not ask her to sing at all; only to walk up and down the room. She was hired on that basis because Ziegfeld did not hire women with big ankles. While the original plan for the show was for Etting to do a tap dance after singing "Shaking the Blues Away", she later remembered she was not a very good dancer. At the show's final rehearsal, Flo Ziegfeld told her: "Ruth, when you get through singing, just walk off the stage". Etting also appeared in Ziegfeld's last "Follies" in 1931.
She went on to appear in other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld's Simple Simon and Whoopee!. Etting was not originally signed to perform in Simple Simon; she became part of the cast at the last minute when vocalist Lee Morse was too intoxicated to perform. Ziegfeld asked Etting to replace Morse; she hurried to Boston, where the show was being tried out prior to Broadway. When Etting arrived, songwriters Rodgers and Hart discovered that the song "Ten Cents a Dance" was not written for Etting's voice range. The three spent the night rewriting the song so Etting could perform it.
Toward the end of Simple Simons Broadway run, Etting persuaded Ziegfeld to add "Love Me Or Leave Me" to the show though the song was originally written for Whoopee!. She had recorded the song in 1928, but Etting's new version of it was impressive enough to earn her a Vitaphone contract to make film shorts.
In Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. She described the short films as either having a simple plot to allow for her to sing two songs or with no plot at all. The idea was to have Etting sing at least two songs in the film. While she received a marquee billing for Roman Scandals, Etting had only two lines in the film and sang just one song. Etting believed she might have had more success in full-length films if she had been given some acting lessons. Her perception was that the studios viewed her only as a vocalist. She later recalled: "I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song". In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm. Etting quit the show because she and the other performers had not been paid.
Etting was first heard on radio station WLS while she was living in Chicago. Her appearance drew so much fan mail the station signed her to a year's contract for twice weekly performances. On CBS, she broadcast twice weekly in a 15 minute radio show in the 1930s. By 1934, she was on NBC with sports announcer Ted Husing and sponsorship of the program from Oldsmobile .
Recording history
After an unissued test made by Victor on April 4, 1924, Etting was signed to Columbia Records in February 1926. She remained at Columbia through June 1931, when she split her recording between ARC (Banner, Perfect, Romeo, Oriole, etc.) and Columbia through March 1933. She signed with Brunswick and remained there until May 1934, when she re-signed with Columbia through July 1935. After a solitary Brunswick session in March 1936, she signed with the British label Rex and recorded two sessions in August and September, 1936. Etting returned to the US and signed with Decca in December 1936 and recorded until April 1937, when she basically retired from recording.
Personal life
Etting saved some of her paycheck each week, regardless of the amount she was making at the time. Her friends said she invested in California real estate rather than the stock market. Etting, who made many of her own clothes, did her own housekeeping and lived frugally, initially announced her retirement in 1935. It is not clear why she did not go through with her announced plans, but she issued a second statement regarding retirement after filing for divorce from Snyder in November 1937.
Snyder's aggressive and controlling management style began to cause problems for Etting; during her work with Whoopee! on Broadway, Snyder was a constant presence. He was never without a gun and enjoyed poking people with it while saying "Put your hands up!" then laughing when their fright was evident. Snyder also persisted in cornering Ziegfeld because he believed Etting's role in the musical could be improved. Ziegfeld had a different opinion and indicated nothing would be changed. Snyder would then mumble that it was not a suggestion but a demand.
By 1934, she was having difficulty getting engagements. Snyder's arguing and fighting at venues where Etting was employed caused her to be passed by for jobs in the United States. In 1936, she thought taking work in England might be the answer, but Snyder created problems while she was working there also. Soon after the couple arrived in England, Snyder became involved in a street fight which created adverse publicity for Etting. She divorced Moe Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937. Snyder did not contest the divorce and received a settlement from his former wife. Etting gave her ex-husband half of her earnings at the time, $50,000, some securities and a half interest in a home in Beverly Hills, California. She deducted the gambling debts of Snyder she had paid and the costs she had paid for a home for Snyder's mother.
Threats and the shooting
Etting fell in love with her pianist, Myrl Alderman, who was separated from his wife. In January 1938, she began receiving threatening telephone calls from Snyder, who initially claimed Etting withheld assets from him when the divorce settlement was made. Though the couple was divorced, Snyder was also upset because of reports that she was seeing another man. Snyder told Etting that he would come to California and kill her. When Snyder telephoned and found Etting unavailable, he told his daughter Edith that he "would fix her ticket, too". He called again that evening; this time Etting took the call with her cousin, Arthur Etting, listening on an extension. Etting requested police protection after the telephone call and arranged for private protection. Apparently believing the danger was over when Snyder did not appear soon after his telephone call, Etting released her bodyguards a few days later.
On October 15, 1938, Snyder detained Myrl Alderman at a local radio station and forced the pianist to take him to his former wife at gunpoint. In the house at the time were Etting and Edith Snyder. Edith, Snyder's daughter by a previous marriage, worked for Etting and remained living with her after the divorce. Snyder held Etting and Alderman at gunpoint; when told his daughter was in another part of the house, he made Etting call her into the room. Snyder said he intended to kill all three, and told them to be quiet. When Myrl Alderman attempted to speak, Snyder shot him. Snyder then told his ex-wife, "I've had my revenge, so you can call the police."
Snyder claimed Myrl Alderman pulled a gun and shot at him first and that his ex-wife would not file charges against him because she still loved him. He also claimed he was drunk when he made the telephone threats to Etting in January 1938, saying that at the time his intentions were to kill both his ex-wife and himself. Ruth Etting said that the only gun in the home belonged to her, and after the shooting of Alderman, she was able to go into her bedroom and get it. Upon seeing Etting's gun, Moe Snyder wrested it away from her; it landed on the floor. Snyder's daughter, Edith, picked it up and held it on her father, shooting at him but hitting the floor instead. During a police reenactment of the shooting three days later, Edith Snyder said that she fired at her father to save Ruth Etting, weeping as she continued, "I don't yet know whether I am sorry I missed my Dad or whether I am glad". Snyder was accused of attempting to murder his ex-wife, his daughter, and Etting's accompanist, Myrl Alderman, the kidnapping of Alderman, as well as California state gun law violations.
Alienation of affections suit
Three days after the shooting of Myrl Alderman, the pianist's second wife, Alma, sued Etting for alienation of her husband's affections. Though Etting and Alderman claimed to have been married in Tijuana, Mexico in July 1938, Alma Alderman said any marriage was invalid, because her divorce from Myrl Alderman would not be final until December 1938. Police investigators could find no record of the couple's Mexican marriage. Etting publicly invited Alma Alderman to visit her husband in the hospital, in an effort to see if the couple could reconcile.
Ruth Etting testified that she was not married to Alderman. During the course of the trial, there was also a question of the validity of Alderman's marriage to Alma. Alderman's first wife, Helen, obtained an interlocutory decree on January 7, 1935; the divorce became final one year later. On January 9, 1935, Alderman married Alma in Mexico. The second Mrs. Alderman called Moe Snyder to the stand as a witness regarding an attraction between her husband and Etting. Helen Alderman Warne also appeared in court, claiming that Alma Alderman had spirited Myrl away from her. Warne added that she had married and divorced the pianist twice. Alma Alderman's lawsuit ended in December 1939, with the court finding that she was not entitled to damages from Ruth Etting.
Trial and aftermath
The testimony in both trials brought much personal information into the public eye. Snyder, who claimed to still be in love with his ex-wife, gave Etting a diamond and platinum bracelet which she accepted after Snyder's telephone threat in January 1938. Etting testified that she agreed with her ex-husband's statement to police that Snyder was either drunk or out of his mind when he threatened her by phone. Snyder's attorney initially tried to prevent Etting from testifying against Snyder with a charge that the divorce she obtained in Illinois was invalid because she was a resident of California at that time.
During the trial, Snyder's attorney portrayed Ruth Etting as a calculating woman who had married Moe Snyder strictly for the benefit of her career, and that she divorced him in favor of being with another, younger man (Alderman). Snyder's attorney echoed his client's claim of self-defense and said his client never intended to kill Etting, his daughter, and Myrl Alderman. The attorney further claimed that if Snyder intended to kill the pianist, he had ample time to do so while he held a gun on Alderman during the drive from the radio station to the home where the shooting took place.
Etting married Alderman, who was almost a decade her junior, on December 14, 1938 in Las Vegas, during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder. Snyder was convicted of attempted murder, but released on appeal after one year in jail. Snyder won a new trial but returned to jail in January 1940 in lieu of bail. In August 1940, Myrl Alderman asked the district attorney to drop further prosecution attempts against Snyder for the 1938 shooting.
Etting, who had retired from performing prior to the shooting and subsequent trials, briefly had a radio show on WHN in 1947. She also accepted an engagement at New York's Copacabana in March 1947. Etting traveled alone to New York and during a newspaper interview, was asked if she had ever seen Moe Snyder again. She replied, "No, I hope I never do." and said that her husband never went to bed without a gun.
Later life and death
The couple relocated to an eight-acre farm outside of Colorado Springs in 1938. Alderman, who was raised in Colorado Springs, operated a restaurant there for a time. Etting and Alderman remained married until his death in Denver on November 28, 1966; he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs. Etting died in Colorado Springs in 1978, aged 81. She was survived by a stepson, John Alderman, and four grandchildren. Alderman and Etting are now interred at the Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Legacy
Etting's life was the basis for the fictionalized film, Love Me or Leave Me (1955), which starred Doris Day (as Etting), James Cagney (as Snyder) and Cameron Mitchell (as Alderman). Etting, Myrl Alderman and Moe Snyder all sold their rights to the story to MGM; Snyder was living in Chicago in 1955. Etting expressed sadness that "the real highlight of my life", her marriage to Alderman, was omitted from the film. Shortly before her death, Etting said she thought the screen portrayal of her was too tough and that Jane Powell would have been a better choice for the lead.
Etting has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in films, located on the north side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard. Her recordings of Love Me Or Leave Me (2005) and Ten Cents a Dance (1999) are part of the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Hit records
Note: All of the above were Columbia releases.
The following four were non-Columbia releases:
(1932) "It Was So Beautiful" (U.S. chart position 13) Melotone Records
(1933) "Try a Little Tenderness" (U.S. chart position 16) Melotone Records
(1934) "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (U.S. chart position 15) Brunswick Records
(1937) "In the Chapel in the Moonlight" (U.S. chart position 20) Decca Records
Broadway
Ruth Etting's Broadway appearances are recorded at the Internet Broadway Database.
Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 – in which she introduced Irving Berlin's "Shaking The Blues Away"
Whoopee! (1928) – in which she introduced "Love Me or Leave Me"
Nine-Fifteen Revue (1929) – in which she introduced "Get Happy"
Simple Simon (1930) – in which she introduced "Ten Cents a Dance"
Ziegfeld Follies of 1931
Filmography
Short films
The Book of Lovers (1929)
Broadway's Like That (1930) - Ruth
Roseland (1930) - Helen Leslie
One Good Turn (1930) - Ruth Eton
Stage Struck (1931)
Old Lace (1931)
Words & Music (1931) - Ruth Eton
Radio Salutes (1931)
A Mail Bride (1932)
A Regular Trouper (1932) - Ruth Eton
Artistic Temper (1932) - Ruth Whitney / Ruth White
A Modern Cinderella (1932) - Anita Ragusa
Bye-Gones (1933) - Aunt Ruth
Along Came Ruth (1933) - Ruth Etting a.k.a. Ruth Eldridge
Crashing the Gate (1933)
Knee Deep in Music (1933)
California Weather (1933)
A Torch Tango (1934)
The Song of Fame (1934) - Ruth Eaton
Derby Decade (1934) - Della Delmar
Southern Style (1934)
No Contest! (1934) - Ruth
Bandits and Ballads (1934)
An Old Spanish Onion (1935)
Ticket or Leave It (1935)
Tuned Out (1935) - Ruth, the Dixie Song Bird
Alladin from Manhattan (1936)
Melody in May (1936) - herself
Sleepy Time (1936) - (final film role)
Feature films
Mr. Broadway (1933) - herself
Roman Scandals (1933, her breakthrough film, which starred Eddie Cantor and Gloria Stuart) - Olga
Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934) - herself
Gift of Gab (1934) - herself
Notes
References
Sources
External links
Ruth Etting at the Internet Archive 01
Ruth Etting at the Internet Archive 02
Ruth Etting recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
1897 births
1978 deaths
Actresses from Nebraska
American film actresses
American musical theatre actresses
Singers from Nebraska
People from David City, Nebraska
Torch singers
Vaudeville performers
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
Biograph Records artists | false | [
"Martin \"Moe\" Snyder (December 6, 1893 – November 9, 1981), commonly known as Moe the Gimp due to his lame left leg, was an American gangster from Chicago, active in the 1920s and 1930s.\n\nBiography\nSnyder was born and raised on Chicago's southwest side. He was five years of age when he injured his leg in an accident.\nSnyder left school after the fourth grade and sold papers as a newsboy. He later worked in newspaper circulation, and then moved to a job with the Metropolitan Sanitary District.\n\nSnyder had both political and entertainment world connections. He knew most of the nightclubs in Chicago and the people who performed there. He once served as a bodyguard for Al Jolson. His second wife was the singer and entertainer Ruth Etting, whom he married in 1922 and whose career he aggressively promoted. Snyder and Etting met when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. He divorced his first wife to marry Etting.\n\nIn 1927, the couple moved to New York City, where Etting landed a role in the Ziegfeld Follies. After a move to Los Angeles in the early 1930s, Etting was hired for some film roles, and The Chase and Sanborn Hour radio show with Jimmy Durante. Etting remained in Los Angeles for her radio work, while Snyder returned to Chicago.\n\nDivorce and shooting\n\nBy 1934, the aggressive and controlling management of Snyder began to create professional problems for Etting. She was not being considered for many jobs due to Snyder's arguments with those who employed her. Etting visited England for work in 1936, where Snyder managed to involve himself in a street fight soon after their arrival; this resulted in unfavorable publicity for Etting. Etting divorced Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937. Snyder did not contest the divorce; he received a settlement from Etting.\n\nIn January 1938, Snyder began making threatening telephone calls to Etting, at first claiming she concealed assets from him when the divorce settlement was made. Snyder was also upset that Etting was now seeing her accompanist, Myrl Alderman. Snyder told Etting he intended to come to California and kill her. Etting obtained both police and private protection, but apparently believed the danger was past when Snyder did not appear soon after his telephone threats; she dismissed her bodyguards.\n\nSnyder detained Myrl Alderman at a local radio station on October 15, 1938. He forced the pianist to drive him to his former wife at gunpoint. Etting and Edith Snyder, his daughter, were in the house when Snyder and Alderman arrived. When Snyder was told Edith was in another part of the house, he forced Etting to call her into the music room, where he held Etting and Alderman at gunpoint. Snyder told them to be quiet and that he intended to kill them all. When Myrl Alderman tried to speak, he was shot by Snyder, who then told Etting, \"I've had my revenge, so you can call the police.\"\n\nEtting, who said the only gun in the house was hers, was able to go into her bedroom for the gun after the shooting of Alderman. When Snyder saw Etting with the gun, he wrestled it away from her; it fell to the floor where Edith Snyder picked it up and started shooting at her father. Edith's shots did not hit her father, but went into the floor. Snyder's daughter said she shot at her father to save Ruth Etting.\n\nCharges and trial\n\nSnyder was charged with kidnapping Myrl Alderman and the attempted murder of Alderman, Etting, and his daughter, Edith, as well as California state gun violations. Snyder claimed that Myrl Alderman had a gun and shot at him first. He also said that Ruth Etting would not press charges against him because she was still in love with him. Snyder said he was drunk when he made the threatening calls to Etting and at that time, his intentions were to kill Etting and himself.\n\nDuring Snyder's trial for the attempted murder of Myrl Alderman, Etting and Alderman were married in Las Vegas. Snyder was found guilty and sentenced, but was released on appeal after a year in prison. In January 1940, he won a new trial, but was returned to jail in lieu of bail. In August 1940, Myrl Alderman asked the district attorney to drop further prosecution attempts against Snyder for the 1938 shooting.\n\nLater life\nSnyder returned to Chicago in 1940 and worked in the mail room at Chicago's City Hall. He was still living in Chicago and working in the City Clerk's office in 1972. In 1975, Snyder was interviewed for a Chicago Tribune article about the 1930s, where he claimed the stories about his mob connections were untrue. Snyder said he worked for a song publisher and that he knew various celebrities through that work.\n\nSnyder had at least one child from his first marriage, a daughter, Edith. After her father and Etting were divorced, she remained living with her. Edith died of a heart condition in 1939. It is believed Snyder died in Chicago in 1981.\n\nPortrayal in film\nAlong with Ruth Etting and Myrl Alderman, Snyder sold his rights to his story to MGM for the film Love Me or Leave Me (1955). James Cagney portrayed Snyder in the film, which was a fictionalized life story of Etting, who was played by Doris Day. Snyder was very dissatisfied with the way he was portrayed in the film.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nJewish American gangsters\nPeople from Chicago\nPlace of birth missing\nPlace of death missing\n1893 births\n1981 deaths\n20th-century American Jews",
"Shinah Solomon Etting (December 24, 1744 – November 30, 1822) was the matriarch of one of the first Jewish families to live in Baltimore, Maryland.\n\nBiography\nEtting was born in New York City to Lancaster merchant Joseph Solomon and Bilah Myer-Cohen Solomon. She had two brothers, Isaac (1742-1798) and Levy (1748-1827). In November 1759, she married 35-year-old Elijah Etting and the couple moved to York, Pennsylvania, where they had eight children—Reuben, Solomon, Joseph, Fanny, Elizabeth, Kitty, Hetty and Sally—all of whom lived to adulthood except Joseph.\n\nShe and her husband ran a small store in York where they hosted Alexander Graydon in the summer of 1773. He wrote about the pleasant hospitality he received in the Etting home, saying that Shinah in specific was \"always in spirits, full of frolic and glee, and possessing the talent of singing agreeably....\"\n\nWhen Elijah died in 1778, Shinah moved to Baltimore with her younger children around 1780, though the exact date is unknown. Using her inheritance, she had a small boarding house built to her specifications, \"for gentlemen.\" She took in boarders, among them Judith Cohen, the widow of Israel Cohen, and her children; both families had sons who rose to prominence in Baltimore. Etting used the profits from her successful inn to assist her two prominent sons in their business ventures. She was a stockholder in Union Bank in 1796, along with two of her sons and two of her daughters.\n\nEtting had her portrait painted twice by Charles Peale Polk in the first half of the 1790s. One of the paintings is considered \"one of his more successful portraits.\" An additional portrait was painted of her by John Wesley Jarvis in 1813.\n\nHer son Solomon and her brother Levy purchased the \"Jew's burying ground\" in Baltimore in 1801. The cemetery which became known as the Etting Cemetery, was the oldest Jewish cemetery in Baltimore. Solomon Etting and Jacob Cohen were elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1826 a few months after the state constitution was amended to modify the requirement that elected officials swear a \"Christian oath.\" Etting Street in Northwest Baltimore is named for Solomon Etting. Her son Reuben was appointed United States Marshal for Maryland by President Jefferson in 1801 and served through 1804.\n\nReferences\n\n1744 births\n1822 deaths\nPeople from Baltimore\nJewish women"
]
|
[
"Ruth Etting",
"Stage, screen and radio",
"Where was Etting born?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_e87bf039373e40e08c9070a42f1dccf9_0 | Who did Etting live with when her mother died? | 2 | Who did Ruth Etting live with when her own mother died? | Ruth Etting | The couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. Irving Berlin had recommended her to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Etting nervously prepared to sing for Ziegfeld at the audition. However, he did not ask her to sing at all; only to walk up and down the room. She was hired on that basis because Ziegfeld did not hire women with big ankles. While the original plan for the show was for Etting to do a tap dance after singing "Shaking the Blues Away", she later remembered she was not a very good dancer. At the show's final rehearsal, Flo Ziegfeld told her, "Ruth, when you get through singing, just walk off the stage". Etting also appeared in Ziegfeld's last "Follies" in 1931. She went on to appear in a number of other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld's Simple Simon and Whoopee!. Etting was not originally signed to perform in Simple Simon; she became part of the cast at the last minute when vocalist Lee Morse was too intoxicated to perform. Ziegfeld asked Etting to replace Morse; she hurried to Boston, where the show was being tried out prior to Broadway. When Etting arrived, songwriters Rodgers and Hart discovered that the song "Ten Cents a Dance" was not written for Etting's voice range. The three spent the night rewriting the song so Etting could perform it. Toward the end of Simple Simon's Broadway run, Etting persuaded Ziegfeld to add "Love Me Or Leave Me" to the show though the song was originally written for Whoopee!. She had recorded the song in 1928, but Etting's new version of it was impressive enough to earn her a Vitaphone contract to make film shorts. In Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. She described the short films as either having a simple plot to allow for her to sing two songs or with no plot at all. The idea was to have Etting sing at least two songs in the film. While she received a marquee billing for Roman Scandals, Etting had only two lines in the film and sang just one song. Etting believed she might have had more success in full-length films if she had been given some acting lessons. Her perception was that the studios viewed her only as a vocalist. She later recalled, "I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song". In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm. Etting quit the show because she and the other performers had not been paid. Etting was first heard on radio station WLS when she was living in Chicago. Her appearance drew so much fan mail, the station signed her to a year's contract for twice weekly performances. She had her own twice weekly 15 minute radio show on CBS in the 1930s. By 1934, she was on NBC with sports announcer Ted Husing doing the announcing and Oldsmobile sponsoring her program. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as "America's sweetheart of song", her signature tunes were "Shine On, Harvest Moon", "Ten Cents a Dance" and "Love Me or Leave Me".
As a young girl in Nebraska, Etting had wanted to become an artist; she drew and sketched all the time. At sixteen, her grandparents decided to send her to art school in Chicago. While Etting attended class, she found a job at the Marigold Gardens nightclub; after a short time there, Etting gave up art classes in favor of a career in show business. Etting, who enjoyed singing in school and church, never took voice lessons. She quickly became a featured vocalist at the club. Etting was then managed by Moe Snyder, whom she married in 1922. Snyder made arrangements for Etting's recording and film contracts as well as her personal and radio appearances. She became nationally known when she appeared in Flo Ziegfeld's Follies of 1927.
Etting intended to retire from performing in 1935, but this did not happen until after her divorce from Snyder in 1937. Harry Myrl Alderman, Etting's pianist, was separated from his wife when he and Etting began a relationship. Snyder did not like seeing his former wife in the company of other men and began making telephone threats to Etting in January 1938. By October, Snyder traveled to Los Angeles and detained Alderman after he left a local radio station; he forced the pianist to take him to the home of his ex-wife at gunpoint. Saying he intended to kill Etting, Alderman, and his own daughter, Edith, who worked for Etting, Snyder shot Alderman. Three days after Alderman was shot, his wife filed suit against Etting for alienation of affections.
While Alderman and Etting claimed to have been married in Mexico in July 1938, Alderman's divorce would not be final until December of that year. The couple married during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder in December 1938. Etting and Alderman relocated to a farm outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they were out of the spotlight for most of their lives. Her fictionalized story was told in the musical film Love Me Or Leave Me (1955) with Doris Day as Ruth Etting and James Cagney as Snyder.
Biography
Etting was born on November 23, 1896, in David City, Nebraska, to Alfred Etting, a banker, and Winifred (née Kleinhan). Her mother died when she was five years old and she then lived with her paternal grandparents, George and Hannah Etting. Her father remarried and moved away from David City and was no longer a part of his daughter's life. Etting's grandfather, George, owned the Etting Roller Mills; to the delight of his granddaughter, George Etting allowed traveling circuses and shows to use the lot behind the mills for performances.
Etting was interested in drawing at an early age; she drew and sketched anywhere she was able. Her grandparents were asked to buy the textbooks she had used at the end of a school term because Etting had filled them with her drawings. She left David City at the age of sixteen to attend art school in Chicago. Etting gained a job designing costumes at the Marigold Gardens nightclub, which led to employment singing and dancing in the chorus. She gave up art school soon after beginning to work at Marigold Gardens. Before turning exclusively to performing, Etting worked as a designer for the owner of a costume shop in Chicago's Loop; she was successful enough to earn a partnership in the shop through her work.
While she enjoyed singing at school and in church, Etting never took voice lessons. She said that she had patterned her song styling after Marion Harris, but created her own unique style by alternating tempos and by varying some notes and phrases. Describing herself as a "high, squeaky soprano" during her days in David City, Etting developed a lower range singing voice after her arrival in Chicago which led to her success. Her big moment came when a featured vocalist suddenly became ill and was unable to perform. With no other replacement available, Etting was asked to fill in. She quickly changed into the costume and scanned the music arrangements; the performer was male, so Etting tried to adjust by singing in a lower register. She became a featured vocalist at the nightclub.
Etting described herself as a young, naive girl when she arrived in Chicago. Due to her inexperience in the ways of the big city, she became reliant on Snyder after their meeting. Etting met gangster Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder in 1922, when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. Snyder, who divorced his first wife to marry Etting, was well-acquainted with Chicago's nightclubs and the entertainers who worked in them; he once served as a bodyguard to Al Jolson. Snyder also used his political connections to gain bookings for Etting, who was called "Miss City Hall" because of Snyder's influence in Chicago. Etting married Snyder on July 17, 1922 in Crown Point, Indiana. She later said she married him "nine-tenths out of fear and one-tenth out of pity." Etting later told her friends, "If I leave him, he'll kill me." He managed her career, booking radio appearances and eventually had her signed to an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Records.
Stage, screen and radio
The couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. Irving Berlin had recommended her to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Etting nervously prepared to sing for Ziegfeld at the audition. However, he did not ask her to sing at all; only to walk up and down the room. She was hired on that basis because Ziegfeld did not hire women with big ankles. While the original plan for the show was for Etting to do a tap dance after singing "Shaking the Blues Away", she later remembered she was not a very good dancer. At the show's final rehearsal, Flo Ziegfeld told her: "Ruth, when you get through singing, just walk off the stage". Etting also appeared in Ziegfeld's last "Follies" in 1931.
She went on to appear in other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld's Simple Simon and Whoopee!. Etting was not originally signed to perform in Simple Simon; she became part of the cast at the last minute when vocalist Lee Morse was too intoxicated to perform. Ziegfeld asked Etting to replace Morse; she hurried to Boston, where the show was being tried out prior to Broadway. When Etting arrived, songwriters Rodgers and Hart discovered that the song "Ten Cents a Dance" was not written for Etting's voice range. The three spent the night rewriting the song so Etting could perform it.
Toward the end of Simple Simons Broadway run, Etting persuaded Ziegfeld to add "Love Me Or Leave Me" to the show though the song was originally written for Whoopee!. She had recorded the song in 1928, but Etting's new version of it was impressive enough to earn her a Vitaphone contract to make film shorts.
In Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. She described the short films as either having a simple plot to allow for her to sing two songs or with no plot at all. The idea was to have Etting sing at least two songs in the film. While she received a marquee billing for Roman Scandals, Etting had only two lines in the film and sang just one song. Etting believed she might have had more success in full-length films if she had been given some acting lessons. Her perception was that the studios viewed her only as a vocalist. She later recalled: "I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song". In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm. Etting quit the show because she and the other performers had not been paid.
Etting was first heard on radio station WLS while she was living in Chicago. Her appearance drew so much fan mail the station signed her to a year's contract for twice weekly performances. On CBS, she broadcast twice weekly in a 15 minute radio show in the 1930s. By 1934, she was on NBC with sports announcer Ted Husing and sponsorship of the program from Oldsmobile .
Recording history
After an unissued test made by Victor on April 4, 1924, Etting was signed to Columbia Records in February 1926. She remained at Columbia through June 1931, when she split her recording between ARC (Banner, Perfect, Romeo, Oriole, etc.) and Columbia through March 1933. She signed with Brunswick and remained there until May 1934, when she re-signed with Columbia through July 1935. After a solitary Brunswick session in March 1936, she signed with the British label Rex and recorded two sessions in August and September, 1936. Etting returned to the US and signed with Decca in December 1936 and recorded until April 1937, when she basically retired from recording.
Personal life
Etting saved some of her paycheck each week, regardless of the amount she was making at the time. Her friends said she invested in California real estate rather than the stock market. Etting, who made many of her own clothes, did her own housekeeping and lived frugally, initially announced her retirement in 1935. It is not clear why she did not go through with her announced plans, but she issued a second statement regarding retirement after filing for divorce from Snyder in November 1937.
Snyder's aggressive and controlling management style began to cause problems for Etting; during her work with Whoopee! on Broadway, Snyder was a constant presence. He was never without a gun and enjoyed poking people with it while saying "Put your hands up!" then laughing when their fright was evident. Snyder also persisted in cornering Ziegfeld because he believed Etting's role in the musical could be improved. Ziegfeld had a different opinion and indicated nothing would be changed. Snyder would then mumble that it was not a suggestion but a demand.
By 1934, she was having difficulty getting engagements. Snyder's arguing and fighting at venues where Etting was employed caused her to be passed by for jobs in the United States. In 1936, she thought taking work in England might be the answer, but Snyder created problems while she was working there also. Soon after the couple arrived in England, Snyder became involved in a street fight which created adverse publicity for Etting. She divorced Moe Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937. Snyder did not contest the divorce and received a settlement from his former wife. Etting gave her ex-husband half of her earnings at the time, $50,000, some securities and a half interest in a home in Beverly Hills, California. She deducted the gambling debts of Snyder she had paid and the costs she had paid for a home for Snyder's mother.
Threats and the shooting
Etting fell in love with her pianist, Myrl Alderman, who was separated from his wife. In January 1938, she began receiving threatening telephone calls from Snyder, who initially claimed Etting withheld assets from him when the divorce settlement was made. Though the couple was divorced, Snyder was also upset because of reports that she was seeing another man. Snyder told Etting that he would come to California and kill her. When Snyder telephoned and found Etting unavailable, he told his daughter Edith that he "would fix her ticket, too". He called again that evening; this time Etting took the call with her cousin, Arthur Etting, listening on an extension. Etting requested police protection after the telephone call and arranged for private protection. Apparently believing the danger was over when Snyder did not appear soon after his telephone call, Etting released her bodyguards a few days later.
On October 15, 1938, Snyder detained Myrl Alderman at a local radio station and forced the pianist to take him to his former wife at gunpoint. In the house at the time were Etting and Edith Snyder. Edith, Snyder's daughter by a previous marriage, worked for Etting and remained living with her after the divorce. Snyder held Etting and Alderman at gunpoint; when told his daughter was in another part of the house, he made Etting call her into the room. Snyder said he intended to kill all three, and told them to be quiet. When Myrl Alderman attempted to speak, Snyder shot him. Snyder then told his ex-wife, "I've had my revenge, so you can call the police."
Snyder claimed Myrl Alderman pulled a gun and shot at him first and that his ex-wife would not file charges against him because she still loved him. He also claimed he was drunk when he made the telephone threats to Etting in January 1938, saying that at the time his intentions were to kill both his ex-wife and himself. Ruth Etting said that the only gun in the home belonged to her, and after the shooting of Alderman, she was able to go into her bedroom and get it. Upon seeing Etting's gun, Moe Snyder wrested it away from her; it landed on the floor. Snyder's daughter, Edith, picked it up and held it on her father, shooting at him but hitting the floor instead. During a police reenactment of the shooting three days later, Edith Snyder said that she fired at her father to save Ruth Etting, weeping as she continued, "I don't yet know whether I am sorry I missed my Dad or whether I am glad". Snyder was accused of attempting to murder his ex-wife, his daughter, and Etting's accompanist, Myrl Alderman, the kidnapping of Alderman, as well as California state gun law violations.
Alienation of affections suit
Three days after the shooting of Myrl Alderman, the pianist's second wife, Alma, sued Etting for alienation of her husband's affections. Though Etting and Alderman claimed to have been married in Tijuana, Mexico in July 1938, Alma Alderman said any marriage was invalid, because her divorce from Myrl Alderman would not be final until December 1938. Police investigators could find no record of the couple's Mexican marriage. Etting publicly invited Alma Alderman to visit her husband in the hospital, in an effort to see if the couple could reconcile.
Ruth Etting testified that she was not married to Alderman. During the course of the trial, there was also a question of the validity of Alderman's marriage to Alma. Alderman's first wife, Helen, obtained an interlocutory decree on January 7, 1935; the divorce became final one year later. On January 9, 1935, Alderman married Alma in Mexico. The second Mrs. Alderman called Moe Snyder to the stand as a witness regarding an attraction between her husband and Etting. Helen Alderman Warne also appeared in court, claiming that Alma Alderman had spirited Myrl away from her. Warne added that she had married and divorced the pianist twice. Alma Alderman's lawsuit ended in December 1939, with the court finding that she was not entitled to damages from Ruth Etting.
Trial and aftermath
The testimony in both trials brought much personal information into the public eye. Snyder, who claimed to still be in love with his ex-wife, gave Etting a diamond and platinum bracelet which she accepted after Snyder's telephone threat in January 1938. Etting testified that she agreed with her ex-husband's statement to police that Snyder was either drunk or out of his mind when he threatened her by phone. Snyder's attorney initially tried to prevent Etting from testifying against Snyder with a charge that the divorce she obtained in Illinois was invalid because she was a resident of California at that time.
During the trial, Snyder's attorney portrayed Ruth Etting as a calculating woman who had married Moe Snyder strictly for the benefit of her career, and that she divorced him in favor of being with another, younger man (Alderman). Snyder's attorney echoed his client's claim of self-defense and said his client never intended to kill Etting, his daughter, and Myrl Alderman. The attorney further claimed that if Snyder intended to kill the pianist, he had ample time to do so while he held a gun on Alderman during the drive from the radio station to the home where the shooting took place.
Etting married Alderman, who was almost a decade her junior, on December 14, 1938 in Las Vegas, during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder. Snyder was convicted of attempted murder, but released on appeal after one year in jail. Snyder won a new trial but returned to jail in January 1940 in lieu of bail. In August 1940, Myrl Alderman asked the district attorney to drop further prosecution attempts against Snyder for the 1938 shooting.
Etting, who had retired from performing prior to the shooting and subsequent trials, briefly had a radio show on WHN in 1947. She also accepted an engagement at New York's Copacabana in March 1947. Etting traveled alone to New York and during a newspaper interview, was asked if she had ever seen Moe Snyder again. She replied, "No, I hope I never do." and said that her husband never went to bed without a gun.
Later life and death
The couple relocated to an eight-acre farm outside of Colorado Springs in 1938. Alderman, who was raised in Colorado Springs, operated a restaurant there for a time. Etting and Alderman remained married until his death in Denver on November 28, 1966; he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs. Etting died in Colorado Springs in 1978, aged 81. She was survived by a stepson, John Alderman, and four grandchildren. Alderman and Etting are now interred at the Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Legacy
Etting's life was the basis for the fictionalized film, Love Me or Leave Me (1955), which starred Doris Day (as Etting), James Cagney (as Snyder) and Cameron Mitchell (as Alderman). Etting, Myrl Alderman and Moe Snyder all sold their rights to the story to MGM; Snyder was living in Chicago in 1955. Etting expressed sadness that "the real highlight of my life", her marriage to Alderman, was omitted from the film. Shortly before her death, Etting said she thought the screen portrayal of her was too tough and that Jane Powell would have been a better choice for the lead.
Etting has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in films, located on the north side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard. Her recordings of Love Me Or Leave Me (2005) and Ten Cents a Dance (1999) are part of the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Hit records
Note: All of the above were Columbia releases.
The following four were non-Columbia releases:
(1932) "It Was So Beautiful" (U.S. chart position 13) Melotone Records
(1933) "Try a Little Tenderness" (U.S. chart position 16) Melotone Records
(1934) "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (U.S. chart position 15) Brunswick Records
(1937) "In the Chapel in the Moonlight" (U.S. chart position 20) Decca Records
Broadway
Ruth Etting's Broadway appearances are recorded at the Internet Broadway Database.
Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 – in which she introduced Irving Berlin's "Shaking The Blues Away"
Whoopee! (1928) – in which she introduced "Love Me or Leave Me"
Nine-Fifteen Revue (1929) – in which she introduced "Get Happy"
Simple Simon (1930) – in which she introduced "Ten Cents a Dance"
Ziegfeld Follies of 1931
Filmography
Short films
The Book of Lovers (1929)
Broadway's Like That (1930) - Ruth
Roseland (1930) - Helen Leslie
One Good Turn (1930) - Ruth Eton
Stage Struck (1931)
Old Lace (1931)
Words & Music (1931) - Ruth Eton
Radio Salutes (1931)
A Mail Bride (1932)
A Regular Trouper (1932) - Ruth Eton
Artistic Temper (1932) - Ruth Whitney / Ruth White
A Modern Cinderella (1932) - Anita Ragusa
Bye-Gones (1933) - Aunt Ruth
Along Came Ruth (1933) - Ruth Etting a.k.a. Ruth Eldridge
Crashing the Gate (1933)
Knee Deep in Music (1933)
California Weather (1933)
A Torch Tango (1934)
The Song of Fame (1934) - Ruth Eaton
Derby Decade (1934) - Della Delmar
Southern Style (1934)
No Contest! (1934) - Ruth
Bandits and Ballads (1934)
An Old Spanish Onion (1935)
Ticket or Leave It (1935)
Tuned Out (1935) - Ruth, the Dixie Song Bird
Alladin from Manhattan (1936)
Melody in May (1936) - herself
Sleepy Time (1936) - (final film role)
Feature films
Mr. Broadway (1933) - herself
Roman Scandals (1933, her breakthrough film, which starred Eddie Cantor and Gloria Stuart) - Olga
Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934) - herself
Gift of Gab (1934) - herself
Notes
References
Sources
External links
Ruth Etting at the Internet Archive 01
Ruth Etting at the Internet Archive 02
Ruth Etting recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
1897 births
1978 deaths
Actresses from Nebraska
American film actresses
American musical theatre actresses
Singers from Nebraska
People from David City, Nebraska
Torch singers
Vaudeville performers
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
Biograph Records artists | false | [
"Martin \"Moe\" Snyder (December 6, 1893 – November 9, 1981), commonly known as Moe the Gimp due to his lame left leg, was an American gangster from Chicago, active in the 1920s and 1930s.\n\nBiography\nSnyder was born and raised on Chicago's southwest side. He was five years of age when he injured his leg in an accident.\nSnyder left school after the fourth grade and sold papers as a newsboy. He later worked in newspaper circulation, and then moved to a job with the Metropolitan Sanitary District.\n\nSnyder had both political and entertainment world connections. He knew most of the nightclubs in Chicago and the people who performed there. He once served as a bodyguard for Al Jolson. His second wife was the singer and entertainer Ruth Etting, whom he married in 1922 and whose career he aggressively promoted. Snyder and Etting met when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. He divorced his first wife to marry Etting.\n\nIn 1927, the couple moved to New York City, where Etting landed a role in the Ziegfeld Follies. After a move to Los Angeles in the early 1930s, Etting was hired for some film roles, and The Chase and Sanborn Hour radio show with Jimmy Durante. Etting remained in Los Angeles for her radio work, while Snyder returned to Chicago.\n\nDivorce and shooting\n\nBy 1934, the aggressive and controlling management of Snyder began to create professional problems for Etting. She was not being considered for many jobs due to Snyder's arguments with those who employed her. Etting visited England for work in 1936, where Snyder managed to involve himself in a street fight soon after their arrival; this resulted in unfavorable publicity for Etting. Etting divorced Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937. Snyder did not contest the divorce; he received a settlement from Etting.\n\nIn January 1938, Snyder began making threatening telephone calls to Etting, at first claiming she concealed assets from him when the divorce settlement was made. Snyder was also upset that Etting was now seeing her accompanist, Myrl Alderman. Snyder told Etting he intended to come to California and kill her. Etting obtained both police and private protection, but apparently believed the danger was past when Snyder did not appear soon after his telephone threats; she dismissed her bodyguards.\n\nSnyder detained Myrl Alderman at a local radio station on October 15, 1938. He forced the pianist to drive him to his former wife at gunpoint. Etting and Edith Snyder, his daughter, were in the house when Snyder and Alderman arrived. When Snyder was told Edith was in another part of the house, he forced Etting to call her into the music room, where he held Etting and Alderman at gunpoint. Snyder told them to be quiet and that he intended to kill them all. When Myrl Alderman tried to speak, he was shot by Snyder, who then told Etting, \"I've had my revenge, so you can call the police.\"\n\nEtting, who said the only gun in the house was hers, was able to go into her bedroom for the gun after the shooting of Alderman. When Snyder saw Etting with the gun, he wrestled it away from her; it fell to the floor where Edith Snyder picked it up and started shooting at her father. Edith's shots did not hit her father, but went into the floor. Snyder's daughter said she shot at her father to save Ruth Etting.\n\nCharges and trial\n\nSnyder was charged with kidnapping Myrl Alderman and the attempted murder of Alderman, Etting, and his daughter, Edith, as well as California state gun violations. Snyder claimed that Myrl Alderman had a gun and shot at him first. He also said that Ruth Etting would not press charges against him because she was still in love with him. Snyder said he was drunk when he made the threatening calls to Etting and at that time, his intentions were to kill Etting and himself.\n\nDuring Snyder's trial for the attempted murder of Myrl Alderman, Etting and Alderman were married in Las Vegas. Snyder was found guilty and sentenced, but was released on appeal after a year in prison. In January 1940, he won a new trial, but was returned to jail in lieu of bail. In August 1940, Myrl Alderman asked the district attorney to drop further prosecution attempts against Snyder for the 1938 shooting.\n\nLater life\nSnyder returned to Chicago in 1940 and worked in the mail room at Chicago's City Hall. He was still living in Chicago and working in the City Clerk's office in 1972. In 1975, Snyder was interviewed for a Chicago Tribune article about the 1930s, where he claimed the stories about his mob connections were untrue. Snyder said he worked for a song publisher and that he knew various celebrities through that work.\n\nSnyder had at least one child from his first marriage, a daughter, Edith. After her father and Etting were divorced, she remained living with her. Edith died of a heart condition in 1939. It is believed Snyder died in Chicago in 1981.\n\nPortrayal in film\nAlong with Ruth Etting and Myrl Alderman, Snyder sold his rights to his story to MGM for the film Love Me or Leave Me (1955). James Cagney portrayed Snyder in the film, which was a fictionalized life story of Etting, who was played by Doris Day. Snyder was very dissatisfied with the way he was portrayed in the film.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nJewish American gangsters\nPeople from Chicago\nPlace of birth missing\nPlace of death missing\n1893 births\n1981 deaths\n20th-century American Jews",
"Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as \"America's sweetheart of song\", her signature tunes were \"Shine On, Harvest Moon\", \"Ten Cents a Dance\" and \"Love Me or Leave Me\".\n\nAs a young girl in Nebraska, Etting had wanted to become an artist; she drew and sketched all the time. At sixteen, her grandparents decided to send her to art school in Chicago. While Etting attended class, she found a job at the Marigold Gardens nightclub; after a short time there, Etting gave up art classes in favor of a career in show business. Etting, who enjoyed singing in school and church, never took voice lessons. She quickly became a featured vocalist at the club. Etting was then managed by Moe Snyder, whom she married in 1922. Snyder made arrangements for Etting's recording and film contracts as well as her personal and radio appearances. She became nationally known when she appeared in Flo Ziegfeld's Follies of 1927.\n\nEtting intended to retire from performing in 1935, but this did not happen until after her divorce from Snyder in 1937. Harry Myrl Alderman, Etting's pianist, was separated from his wife when he and Etting began a relationship. Snyder did not like seeing his former wife in the company of other men and began making telephone threats to Etting in January 1938. By October, Snyder traveled to Los Angeles and detained Alderman after he left a local radio station; he forced the pianist to take him to the home of his ex-wife at gunpoint. Saying he intended to kill Etting, Alderman, and his own daughter, Edith, who worked for Etting, Snyder shot Alderman. Three days after Alderman was shot, his wife filed suit against Etting for alienation of affections.\n\nWhile Alderman and Etting claimed to have been married in Mexico in July 1938, Alderman's divorce would not be final until December of that year. The couple married during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder in December 1938. Etting and Alderman relocated to a farm outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they were out of the spotlight for most of their lives. Her fictionalized story was told in the musical film Love Me Or Leave Me (1955) with Doris Day as Ruth Etting and James Cagney as Snyder.\n\nBiography\n\nEtting was born on November 23, 1896, in David City, Nebraska, to Alfred Etting, a banker, and Winifred (née Kleinhan). Her mother died when she was five years old and she then lived with her paternal grandparents, George and Hannah Etting. Her father remarried and moved away from David City and was no longer a part of his daughter's life. Etting's grandfather, George, owned the Etting Roller Mills; to the delight of his granddaughter, George Etting allowed traveling circuses and shows to use the lot behind the mills for performances.\n\nEtting was interested in drawing at an early age; she drew and sketched anywhere she was able. Her grandparents were asked to buy the textbooks she had used at the end of a school term because Etting had filled them with her drawings. She left David City at the age of sixteen to attend art school in Chicago. Etting gained a job designing costumes at the Marigold Gardens nightclub, which led to employment singing and dancing in the chorus. She gave up art school soon after beginning to work at Marigold Gardens. Before turning exclusively to performing, Etting worked as a designer for the owner of a costume shop in Chicago's Loop; she was successful enough to earn a partnership in the shop through her work.\n\nWhile she enjoyed singing at school and in church, Etting never took voice lessons. She said that she had patterned her song styling after Marion Harris, but created her own unique style by alternating tempos and by varying some notes and phrases. Describing herself as a \"high, squeaky soprano\" during her days in David City, Etting developed a lower range singing voice after her arrival in Chicago which led to her success. Her big moment came when a featured vocalist suddenly became ill and was unable to perform. With no other replacement available, Etting was asked to fill in. She quickly changed into the costume and scanned the music arrangements; the performer was male, so Etting tried to adjust by singing in a lower register. She became a featured vocalist at the nightclub.\n\nEtting described herself as a young, naive girl when she arrived in Chicago. Due to her inexperience in the ways of the big city, she became reliant on Snyder after their meeting. Etting met gangster Martin \"Moe the Gimp\" Snyder in 1922, when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. Snyder, who divorced his first wife to marry Etting, was well-acquainted with Chicago's nightclubs and the entertainers who worked in them; he once served as a bodyguard to Al Jolson. Snyder also used his political connections to gain bookings for Etting, who was called \"Miss City Hall\" because of Snyder's influence in Chicago. Etting married Snyder on July 17, 1922 in Crown Point, Indiana. She later said she married him \"nine-tenths out of fear and one-tenth out of pity.\" Etting later told her friends, \"If I leave him, he'll kill me.\" He managed her career, booking radio appearances and eventually had her signed to an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Records.\n\nStage, screen and radio\n\nThe couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. Irving Berlin had recommended her to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Etting nervously prepared to sing for Ziegfeld at the audition. However, he did not ask her to sing at all; only to walk up and down the room. She was hired on that basis because Ziegfeld did not hire women with big ankles. While the original plan for the show was for Etting to do a tap dance after singing \"Shaking the Blues Away\", she later remembered she was not a very good dancer. At the show's final rehearsal, Flo Ziegfeld told her: \"Ruth, when you get through singing, just walk off the stage\". Etting also appeared in Ziegfeld's last \"Follies\" in 1931.\n\nShe went on to appear in other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld's Simple Simon and Whoopee!. Etting was not originally signed to perform in Simple Simon; she became part of the cast at the last minute when vocalist Lee Morse was too intoxicated to perform. Ziegfeld asked Etting to replace Morse; she hurried to Boston, where the show was being tried out prior to Broadway. When Etting arrived, songwriters Rodgers and Hart discovered that the song \"Ten Cents a Dance\" was not written for Etting's voice range. The three spent the night rewriting the song so Etting could perform it.\n\nToward the end of Simple Simons Broadway run, Etting persuaded Ziegfeld to add \"Love Me Or Leave Me\" to the show though the song was originally written for Whoopee!. She had recorded the song in 1928, but Etting's new version of it was impressive enough to earn her a Vitaphone contract to make film shorts.\n\nIn Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. She described the short films as either having a simple plot to allow for her to sing two songs or with no plot at all. The idea was to have Etting sing at least two songs in the film. While she received a marquee billing for Roman Scandals, Etting had only two lines in the film and sang just one song. Etting believed she might have had more success in full-length films if she had been given some acting lessons. Her perception was that the studios viewed her only as a vocalist. She later recalled: \"I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song\". In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm. Etting quit the show because she and the other performers had not been paid.\n\nEtting was first heard on radio station WLS while she was living in Chicago. Her appearance drew so much fan mail the station signed her to a year's contract for twice weekly performances. On CBS, she broadcast twice weekly in a 15 minute radio show in the 1930s. By 1934, she was on NBC with sports announcer Ted Husing and sponsorship of the program from Oldsmobile .\n\nRecording history\nAfter an unissued test made by Victor on April 4, 1924, Etting was signed to Columbia Records in February 1926. She remained at Columbia through June 1931, when she split her recording between ARC (Banner, Perfect, Romeo, Oriole, etc.) and Columbia through March 1933. She signed with Brunswick and remained there until May 1934, when she re-signed with Columbia through July 1935. After a solitary Brunswick session in March 1936, she signed with the British label Rex and recorded two sessions in August and September, 1936. Etting returned to the US and signed with Decca in December 1936 and recorded until April 1937, when she basically retired from recording.\n\nPersonal life\n\nEtting saved some of her paycheck each week, regardless of the amount she was making at the time. Her friends said she invested in California real estate rather than the stock market. Etting, who made many of her own clothes, did her own housekeeping and lived frugally, initially announced her retirement in 1935. It is not clear why she did not go through with her announced plans, but she issued a second statement regarding retirement after filing for divorce from Snyder in November 1937.\n\nSnyder's aggressive and controlling management style began to cause problems for Etting; during her work with Whoopee! on Broadway, Snyder was a constant presence. He was never without a gun and enjoyed poking people with it while saying \"Put your hands up!\" then laughing when their fright was evident. Snyder also persisted in cornering Ziegfeld because he believed Etting's role in the musical could be improved. Ziegfeld had a different opinion and indicated nothing would be changed. Snyder would then mumble that it was not a suggestion but a demand.\n\nBy 1934, she was having difficulty getting engagements. Snyder's arguing and fighting at venues where Etting was employed caused her to be passed by for jobs in the United States. In 1936, she thought taking work in England might be the answer, but Snyder created problems while she was working there also. Soon after the couple arrived in England, Snyder became involved in a street fight which created adverse publicity for Etting. She divorced Moe Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937. Snyder did not contest the divorce and received a settlement from his former wife. Etting gave her ex-husband half of her earnings at the time, $50,000, some securities and a half interest in a home in Beverly Hills, California. She deducted the gambling debts of Snyder she had paid and the costs she had paid for a home for Snyder's mother.\n\nThreats and the shooting\nEtting fell in love with her pianist, Myrl Alderman, who was separated from his wife. In January 1938, she began receiving threatening telephone calls from Snyder, who initially claimed Etting withheld assets from him when the divorce settlement was made. Though the couple was divorced, Snyder was also upset because of reports that she was seeing another man. Snyder told Etting that he would come to California and kill her. When Snyder telephoned and found Etting unavailable, he told his daughter Edith that he \"would fix her ticket, too\". He called again that evening; this time Etting took the call with her cousin, Arthur Etting, listening on an extension. Etting requested police protection after the telephone call and arranged for private protection. Apparently believing the danger was over when Snyder did not appear soon after his telephone call, Etting released her bodyguards a few days later.\n\nOn October 15, 1938, Snyder detained Myrl Alderman at a local radio station and forced the pianist to take him to his former wife at gunpoint. In the house at the time were Etting and Edith Snyder. Edith, Snyder's daughter by a previous marriage, worked for Etting and remained living with her after the divorce. Snyder held Etting and Alderman at gunpoint; when told his daughter was in another part of the house, he made Etting call her into the room. Snyder said he intended to kill all three, and told them to be quiet. When Myrl Alderman attempted to speak, Snyder shot him. Snyder then told his ex-wife, \"I've had my revenge, so you can call the police.\"\n\nSnyder claimed Myrl Alderman pulled a gun and shot at him first and that his ex-wife would not file charges against him because she still loved him. He also claimed he was drunk when he made the telephone threats to Etting in January 1938, saying that at the time his intentions were to kill both his ex-wife and himself. Ruth Etting said that the only gun in the home belonged to her, and after the shooting of Alderman, she was able to go into her bedroom and get it. Upon seeing Etting's gun, Moe Snyder wrested it away from her; it landed on the floor. Snyder's daughter, Edith, picked it up and held it on her father, shooting at him but hitting the floor instead. During a police reenactment of the shooting three days later, Edith Snyder said that she fired at her father to save Ruth Etting, weeping as she continued, \"I don't yet know whether I am sorry I missed my Dad or whether I am glad\". Snyder was accused of attempting to murder his ex-wife, his daughter, and Etting's accompanist, Myrl Alderman, the kidnapping of Alderman, as well as California state gun law violations.\n\nAlienation of affections suit\nThree days after the shooting of Myrl Alderman, the pianist's second wife, Alma, sued Etting for alienation of her husband's affections. Though Etting and Alderman claimed to have been married in Tijuana, Mexico in July 1938, Alma Alderman said any marriage was invalid, because her divorce from Myrl Alderman would not be final until December 1938. Police investigators could find no record of the couple's Mexican marriage. Etting publicly invited Alma Alderman to visit her husband in the hospital, in an effort to see if the couple could reconcile.\n\nRuth Etting testified that she was not married to Alderman. During the course of the trial, there was also a question of the validity of Alderman's marriage to Alma. Alderman's first wife, Helen, obtained an interlocutory decree on January 7, 1935; the divorce became final one year later. On January 9, 1935, Alderman married Alma in Mexico. The second Mrs. Alderman called Moe Snyder to the stand as a witness regarding an attraction between her husband and Etting. Helen Alderman Warne also appeared in court, claiming that Alma Alderman had spirited Myrl away from her. Warne added that she had married and divorced the pianist twice. Alma Alderman's lawsuit ended in December 1939, with the court finding that she was not entitled to damages from Ruth Etting.\n\nTrial and aftermath\nThe testimony in both trials brought much personal information into the public eye. Snyder, who claimed to still be in love with his ex-wife, gave Etting a diamond and platinum bracelet which she accepted after Snyder's telephone threat in January 1938. Etting testified that she agreed with her ex-husband's statement to police that Snyder was either drunk or out of his mind when he threatened her by phone. Snyder's attorney initially tried to prevent Etting from testifying against Snyder with a charge that the divorce she obtained in Illinois was invalid because she was a resident of California at that time.\n\nDuring the trial, Snyder's attorney portrayed Ruth Etting as a calculating woman who had married Moe Snyder strictly for the benefit of her career, and that she divorced him in favor of being with another, younger man (Alderman). Snyder's attorney echoed his client's claim of self-defense and said his client never intended to kill Etting, his daughter, and Myrl Alderman. The attorney further claimed that if Snyder intended to kill the pianist, he had ample time to do so while he held a gun on Alderman during the drive from the radio station to the home where the shooting took place.\n\nEtting married Alderman, who was almost a decade her junior, on December 14, 1938 in Las Vegas, during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder. Snyder was convicted of attempted murder, but released on appeal after one year in jail. Snyder won a new trial but returned to jail in January 1940 in lieu of bail. In August 1940, Myrl Alderman asked the district attorney to drop further prosecution attempts against Snyder for the 1938 shooting.\n\nEtting, who had retired from performing prior to the shooting and subsequent trials, briefly had a radio show on WHN in 1947. She also accepted an engagement at New York's Copacabana in March 1947. Etting traveled alone to New York and during a newspaper interview, was asked if she had ever seen Moe Snyder again. She replied, \"No, I hope I never do.\" and said that her husband never went to bed without a gun.\n\nLater life and death\nThe couple relocated to an eight-acre farm outside of Colorado Springs in 1938. Alderman, who was raised in Colorado Springs, operated a restaurant there for a time. Etting and Alderman remained married until his death in Denver on November 28, 1966; he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs. Etting died in Colorado Springs in 1978, aged 81. She was survived by a stepson, John Alderman, and four grandchildren. Alderman and Etting are now interred at the Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.\n\nLegacy\nEtting's life was the basis for the fictionalized film, Love Me or Leave Me (1955), which starred Doris Day (as Etting), James Cagney (as Snyder) and Cameron Mitchell (as Alderman). Etting, Myrl Alderman and Moe Snyder all sold their rights to the story to MGM; Snyder was living in Chicago in 1955. Etting expressed sadness that \"the real highlight of my life\", her marriage to Alderman, was omitted from the film. Shortly before her death, Etting said she thought the screen portrayal of her was too tough and that Jane Powell would have been a better choice for the lead.\n\nEtting has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in films, located on the north side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard. Her recordings of Love Me Or Leave Me (2005) and Ten Cents a Dance (1999) are part of the Grammy Hall of Fame.\n\nHit records\n\nNote: All of the above were Columbia releases.\nThe following four were non-Columbia releases:\n(1932) \"It Was So Beautiful\" (U.S. chart position 13) Melotone Records\n(1933) \"Try a Little Tenderness\" (U.S. chart position 16) Melotone Records\n(1934) \"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes\" (U.S. chart position 15) Brunswick Records\n(1937) \"In the Chapel in the Moonlight\" (U.S. chart position 20) Decca Records\n\nBroadway\nRuth Etting's Broadway appearances are recorded at the Internet Broadway Database.\n Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 – in which she introduced Irving Berlin's \"Shaking The Blues Away\"\n Whoopee! (1928) – in which she introduced \"Love Me or Leave Me\"\n Nine-Fifteen Revue (1929) – in which she introduced \"Get Happy\"\n Simple Simon (1930) – in which she introduced \"Ten Cents a Dance\"\n Ziegfeld Follies of 1931\n\nFilmography\n\nShort films\n\n The Book of Lovers (1929)\n Broadway's Like That (1930) - Ruth\n Roseland (1930) - Helen Leslie\n One Good Turn (1930) - Ruth Eton\n Stage Struck (1931)\n Old Lace (1931)\n Words & Music (1931) - Ruth Eton\n Radio Salutes (1931)\n A Mail Bride (1932)\n A Regular Trouper (1932) - Ruth Eton\n Artistic Temper (1932) - Ruth Whitney / Ruth White\n A Modern Cinderella (1932) - Anita Ragusa\n Bye-Gones (1933) - Aunt Ruth\n Along Came Ruth (1933) - Ruth Etting a.k.a. Ruth Eldridge\n\n Crashing the Gate (1933)\n Knee Deep in Music (1933)\n California Weather (1933)\n A Torch Tango (1934)\n The Song of Fame (1934) - Ruth Eaton\n Derby Decade (1934) - Della Delmar\n Southern Style (1934)\nNo Contest! (1934) - Ruth\n Bandits and Ballads (1934)\n An Old Spanish Onion (1935)\n Ticket or Leave It (1935)\n Tuned Out (1935) - Ruth, the Dixie Song Bird\n Alladin from Manhattan (1936)\n Melody in May (1936) - herself\n Sleepy Time (1936) - (final film role)\n\nFeature films\n Mr. Broadway (1933) - herself\n Roman Scandals (1933, her breakthrough film, which starred Eddie Cantor and Gloria Stuart) - Olga\n Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934) - herself\n Gift of Gab (1934) - herself\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\nExternal links\n\nRuth Etting at the Internet Archive 01\nRuth Etting at the Internet Archive 02\n\n Ruth Etting recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.\n\n1897 births\n1978 deaths\nActresses from Nebraska\nAmerican film actresses\nAmerican musical theatre actresses\nSingers from Nebraska\nPeople from David City, Nebraska\nTorch singers\nVaudeville performers\n20th-century American actresses\n20th-century American singers\n20th-century American women singers\nBiograph Records artists"
]
|
[
"Ruth Etting",
"Stage, screen and radio",
"Where was Etting born?",
"I don't know.",
"Who did Etting live with when her mother died?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_e87bf039373e40e08c9070a42f1dccf9_0 | What was Etting interested in at an early age? | 3 | What was Ruth Etting interested in at an early age? | Ruth Etting | The couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. Irving Berlin had recommended her to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Etting nervously prepared to sing for Ziegfeld at the audition. However, he did not ask her to sing at all; only to walk up and down the room. She was hired on that basis because Ziegfeld did not hire women with big ankles. While the original plan for the show was for Etting to do a tap dance after singing "Shaking the Blues Away", she later remembered she was not a very good dancer. At the show's final rehearsal, Flo Ziegfeld told her, "Ruth, when you get through singing, just walk off the stage". Etting also appeared in Ziegfeld's last "Follies" in 1931. She went on to appear in a number of other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld's Simple Simon and Whoopee!. Etting was not originally signed to perform in Simple Simon; she became part of the cast at the last minute when vocalist Lee Morse was too intoxicated to perform. Ziegfeld asked Etting to replace Morse; she hurried to Boston, where the show was being tried out prior to Broadway. When Etting arrived, songwriters Rodgers and Hart discovered that the song "Ten Cents a Dance" was not written for Etting's voice range. The three spent the night rewriting the song so Etting could perform it. Toward the end of Simple Simon's Broadway run, Etting persuaded Ziegfeld to add "Love Me Or Leave Me" to the show though the song was originally written for Whoopee!. She had recorded the song in 1928, but Etting's new version of it was impressive enough to earn her a Vitaphone contract to make film shorts. In Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. She described the short films as either having a simple plot to allow for her to sing two songs or with no plot at all. The idea was to have Etting sing at least two songs in the film. While she received a marquee billing for Roman Scandals, Etting had only two lines in the film and sang just one song. Etting believed she might have had more success in full-length films if she had been given some acting lessons. Her perception was that the studios viewed her only as a vocalist. She later recalled, "I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song". In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm. Etting quit the show because she and the other performers had not been paid. Etting was first heard on radio station WLS when she was living in Chicago. Her appearance drew so much fan mail, the station signed her to a year's contract for twice weekly performances. She had her own twice weekly 15 minute radio show on CBS in the 1930s. By 1934, she was on NBC with sports announcer Ted Husing doing the announcing and Oldsmobile sponsoring her program. CANNOTANSWER | "I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song". | Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as "America's sweetheart of song", her signature tunes were "Shine On, Harvest Moon", "Ten Cents a Dance" and "Love Me or Leave Me".
As a young girl in Nebraska, Etting had wanted to become an artist; she drew and sketched all the time. At sixteen, her grandparents decided to send her to art school in Chicago. While Etting attended class, she found a job at the Marigold Gardens nightclub; after a short time there, Etting gave up art classes in favor of a career in show business. Etting, who enjoyed singing in school and church, never took voice lessons. She quickly became a featured vocalist at the club. Etting was then managed by Moe Snyder, whom she married in 1922. Snyder made arrangements for Etting's recording and film contracts as well as her personal and radio appearances. She became nationally known when she appeared in Flo Ziegfeld's Follies of 1927.
Etting intended to retire from performing in 1935, but this did not happen until after her divorce from Snyder in 1937. Harry Myrl Alderman, Etting's pianist, was separated from his wife when he and Etting began a relationship. Snyder did not like seeing his former wife in the company of other men and began making telephone threats to Etting in January 1938. By October, Snyder traveled to Los Angeles and detained Alderman after he left a local radio station; he forced the pianist to take him to the home of his ex-wife at gunpoint. Saying he intended to kill Etting, Alderman, and his own daughter, Edith, who worked for Etting, Snyder shot Alderman. Three days after Alderman was shot, his wife filed suit against Etting for alienation of affections.
While Alderman and Etting claimed to have been married in Mexico in July 1938, Alderman's divorce would not be final until December of that year. The couple married during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder in December 1938. Etting and Alderman relocated to a farm outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they were out of the spotlight for most of their lives. Her fictionalized story was told in the musical film Love Me Or Leave Me (1955) with Doris Day as Ruth Etting and James Cagney as Snyder.
Biography
Etting was born on November 23, 1896, in David City, Nebraska, to Alfred Etting, a banker, and Winifred (née Kleinhan). Her mother died when she was five years old and she then lived with her paternal grandparents, George and Hannah Etting. Her father remarried and moved away from David City and was no longer a part of his daughter's life. Etting's grandfather, George, owned the Etting Roller Mills; to the delight of his granddaughter, George Etting allowed traveling circuses and shows to use the lot behind the mills for performances.
Etting was interested in drawing at an early age; she drew and sketched anywhere she was able. Her grandparents were asked to buy the textbooks she had used at the end of a school term because Etting had filled them with her drawings. She left David City at the age of sixteen to attend art school in Chicago. Etting gained a job designing costumes at the Marigold Gardens nightclub, which led to employment singing and dancing in the chorus. She gave up art school soon after beginning to work at Marigold Gardens. Before turning exclusively to performing, Etting worked as a designer for the owner of a costume shop in Chicago's Loop; she was successful enough to earn a partnership in the shop through her work.
While she enjoyed singing at school and in church, Etting never took voice lessons. She said that she had patterned her song styling after Marion Harris, but created her own unique style by alternating tempos and by varying some notes and phrases. Describing herself as a "high, squeaky soprano" during her days in David City, Etting developed a lower range singing voice after her arrival in Chicago which led to her success. Her big moment came when a featured vocalist suddenly became ill and was unable to perform. With no other replacement available, Etting was asked to fill in. She quickly changed into the costume and scanned the music arrangements; the performer was male, so Etting tried to adjust by singing in a lower register. She became a featured vocalist at the nightclub.
Etting described herself as a young, naive girl when she arrived in Chicago. Due to her inexperience in the ways of the big city, she became reliant on Snyder after their meeting. Etting met gangster Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder in 1922, when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. Snyder, who divorced his first wife to marry Etting, was well-acquainted with Chicago's nightclubs and the entertainers who worked in them; he once served as a bodyguard to Al Jolson. Snyder also used his political connections to gain bookings for Etting, who was called "Miss City Hall" because of Snyder's influence in Chicago. Etting married Snyder on July 17, 1922 in Crown Point, Indiana. She later said she married him "nine-tenths out of fear and one-tenth out of pity." Etting later told her friends, "If I leave him, he'll kill me." He managed her career, booking radio appearances and eventually had her signed to an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Records.
Stage, screen and radio
The couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. Irving Berlin had recommended her to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Etting nervously prepared to sing for Ziegfeld at the audition. However, he did not ask her to sing at all; only to walk up and down the room. She was hired on that basis because Ziegfeld did not hire women with big ankles. While the original plan for the show was for Etting to do a tap dance after singing "Shaking the Blues Away", she later remembered she was not a very good dancer. At the show's final rehearsal, Flo Ziegfeld told her: "Ruth, when you get through singing, just walk off the stage". Etting also appeared in Ziegfeld's last "Follies" in 1931.
She went on to appear in other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld's Simple Simon and Whoopee!. Etting was not originally signed to perform in Simple Simon; she became part of the cast at the last minute when vocalist Lee Morse was too intoxicated to perform. Ziegfeld asked Etting to replace Morse; she hurried to Boston, where the show was being tried out prior to Broadway. When Etting arrived, songwriters Rodgers and Hart discovered that the song "Ten Cents a Dance" was not written for Etting's voice range. The three spent the night rewriting the song so Etting could perform it.
Toward the end of Simple Simons Broadway run, Etting persuaded Ziegfeld to add "Love Me Or Leave Me" to the show though the song was originally written for Whoopee!. She had recorded the song in 1928, but Etting's new version of it was impressive enough to earn her a Vitaphone contract to make film shorts.
In Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. She described the short films as either having a simple plot to allow for her to sing two songs or with no plot at all. The idea was to have Etting sing at least two songs in the film. While she received a marquee billing for Roman Scandals, Etting had only two lines in the film and sang just one song. Etting believed she might have had more success in full-length films if she had been given some acting lessons. Her perception was that the studios viewed her only as a vocalist. She later recalled: "I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song". In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm. Etting quit the show because she and the other performers had not been paid.
Etting was first heard on radio station WLS while she was living in Chicago. Her appearance drew so much fan mail the station signed her to a year's contract for twice weekly performances. On CBS, she broadcast twice weekly in a 15 minute radio show in the 1930s. By 1934, she was on NBC with sports announcer Ted Husing and sponsorship of the program from Oldsmobile .
Recording history
After an unissued test made by Victor on April 4, 1924, Etting was signed to Columbia Records in February 1926. She remained at Columbia through June 1931, when she split her recording between ARC (Banner, Perfect, Romeo, Oriole, etc.) and Columbia through March 1933. She signed with Brunswick and remained there until May 1934, when she re-signed with Columbia through July 1935. After a solitary Brunswick session in March 1936, she signed with the British label Rex and recorded two sessions in August and September, 1936. Etting returned to the US and signed with Decca in December 1936 and recorded until April 1937, when she basically retired from recording.
Personal life
Etting saved some of her paycheck each week, regardless of the amount she was making at the time. Her friends said she invested in California real estate rather than the stock market. Etting, who made many of her own clothes, did her own housekeeping and lived frugally, initially announced her retirement in 1935. It is not clear why she did not go through with her announced plans, but she issued a second statement regarding retirement after filing for divorce from Snyder in November 1937.
Snyder's aggressive and controlling management style began to cause problems for Etting; during her work with Whoopee! on Broadway, Snyder was a constant presence. He was never without a gun and enjoyed poking people with it while saying "Put your hands up!" then laughing when their fright was evident. Snyder also persisted in cornering Ziegfeld because he believed Etting's role in the musical could be improved. Ziegfeld had a different opinion and indicated nothing would be changed. Snyder would then mumble that it was not a suggestion but a demand.
By 1934, she was having difficulty getting engagements. Snyder's arguing and fighting at venues where Etting was employed caused her to be passed by for jobs in the United States. In 1936, she thought taking work in England might be the answer, but Snyder created problems while she was working there also. Soon after the couple arrived in England, Snyder became involved in a street fight which created adverse publicity for Etting. She divorced Moe Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937. Snyder did not contest the divorce and received a settlement from his former wife. Etting gave her ex-husband half of her earnings at the time, $50,000, some securities and a half interest in a home in Beverly Hills, California. She deducted the gambling debts of Snyder she had paid and the costs she had paid for a home for Snyder's mother.
Threats and the shooting
Etting fell in love with her pianist, Myrl Alderman, who was separated from his wife. In January 1938, she began receiving threatening telephone calls from Snyder, who initially claimed Etting withheld assets from him when the divorce settlement was made. Though the couple was divorced, Snyder was also upset because of reports that she was seeing another man. Snyder told Etting that he would come to California and kill her. When Snyder telephoned and found Etting unavailable, he told his daughter Edith that he "would fix her ticket, too". He called again that evening; this time Etting took the call with her cousin, Arthur Etting, listening on an extension. Etting requested police protection after the telephone call and arranged for private protection. Apparently believing the danger was over when Snyder did not appear soon after his telephone call, Etting released her bodyguards a few days later.
On October 15, 1938, Snyder detained Myrl Alderman at a local radio station and forced the pianist to take him to his former wife at gunpoint. In the house at the time were Etting and Edith Snyder. Edith, Snyder's daughter by a previous marriage, worked for Etting and remained living with her after the divorce. Snyder held Etting and Alderman at gunpoint; when told his daughter was in another part of the house, he made Etting call her into the room. Snyder said he intended to kill all three, and told them to be quiet. When Myrl Alderman attempted to speak, Snyder shot him. Snyder then told his ex-wife, "I've had my revenge, so you can call the police."
Snyder claimed Myrl Alderman pulled a gun and shot at him first and that his ex-wife would not file charges against him because she still loved him. He also claimed he was drunk when he made the telephone threats to Etting in January 1938, saying that at the time his intentions were to kill both his ex-wife and himself. Ruth Etting said that the only gun in the home belonged to her, and after the shooting of Alderman, she was able to go into her bedroom and get it. Upon seeing Etting's gun, Moe Snyder wrested it away from her; it landed on the floor. Snyder's daughter, Edith, picked it up and held it on her father, shooting at him but hitting the floor instead. During a police reenactment of the shooting three days later, Edith Snyder said that she fired at her father to save Ruth Etting, weeping as she continued, "I don't yet know whether I am sorry I missed my Dad or whether I am glad". Snyder was accused of attempting to murder his ex-wife, his daughter, and Etting's accompanist, Myrl Alderman, the kidnapping of Alderman, as well as California state gun law violations.
Alienation of affections suit
Three days after the shooting of Myrl Alderman, the pianist's second wife, Alma, sued Etting for alienation of her husband's affections. Though Etting and Alderman claimed to have been married in Tijuana, Mexico in July 1938, Alma Alderman said any marriage was invalid, because her divorce from Myrl Alderman would not be final until December 1938. Police investigators could find no record of the couple's Mexican marriage. Etting publicly invited Alma Alderman to visit her husband in the hospital, in an effort to see if the couple could reconcile.
Ruth Etting testified that she was not married to Alderman. During the course of the trial, there was also a question of the validity of Alderman's marriage to Alma. Alderman's first wife, Helen, obtained an interlocutory decree on January 7, 1935; the divorce became final one year later. On January 9, 1935, Alderman married Alma in Mexico. The second Mrs. Alderman called Moe Snyder to the stand as a witness regarding an attraction between her husband and Etting. Helen Alderman Warne also appeared in court, claiming that Alma Alderman had spirited Myrl away from her. Warne added that she had married and divorced the pianist twice. Alma Alderman's lawsuit ended in December 1939, with the court finding that she was not entitled to damages from Ruth Etting.
Trial and aftermath
The testimony in both trials brought much personal information into the public eye. Snyder, who claimed to still be in love with his ex-wife, gave Etting a diamond and platinum bracelet which she accepted after Snyder's telephone threat in January 1938. Etting testified that she agreed with her ex-husband's statement to police that Snyder was either drunk or out of his mind when he threatened her by phone. Snyder's attorney initially tried to prevent Etting from testifying against Snyder with a charge that the divorce she obtained in Illinois was invalid because she was a resident of California at that time.
During the trial, Snyder's attorney portrayed Ruth Etting as a calculating woman who had married Moe Snyder strictly for the benefit of her career, and that she divorced him in favor of being with another, younger man (Alderman). Snyder's attorney echoed his client's claim of self-defense and said his client never intended to kill Etting, his daughter, and Myrl Alderman. The attorney further claimed that if Snyder intended to kill the pianist, he had ample time to do so while he held a gun on Alderman during the drive from the radio station to the home where the shooting took place.
Etting married Alderman, who was almost a decade her junior, on December 14, 1938 in Las Vegas, during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder. Snyder was convicted of attempted murder, but released on appeal after one year in jail. Snyder won a new trial but returned to jail in January 1940 in lieu of bail. In August 1940, Myrl Alderman asked the district attorney to drop further prosecution attempts against Snyder for the 1938 shooting.
Etting, who had retired from performing prior to the shooting and subsequent trials, briefly had a radio show on WHN in 1947. She also accepted an engagement at New York's Copacabana in March 1947. Etting traveled alone to New York and during a newspaper interview, was asked if she had ever seen Moe Snyder again. She replied, "No, I hope I never do." and said that her husband never went to bed without a gun.
Later life and death
The couple relocated to an eight-acre farm outside of Colorado Springs in 1938. Alderman, who was raised in Colorado Springs, operated a restaurant there for a time. Etting and Alderman remained married until his death in Denver on November 28, 1966; he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs. Etting died in Colorado Springs in 1978, aged 81. She was survived by a stepson, John Alderman, and four grandchildren. Alderman and Etting are now interred at the Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Legacy
Etting's life was the basis for the fictionalized film, Love Me or Leave Me (1955), which starred Doris Day (as Etting), James Cagney (as Snyder) and Cameron Mitchell (as Alderman). Etting, Myrl Alderman and Moe Snyder all sold their rights to the story to MGM; Snyder was living in Chicago in 1955. Etting expressed sadness that "the real highlight of my life", her marriage to Alderman, was omitted from the film. Shortly before her death, Etting said she thought the screen portrayal of her was too tough and that Jane Powell would have been a better choice for the lead.
Etting has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in films, located on the north side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard. Her recordings of Love Me Or Leave Me (2005) and Ten Cents a Dance (1999) are part of the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Hit records
Note: All of the above were Columbia releases.
The following four were non-Columbia releases:
(1932) "It Was So Beautiful" (U.S. chart position 13) Melotone Records
(1933) "Try a Little Tenderness" (U.S. chart position 16) Melotone Records
(1934) "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (U.S. chart position 15) Brunswick Records
(1937) "In the Chapel in the Moonlight" (U.S. chart position 20) Decca Records
Broadway
Ruth Etting's Broadway appearances are recorded at the Internet Broadway Database.
Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 – in which she introduced Irving Berlin's "Shaking The Blues Away"
Whoopee! (1928) – in which she introduced "Love Me or Leave Me"
Nine-Fifteen Revue (1929) – in which she introduced "Get Happy"
Simple Simon (1930) – in which she introduced "Ten Cents a Dance"
Ziegfeld Follies of 1931
Filmography
Short films
The Book of Lovers (1929)
Broadway's Like That (1930) - Ruth
Roseland (1930) - Helen Leslie
One Good Turn (1930) - Ruth Eton
Stage Struck (1931)
Old Lace (1931)
Words & Music (1931) - Ruth Eton
Radio Salutes (1931)
A Mail Bride (1932)
A Regular Trouper (1932) - Ruth Eton
Artistic Temper (1932) - Ruth Whitney / Ruth White
A Modern Cinderella (1932) - Anita Ragusa
Bye-Gones (1933) - Aunt Ruth
Along Came Ruth (1933) - Ruth Etting a.k.a. Ruth Eldridge
Crashing the Gate (1933)
Knee Deep in Music (1933)
California Weather (1933)
A Torch Tango (1934)
The Song of Fame (1934) - Ruth Eaton
Derby Decade (1934) - Della Delmar
Southern Style (1934)
No Contest! (1934) - Ruth
Bandits and Ballads (1934)
An Old Spanish Onion (1935)
Ticket or Leave It (1935)
Tuned Out (1935) - Ruth, the Dixie Song Bird
Alladin from Manhattan (1936)
Melody in May (1936) - herself
Sleepy Time (1936) - (final film role)
Feature films
Mr. Broadway (1933) - herself
Roman Scandals (1933, her breakthrough film, which starred Eddie Cantor and Gloria Stuart) - Olga
Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934) - herself
Gift of Gab (1934) - herself
Notes
References
Sources
External links
Ruth Etting at the Internet Archive 01
Ruth Etting at the Internet Archive 02
Ruth Etting recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
1897 births
1978 deaths
Actresses from Nebraska
American film actresses
American musical theatre actresses
Singers from Nebraska
People from David City, Nebraska
Torch singers
Vaudeville performers
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
Biograph Records artists | true | [
"Martin \"Moe\" Snyder (December 6, 1893 – November 9, 1981), commonly known as Moe the Gimp due to his lame left leg, was an American gangster from Chicago, active in the 1920s and 1930s.\n\nBiography\nSnyder was born and raised on Chicago's southwest side. He was five years of age when he injured his leg in an accident.\nSnyder left school after the fourth grade and sold papers as a newsboy. He later worked in newspaper circulation, and then moved to a job with the Metropolitan Sanitary District.\n\nSnyder had both political and entertainment world connections. He knew most of the nightclubs in Chicago and the people who performed there. He once served as a bodyguard for Al Jolson. His second wife was the singer and entertainer Ruth Etting, whom he married in 1922 and whose career he aggressively promoted. Snyder and Etting met when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. He divorced his first wife to marry Etting.\n\nIn 1927, the couple moved to New York City, where Etting landed a role in the Ziegfeld Follies. After a move to Los Angeles in the early 1930s, Etting was hired for some film roles, and The Chase and Sanborn Hour radio show with Jimmy Durante. Etting remained in Los Angeles for her radio work, while Snyder returned to Chicago.\n\nDivorce and shooting\n\nBy 1934, the aggressive and controlling management of Snyder began to create professional problems for Etting. She was not being considered for many jobs due to Snyder's arguments with those who employed her. Etting visited England for work in 1936, where Snyder managed to involve himself in a street fight soon after their arrival; this resulted in unfavorable publicity for Etting. Etting divorced Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937. Snyder did not contest the divorce; he received a settlement from Etting.\n\nIn January 1938, Snyder began making threatening telephone calls to Etting, at first claiming she concealed assets from him when the divorce settlement was made. Snyder was also upset that Etting was now seeing her accompanist, Myrl Alderman. Snyder told Etting he intended to come to California and kill her. Etting obtained both police and private protection, but apparently believed the danger was past when Snyder did not appear soon after his telephone threats; she dismissed her bodyguards.\n\nSnyder detained Myrl Alderman at a local radio station on October 15, 1938. He forced the pianist to drive him to his former wife at gunpoint. Etting and Edith Snyder, his daughter, were in the house when Snyder and Alderman arrived. When Snyder was told Edith was in another part of the house, he forced Etting to call her into the music room, where he held Etting and Alderman at gunpoint. Snyder told them to be quiet and that he intended to kill them all. When Myrl Alderman tried to speak, he was shot by Snyder, who then told Etting, \"I've had my revenge, so you can call the police.\"\n\nEtting, who said the only gun in the house was hers, was able to go into her bedroom for the gun after the shooting of Alderman. When Snyder saw Etting with the gun, he wrestled it away from her; it fell to the floor where Edith Snyder picked it up and started shooting at her father. Edith's shots did not hit her father, but went into the floor. Snyder's daughter said she shot at her father to save Ruth Etting.\n\nCharges and trial\n\nSnyder was charged with kidnapping Myrl Alderman and the attempted murder of Alderman, Etting, and his daughter, Edith, as well as California state gun violations. Snyder claimed that Myrl Alderman had a gun and shot at him first. He also said that Ruth Etting would not press charges against him because she was still in love with him. Snyder said he was drunk when he made the threatening calls to Etting and at that time, his intentions were to kill Etting and himself.\n\nDuring Snyder's trial for the attempted murder of Myrl Alderman, Etting and Alderman were married in Las Vegas. Snyder was found guilty and sentenced, but was released on appeal after a year in prison. In January 1940, he won a new trial, but was returned to jail in lieu of bail. In August 1940, Myrl Alderman asked the district attorney to drop further prosecution attempts against Snyder for the 1938 shooting.\n\nLater life\nSnyder returned to Chicago in 1940 and worked in the mail room at Chicago's City Hall. He was still living in Chicago and working in the City Clerk's office in 1972. In 1975, Snyder was interviewed for a Chicago Tribune article about the 1930s, where he claimed the stories about his mob connections were untrue. Snyder said he worked for a song publisher and that he knew various celebrities through that work.\n\nSnyder had at least one child from his first marriage, a daughter, Edith. After her father and Etting were divorced, she remained living with her. Edith died of a heart condition in 1939. It is believed Snyder died in Chicago in 1981.\n\nPortrayal in film\nAlong with Ruth Etting and Myrl Alderman, Snyder sold his rights to his story to MGM for the film Love Me or Leave Me (1955). James Cagney portrayed Snyder in the film, which was a fictionalized life story of Etting, who was played by Doris Day. Snyder was very dissatisfied with the way he was portrayed in the film.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nJewish American gangsters\nPeople from Chicago\nPlace of birth missing\nPlace of death missing\n1893 births\n1981 deaths\n20th-century American Jews",
"Emlen Pope Etting Jr. (August 24, 1905 – July 20, 1993) was an American painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and member of Philadelphia's elite Main Line Society. He attended schools in Lausanne, Switzerland, and St. George's School, Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. After graduating from Harvard in 1928, he studied with the artist Andre Lhote in Paris. During World War II, Etting served in the psychological warfare division of the Office of War Information. He was present at the liberation of Paris and he collaborated with Orson Welles to record the event.\n\nFamily\nEmlen Pope Etting Jr. was born to Florence Lucas Etting and Emlen Pope Etting Sr., a failed stockbroker, in 1905. Both Emlen's mother and aunt were proud members of Philadelphia's Main Line society. An earlier son was born to the Ettings on August 15, 1903, and given the name Emlen Pope Etting Jr. The child died just three days prior to his first birthday, on August 18, 1904. The following August 24, 1905, Florence gave birth to her second son and, once again, gave him the name of Emlen Pope Etting Jr. Young Emlen's father died of a heart attack when he was only two months old, on October 23, 1905. Florence Etting died on April 13, 1951. Both his parents and the first Emlen Jr. are buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.\n\nEmlen was reared in a European fashion as much as he was American. Emlen lived with his mother in Europe for much of his childhood. They returned to America in 1917 to avoid World War I.\n\nEmlen's Aunt Harriet wanted to ensure Emlen grew to be the Philadelphia gentleman he was meant to be and enrolled him in St. George's School from 1920 to 1924. St. George's, an Episcopal boarding school, was considered at that time to be one of only two suitable options for a young man from Philadelphia's upper crust.\n\nParis\nEmlen studied French at Harvard University. After graduating, he traveled to Europe to study art. It was a lifestyle underwritten by his aunt, Harriet Etting Brown. He traveled to Munich but was drawn to life in Paris and into the tutelage of the artist Andre Lhote. Lhote taught his students to reduce their subjects into lines and shapes. Emlen remained influenced by Lhote, his teacher and mentor, for the rest of his life.\n\nParis at that time was a student's world. It was filled with myriad forms of art, philosophy, and all the passionate discussions that could accompany it. He frequented the most exclusive art shows and enjoyed the avant-garde films screened in Paris Studio 28. It was in this artistic crucible that Emlen mingled with the most influential artists of the day.\n\nIn an interview with Marina Pacini from 1988, Emlen describes his experience studying under Lhote in Paris:\n“No, it was fluid. People came and went in the classes. You know, sometimes people came and somebody would be very annoyed at something he destroyed, something they’d done on a canvas, and they were horrified and would never come back. It was in America, I was fascinated when I came back. It was done more like, to please the student; you’d say something was good and never touch it. But Lhote would barge right in and the students, the whole class, would follow round behind, and he would take one easel, one painting at a time, and whatever he was emphasizing that day, he would rub it in, and how! Much to the, sometimes, students’ annoyance. The reason I'm telling you this is to explain why it was so fluid. There was no point in having a method of teaching composition one day, and one day color was that you got different people and you didn't follow through with it. And with his method you eventually got all the different facets if you stayed long enough.”\n\nFilm\nEtting made several short films. His personal favorite was Poem 8 (1932). As the name suggests the film attempts to use the cadence and narrative of the poem. From his interview with Marina Pacini:\n\n\"Dali was doing one, two in fact, and Cocteau did Blood of a Poet. And I thought, how interesting it would be if we used the film in a different method. So far it had been used like a novel to tell a story, or else as a documentary and there was nothing else in between, and I wanted to use the film as a poetic medium, to do a poem like T. S. Eliot’s poems, and do it entirely visually and that’s how I came about to do my film I called Poem 8 and as far as I know it was the first film that experimented in that as a poetic medium.\"\n\nEtting uses very literal images of women, modes of travel, and his own body parts. In Poem 8, Etting shows the filmmaker as a present protagonist.\n\nAccording to Kenneth C. Kaleta, PhD, author of a biography on Etting titled With the Rich and Mighty, both Poem 8 and Etting's other early experimental film, Oramunde, are “technologically unsophisticated, sometimes overly arty and labored,” but illustrate “Etting’s visionary insight into the promise of artistic expression as well as the potential of communication in cinema beyond filming linear plots.”\n\nEtting made his mark in early film but as times changed, and he stopped working with the medium. From Ettings interview with Pacini:\n\n\"Well, the films became so much more exciting that my little experiments were pitiful compared to the films of now, it’s all out. It isn’t that they do poems yet, but they do the experimentation that has brought the most fantastic results. I go to the movies now and am absolutely bowled [over] with amazement with the marvels that they do in films. I think it is the great art of today.\"\n\nDuring the War\nDuring World War II, Etting served in the psychological warfare division of the Office of War Information. He was present at the liberation of Paris and made many sketches of the event that were featured in periodicals of the time.\n\nHis duty was to disseminate the news of the progress of the D-Day invasion and, more importantly, to reassure the devastated villagers he encountered that they could rely on the assistance of US forces in rebuilding their war-torn lives. He wrote, presented, and recorded a series of daily news programs for the American Broadcasting Station in Europe in the towns he visited to accomplish this. Etting's responsibilities included recording the experiences of the newly liberated French townspeople he met in the wake of the military sweep of their occupied country for the US Army and reporting on what he observed in the field.\n\nEtting pieced together and recorded this oral history. Upon his return home, he published Prodigal Flyer, a \"true\" story, about his experiences. He felt it was his duty to make a record of the moment, separating the fact from the fiction of war. However, he wanted, nor needed, any war souvenirs of the misery he saw: he never forget what he saw. He felt ashamed that there was such an outpouring of gratitude for him and his party when the appreciation, in his opinion, should be offered instead to the men who fought and died there.\n\nEtting was subsequently attached to the Second French Armored Division.\n\nEtting documented these historical events in The Liberation of Paris, a recording collaboration with the legendary Orson Welles. The 12-inch, 78 rpm, Asch 3 record English and French language set recorded the live speeches of Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Charles de Gaulle on August 25, 1944, accompanied by the commentary of Welles and the translation and commentary of Etting.\n\nIn addition to recording this experience professionally for broadcast and publication, on the day of the liberation of Paris, Etting also made a personal journey into the past, and perhaps, into his aesthetic and artistic process. The painter wrote in his journal that once the Allies had secured the city and he had fulfilled his military obligations, including requisitioning a jeep to confirm the welfare of Pablo Picasso, Etting made his way to Lhote's studio on the Rue l'Odessa. Etting was aware that as a Jew, Lhote had had to move from place to place, sleeping where and when he could in fear of the Gestapo, and Etting wondered whether his old teacher had survived the Nazis' four-year occupation of the city. When Etting arrived again at the Rue l’Odessa, Lhote was there and seemed unchanged. Lhote was agitated of course, all of Paris was frenzied, but an excruciating suspicion also plagued Lhote. He begged Etting to assist him. Lhote had to know whether the Luftwaffe had damaged the priceless Delacroix murals in the Palais du Luxembourg, which the Nazis had seized and occupied during the war, and evacuated in the preceding days.\n\nAfter the war\n\nAfter returning from World War II Etting immediately worked as an illustrator, but continued to paint and sculpt. He created a large catalogue of paintings and drawings and worked most every day, believing that an artist should work whether they felt the call of the muse or not. He artworks included \"a lot of male nudes and paintings of sailors\" and, today, his work is in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Allentown Art Museum, and the Museum of American Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.\n\nEtting taught at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia College of Art, Temple University's Tyler School of Art, and Florida Southern College.\n\nIn 1938, Etting was married to Gloria Braggiotti, the daughter of an Italian aristocrat and a Boston Brahmin mother, at the Church of the Transfiguration in New York City. Gloria was a fixture of Main Line society in her own right. She was a great cook and hostess who can be credited to elevating the modern salon to its highest expression.\n\nEtting's sculpture Phoenix Rising was installed in the plaza next to Philadelphia's City Hall in 1982. The sculpture symbolized Philadelphia's rise from urban decay.\n\nEmlen Etting died of Parkinson's disease on July 20, 1993, at his home in Philadelphia at the age of 88.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nEmlen Etting Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.\n\n1905 births\n1993 deaths\n20th-century American painters\nAmerican male painters\nHarvard College alumni\n20th-century American sculptors\nAmerican male sculptors\nPeople of the United States Office of War Information"
]
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[
"Ruth Etting",
"Stage, screen and radio",
"Where was Etting born?",
"I don't know.",
"Who did Etting live with when her mother died?",
"I don't know.",
"What was Etting interested in at an early age?",
"\"I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song\"."
]
| C_e87bf039373e40e08c9070a42f1dccf9_0 | Who did Etting design costumes for? | 4 | Who did Ruth Etting design costumes for? | Ruth Etting | The couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. Irving Berlin had recommended her to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Etting nervously prepared to sing for Ziegfeld at the audition. However, he did not ask her to sing at all; only to walk up and down the room. She was hired on that basis because Ziegfeld did not hire women with big ankles. While the original plan for the show was for Etting to do a tap dance after singing "Shaking the Blues Away", she later remembered she was not a very good dancer. At the show's final rehearsal, Flo Ziegfeld told her, "Ruth, when you get through singing, just walk off the stage". Etting also appeared in Ziegfeld's last "Follies" in 1931. She went on to appear in a number of other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld's Simple Simon and Whoopee!. Etting was not originally signed to perform in Simple Simon; she became part of the cast at the last minute when vocalist Lee Morse was too intoxicated to perform. Ziegfeld asked Etting to replace Morse; she hurried to Boston, where the show was being tried out prior to Broadway. When Etting arrived, songwriters Rodgers and Hart discovered that the song "Ten Cents a Dance" was not written for Etting's voice range. The three spent the night rewriting the song so Etting could perform it. Toward the end of Simple Simon's Broadway run, Etting persuaded Ziegfeld to add "Love Me Or Leave Me" to the show though the song was originally written for Whoopee!. She had recorded the song in 1928, but Etting's new version of it was impressive enough to earn her a Vitaphone contract to make film shorts. In Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. She described the short films as either having a simple plot to allow for her to sing two songs or with no plot at all. The idea was to have Etting sing at least two songs in the film. While she received a marquee billing for Roman Scandals, Etting had only two lines in the film and sang just one song. Etting believed she might have had more success in full-length films if she had been given some acting lessons. Her perception was that the studios viewed her only as a vocalist. She later recalled, "I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song". In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm. Etting quit the show because she and the other performers had not been paid. Etting was first heard on radio station WLS when she was living in Chicago. Her appearance drew so much fan mail, the station signed her to a year's contract for twice weekly performances. She had her own twice weekly 15 minute radio show on CBS in the 1930s. By 1934, she was on NBC with sports announcer Ted Husing doing the announcing and Oldsmobile sponsoring her program. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as "America's sweetheart of song", her signature tunes were "Shine On, Harvest Moon", "Ten Cents a Dance" and "Love Me or Leave Me".
As a young girl in Nebraska, Etting had wanted to become an artist; she drew and sketched all the time. At sixteen, her grandparents decided to send her to art school in Chicago. While Etting attended class, she found a job at the Marigold Gardens nightclub; after a short time there, Etting gave up art classes in favor of a career in show business. Etting, who enjoyed singing in school and church, never took voice lessons. She quickly became a featured vocalist at the club. Etting was then managed by Moe Snyder, whom she married in 1922. Snyder made arrangements for Etting's recording and film contracts as well as her personal and radio appearances. She became nationally known when she appeared in Flo Ziegfeld's Follies of 1927.
Etting intended to retire from performing in 1935, but this did not happen until after her divorce from Snyder in 1937. Harry Myrl Alderman, Etting's pianist, was separated from his wife when he and Etting began a relationship. Snyder did not like seeing his former wife in the company of other men and began making telephone threats to Etting in January 1938. By October, Snyder traveled to Los Angeles and detained Alderman after he left a local radio station; he forced the pianist to take him to the home of his ex-wife at gunpoint. Saying he intended to kill Etting, Alderman, and his own daughter, Edith, who worked for Etting, Snyder shot Alderman. Three days after Alderman was shot, his wife filed suit against Etting for alienation of affections.
While Alderman and Etting claimed to have been married in Mexico in July 1938, Alderman's divorce would not be final until December of that year. The couple married during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder in December 1938. Etting and Alderman relocated to a farm outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they were out of the spotlight for most of their lives. Her fictionalized story was told in the musical film Love Me Or Leave Me (1955) with Doris Day as Ruth Etting and James Cagney as Snyder.
Biography
Etting was born on November 23, 1896, in David City, Nebraska, to Alfred Etting, a banker, and Winifred (née Kleinhan). Her mother died when she was five years old and she then lived with her paternal grandparents, George and Hannah Etting. Her father remarried and moved away from David City and was no longer a part of his daughter's life. Etting's grandfather, George, owned the Etting Roller Mills; to the delight of his granddaughter, George Etting allowed traveling circuses and shows to use the lot behind the mills for performances.
Etting was interested in drawing at an early age; she drew and sketched anywhere she was able. Her grandparents were asked to buy the textbooks she had used at the end of a school term because Etting had filled them with her drawings. She left David City at the age of sixteen to attend art school in Chicago. Etting gained a job designing costumes at the Marigold Gardens nightclub, which led to employment singing and dancing in the chorus. She gave up art school soon after beginning to work at Marigold Gardens. Before turning exclusively to performing, Etting worked as a designer for the owner of a costume shop in Chicago's Loop; she was successful enough to earn a partnership in the shop through her work.
While she enjoyed singing at school and in church, Etting never took voice lessons. She said that she had patterned her song styling after Marion Harris, but created her own unique style by alternating tempos and by varying some notes and phrases. Describing herself as a "high, squeaky soprano" during her days in David City, Etting developed a lower range singing voice after her arrival in Chicago which led to her success. Her big moment came when a featured vocalist suddenly became ill and was unable to perform. With no other replacement available, Etting was asked to fill in. She quickly changed into the costume and scanned the music arrangements; the performer was male, so Etting tried to adjust by singing in a lower register. She became a featured vocalist at the nightclub.
Etting described herself as a young, naive girl when she arrived in Chicago. Due to her inexperience in the ways of the big city, she became reliant on Snyder after their meeting. Etting met gangster Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder in 1922, when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. Snyder, who divorced his first wife to marry Etting, was well-acquainted with Chicago's nightclubs and the entertainers who worked in them; he once served as a bodyguard to Al Jolson. Snyder also used his political connections to gain bookings for Etting, who was called "Miss City Hall" because of Snyder's influence in Chicago. Etting married Snyder on July 17, 1922 in Crown Point, Indiana. She later said she married him "nine-tenths out of fear and one-tenth out of pity." Etting later told her friends, "If I leave him, he'll kill me." He managed her career, booking radio appearances and eventually had her signed to an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Records.
Stage, screen and radio
The couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. Irving Berlin had recommended her to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Etting nervously prepared to sing for Ziegfeld at the audition. However, he did not ask her to sing at all; only to walk up and down the room. She was hired on that basis because Ziegfeld did not hire women with big ankles. While the original plan for the show was for Etting to do a tap dance after singing "Shaking the Blues Away", she later remembered she was not a very good dancer. At the show's final rehearsal, Flo Ziegfeld told her: "Ruth, when you get through singing, just walk off the stage". Etting also appeared in Ziegfeld's last "Follies" in 1931.
She went on to appear in other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld's Simple Simon and Whoopee!. Etting was not originally signed to perform in Simple Simon; she became part of the cast at the last minute when vocalist Lee Morse was too intoxicated to perform. Ziegfeld asked Etting to replace Morse; she hurried to Boston, where the show was being tried out prior to Broadway. When Etting arrived, songwriters Rodgers and Hart discovered that the song "Ten Cents a Dance" was not written for Etting's voice range. The three spent the night rewriting the song so Etting could perform it.
Toward the end of Simple Simons Broadway run, Etting persuaded Ziegfeld to add "Love Me Or Leave Me" to the show though the song was originally written for Whoopee!. She had recorded the song in 1928, but Etting's new version of it was impressive enough to earn her a Vitaphone contract to make film shorts.
In Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. She described the short films as either having a simple plot to allow for her to sing two songs or with no plot at all. The idea was to have Etting sing at least two songs in the film. While she received a marquee billing for Roman Scandals, Etting had only two lines in the film and sang just one song. Etting believed she might have had more success in full-length films if she had been given some acting lessons. Her perception was that the studios viewed her only as a vocalist. She later recalled: "I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song". In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm. Etting quit the show because she and the other performers had not been paid.
Etting was first heard on radio station WLS while she was living in Chicago. Her appearance drew so much fan mail the station signed her to a year's contract for twice weekly performances. On CBS, she broadcast twice weekly in a 15 minute radio show in the 1930s. By 1934, she was on NBC with sports announcer Ted Husing and sponsorship of the program from Oldsmobile .
Recording history
After an unissued test made by Victor on April 4, 1924, Etting was signed to Columbia Records in February 1926. She remained at Columbia through June 1931, when she split her recording between ARC (Banner, Perfect, Romeo, Oriole, etc.) and Columbia through March 1933. She signed with Brunswick and remained there until May 1934, when she re-signed with Columbia through July 1935. After a solitary Brunswick session in March 1936, she signed with the British label Rex and recorded two sessions in August and September, 1936. Etting returned to the US and signed with Decca in December 1936 and recorded until April 1937, when she basically retired from recording.
Personal life
Etting saved some of her paycheck each week, regardless of the amount she was making at the time. Her friends said she invested in California real estate rather than the stock market. Etting, who made many of her own clothes, did her own housekeeping and lived frugally, initially announced her retirement in 1935. It is not clear why she did not go through with her announced plans, but she issued a second statement regarding retirement after filing for divorce from Snyder in November 1937.
Snyder's aggressive and controlling management style began to cause problems for Etting; during her work with Whoopee! on Broadway, Snyder was a constant presence. He was never without a gun and enjoyed poking people with it while saying "Put your hands up!" then laughing when their fright was evident. Snyder also persisted in cornering Ziegfeld because he believed Etting's role in the musical could be improved. Ziegfeld had a different opinion and indicated nothing would be changed. Snyder would then mumble that it was not a suggestion but a demand.
By 1934, she was having difficulty getting engagements. Snyder's arguing and fighting at venues where Etting was employed caused her to be passed by for jobs in the United States. In 1936, she thought taking work in England might be the answer, but Snyder created problems while she was working there also. Soon after the couple arrived in England, Snyder became involved in a street fight which created adverse publicity for Etting. She divorced Moe Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937. Snyder did not contest the divorce and received a settlement from his former wife. Etting gave her ex-husband half of her earnings at the time, $50,000, some securities and a half interest in a home in Beverly Hills, California. She deducted the gambling debts of Snyder she had paid and the costs she had paid for a home for Snyder's mother.
Threats and the shooting
Etting fell in love with her pianist, Myrl Alderman, who was separated from his wife. In January 1938, she began receiving threatening telephone calls from Snyder, who initially claimed Etting withheld assets from him when the divorce settlement was made. Though the couple was divorced, Snyder was also upset because of reports that she was seeing another man. Snyder told Etting that he would come to California and kill her. When Snyder telephoned and found Etting unavailable, he told his daughter Edith that he "would fix her ticket, too". He called again that evening; this time Etting took the call with her cousin, Arthur Etting, listening on an extension. Etting requested police protection after the telephone call and arranged for private protection. Apparently believing the danger was over when Snyder did not appear soon after his telephone call, Etting released her bodyguards a few days later.
On October 15, 1938, Snyder detained Myrl Alderman at a local radio station and forced the pianist to take him to his former wife at gunpoint. In the house at the time were Etting and Edith Snyder. Edith, Snyder's daughter by a previous marriage, worked for Etting and remained living with her after the divorce. Snyder held Etting and Alderman at gunpoint; when told his daughter was in another part of the house, he made Etting call her into the room. Snyder said he intended to kill all three, and told them to be quiet. When Myrl Alderman attempted to speak, Snyder shot him. Snyder then told his ex-wife, "I've had my revenge, so you can call the police."
Snyder claimed Myrl Alderman pulled a gun and shot at him first and that his ex-wife would not file charges against him because she still loved him. He also claimed he was drunk when he made the telephone threats to Etting in January 1938, saying that at the time his intentions were to kill both his ex-wife and himself. Ruth Etting said that the only gun in the home belonged to her, and after the shooting of Alderman, she was able to go into her bedroom and get it. Upon seeing Etting's gun, Moe Snyder wrested it away from her; it landed on the floor. Snyder's daughter, Edith, picked it up and held it on her father, shooting at him but hitting the floor instead. During a police reenactment of the shooting three days later, Edith Snyder said that she fired at her father to save Ruth Etting, weeping as she continued, "I don't yet know whether I am sorry I missed my Dad or whether I am glad". Snyder was accused of attempting to murder his ex-wife, his daughter, and Etting's accompanist, Myrl Alderman, the kidnapping of Alderman, as well as California state gun law violations.
Alienation of affections suit
Three days after the shooting of Myrl Alderman, the pianist's second wife, Alma, sued Etting for alienation of her husband's affections. Though Etting and Alderman claimed to have been married in Tijuana, Mexico in July 1938, Alma Alderman said any marriage was invalid, because her divorce from Myrl Alderman would not be final until December 1938. Police investigators could find no record of the couple's Mexican marriage. Etting publicly invited Alma Alderman to visit her husband in the hospital, in an effort to see if the couple could reconcile.
Ruth Etting testified that she was not married to Alderman. During the course of the trial, there was also a question of the validity of Alderman's marriage to Alma. Alderman's first wife, Helen, obtained an interlocutory decree on January 7, 1935; the divorce became final one year later. On January 9, 1935, Alderman married Alma in Mexico. The second Mrs. Alderman called Moe Snyder to the stand as a witness regarding an attraction between her husband and Etting. Helen Alderman Warne also appeared in court, claiming that Alma Alderman had spirited Myrl away from her. Warne added that she had married and divorced the pianist twice. Alma Alderman's lawsuit ended in December 1939, with the court finding that she was not entitled to damages from Ruth Etting.
Trial and aftermath
The testimony in both trials brought much personal information into the public eye. Snyder, who claimed to still be in love with his ex-wife, gave Etting a diamond and platinum bracelet which she accepted after Snyder's telephone threat in January 1938. Etting testified that she agreed with her ex-husband's statement to police that Snyder was either drunk or out of his mind when he threatened her by phone. Snyder's attorney initially tried to prevent Etting from testifying against Snyder with a charge that the divorce she obtained in Illinois was invalid because she was a resident of California at that time.
During the trial, Snyder's attorney portrayed Ruth Etting as a calculating woman who had married Moe Snyder strictly for the benefit of her career, and that she divorced him in favor of being with another, younger man (Alderman). Snyder's attorney echoed his client's claim of self-defense and said his client never intended to kill Etting, his daughter, and Myrl Alderman. The attorney further claimed that if Snyder intended to kill the pianist, he had ample time to do so while he held a gun on Alderman during the drive from the radio station to the home where the shooting took place.
Etting married Alderman, who was almost a decade her junior, on December 14, 1938 in Las Vegas, during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder. Snyder was convicted of attempted murder, but released on appeal after one year in jail. Snyder won a new trial but returned to jail in January 1940 in lieu of bail. In August 1940, Myrl Alderman asked the district attorney to drop further prosecution attempts against Snyder for the 1938 shooting.
Etting, who had retired from performing prior to the shooting and subsequent trials, briefly had a radio show on WHN in 1947. She also accepted an engagement at New York's Copacabana in March 1947. Etting traveled alone to New York and during a newspaper interview, was asked if she had ever seen Moe Snyder again. She replied, "No, I hope I never do." and said that her husband never went to bed without a gun.
Later life and death
The couple relocated to an eight-acre farm outside of Colorado Springs in 1938. Alderman, who was raised in Colorado Springs, operated a restaurant there for a time. Etting and Alderman remained married until his death in Denver on November 28, 1966; he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs. Etting died in Colorado Springs in 1978, aged 81. She was survived by a stepson, John Alderman, and four grandchildren. Alderman and Etting are now interred at the Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Legacy
Etting's life was the basis for the fictionalized film, Love Me or Leave Me (1955), which starred Doris Day (as Etting), James Cagney (as Snyder) and Cameron Mitchell (as Alderman). Etting, Myrl Alderman and Moe Snyder all sold their rights to the story to MGM; Snyder was living in Chicago in 1955. Etting expressed sadness that "the real highlight of my life", her marriage to Alderman, was omitted from the film. Shortly before her death, Etting said she thought the screen portrayal of her was too tough and that Jane Powell would have been a better choice for the lead.
Etting has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in films, located on the north side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard. Her recordings of Love Me Or Leave Me (2005) and Ten Cents a Dance (1999) are part of the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Hit records
Note: All of the above were Columbia releases.
The following four were non-Columbia releases:
(1932) "It Was So Beautiful" (U.S. chart position 13) Melotone Records
(1933) "Try a Little Tenderness" (U.S. chart position 16) Melotone Records
(1934) "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (U.S. chart position 15) Brunswick Records
(1937) "In the Chapel in the Moonlight" (U.S. chart position 20) Decca Records
Broadway
Ruth Etting's Broadway appearances are recorded at the Internet Broadway Database.
Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 – in which she introduced Irving Berlin's "Shaking The Blues Away"
Whoopee! (1928) – in which she introduced "Love Me or Leave Me"
Nine-Fifteen Revue (1929) – in which she introduced "Get Happy"
Simple Simon (1930) – in which she introduced "Ten Cents a Dance"
Ziegfeld Follies of 1931
Filmography
Short films
The Book of Lovers (1929)
Broadway's Like That (1930) - Ruth
Roseland (1930) - Helen Leslie
One Good Turn (1930) - Ruth Eton
Stage Struck (1931)
Old Lace (1931)
Words & Music (1931) - Ruth Eton
Radio Salutes (1931)
A Mail Bride (1932)
A Regular Trouper (1932) - Ruth Eton
Artistic Temper (1932) - Ruth Whitney / Ruth White
A Modern Cinderella (1932) - Anita Ragusa
Bye-Gones (1933) - Aunt Ruth
Along Came Ruth (1933) - Ruth Etting a.k.a. Ruth Eldridge
Crashing the Gate (1933)
Knee Deep in Music (1933)
California Weather (1933)
A Torch Tango (1934)
The Song of Fame (1934) - Ruth Eaton
Derby Decade (1934) - Della Delmar
Southern Style (1934)
No Contest! (1934) - Ruth
Bandits and Ballads (1934)
An Old Spanish Onion (1935)
Ticket or Leave It (1935)
Tuned Out (1935) - Ruth, the Dixie Song Bird
Alladin from Manhattan (1936)
Melody in May (1936) - herself
Sleepy Time (1936) - (final film role)
Feature films
Mr. Broadway (1933) - herself
Roman Scandals (1933, her breakthrough film, which starred Eddie Cantor and Gloria Stuart) - Olga
Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934) - herself
Gift of Gab (1934) - herself
Notes
References
Sources
External links
Ruth Etting at the Internet Archive 01
Ruth Etting at the Internet Archive 02
Ruth Etting recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
1897 births
1978 deaths
Actresses from Nebraska
American film actresses
American musical theatre actresses
Singers from Nebraska
People from David City, Nebraska
Torch singers
Vaudeville performers
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
Biograph Records artists | false | [
"Martin \"Moe\" Snyder (December 6, 1893 – November 9, 1981), commonly known as Moe the Gimp due to his lame left leg, was an American gangster from Chicago, active in the 1920s and 1930s.\n\nBiography\nSnyder was born and raised on Chicago's southwest side. He was five years of age when he injured his leg in an accident.\nSnyder left school after the fourth grade and sold papers as a newsboy. He later worked in newspaper circulation, and then moved to a job with the Metropolitan Sanitary District.\n\nSnyder had both political and entertainment world connections. He knew most of the nightclubs in Chicago and the people who performed there. He once served as a bodyguard for Al Jolson. His second wife was the singer and entertainer Ruth Etting, whom he married in 1922 and whose career he aggressively promoted. Snyder and Etting met when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. He divorced his first wife to marry Etting.\n\nIn 1927, the couple moved to New York City, where Etting landed a role in the Ziegfeld Follies. After a move to Los Angeles in the early 1930s, Etting was hired for some film roles, and The Chase and Sanborn Hour radio show with Jimmy Durante. Etting remained in Los Angeles for her radio work, while Snyder returned to Chicago.\n\nDivorce and shooting\n\nBy 1934, the aggressive and controlling management of Snyder began to create professional problems for Etting. She was not being considered for many jobs due to Snyder's arguments with those who employed her. Etting visited England for work in 1936, where Snyder managed to involve himself in a street fight soon after their arrival; this resulted in unfavorable publicity for Etting. Etting divorced Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937. Snyder did not contest the divorce; he received a settlement from Etting.\n\nIn January 1938, Snyder began making threatening telephone calls to Etting, at first claiming she concealed assets from him when the divorce settlement was made. Snyder was also upset that Etting was now seeing her accompanist, Myrl Alderman. Snyder told Etting he intended to come to California and kill her. Etting obtained both police and private protection, but apparently believed the danger was past when Snyder did not appear soon after his telephone threats; she dismissed her bodyguards.\n\nSnyder detained Myrl Alderman at a local radio station on October 15, 1938. He forced the pianist to drive him to his former wife at gunpoint. Etting and Edith Snyder, his daughter, were in the house when Snyder and Alderman arrived. When Snyder was told Edith was in another part of the house, he forced Etting to call her into the music room, where he held Etting and Alderman at gunpoint. Snyder told them to be quiet and that he intended to kill them all. When Myrl Alderman tried to speak, he was shot by Snyder, who then told Etting, \"I've had my revenge, so you can call the police.\"\n\nEtting, who said the only gun in the house was hers, was able to go into her bedroom for the gun after the shooting of Alderman. When Snyder saw Etting with the gun, he wrestled it away from her; it fell to the floor where Edith Snyder picked it up and started shooting at her father. Edith's shots did not hit her father, but went into the floor. Snyder's daughter said she shot at her father to save Ruth Etting.\n\nCharges and trial\n\nSnyder was charged with kidnapping Myrl Alderman and the attempted murder of Alderman, Etting, and his daughter, Edith, as well as California state gun violations. Snyder claimed that Myrl Alderman had a gun and shot at him first. He also said that Ruth Etting would not press charges against him because she was still in love with him. Snyder said he was drunk when he made the threatening calls to Etting and at that time, his intentions were to kill Etting and himself.\n\nDuring Snyder's trial for the attempted murder of Myrl Alderman, Etting and Alderman were married in Las Vegas. Snyder was found guilty and sentenced, but was released on appeal after a year in prison. In January 1940, he won a new trial, but was returned to jail in lieu of bail. In August 1940, Myrl Alderman asked the district attorney to drop further prosecution attempts against Snyder for the 1938 shooting.\n\nLater life\nSnyder returned to Chicago in 1940 and worked in the mail room at Chicago's City Hall. He was still living in Chicago and working in the City Clerk's office in 1972. In 1975, Snyder was interviewed for a Chicago Tribune article about the 1930s, where he claimed the stories about his mob connections were untrue. Snyder said he worked for a song publisher and that he knew various celebrities through that work.\n\nSnyder had at least one child from his first marriage, a daughter, Edith. After her father and Etting were divorced, she remained living with her. Edith died of a heart condition in 1939. It is believed Snyder died in Chicago in 1981.\n\nPortrayal in film\nAlong with Ruth Etting and Myrl Alderman, Snyder sold his rights to his story to MGM for the film Love Me or Leave Me (1955). James Cagney portrayed Snyder in the film, which was a fictionalized life story of Etting, who was played by Doris Day. Snyder was very dissatisfied with the way he was portrayed in the film.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nJewish American gangsters\nPeople from Chicago\nPlace of birth missing\nPlace of death missing\n1893 births\n1981 deaths\n20th-century American Jews",
"Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as \"America's sweetheart of song\", her signature tunes were \"Shine On, Harvest Moon\", \"Ten Cents a Dance\" and \"Love Me or Leave Me\".\n\nAs a young girl in Nebraska, Etting had wanted to become an artist; she drew and sketched all the time. At sixteen, her grandparents decided to send her to art school in Chicago. While Etting attended class, she found a job at the Marigold Gardens nightclub; after a short time there, Etting gave up art classes in favor of a career in show business. Etting, who enjoyed singing in school and church, never took voice lessons. She quickly became a featured vocalist at the club. Etting was then managed by Moe Snyder, whom she married in 1922. Snyder made arrangements for Etting's recording and film contracts as well as her personal and radio appearances. She became nationally known when she appeared in Flo Ziegfeld's Follies of 1927.\n\nEtting intended to retire from performing in 1935, but this did not happen until after her divorce from Snyder in 1937. Harry Myrl Alderman, Etting's pianist, was separated from his wife when he and Etting began a relationship. Snyder did not like seeing his former wife in the company of other men and began making telephone threats to Etting in January 1938. By October, Snyder traveled to Los Angeles and detained Alderman after he left a local radio station; he forced the pianist to take him to the home of his ex-wife at gunpoint. Saying he intended to kill Etting, Alderman, and his own daughter, Edith, who worked for Etting, Snyder shot Alderman. Three days after Alderman was shot, his wife filed suit against Etting for alienation of affections.\n\nWhile Alderman and Etting claimed to have been married in Mexico in July 1938, Alderman's divorce would not be final until December of that year. The couple married during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder in December 1938. Etting and Alderman relocated to a farm outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they were out of the spotlight for most of their lives. Her fictionalized story was told in the musical film Love Me Or Leave Me (1955) with Doris Day as Ruth Etting and James Cagney as Snyder.\n\nBiography\n\nEtting was born on November 23, 1896, in David City, Nebraska, to Alfred Etting, a banker, and Winifred (née Kleinhan). Her mother died when she was five years old and she then lived with her paternal grandparents, George and Hannah Etting. Her father remarried and moved away from David City and was no longer a part of his daughter's life. Etting's grandfather, George, owned the Etting Roller Mills; to the delight of his granddaughter, George Etting allowed traveling circuses and shows to use the lot behind the mills for performances.\n\nEtting was interested in drawing at an early age; she drew and sketched anywhere she was able. Her grandparents were asked to buy the textbooks she had used at the end of a school term because Etting had filled them with her drawings. She left David City at the age of sixteen to attend art school in Chicago. Etting gained a job designing costumes at the Marigold Gardens nightclub, which led to employment singing and dancing in the chorus. She gave up art school soon after beginning to work at Marigold Gardens. Before turning exclusively to performing, Etting worked as a designer for the owner of a costume shop in Chicago's Loop; she was successful enough to earn a partnership in the shop through her work.\n\nWhile she enjoyed singing at school and in church, Etting never took voice lessons. She said that she had patterned her song styling after Marion Harris, but created her own unique style by alternating tempos and by varying some notes and phrases. Describing herself as a \"high, squeaky soprano\" during her days in David City, Etting developed a lower range singing voice after her arrival in Chicago which led to her success. Her big moment came when a featured vocalist suddenly became ill and was unable to perform. With no other replacement available, Etting was asked to fill in. She quickly changed into the costume and scanned the music arrangements; the performer was male, so Etting tried to adjust by singing in a lower register. She became a featured vocalist at the nightclub.\n\nEtting described herself as a young, naive girl when she arrived in Chicago. Due to her inexperience in the ways of the big city, she became reliant on Snyder after their meeting. Etting met gangster Martin \"Moe the Gimp\" Snyder in 1922, when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. Snyder, who divorced his first wife to marry Etting, was well-acquainted with Chicago's nightclubs and the entertainers who worked in them; he once served as a bodyguard to Al Jolson. Snyder also used his political connections to gain bookings for Etting, who was called \"Miss City Hall\" because of Snyder's influence in Chicago. Etting married Snyder on July 17, 1922 in Crown Point, Indiana. She later said she married him \"nine-tenths out of fear and one-tenth out of pity.\" Etting later told her friends, \"If I leave him, he'll kill me.\" He managed her career, booking radio appearances and eventually had her signed to an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Records.\n\nStage, screen and radio\n\nThe couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. Irving Berlin had recommended her to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Etting nervously prepared to sing for Ziegfeld at the audition. However, he did not ask her to sing at all; only to walk up and down the room. She was hired on that basis because Ziegfeld did not hire women with big ankles. While the original plan for the show was for Etting to do a tap dance after singing \"Shaking the Blues Away\", she later remembered she was not a very good dancer. At the show's final rehearsal, Flo Ziegfeld told her: \"Ruth, when you get through singing, just walk off the stage\". Etting also appeared in Ziegfeld's last \"Follies\" in 1931.\n\nShe went on to appear in other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld's Simple Simon and Whoopee!. Etting was not originally signed to perform in Simple Simon; she became part of the cast at the last minute when vocalist Lee Morse was too intoxicated to perform. Ziegfeld asked Etting to replace Morse; she hurried to Boston, where the show was being tried out prior to Broadway. When Etting arrived, songwriters Rodgers and Hart discovered that the song \"Ten Cents a Dance\" was not written for Etting's voice range. The three spent the night rewriting the song so Etting could perform it.\n\nToward the end of Simple Simons Broadway run, Etting persuaded Ziegfeld to add \"Love Me Or Leave Me\" to the show though the song was originally written for Whoopee!. She had recorded the song in 1928, but Etting's new version of it was impressive enough to earn her a Vitaphone contract to make film shorts.\n\nIn Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. She described the short films as either having a simple plot to allow for her to sing two songs or with no plot at all. The idea was to have Etting sing at least two songs in the film. While she received a marquee billing for Roman Scandals, Etting had only two lines in the film and sang just one song. Etting believed she might have had more success in full-length films if she had been given some acting lessons. Her perception was that the studios viewed her only as a vocalist. She later recalled: \"I was no actress, and I knew it. But I could sell a song\". In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm. Etting quit the show because she and the other performers had not been paid.\n\nEtting was first heard on radio station WLS while she was living in Chicago. Her appearance drew so much fan mail the station signed her to a year's contract for twice weekly performances. On CBS, she broadcast twice weekly in a 15 minute radio show in the 1930s. By 1934, she was on NBC with sports announcer Ted Husing and sponsorship of the program from Oldsmobile .\n\nRecording history\nAfter an unissued test made by Victor on April 4, 1924, Etting was signed to Columbia Records in February 1926. She remained at Columbia through June 1931, when she split her recording between ARC (Banner, Perfect, Romeo, Oriole, etc.) and Columbia through March 1933. She signed with Brunswick and remained there until May 1934, when she re-signed with Columbia through July 1935. After a solitary Brunswick session in March 1936, she signed with the British label Rex and recorded two sessions in August and September, 1936. Etting returned to the US and signed with Decca in December 1936 and recorded until April 1937, when she basically retired from recording.\n\nPersonal life\n\nEtting saved some of her paycheck each week, regardless of the amount she was making at the time. Her friends said she invested in California real estate rather than the stock market. Etting, who made many of her own clothes, did her own housekeeping and lived frugally, initially announced her retirement in 1935. It is not clear why she did not go through with her announced plans, but she issued a second statement regarding retirement after filing for divorce from Snyder in November 1937.\n\nSnyder's aggressive and controlling management style began to cause problems for Etting; during her work with Whoopee! on Broadway, Snyder was a constant presence. He was never without a gun and enjoyed poking people with it while saying \"Put your hands up!\" then laughing when their fright was evident. Snyder also persisted in cornering Ziegfeld because he believed Etting's role in the musical could be improved. Ziegfeld had a different opinion and indicated nothing would be changed. Snyder would then mumble that it was not a suggestion but a demand.\n\nBy 1934, she was having difficulty getting engagements. Snyder's arguing and fighting at venues where Etting was employed caused her to be passed by for jobs in the United States. In 1936, she thought taking work in England might be the answer, but Snyder created problems while she was working there also. Soon after the couple arrived in England, Snyder became involved in a street fight which created adverse publicity for Etting. She divorced Moe Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937. Snyder did not contest the divorce and received a settlement from his former wife. Etting gave her ex-husband half of her earnings at the time, $50,000, some securities and a half interest in a home in Beverly Hills, California. She deducted the gambling debts of Snyder she had paid and the costs she had paid for a home for Snyder's mother.\n\nThreats and the shooting\nEtting fell in love with her pianist, Myrl Alderman, who was separated from his wife. In January 1938, she began receiving threatening telephone calls from Snyder, who initially claimed Etting withheld assets from him when the divorce settlement was made. Though the couple was divorced, Snyder was also upset because of reports that she was seeing another man. Snyder told Etting that he would come to California and kill her. When Snyder telephoned and found Etting unavailable, he told his daughter Edith that he \"would fix her ticket, too\". He called again that evening; this time Etting took the call with her cousin, Arthur Etting, listening on an extension. Etting requested police protection after the telephone call and arranged for private protection. Apparently believing the danger was over when Snyder did not appear soon after his telephone call, Etting released her bodyguards a few days later.\n\nOn October 15, 1938, Snyder detained Myrl Alderman at a local radio station and forced the pianist to take him to his former wife at gunpoint. In the house at the time were Etting and Edith Snyder. Edith, Snyder's daughter by a previous marriage, worked for Etting and remained living with her after the divorce. Snyder held Etting and Alderman at gunpoint; when told his daughter was in another part of the house, he made Etting call her into the room. Snyder said he intended to kill all three, and told them to be quiet. When Myrl Alderman attempted to speak, Snyder shot him. Snyder then told his ex-wife, \"I've had my revenge, so you can call the police.\"\n\nSnyder claimed Myrl Alderman pulled a gun and shot at him first and that his ex-wife would not file charges against him because she still loved him. He also claimed he was drunk when he made the telephone threats to Etting in January 1938, saying that at the time his intentions were to kill both his ex-wife and himself. Ruth Etting said that the only gun in the home belonged to her, and after the shooting of Alderman, she was able to go into her bedroom and get it. Upon seeing Etting's gun, Moe Snyder wrested it away from her; it landed on the floor. Snyder's daughter, Edith, picked it up and held it on her father, shooting at him but hitting the floor instead. During a police reenactment of the shooting three days later, Edith Snyder said that she fired at her father to save Ruth Etting, weeping as she continued, \"I don't yet know whether I am sorry I missed my Dad or whether I am glad\". Snyder was accused of attempting to murder his ex-wife, his daughter, and Etting's accompanist, Myrl Alderman, the kidnapping of Alderman, as well as California state gun law violations.\n\nAlienation of affections suit\nThree days after the shooting of Myrl Alderman, the pianist's second wife, Alma, sued Etting for alienation of her husband's affections. Though Etting and Alderman claimed to have been married in Tijuana, Mexico in July 1938, Alma Alderman said any marriage was invalid, because her divorce from Myrl Alderman would not be final until December 1938. Police investigators could find no record of the couple's Mexican marriage. Etting publicly invited Alma Alderman to visit her husband in the hospital, in an effort to see if the couple could reconcile.\n\nRuth Etting testified that she was not married to Alderman. During the course of the trial, there was also a question of the validity of Alderman's marriage to Alma. Alderman's first wife, Helen, obtained an interlocutory decree on January 7, 1935; the divorce became final one year later. On January 9, 1935, Alderman married Alma in Mexico. The second Mrs. Alderman called Moe Snyder to the stand as a witness regarding an attraction between her husband and Etting. Helen Alderman Warne also appeared in court, claiming that Alma Alderman had spirited Myrl away from her. Warne added that she had married and divorced the pianist twice. Alma Alderman's lawsuit ended in December 1939, with the court finding that she was not entitled to damages from Ruth Etting.\n\nTrial and aftermath\nThe testimony in both trials brought much personal information into the public eye. Snyder, who claimed to still be in love with his ex-wife, gave Etting a diamond and platinum bracelet which she accepted after Snyder's telephone threat in January 1938. Etting testified that she agreed with her ex-husband's statement to police that Snyder was either drunk or out of his mind when he threatened her by phone. Snyder's attorney initially tried to prevent Etting from testifying against Snyder with a charge that the divorce she obtained in Illinois was invalid because she was a resident of California at that time.\n\nDuring the trial, Snyder's attorney portrayed Ruth Etting as a calculating woman who had married Moe Snyder strictly for the benefit of her career, and that she divorced him in favor of being with another, younger man (Alderman). Snyder's attorney echoed his client's claim of self-defense and said his client never intended to kill Etting, his daughter, and Myrl Alderman. The attorney further claimed that if Snyder intended to kill the pianist, he had ample time to do so while he held a gun on Alderman during the drive from the radio station to the home where the shooting took place.\n\nEtting married Alderman, who was almost a decade her junior, on December 14, 1938 in Las Vegas, during Moe Snyder's trial for attempted murder. Snyder was convicted of attempted murder, but released on appeal after one year in jail. Snyder won a new trial but returned to jail in January 1940 in lieu of bail. In August 1940, Myrl Alderman asked the district attorney to drop further prosecution attempts against Snyder for the 1938 shooting.\n\nEtting, who had retired from performing prior to the shooting and subsequent trials, briefly had a radio show on WHN in 1947. She also accepted an engagement at New York's Copacabana in March 1947. Etting traveled alone to New York and during a newspaper interview, was asked if she had ever seen Moe Snyder again. She replied, \"No, I hope I never do.\" and said that her husband never went to bed without a gun.\n\nLater life and death\nThe couple relocated to an eight-acre farm outside of Colorado Springs in 1938. Alderman, who was raised in Colorado Springs, operated a restaurant there for a time. Etting and Alderman remained married until his death in Denver on November 28, 1966; he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs. Etting died in Colorado Springs in 1978, aged 81. She was survived by a stepson, John Alderman, and four grandchildren. Alderman and Etting are now interred at the Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.\n\nLegacy\nEtting's life was the basis for the fictionalized film, Love Me or Leave Me (1955), which starred Doris Day (as Etting), James Cagney (as Snyder) and Cameron Mitchell (as Alderman). Etting, Myrl Alderman and Moe Snyder all sold their rights to the story to MGM; Snyder was living in Chicago in 1955. Etting expressed sadness that \"the real highlight of my life\", her marriage to Alderman, was omitted from the film. Shortly before her death, Etting said she thought the screen portrayal of her was too tough and that Jane Powell would have been a better choice for the lead.\n\nEtting has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in films, located on the north side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard. Her recordings of Love Me Or Leave Me (2005) and Ten Cents a Dance (1999) are part of the Grammy Hall of Fame.\n\nHit records\n\nNote: All of the above were Columbia releases.\nThe following four were non-Columbia releases:\n(1932) \"It Was So Beautiful\" (U.S. chart position 13) Melotone Records\n(1933) \"Try a Little Tenderness\" (U.S. chart position 16) Melotone Records\n(1934) \"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes\" (U.S. chart position 15) Brunswick Records\n(1937) \"In the Chapel in the Moonlight\" (U.S. chart position 20) Decca Records\n\nBroadway\nRuth Etting's Broadway appearances are recorded at the Internet Broadway Database.\n Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 – in which she introduced Irving Berlin's \"Shaking The Blues Away\"\n Whoopee! (1928) – in which she introduced \"Love Me or Leave Me\"\n Nine-Fifteen Revue (1929) – in which she introduced \"Get Happy\"\n Simple Simon (1930) – in which she introduced \"Ten Cents a Dance\"\n Ziegfeld Follies of 1931\n\nFilmography\n\nShort films\n\n The Book of Lovers (1929)\n Broadway's Like That (1930) - Ruth\n Roseland (1930) - Helen Leslie\n One Good Turn (1930) - Ruth Eton\n Stage Struck (1931)\n Old Lace (1931)\n Words & Music (1931) - Ruth Eton\n Radio Salutes (1931)\n A Mail Bride (1932)\n A Regular Trouper (1932) - Ruth Eton\n Artistic Temper (1932) - Ruth Whitney / Ruth White\n A Modern Cinderella (1932) - Anita Ragusa\n Bye-Gones (1933) - Aunt Ruth\n Along Came Ruth (1933) - Ruth Etting a.k.a. Ruth Eldridge\n\n Crashing the Gate (1933)\n Knee Deep in Music (1933)\n California Weather (1933)\n A Torch Tango (1934)\n The Song of Fame (1934) - Ruth Eaton\n Derby Decade (1934) - Della Delmar\n Southern Style (1934)\nNo Contest! (1934) - Ruth\n Bandits and Ballads (1934)\n An Old Spanish Onion (1935)\n Ticket or Leave It (1935)\n Tuned Out (1935) - Ruth, the Dixie Song Bird\n Alladin from Manhattan (1936)\n Melody in May (1936) - herself\n Sleepy Time (1936) - (final film role)\n\nFeature films\n Mr. Broadway (1933) - herself\n Roman Scandals (1933, her breakthrough film, which starred Eddie Cantor and Gloria Stuart) - Olga\n Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934) - herself\n Gift of Gab (1934) - herself\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\nExternal links\n\nRuth Etting at the Internet Archive 01\nRuth Etting at the Internet Archive 02\n\n Ruth Etting recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.\n\n1897 births\n1978 deaths\nActresses from Nebraska\nAmerican film actresses\nAmerican musical theatre actresses\nSingers from Nebraska\nPeople from David City, Nebraska\nTorch singers\nVaudeville performers\n20th-century American actresses\n20th-century American singers\n20th-century American women singers\nBiograph Records artists"
]
|
[
"Dennis Trillo",
"2006-2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut"
]
| C_494eb3090880475a9b84ecc703d90e09_0 | What is Kapuso? | 1 | What is Kapuso? | Dennis Trillo | In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband". Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo. On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the "Battle of Mactan" play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna. Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho (born 12 May 1981), widely known as Dennis Trillo, is a Filipino actor, model and recording artist. He is currently a contract star of GMA Network. He was known for his role as Eric del Mundo in the first ever gay-themed series on Philippine TV, My Husband's Lover aired on GMA Network in 2013.
Trillo received his first acting award in 2004 for his role as a cross-dressing spy in the 2004 war film Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita. In April 2016, he appeared in another primetime television series, Juan Happy Love Story, opposite his Dwarfina leading lady Heart Evangelista.
Now being recognized both locally and internationally, he still continues to work as GMA Network's "Drama King".
Personal life
Trillo was born on May 12, 1981, in Quezon City to Florita Florencio Ho, a Filipino, and Abelardo Leslie Ho, a Chinese Filipino from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. He finished high school at Jose Abad Santos Memorial School, Quezon City and spent his grade school years (grades 1–7) at the Ateneo De Manila University. He pursued a college education at Miriam College and received a B.A. in International Studies.
He has a son with his ex-girlfriend Carlene Aguilar, born in 2007.
In 2021, he married his longtime girlfriend Jennylyn Mercado.
Career
Early years
Prior to starting his career in show business, Trillo was once a member of a band called Moyg. For a short period, he played the drums for the DIY band in Baguio. His career in entertainment started in ABS-CBN in 2001 when he was introduced as part of ABS-CBN's Star Circle (now known as Star Magic) batch 10 along with Bea Alonzo, Alfred Vargas and TJ Trinidad. He took part in ABS-CBN's hit television soap operas Pangako Sa 'Yo as Ruel and Sa Dulo Ng Walang Hanggan as Jojo; both were minor characters.
2003–2005: Breakthrough as Kapuso
After transferring to GMA Network and becoming a contract star, he landed his first role for the network in the youth-oriented drama Kahit Kailan where he played a supporting character named David. He was also cast in several outings like Twin Hearts and Love to Love.
In 2004, he had his first main character role in the fantasy show Mulawin. He played Gabriel, a half-human and half-Ravena who became the third wheel in Alwina (Angel Locsin) and Agiluz (Richard Gutierrez) romance. The same year, he had his breakthrough performance when he starred in the Metro Manila Film Festival official entry Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita as a transgender woman during World War II. In this film he received his first acting award as Best Supporting Actor in the 30th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Following this recognition, he received five more Best Actor trophies from the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Golden Screen Awards and the Young Critics Circle. He was also included in the third installment of Mano Po.
The following year, 2005, Trillo officially became a leading man when he was paired with Angel Locsin in the television adaptation of the iconic superhero Darna. He also starred in an afternoon family drama Now and Forever: Agos where he received a Best Drama Actor nomination from PMPC Star Awards for TV. That same year, he reprised his role for Mulawin: The Movie, and appeared in the film Blue Moon.
2006–2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut
In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband".
Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo.
On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the Battle of Mactan play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna.
Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love.
2011–present: GMA's Drama King; My Husband's Lover
In 2011, Trillo appeared in the romantic-fantasy series Dwarfina where he teamed-up with Heart Evangelista. After playing the lead role in the Philippine adaptation of Temptation of Wife, Trillo lead his most controversial role to date as Eric del Mundo in his second International Emmy nominee drama series My Husband's Lover where he received one acting award from two nominations and a commendation from Asian TV Awards.
After the success of the series, the cast of My Husband's Lover held a concert at Araneta Coliseum named "One More Try: My Husband's Lover The Concert". The same year, Trillo and his screen partner Tom Rodriguez released their album titled TomDen, which is now a certified Platinum record according to the PARI with over 15,000 copies sold.
In 2014, he top-billed the Primetime drama series Hiram na Alaala with Kapuso actress Kris Bernal. He also had a weekly medical drama with Bela Padilla entitled Sa Puso ni Dok under GMA News & Public Affairs department. Trillo visited ABS-CBN via his guesting in Kris TV to promote his 2015 movie You're Still The One alongside Maja Salvador, Ellen Adarna and Richard Yap under Regal Entertainment Inc. and Star Cinema. The same year, Trillo launched his first VIVA Films movie, Felix Manalo where he received a Movie Actor of the Year award from PMPC Star Awards for Movies.
After doing several heavy drama soap operas, Trillo starred in a light drama series with Heart Evangelista, Juan Happy Love Story.
Discography
Studio albums
TomDen (2013, GMA Records) (PARI: Platinum)
Dennis Trillo (2007, IndiMusic)
Singles
"Overdrive" (Lakbay 2 love theme song with Solenn Heussaff) (2016)
"Sa Iyo na Lang Ako" (Hiram na Alaala theme song) (2014)
"Tibok ng Puso" (Sa Puso ni Dok theme song) (2014)
"Kailan Man" (A 100-Year Legacy theme song) (2014)
"Forever" (with Tom Rodriguez) (2014)
"Hinahanap-Hanap Kita" (Adik Sa'Yo theme song) (2009)
"Lumilipad" (2007)
"All About Love" (2007)
Compilation albums
Seasons of Love (2014, GMA Records)
Track 6: "Tibok ng Puso"
Filmography
Television
Television series
Television shows
Drama anthologies
TV specials
Film
Accolades
References
External links
Dennis Trillo - GMA homepage
1981 births
Living people
Filipino male television actors
Filipino male film actors
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
21st-century Filipino male actors
Filipino television personalities
21st-century Filipino male singers
Filipino male models
Filipino male comedians
People from Quezon City
Male actors from Metro Manila
Star Magic Batch 10
Sparkle GMA Artist Center
Filipino people of Chinese descent
Miriam College alumni
GMA Network personalities
GMA Music artists
Viva Artists Agency | false | [
"GMA Music (formerly known as Infiniti Music and GMA Records) is a subsidiary of GMA Network Inc. and is engaged in the production, marketing and distribution of music and concerts. GMA Music is a member of PARI and has the distinction of having two Diamond Record awards in the highly competitive music scene.\n\nCurrent local artists\nMale\nAlden Richards\nAnthony Rosaldo\nBryan Chong\nDerrick Monasterio\nGarrett Bolden\nJeric Gonzales\nJong Madaliday\nKen Chan\nKristofer Martin\nMigo Adecer\nNar Cabico\nPsalms David\nRuru Madrid\n\nFemale\nAngel Guardian\nArra San Agustin \nBianca Umali\nGolden Cañedo\nHannah Precillas\nJessica Villarubin\nJillian Ward\nKyline Alcantara\nKyryll\nMaricris Garcia\nMikee Misalucha\nMikee Quintos\nMirriam Manalo\nPrincess Velasco \nRoxanne Miranda \nXOXO\n\nFormer artists\n 3LOGY (2015–2016)\n Aicelle Santos (2005–2014)\n Gerald Santos (2006–2011)\n Dingdong Avanzado (1996–1999)\n Frencheska Farr (2009–2016)\n Geoff Taylor (2009–2011)\n James Wright (2013–2016)\n Janno Gibbs (2004–2018)\n Jaya (2007–2011)\n Jessa Zaragoza (2012–2014)\n Jolina Magdangal (2004–2009)\n Jona (2005–2013)\n Julie Anne San Jose (2012–2017)\n Kitchie Nadal (2007–2008)\n Kris Lawrence (2012–2014)\n One Up (2016–2020)\n Sunshine Cruz (1999)\n The Tux\n Yasmien Kurdi (2005–2008)\n\nCompilations of GMA Music\n All About Love (2009)\n Isang Kinabukasan: A Kapuso Benefit Album (collaboration with GMA Kapuso Foundation) (2007)\n Tunog Kapuso: The Best of GMA TV Themes Vol. 1 (2005)\n Metropop Song Festival compilation album (1996–2002)\n Mga Awit Kapuso Vol. 5 (2008)\n Mga Awit Mula Sa Puso: The Best of GMA TV Themes Vol. 2 (2006)\n Mga Awit ng Kapuso: The Best of GMA TV Themes Vol. 3 (2007)\n Mga Awiting Kapuso: Best of GMA TV Soundtracks Vol. 4 (2008)\n Mga Awit Mula Sa Puso: The Best of GMA TV Themes Vol. 6 (2013)\n Mga Awit Kapuso Volume 7 (2016)\n Kapuso Sa Pasko: The GMA Records All Star Christmas Album (2005)\n Pinoy Pop Superstar Grand Contender Vol. 1 (2005)\n Pinoy Pop Superstar Grand Contender Vol. 2 (2006)\n Pinoy Pop Superstar Grand Contender Vol. 3 (2007)\n Seasons of Love: The Best of Mga Awit Kapuso Vol. 7 (2014)\n The Best Of Mga Awit Kapuso (2009)\n Awit Kapuso: Kay Sarap Maging Kapuso (2011)\n Take1: The Best Of Awit Kapuso Originals (2013)\n\nMovie soundtracks on GMA Music\n Mulawin The Movie Soundtrack (2005)\n Lovestruck (2008) \n Moments Of Love (2006)\n Pers Lab: The Music of First Time (2010)\n Tween Academy: Class of 2012 (Official Movie Soundtrack) (2011)\n\nGMA Records Home Video\n\nMovies and TV movies\nSome movies are released with GMA Films partners (most being Regal Entertainment or Viva Films) but the following are solely released by GMA Records Home Video:\n\nTV series\n\nDiscography\n\nGallery\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n \nPhilippine record labels\nPop record labels\nRecord labels established in 1995\nRecord labels established in 2003\nRecord labels established in 2019\nCompanies based in Quezon City\nEntertainment companies of the Philippines\nPhilippine music\nPhilippine companies established in 1995\nPhilippine companies established in 2003\nPhilippine companies established in 2019",
"GMA Kapuso Foundation Inc. (formerly Bisig Bayan Foundation and GMA Foundation) is a socio-civic organization organized by GMA Network Inc. to facilitate social programs and outreach to the public.\n\nSince it was founded in 1991, GMA Kapuso Foundation has been touching the lives of communities everywhere. Its projects help uplift the life of countless beneficiaries.\n\nImplemented singly or in partnership with other agencies, the foundation's thrusts are focused on helping and supporting impoverished families, needy children, calamity victims, prisoners and ex-prisoners, aspiring singers and songwriters, including dependents of GMA employees.\n\nProjects\n\nHealth \n Bisig Bayan Medical Assistance (BB)\n Kalusugan Karavan (KK)\n\nEducation \n Kapuso School Development (KSD) Project\n Unang Hakbang sa Kinabukasan (UHSK)\n\nDisaster Relief \n Operation Bayanihan (OpsBay)\n\nValues Formation \n Kapuso ng Kalikasan (KNK) Project\n Sagip Dugtong Buhay\n Give-A-Gift: Alay sa Batang Pinoy\n\nAwards\n\n53rd Anvil Awards \n\n Silver Anvil Award (Public Relations Tools – Publications category): \n‘20 Years of Serbisyong Totoo: The GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc. 2016 Annual Report’\n Silver Anvil Award (Public Relations Tools: Multimedia/Digital Online Video/Online News): \n‘Kapuso Para sa Kawal Project,’ Layong Matulungan ang mga Sundalong Lumalaban sa Marawi\n Silver Anvil Award (Public Relations Tools: Multimedia/Digital Online Video/Online News):\nRebuild Marawi MTV\n\n52nd Anvil Awards \n\n Silver Anvil Award (Public Relations Tools – Publications category):\nEmpowering the Youth: The GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc. 2015 Annual Report\n\n34th Agora Awards\n\n Outstanding Achievement In Advocacy Marketing\nGMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.\n\nPhilippine Quill Awards \n\n Merit Award\nThe Worst of Times. The Best of Times: The GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc. 2009 Annual Report\n\n45th Anvil Awards \n Anvil Award of Excellence\nGMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc. Annual Report\n\nReferences \n\nGMA Network (company)\nFoundations based in the Philippines\nOrganizations established in 1991\n1991 establishments in the Philippines"
]
|
[
"Dennis Trillo",
"2006-2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut",
"What is Kapuso?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_494eb3090880475a9b84ecc703d90e09_0 | When did he make his music debut? | 2 | When did Dennis Trillo make his music debut? | Dennis Trillo | In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband". Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo. On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the "Battle of Mactan" play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna. Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love. CANNOTANSWER | he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband". | Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho (born 12 May 1981), widely known as Dennis Trillo, is a Filipino actor, model and recording artist. He is currently a contract star of GMA Network. He was known for his role as Eric del Mundo in the first ever gay-themed series on Philippine TV, My Husband's Lover aired on GMA Network in 2013.
Trillo received his first acting award in 2004 for his role as a cross-dressing spy in the 2004 war film Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita. In April 2016, he appeared in another primetime television series, Juan Happy Love Story, opposite his Dwarfina leading lady Heart Evangelista.
Now being recognized both locally and internationally, he still continues to work as GMA Network's "Drama King".
Personal life
Trillo was born on May 12, 1981, in Quezon City to Florita Florencio Ho, a Filipino, and Abelardo Leslie Ho, a Chinese Filipino from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. He finished high school at Jose Abad Santos Memorial School, Quezon City and spent his grade school years (grades 1–7) at the Ateneo De Manila University. He pursued a college education at Miriam College and received a B.A. in International Studies.
He has a son with his ex-girlfriend Carlene Aguilar, born in 2007.
In 2021, he married his longtime girlfriend Jennylyn Mercado.
Career
Early years
Prior to starting his career in show business, Trillo was once a member of a band called Moyg. For a short period, he played the drums for the DIY band in Baguio. His career in entertainment started in ABS-CBN in 2001 when he was introduced as part of ABS-CBN's Star Circle (now known as Star Magic) batch 10 along with Bea Alonzo, Alfred Vargas and TJ Trinidad. He took part in ABS-CBN's hit television soap operas Pangako Sa 'Yo as Ruel and Sa Dulo Ng Walang Hanggan as Jojo; both were minor characters.
2003–2005: Breakthrough as Kapuso
After transferring to GMA Network and becoming a contract star, he landed his first role for the network in the youth-oriented drama Kahit Kailan where he played a supporting character named David. He was also cast in several outings like Twin Hearts and Love to Love.
In 2004, he had his first main character role in the fantasy show Mulawin. He played Gabriel, a half-human and half-Ravena who became the third wheel in Alwina (Angel Locsin) and Agiluz (Richard Gutierrez) romance. The same year, he had his breakthrough performance when he starred in the Metro Manila Film Festival official entry Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita as a transgender woman during World War II. In this film he received his first acting award as Best Supporting Actor in the 30th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Following this recognition, he received five more Best Actor trophies from the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Golden Screen Awards and the Young Critics Circle. He was also included in the third installment of Mano Po.
The following year, 2005, Trillo officially became a leading man when he was paired with Angel Locsin in the television adaptation of the iconic superhero Darna. He also starred in an afternoon family drama Now and Forever: Agos where he received a Best Drama Actor nomination from PMPC Star Awards for TV. That same year, he reprised his role for Mulawin: The Movie, and appeared in the film Blue Moon.
2006–2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut
In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband".
Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo.
On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the Battle of Mactan play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna.
Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love.
2011–present: GMA's Drama King; My Husband's Lover
In 2011, Trillo appeared in the romantic-fantasy series Dwarfina where he teamed-up with Heart Evangelista. After playing the lead role in the Philippine adaptation of Temptation of Wife, Trillo lead his most controversial role to date as Eric del Mundo in his second International Emmy nominee drama series My Husband's Lover where he received one acting award from two nominations and a commendation from Asian TV Awards.
After the success of the series, the cast of My Husband's Lover held a concert at Araneta Coliseum named "One More Try: My Husband's Lover The Concert". The same year, Trillo and his screen partner Tom Rodriguez released their album titled TomDen, which is now a certified Platinum record according to the PARI with over 15,000 copies sold.
In 2014, he top-billed the Primetime drama series Hiram na Alaala with Kapuso actress Kris Bernal. He also had a weekly medical drama with Bela Padilla entitled Sa Puso ni Dok under GMA News & Public Affairs department. Trillo visited ABS-CBN via his guesting in Kris TV to promote his 2015 movie You're Still The One alongside Maja Salvador, Ellen Adarna and Richard Yap under Regal Entertainment Inc. and Star Cinema. The same year, Trillo launched his first VIVA Films movie, Felix Manalo where he received a Movie Actor of the Year award from PMPC Star Awards for Movies.
After doing several heavy drama soap operas, Trillo starred in a light drama series with Heart Evangelista, Juan Happy Love Story.
Discography
Studio albums
TomDen (2013, GMA Records) (PARI: Platinum)
Dennis Trillo (2007, IndiMusic)
Singles
"Overdrive" (Lakbay 2 love theme song with Solenn Heussaff) (2016)
"Sa Iyo na Lang Ako" (Hiram na Alaala theme song) (2014)
"Tibok ng Puso" (Sa Puso ni Dok theme song) (2014)
"Kailan Man" (A 100-Year Legacy theme song) (2014)
"Forever" (with Tom Rodriguez) (2014)
"Hinahanap-Hanap Kita" (Adik Sa'Yo theme song) (2009)
"Lumilipad" (2007)
"All About Love" (2007)
Compilation albums
Seasons of Love (2014, GMA Records)
Track 6: "Tibok ng Puso"
Filmography
Television
Television series
Television shows
Drama anthologies
TV specials
Film
Accolades
References
External links
Dennis Trillo - GMA homepage
1981 births
Living people
Filipino male television actors
Filipino male film actors
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
21st-century Filipino male actors
Filipino television personalities
21st-century Filipino male singers
Filipino male models
Filipino male comedians
People from Quezon City
Male actors from Metro Manila
Star Magic Batch 10
Sparkle GMA Artist Center
Filipino people of Chinese descent
Miriam College alumni
GMA Network personalities
GMA Music artists
Viva Artists Agency | true | [
"\"Make Me Crazy\" is the second and final single by Scandal'us from their debut album Startin' Somethin'. It did not live up to the success of their debut single, \"Me, Myself & I\", only managing to debut and peak at No. 30 on the Australian ARIA Charts. This was the last release from the band before they broke up in 2002.\n\nTrack listing\n Maxi Single\n \"Make Me Crazy\" (3:15)\n \"Make Me Crazy\" (Crazy Nights Mix) (3:30)\n \"Make Me Crazy\" (Wired Meshmix)\t(3:26)\n \"Make Me Crazy\" (KCB Klubbmix) (3:34)\n \"Make Me Crazy\" (Karaoke Mix) (3:17)\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2001 singles\nWarner Music Group singles\n2001 songs",
"Ciipher () is a South Korean boy group created by South Korean singer Rain under R.A.I.N. Company. The group consists of Tan, Hwi, Hyunbin, Keita, Tag, Dohwan and Won. The group debuted on March 15, 2021, with the extended play (EP) I Like You.\n\nHistory\n\nPre-debut\nPreparation for the debut of the group has been three years in the making. About selecting the members for the first group signed under his R.A.I.N company, Rain said, \"There were a lot of factors involved in the process of making Ciipher, but when I met these kids, I felt like I could bet it all on them. Not just my time or my skill, but all the things I had and have made. Whether the group has good results or not, I don't think I'll regret the things that I gave to this group. That's how talented and well-mannered they are\".\n\nPrior to joining the group, many of the members had auditioned on popular television programs or trained at other major labels. In December 2014, Tan competed in Mnet's survival reality show, No.Mercy under his birth name Choi Seok-won. However, he did not make it into the final lineup of the boy group, Monsta X in 2015. Keita and Dohwan were former contestants on YG's Treasure Box, but they both did not make it into the show's final debut lineup. Won was a contestant on Under Nineteen under his birth name Park Sung-won. He became a member of the debut lineup as he finished in 7th place. Won debuted as a member of 1the9 on April 13, 2019, and the group officially disbanded as a group on August 8, 2020. Hyunbin was a former contestant on Produce X 101 under Starship Entertainment, and was eliminated on episode 8, finishing in 32nd place.\n\n2021–present: Debut with I Like You and Blind\nOn December 12, 2020, Rain announced Ciipher would debut with their first mini album I Like You on March 15, 2021.\n\nOn September 28, 2021, Ciipher released their second mini album Blind.\n\nMembers\nAdapted from their Naver profile and website profile.\n\n Tan (탄)\n Hwi (휘)\n Hyunbin (현빈) – leader\n Keita (케이타)\n Tag (태그)\n Dohwan (도환)\n Won (원)\n\nDiscography\n\nExtended plays\n\nSingles\n\nVideography\n\nMusic videos\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2021 establishments in South Korea\nMusical groups from Seoul\nK-pop music groups\nMusical groups established in 2021\nSouth Korean dance music groups\nSouth Korean boy bands"
]
|
[
"Dennis Trillo",
"2006-2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut",
"What is Kapuso?",
"I don't know.",
"When did he make his music debut?",
"he also played drums as part of the show's \"Starband\"."
]
| C_494eb3090880475a9b84ecc703d90e09_0 | What show? | 3 | What show did Dennis Trillo play drums at? | Dennis Trillo | In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband". Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo. On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the "Battle of Mactan" play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna. Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love. CANNOTANSWER | SOP | Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho (born 12 May 1981), widely known as Dennis Trillo, is a Filipino actor, model and recording artist. He is currently a contract star of GMA Network. He was known for his role as Eric del Mundo in the first ever gay-themed series on Philippine TV, My Husband's Lover aired on GMA Network in 2013.
Trillo received his first acting award in 2004 for his role as a cross-dressing spy in the 2004 war film Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita. In April 2016, he appeared in another primetime television series, Juan Happy Love Story, opposite his Dwarfina leading lady Heart Evangelista.
Now being recognized both locally and internationally, he still continues to work as GMA Network's "Drama King".
Personal life
Trillo was born on May 12, 1981, in Quezon City to Florita Florencio Ho, a Filipino, and Abelardo Leslie Ho, a Chinese Filipino from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. He finished high school at Jose Abad Santos Memorial School, Quezon City and spent his grade school years (grades 1–7) at the Ateneo De Manila University. He pursued a college education at Miriam College and received a B.A. in International Studies.
He has a son with his ex-girlfriend Carlene Aguilar, born in 2007.
In 2021, he married his longtime girlfriend Jennylyn Mercado.
Career
Early years
Prior to starting his career in show business, Trillo was once a member of a band called Moyg. For a short period, he played the drums for the DIY band in Baguio. His career in entertainment started in ABS-CBN in 2001 when he was introduced as part of ABS-CBN's Star Circle (now known as Star Magic) batch 10 along with Bea Alonzo, Alfred Vargas and TJ Trinidad. He took part in ABS-CBN's hit television soap operas Pangako Sa 'Yo as Ruel and Sa Dulo Ng Walang Hanggan as Jojo; both were minor characters.
2003–2005: Breakthrough as Kapuso
After transferring to GMA Network and becoming a contract star, he landed his first role for the network in the youth-oriented drama Kahit Kailan where he played a supporting character named David. He was also cast in several outings like Twin Hearts and Love to Love.
In 2004, he had his first main character role in the fantasy show Mulawin. He played Gabriel, a half-human and half-Ravena who became the third wheel in Alwina (Angel Locsin) and Agiluz (Richard Gutierrez) romance. The same year, he had his breakthrough performance when he starred in the Metro Manila Film Festival official entry Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita as a transgender woman during World War II. In this film he received his first acting award as Best Supporting Actor in the 30th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Following this recognition, he received five more Best Actor trophies from the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Golden Screen Awards and the Young Critics Circle. He was also included in the third installment of Mano Po.
The following year, 2005, Trillo officially became a leading man when he was paired with Angel Locsin in the television adaptation of the iconic superhero Darna. He also starred in an afternoon family drama Now and Forever: Agos where he received a Best Drama Actor nomination from PMPC Star Awards for TV. That same year, he reprised his role for Mulawin: The Movie, and appeared in the film Blue Moon.
2006–2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut
In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband".
Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo.
On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the Battle of Mactan play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna.
Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love.
2011–present: GMA's Drama King; My Husband's Lover
In 2011, Trillo appeared in the romantic-fantasy series Dwarfina where he teamed-up with Heart Evangelista. After playing the lead role in the Philippine adaptation of Temptation of Wife, Trillo lead his most controversial role to date as Eric del Mundo in his second International Emmy nominee drama series My Husband's Lover where he received one acting award from two nominations and a commendation from Asian TV Awards.
After the success of the series, the cast of My Husband's Lover held a concert at Araneta Coliseum named "One More Try: My Husband's Lover The Concert". The same year, Trillo and his screen partner Tom Rodriguez released their album titled TomDen, which is now a certified Platinum record according to the PARI with over 15,000 copies sold.
In 2014, he top-billed the Primetime drama series Hiram na Alaala with Kapuso actress Kris Bernal. He also had a weekly medical drama with Bela Padilla entitled Sa Puso ni Dok under GMA News & Public Affairs department. Trillo visited ABS-CBN via his guesting in Kris TV to promote his 2015 movie You're Still The One alongside Maja Salvador, Ellen Adarna and Richard Yap under Regal Entertainment Inc. and Star Cinema. The same year, Trillo launched his first VIVA Films movie, Felix Manalo where he received a Movie Actor of the Year award from PMPC Star Awards for Movies.
After doing several heavy drama soap operas, Trillo starred in a light drama series with Heart Evangelista, Juan Happy Love Story.
Discography
Studio albums
TomDen (2013, GMA Records) (PARI: Platinum)
Dennis Trillo (2007, IndiMusic)
Singles
"Overdrive" (Lakbay 2 love theme song with Solenn Heussaff) (2016)
"Sa Iyo na Lang Ako" (Hiram na Alaala theme song) (2014)
"Tibok ng Puso" (Sa Puso ni Dok theme song) (2014)
"Kailan Man" (A 100-Year Legacy theme song) (2014)
"Forever" (with Tom Rodriguez) (2014)
"Hinahanap-Hanap Kita" (Adik Sa'Yo theme song) (2009)
"Lumilipad" (2007)
"All About Love" (2007)
Compilation albums
Seasons of Love (2014, GMA Records)
Track 6: "Tibok ng Puso"
Filmography
Television
Television series
Television shows
Drama anthologies
TV specials
Film
Accolades
References
External links
Dennis Trillo - GMA homepage
1981 births
Living people
Filipino male television actors
Filipino male film actors
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
21st-century Filipino male actors
Filipino television personalities
21st-century Filipino male singers
Filipino male models
Filipino male comedians
People from Quezon City
Male actors from Metro Manila
Star Magic Batch 10
Sparkle GMA Artist Center
Filipino people of Chinese descent
Miriam College alumni
GMA Network personalities
GMA Music artists
Viva Artists Agency | true | [
"Guess What may refer to:\n Guess What (Canadian game show), a 1983–1987 Canadian game show that aired on CTV\n Guess What (U.S. game show), a 1952 American game show that aired on DuMont network\n \"Guess What\" (song), a song by Syleena Johnson\n Guess What? a 1990 picture book for children",
"What's the Story was a DuMont Television Network game show (1951-1955), and it also may refer to:\n\n (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, an album by Oasis\n Hey Tony! What's the Story?, an American pornographic movie\n Kevin Bridges: What's the Story?, a British television programme\n \"What's the Story in Balamory\", the theme tune to British children's television show Balamory\n What's The Story? a topical radio panel show made by Tidy Productions for BBC Radio Wales, hosted by Tom Price"
]
|
[
"Dennis Trillo",
"2006-2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut",
"What is Kapuso?",
"I don't know.",
"When did he make his music debut?",
"he also played drums as part of the show's \"Starband\".",
"What show?",
"SOP"
]
| C_494eb3090880475a9b84ecc703d90e09_0 | What else did he do in SOP? | 4 | What else did Dennis Trillo do in SOP besides playing drums? | Dennis Trillo | In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband". Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo. On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the "Battle of Mactan" play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna. Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love. CANNOTANSWER | co-host | Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho (born 12 May 1981), widely known as Dennis Trillo, is a Filipino actor, model and recording artist. He is currently a contract star of GMA Network. He was known for his role as Eric del Mundo in the first ever gay-themed series on Philippine TV, My Husband's Lover aired on GMA Network in 2013.
Trillo received his first acting award in 2004 for his role as a cross-dressing spy in the 2004 war film Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita. In April 2016, he appeared in another primetime television series, Juan Happy Love Story, opposite his Dwarfina leading lady Heart Evangelista.
Now being recognized both locally and internationally, he still continues to work as GMA Network's "Drama King".
Personal life
Trillo was born on May 12, 1981, in Quezon City to Florita Florencio Ho, a Filipino, and Abelardo Leslie Ho, a Chinese Filipino from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. He finished high school at Jose Abad Santos Memorial School, Quezon City and spent his grade school years (grades 1–7) at the Ateneo De Manila University. He pursued a college education at Miriam College and received a B.A. in International Studies.
He has a son with his ex-girlfriend Carlene Aguilar, born in 2007.
In 2021, he married his longtime girlfriend Jennylyn Mercado.
Career
Early years
Prior to starting his career in show business, Trillo was once a member of a band called Moyg. For a short period, he played the drums for the DIY band in Baguio. His career in entertainment started in ABS-CBN in 2001 when he was introduced as part of ABS-CBN's Star Circle (now known as Star Magic) batch 10 along with Bea Alonzo, Alfred Vargas and TJ Trinidad. He took part in ABS-CBN's hit television soap operas Pangako Sa 'Yo as Ruel and Sa Dulo Ng Walang Hanggan as Jojo; both were minor characters.
2003–2005: Breakthrough as Kapuso
After transferring to GMA Network and becoming a contract star, he landed his first role for the network in the youth-oriented drama Kahit Kailan where he played a supporting character named David. He was also cast in several outings like Twin Hearts and Love to Love.
In 2004, he had his first main character role in the fantasy show Mulawin. He played Gabriel, a half-human and half-Ravena who became the third wheel in Alwina (Angel Locsin) and Agiluz (Richard Gutierrez) romance. The same year, he had his breakthrough performance when he starred in the Metro Manila Film Festival official entry Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita as a transgender woman during World War II. In this film he received his first acting award as Best Supporting Actor in the 30th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Following this recognition, he received five more Best Actor trophies from the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Golden Screen Awards and the Young Critics Circle. He was also included in the third installment of Mano Po.
The following year, 2005, Trillo officially became a leading man when he was paired with Angel Locsin in the television adaptation of the iconic superhero Darna. He also starred in an afternoon family drama Now and Forever: Agos where he received a Best Drama Actor nomination from PMPC Star Awards for TV. That same year, he reprised his role for Mulawin: The Movie, and appeared in the film Blue Moon.
2006–2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut
In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband".
Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo.
On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the Battle of Mactan play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna.
Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love.
2011–present: GMA's Drama King; My Husband's Lover
In 2011, Trillo appeared in the romantic-fantasy series Dwarfina where he teamed-up with Heart Evangelista. After playing the lead role in the Philippine adaptation of Temptation of Wife, Trillo lead his most controversial role to date as Eric del Mundo in his second International Emmy nominee drama series My Husband's Lover where he received one acting award from two nominations and a commendation from Asian TV Awards.
After the success of the series, the cast of My Husband's Lover held a concert at Araneta Coliseum named "One More Try: My Husband's Lover The Concert". The same year, Trillo and his screen partner Tom Rodriguez released their album titled TomDen, which is now a certified Platinum record according to the PARI with over 15,000 copies sold.
In 2014, he top-billed the Primetime drama series Hiram na Alaala with Kapuso actress Kris Bernal. He also had a weekly medical drama with Bela Padilla entitled Sa Puso ni Dok under GMA News & Public Affairs department. Trillo visited ABS-CBN via his guesting in Kris TV to promote his 2015 movie You're Still The One alongside Maja Salvador, Ellen Adarna and Richard Yap under Regal Entertainment Inc. and Star Cinema. The same year, Trillo launched his first VIVA Films movie, Felix Manalo where he received a Movie Actor of the Year award from PMPC Star Awards for Movies.
After doing several heavy drama soap operas, Trillo starred in a light drama series with Heart Evangelista, Juan Happy Love Story.
Discography
Studio albums
TomDen (2013, GMA Records) (PARI: Platinum)
Dennis Trillo (2007, IndiMusic)
Singles
"Overdrive" (Lakbay 2 love theme song with Solenn Heussaff) (2016)
"Sa Iyo na Lang Ako" (Hiram na Alaala theme song) (2014)
"Tibok ng Puso" (Sa Puso ni Dok theme song) (2014)
"Kailan Man" (A 100-Year Legacy theme song) (2014)
"Forever" (with Tom Rodriguez) (2014)
"Hinahanap-Hanap Kita" (Adik Sa'Yo theme song) (2009)
"Lumilipad" (2007)
"All About Love" (2007)
Compilation albums
Seasons of Love (2014, GMA Records)
Track 6: "Tibok ng Puso"
Filmography
Television
Television series
Television shows
Drama anthologies
TV specials
Film
Accolades
References
External links
Dennis Trillo - GMA homepage
1981 births
Living people
Filipino male television actors
Filipino male film actors
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
21st-century Filipino male actors
Filipino television personalities
21st-century Filipino male singers
Filipino male models
Filipino male comedians
People from Quezon City
Male actors from Metro Manila
Star Magic Batch 10
Sparkle GMA Artist Center
Filipino people of Chinese descent
Miriam College alumni
GMA Network personalities
GMA Music artists
Viva Artists Agency | true | [
"The Night Owls (also known as the \"Owls\") is the oldest continuous women’s and genderqueer a cappella group in the United Stated. Formed in 1942, they are Vassar College's oldest a cappella group. The Night Owls are a soprano/alto jazz ensemble that performs a range of music from jazz standards to current pop hits to indie-folk music.\n\nHistory \n\nThe Night Owls perform in all-black to honor the tradition of the group's founding. In the midst of a polio outbreak in 1942, sixteen intrepid students escaped from their quarantined dorms, dressed in all black, and snuck into the library basement at night. There, they prepared to serenade sick classmates with their dulcet tones.\n\nPerformance History \n\nThe group performs many times throughout Vassar's academic year including at final concerts in December and May, local fundraisers, joint concerts with other Vassar and non-Vassar a cappella groups, and Vassar events. More information about gigs can be found on their website and Facebook page.\n\nIn 1996 The Night Owls performed as the opening act for Hillary Clinton when she spoke at Vassar College. Following that performance the group was invited to sing at the inauguration of the 42nd President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, in January 1997. That same year, The Night Owls competed in the semi-finals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) at Haverford College. While they did not move onto the finals at Lincoln Center in New York City, then musical director Amanda Weeden ‘97 won “Best Soloist” for her performance of Captain and Tennille's “Love Will Keep Us Together,” beating out the University of Pennsylvania Counterparts’ soloist John Stephens, better known today as EGOT winner John Legend.\n\nIn 2001 The Night Owls appeared in an episode of Comedy Central Presents featuring Zach Galifianakis singing Eternal Flame by The Bangles.\n\nDiscography \n Night & Day (1993, with The Accidentals)\n On The Air (1995)\n After Dark (1997)\n All-Nighter\n Relax \n Constellation\n\nCurrent members\n\nAlexandra Ashworth (Alto) '22\nTessa Hyatt (Sop. 1&2) '22\nGracie Nayman (Bass) '22\nMadison Maiella (Sop. 1) '23\nMaya Wilson (Sop. 1) '23\nKatie Gebbia (Alto) ‘24\nMargot Gordiner (Sop. 2) ‘24\nKatie Reisig (Bass) ‘24\nTori Kim (Sop. 2) ‘25\nIzabelle Korman (Bass) ‘25\nTalia Mayo (Sop. 1) ‘25\n\nPast Members Include\n\n Meryl Streep ‘71\n Eliza Ruth Watson (Sop. 1) '05\n Anne Harris (Bass) ‘99\n Laurie Pessah (Sop. 2) ‘99\n Carolyn Schneyer (Alto) ‘98\n Samantha Beadel (Sop. 1) ‘98\n Mikie Benedict (Sop. 2) ‘97\n Amanda Weeden (Alto) ‘97\n Jeslyn Kelly (Sop. 1) ‘97\n Emily Wolper (Sop. 1) ‘97\n Chelsea Dolinar-Hikawa (Sop. 2) ‘97\n Meribeth Nishan (Alto) ‘97\n Emily Wilemon (Sop. 1) ‘96\n Brook Moshan (Sop. 2) ‘95\n Alicia Cervini (Alto 1) ‘95\n Yasmina Zaidman (Alto 1) ‘95\n Erin Cohen (Alto 2) '95\n Alexis Kessler (Sop. 1) '95\n Becky Berman (Sop. 2) '94\n Chelsea Hadley (Sop. 1) '93\n Becca Lewison (Sop. 2) '93\n Emmy Laybourne (Alto 2) '93\n Suzanne Hamill (Alto/Sop. 2) ‘92\n Emma Robinson (Sop. 2) '20\n Lindsey Sample (Alto) '20\n Ariana Smith (Alto) '20\n Sabrina Stacks (Sop. 2) '20\n Alexa Elias (Sop. 1) '21\n Helen Johnson (Bass) '21\n Maisha Lakri (Alto) '21\n Elena Rey (Bass) '21\n Delila Ames (Sop. 2) (2018-2020)\n Eloise Allen-Bowton (Sop. 2) (2019-2020) \n Cameron Saltsman (Bass) '23 (2019-2020)\n Jacqui Anders (Sop. 1) '19\n Zoë Bracken (Alto) '19\n Haley Cubell (Bass) '19\n Olivia Lederman (Sop. 1) '19\n Alyssa Vilela (Sop. 2) '19\n Bailey Kenny (Sop. 2) '18\n Lily Kitfield (Bass) '18\n Chiara Mannarino (Bass) '18\n Imani Russel (Alto) '18\n Brianna Lear (Alto) '17\n Hildegard Wulf (Sop. 1) '17\n Cyndi Bonacum (Sop. 1) '16\n Brielle Brook (Sop. 2) '16\n Alex Moulton (Alto) '16\n Aubrey Hays (Sop. 1) ‘15\n Taylor Dalton (Bass) ‘15\n Akaina Ghosh (Alto) ‘15\n Madison Wetzell (Alto) ‘15\n Yamilette Suanny Vizcaino (Sop. 1) ‘15\n Anna Been (Alto) '14\n Charlotte Candau (Sop. 2) '14\n Hannah Ellman (Bass) '14\n Emily Nash (Sop. 2) ‘13\n\nCurrent Arrangements (Covers)\n\n Back Pocket Vulfpeck\n Back to Black Amy Winehouse\n Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen The Andrews Sisters\n Billy-A-Dick Bette Midler\n Body Sinead Harnett\n Bring on the Men Jekyll & Hyde (musical)\n A Case of You Joni Mitchell\n Crazy In Love Beyoncé\n Don't Think Twice, It's All Right Bob Dylan\n Dream a Little Dream of Me\n Helplessly Hoping Crosby, Stills & Nash\n Hit the Road Jack Ray Charles\n Hotel Song Regina Spektor\n Fever Peggy Lee\n I Get a Kick Out of You Cole Porter\n Landslide Fleetwood Mac\n Love Will Keep Us Together Captain & Tennille\n Me and Mrs. Jones Billy Paul\n Moon River\n Moondance Van Morrison\n Night and Day Cole Porter\n Plain Gold Ring Kimbra\n Runaround Sue Dion DiMucci\n Runnin' Wild (1922 song)\n Saving Ourselves for Yale\n See Saw Aretha Franklin\n Sexy Silk Jessie J\n Sleepwalker Emily King\n Stop Your Crying Lake Street Dive\n Sweet Dreams Joseph (band)\n That Lonesome Road James Taylor\n Tracks of My Tears The Miracles\n Trickle, Trickle The Videos (Musical group)\n Unchain My Heart Ray Charles\n Up The Ladder to the Roof The Supremes\n Wildewoman Lucius (band)\n\nReferences\n\n12. ^ https://varsityvocals.com/results-page/?fwp_year=1997\n\nExternal links\nhttps://twitter.com/vassarnightowls\nhttps://www.youtube.com/user/vassarnightowls\n\nVassar College\nCollegiate a cappella groups\nWomen in New York (state)\nMusical groups from New York (state)",
"Sop, a piece of bread soaked in a liquid, or the verb associated with soaking bread in liquid.\n\nSOP or sop may also refer to:\n\nPlaces\n Sop (West Papua), an island in Indonesian Papua\n Moore County Airport (North Carolina) (IATA code: SOP)\n Sop town\n\nArts, entertainment, and media\n SOP (variety show) in the Philippines\n Sons of the Patriots, a network in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots\n\nComputing\n Same-origin policy, a security measure\n SCSI over PCI Express\n Service-oriented programming\n Service-oriented provisioning\n\nProcess and planning\n Sales and operations planning, S&OP\n Standard operating procedure\n\nScience, medicine, technology\n SOP (IRC), Super Operator\n Sensory organ precursor, for example in the NUMB gene\n Small outline package IC\n State of polarization in physics, for example \n Structure–organization–process\n Sulphate of potash (potassium sulfate)\n Sum of products\n\nOther uses\n Sop language, spoken in Papua New Guinea\n Statement of purpose\n\nSee also\n Sour sop, or soursop"
]
|
[
"Dennis Trillo",
"2006-2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut",
"What is Kapuso?",
"I don't know.",
"When did he make his music debut?",
"he also played drums as part of the show's \"Starband\".",
"What show?",
"SOP",
"What else did he do in SOP?",
"co-host"
]
| C_494eb3090880475a9b84ecc703d90e09_0 | Did he release any albums? | 5 | Did Dennis Trillo release any albums? | Dennis Trillo | In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband". Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo. On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the "Battle of Mactan" play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna. Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love. CANNOTANSWER | Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 | Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho (born 12 May 1981), widely known as Dennis Trillo, is a Filipino actor, model and recording artist. He is currently a contract star of GMA Network. He was known for his role as Eric del Mundo in the first ever gay-themed series on Philippine TV, My Husband's Lover aired on GMA Network in 2013.
Trillo received his first acting award in 2004 for his role as a cross-dressing spy in the 2004 war film Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita. In April 2016, he appeared in another primetime television series, Juan Happy Love Story, opposite his Dwarfina leading lady Heart Evangelista.
Now being recognized both locally and internationally, he still continues to work as GMA Network's "Drama King".
Personal life
Trillo was born on May 12, 1981, in Quezon City to Florita Florencio Ho, a Filipino, and Abelardo Leslie Ho, a Chinese Filipino from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. He finished high school at Jose Abad Santos Memorial School, Quezon City and spent his grade school years (grades 1–7) at the Ateneo De Manila University. He pursued a college education at Miriam College and received a B.A. in International Studies.
He has a son with his ex-girlfriend Carlene Aguilar, born in 2007.
In 2021, he married his longtime girlfriend Jennylyn Mercado.
Career
Early years
Prior to starting his career in show business, Trillo was once a member of a band called Moyg. For a short period, he played the drums for the DIY band in Baguio. His career in entertainment started in ABS-CBN in 2001 when he was introduced as part of ABS-CBN's Star Circle (now known as Star Magic) batch 10 along with Bea Alonzo, Alfred Vargas and TJ Trinidad. He took part in ABS-CBN's hit television soap operas Pangako Sa 'Yo as Ruel and Sa Dulo Ng Walang Hanggan as Jojo; both were minor characters.
2003–2005: Breakthrough as Kapuso
After transferring to GMA Network and becoming a contract star, he landed his first role for the network in the youth-oriented drama Kahit Kailan where he played a supporting character named David. He was also cast in several outings like Twin Hearts and Love to Love.
In 2004, he had his first main character role in the fantasy show Mulawin. He played Gabriel, a half-human and half-Ravena who became the third wheel in Alwina (Angel Locsin) and Agiluz (Richard Gutierrez) romance. The same year, he had his breakthrough performance when he starred in the Metro Manila Film Festival official entry Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita as a transgender woman during World War II. In this film he received his first acting award as Best Supporting Actor in the 30th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Following this recognition, he received five more Best Actor trophies from the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Golden Screen Awards and the Young Critics Circle. He was also included in the third installment of Mano Po.
The following year, 2005, Trillo officially became a leading man when he was paired with Angel Locsin in the television adaptation of the iconic superhero Darna. He also starred in an afternoon family drama Now and Forever: Agos where he received a Best Drama Actor nomination from PMPC Star Awards for TV. That same year, he reprised his role for Mulawin: The Movie, and appeared in the film Blue Moon.
2006–2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut
In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband".
Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo.
On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the Battle of Mactan play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna.
Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love.
2011–present: GMA's Drama King; My Husband's Lover
In 2011, Trillo appeared in the romantic-fantasy series Dwarfina where he teamed-up with Heart Evangelista. After playing the lead role in the Philippine adaptation of Temptation of Wife, Trillo lead his most controversial role to date as Eric del Mundo in his second International Emmy nominee drama series My Husband's Lover where he received one acting award from two nominations and a commendation from Asian TV Awards.
After the success of the series, the cast of My Husband's Lover held a concert at Araneta Coliseum named "One More Try: My Husband's Lover The Concert". The same year, Trillo and his screen partner Tom Rodriguez released their album titled TomDen, which is now a certified Platinum record according to the PARI with over 15,000 copies sold.
In 2014, he top-billed the Primetime drama series Hiram na Alaala with Kapuso actress Kris Bernal. He also had a weekly medical drama with Bela Padilla entitled Sa Puso ni Dok under GMA News & Public Affairs department. Trillo visited ABS-CBN via his guesting in Kris TV to promote his 2015 movie You're Still The One alongside Maja Salvador, Ellen Adarna and Richard Yap under Regal Entertainment Inc. and Star Cinema. The same year, Trillo launched his first VIVA Films movie, Felix Manalo where he received a Movie Actor of the Year award from PMPC Star Awards for Movies.
After doing several heavy drama soap operas, Trillo starred in a light drama series with Heart Evangelista, Juan Happy Love Story.
Discography
Studio albums
TomDen (2013, GMA Records) (PARI: Platinum)
Dennis Trillo (2007, IndiMusic)
Singles
"Overdrive" (Lakbay 2 love theme song with Solenn Heussaff) (2016)
"Sa Iyo na Lang Ako" (Hiram na Alaala theme song) (2014)
"Tibok ng Puso" (Sa Puso ni Dok theme song) (2014)
"Kailan Man" (A 100-Year Legacy theme song) (2014)
"Forever" (with Tom Rodriguez) (2014)
"Hinahanap-Hanap Kita" (Adik Sa'Yo theme song) (2009)
"Lumilipad" (2007)
"All About Love" (2007)
Compilation albums
Seasons of Love (2014, GMA Records)
Track 6: "Tibok ng Puso"
Filmography
Television
Television series
Television shows
Drama anthologies
TV specials
Film
Accolades
References
External links
Dennis Trillo - GMA homepage
1981 births
Living people
Filipino male television actors
Filipino male film actors
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
21st-century Filipino male actors
Filipino television personalities
21st-century Filipino male singers
Filipino male models
Filipino male comedians
People from Quezon City
Male actors from Metro Manila
Star Magic Batch 10
Sparkle GMA Artist Center
Filipino people of Chinese descent
Miriam College alumni
GMA Network personalities
GMA Music artists
Viva Artists Agency | true | [
"World Famous Classics: 1993–1998 is the first of three greatest hits albums by hip hop group The Beatnuts. It was released by Sony BMG in 1999 two weeks after the release of The Beatnuts' most commercially successful album, A Musical Massacre. It contains songs from The Beatnuts' first three albums, as well as its two EPs. The album does not feature any exclusive songs. World Famous Classics did not chart upon release, and is currently out of print.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\nThe Beatnuts albums\n1999 greatest hits albums",
"West Coast Bad Boyz, Vol. 1: Anotha Level of the Game is the first compilation album released by No Limit Records. It was originally released on August 9, 1994, but was later re-released on July 22, 1997. Due to it being a re-release, the album couldn't make it to the Billboard 200 or any other regular charts, but it did make it to #1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Catalog Albums. Due to a beef between Master P and King George, Two songs that featured George [Locked Up and Peace 2 Da Streets] were not included on the 1997 re-release.\n\nTrack listing \nWest Coast Bad Boyz, Vol. 1: Anotha Level of the Game\n\nReferences\n\nHip hop compilation albums\n1994 compilation albums\nNo Limit Records compilation albums\nPriority Records compilation albums\nGangsta rap compilation albums"
]
|
[
"Dennis Trillo",
"2006-2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut",
"What is Kapuso?",
"I don't know.",
"When did he make his music debut?",
"he also played drums as part of the show's \"Starband\".",
"What show?",
"SOP",
"What else did he do in SOP?",
"co-host",
"Did he release any albums?",
"Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007"
]
| C_494eb3090880475a9b84ecc703d90e09_0 | Did the album win any awards? | 6 | Did Trillo's debut album released in 2007 win any awards? | Dennis Trillo | In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband". Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo. On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the "Battle of Mactan" play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna. Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho (born 12 May 1981), widely known as Dennis Trillo, is a Filipino actor, model and recording artist. He is currently a contract star of GMA Network. He was known for his role as Eric del Mundo in the first ever gay-themed series on Philippine TV, My Husband's Lover aired on GMA Network in 2013.
Trillo received his first acting award in 2004 for his role as a cross-dressing spy in the 2004 war film Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita. In April 2016, he appeared in another primetime television series, Juan Happy Love Story, opposite his Dwarfina leading lady Heart Evangelista.
Now being recognized both locally and internationally, he still continues to work as GMA Network's "Drama King".
Personal life
Trillo was born on May 12, 1981, in Quezon City to Florita Florencio Ho, a Filipino, and Abelardo Leslie Ho, a Chinese Filipino from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. He finished high school at Jose Abad Santos Memorial School, Quezon City and spent his grade school years (grades 1–7) at the Ateneo De Manila University. He pursued a college education at Miriam College and received a B.A. in International Studies.
He has a son with his ex-girlfriend Carlene Aguilar, born in 2007.
In 2021, he married his longtime girlfriend Jennylyn Mercado.
Career
Early years
Prior to starting his career in show business, Trillo was once a member of a band called Moyg. For a short period, he played the drums for the DIY band in Baguio. His career in entertainment started in ABS-CBN in 2001 when he was introduced as part of ABS-CBN's Star Circle (now known as Star Magic) batch 10 along with Bea Alonzo, Alfred Vargas and TJ Trinidad. He took part in ABS-CBN's hit television soap operas Pangako Sa 'Yo as Ruel and Sa Dulo Ng Walang Hanggan as Jojo; both were minor characters.
2003–2005: Breakthrough as Kapuso
After transferring to GMA Network and becoming a contract star, he landed his first role for the network in the youth-oriented drama Kahit Kailan where he played a supporting character named David. He was also cast in several outings like Twin Hearts and Love to Love.
In 2004, he had his first main character role in the fantasy show Mulawin. He played Gabriel, a half-human and half-Ravena who became the third wheel in Alwina (Angel Locsin) and Agiluz (Richard Gutierrez) romance. The same year, he had his breakthrough performance when he starred in the Metro Manila Film Festival official entry Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita as a transgender woman during World War II. In this film he received his first acting award as Best Supporting Actor in the 30th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Following this recognition, he received five more Best Actor trophies from the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Golden Screen Awards and the Young Critics Circle. He was also included in the third installment of Mano Po.
The following year, 2005, Trillo officially became a leading man when he was paired with Angel Locsin in the television adaptation of the iconic superhero Darna. He also starred in an afternoon family drama Now and Forever: Agos where he received a Best Drama Actor nomination from PMPC Star Awards for TV. That same year, he reprised his role for Mulawin: The Movie, and appeared in the film Blue Moon.
2006–2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut
In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband".
Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo.
On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the Battle of Mactan play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna.
Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love.
2011–present: GMA's Drama King; My Husband's Lover
In 2011, Trillo appeared in the romantic-fantasy series Dwarfina where he teamed-up with Heart Evangelista. After playing the lead role in the Philippine adaptation of Temptation of Wife, Trillo lead his most controversial role to date as Eric del Mundo in his second International Emmy nominee drama series My Husband's Lover where he received one acting award from two nominations and a commendation from Asian TV Awards.
After the success of the series, the cast of My Husband's Lover held a concert at Araneta Coliseum named "One More Try: My Husband's Lover The Concert". The same year, Trillo and his screen partner Tom Rodriguez released their album titled TomDen, which is now a certified Platinum record according to the PARI with over 15,000 copies sold.
In 2014, he top-billed the Primetime drama series Hiram na Alaala with Kapuso actress Kris Bernal. He also had a weekly medical drama with Bela Padilla entitled Sa Puso ni Dok under GMA News & Public Affairs department. Trillo visited ABS-CBN via his guesting in Kris TV to promote his 2015 movie You're Still The One alongside Maja Salvador, Ellen Adarna and Richard Yap under Regal Entertainment Inc. and Star Cinema. The same year, Trillo launched his first VIVA Films movie, Felix Manalo where he received a Movie Actor of the Year award from PMPC Star Awards for Movies.
After doing several heavy drama soap operas, Trillo starred in a light drama series with Heart Evangelista, Juan Happy Love Story.
Discography
Studio albums
TomDen (2013, GMA Records) (PARI: Platinum)
Dennis Trillo (2007, IndiMusic)
Singles
"Overdrive" (Lakbay 2 love theme song with Solenn Heussaff) (2016)
"Sa Iyo na Lang Ako" (Hiram na Alaala theme song) (2014)
"Tibok ng Puso" (Sa Puso ni Dok theme song) (2014)
"Kailan Man" (A 100-Year Legacy theme song) (2014)
"Forever" (with Tom Rodriguez) (2014)
"Hinahanap-Hanap Kita" (Adik Sa'Yo theme song) (2009)
"Lumilipad" (2007)
"All About Love" (2007)
Compilation albums
Seasons of Love (2014, GMA Records)
Track 6: "Tibok ng Puso"
Filmography
Television
Television series
Television shows
Drama anthologies
TV specials
Film
Accolades
References
External links
Dennis Trillo - GMA homepage
1981 births
Living people
Filipino male television actors
Filipino male film actors
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
21st-century Filipino male actors
Filipino television personalities
21st-century Filipino male singers
Filipino male models
Filipino male comedians
People from Quezon City
Male actors from Metro Manila
Star Magic Batch 10
Sparkle GMA Artist Center
Filipino people of Chinese descent
Miriam College alumni
GMA Network personalities
GMA Music artists
Viva Artists Agency | false | [
"Iz*One was a twelve-member South Korean and Japanese girl group formed in 2018 through Produce 48, a music competition reality show. The group achieved significant commercial success with its debut extended play Color*Iz (2018), released under Off the Record Entertainment, and won several new artist awards, including Best New Artist at the 20th Mnet Asian Music Awards, Rookie of the Year at the 33rd Golden Disc Awards, and the New Artist Award at the 28th Seoul Music Awards. The group's second EP, Heart*Iz (2019), was released to greater commercial success than its predecessor, and received Disc Bonsang nominations at the 34th Golden Disc Awards and the 29th Seoul Music Awards respectively. The EP's lead single, \"Violeta\", received a nomination for Song of the Year at the 21st Mnet Asian Music Awards.\n\nThe group earned its first ever daesang award nominations for its first studio album Bloom*Iz, released in February 2020. The album was nominated for Album of the Year at both the 12th Melon Music Awards and the 10th Gaon Chart Music Awards, while its lead single \"Fiesta\" was also nominated at both ceremonies for Best Dance – Female and Song of the Year – February respectively. Iz*One did not win any of the nominations but the group received its second Artist of the Year bonsang at the Melon Music Awards. Bloom*Iz garnered an additional Bonsang Award nomination at the 30th Seoul Music Awards. The group's follow-up EP, Oneiric Diary, released in June 2020, was also nominated alongside its predecessor at the Gaon Awards, for Album of the Year – 3rd Quarter. The group won its third Artist of the Year bonsang at the 3rd Fact Music Awards in December 2020.\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nNotes\n\nReferences \n\nIz*One\nAwards",
"The 54th Academy of Country Music Awards was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 7, 2019. Nominations were announced on February 20, 2019 by Reba McEntire during CBS This Morning, with Chris Stapleton and Dan + Shay leading with six nominations each. McEntire returned to host the awards for the sixteenth time.\n\nJason Aldean was presented with the ACM's rare honor \"Artist of the Decade\" by previous holder George Strait.\n\nWinners and Nominees \nThe winners are shown in bold.\n\nPerformances\n\nPresenters\n\nReception \nIn its review of the event, Rolling Stone Country praised that the ACMs took the opportunity to bring seasoned musicians Amanda Shires and Charlie Worsham \"into the fold\" by having them appear alongside Luke Combs and Keith Urban respectively but criticised that the ACMs did not introduce either of them or even feature them on screen. Worsham, who the reviewer believed should have been nominated for his own awards, performed \"mostly in the shadows\" and Shires, who \"helped transform [Combs' performance] with her lyrical playing\" was barely seen. Rolling Stone also praised Reba McEntire's hosting and the performances by Dierks Bentley and Brandi Carlile, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert and Ashley McBryde but stated that it was \"baffling\" that Kacey Musgraves, who had five nominations and won the CMA Award for Album of the Year and four Grammy Awards including Best Country Album and the all-genre Album of the Year for Golden Hour, did not perform. Musgraves' win made her only the third artist (after Taylor Swift and the artists that appeared on Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?) to win the ACM, CMA and Grammy Awards for Best Country Album as well as the all-genre Grammy for Album of the Year.\n\nSee also\nAcademy of Country Music Awards\n\nReferences\n\nAcademy of Country Music Awards\nAcademy of Country Music Awards\nAcademy of Country Music Awards\nAcademy of Country Music Awards\nAcademy of Country Music Awards\nAcademy of Country Music Awards\nAcademy of Country Music Awards"
]
|
[
"Dennis Trillo",
"2006-2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut",
"What is Kapuso?",
"I don't know.",
"When did he make his music debut?",
"he also played drums as part of the show's \"Starband\".",
"What show?",
"SOP",
"What else did he do in SOP?",
"co-host",
"Did he release any albums?",
"Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007",
"Did the album win any awards?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_494eb3090880475a9b84ecc703d90e09_0 | What label released the album? | 7 | What label released Trillo's debut album? | Dennis Trillo | In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband". Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo. On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the "Battle of Mactan" play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna. Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love. CANNOTANSWER | IndiMusic. | Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho (born 12 May 1981), widely known as Dennis Trillo, is a Filipino actor, model and recording artist. He is currently a contract star of GMA Network. He was known for his role as Eric del Mundo in the first ever gay-themed series on Philippine TV, My Husband's Lover aired on GMA Network in 2013.
Trillo received his first acting award in 2004 for his role as a cross-dressing spy in the 2004 war film Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita. In April 2016, he appeared in another primetime television series, Juan Happy Love Story, opposite his Dwarfina leading lady Heart Evangelista.
Now being recognized both locally and internationally, he still continues to work as GMA Network's "Drama King".
Personal life
Trillo was born on May 12, 1981, in Quezon City to Florita Florencio Ho, a Filipino, and Abelardo Leslie Ho, a Chinese Filipino from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. He finished high school at Jose Abad Santos Memorial School, Quezon City and spent his grade school years (grades 1–7) at the Ateneo De Manila University. He pursued a college education at Miriam College and received a B.A. in International Studies.
He has a son with his ex-girlfriend Carlene Aguilar, born in 2007.
In 2021, he married his longtime girlfriend Jennylyn Mercado.
Career
Early years
Prior to starting his career in show business, Trillo was once a member of a band called Moyg. For a short period, he played the drums for the DIY band in Baguio. His career in entertainment started in ABS-CBN in 2001 when he was introduced as part of ABS-CBN's Star Circle (now known as Star Magic) batch 10 along with Bea Alonzo, Alfred Vargas and TJ Trinidad. He took part in ABS-CBN's hit television soap operas Pangako Sa 'Yo as Ruel and Sa Dulo Ng Walang Hanggan as Jojo; both were minor characters.
2003–2005: Breakthrough as Kapuso
After transferring to GMA Network and becoming a contract star, he landed his first role for the network in the youth-oriented drama Kahit Kailan where he played a supporting character named David. He was also cast in several outings like Twin Hearts and Love to Love.
In 2004, he had his first main character role in the fantasy show Mulawin. He played Gabriel, a half-human and half-Ravena who became the third wheel in Alwina (Angel Locsin) and Agiluz (Richard Gutierrez) romance. The same year, he had his breakthrough performance when he starred in the Metro Manila Film Festival official entry Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita as a transgender woman during World War II. In this film he received his first acting award as Best Supporting Actor in the 30th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Following this recognition, he received five more Best Actor trophies from the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Golden Screen Awards and the Young Critics Circle. He was also included in the third installment of Mano Po.
The following year, 2005, Trillo officially became a leading man when he was paired with Angel Locsin in the television adaptation of the iconic superhero Darna. He also starred in an afternoon family drama Now and Forever: Agos where he received a Best Drama Actor nomination from PMPC Star Awards for TV. That same year, he reprised his role for Mulawin: The Movie, and appeared in the film Blue Moon.
2006–2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut
In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband".
Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo.
On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the Battle of Mactan play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna.
Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love.
2011–present: GMA's Drama King; My Husband's Lover
In 2011, Trillo appeared in the romantic-fantasy series Dwarfina where he teamed-up with Heart Evangelista. After playing the lead role in the Philippine adaptation of Temptation of Wife, Trillo lead his most controversial role to date as Eric del Mundo in his second International Emmy nominee drama series My Husband's Lover where he received one acting award from two nominations and a commendation from Asian TV Awards.
After the success of the series, the cast of My Husband's Lover held a concert at Araneta Coliseum named "One More Try: My Husband's Lover The Concert". The same year, Trillo and his screen partner Tom Rodriguez released their album titled TomDen, which is now a certified Platinum record according to the PARI with over 15,000 copies sold.
In 2014, he top-billed the Primetime drama series Hiram na Alaala with Kapuso actress Kris Bernal. He also had a weekly medical drama with Bela Padilla entitled Sa Puso ni Dok under GMA News & Public Affairs department. Trillo visited ABS-CBN via his guesting in Kris TV to promote his 2015 movie You're Still The One alongside Maja Salvador, Ellen Adarna and Richard Yap under Regal Entertainment Inc. and Star Cinema. The same year, Trillo launched his first VIVA Films movie, Felix Manalo where he received a Movie Actor of the Year award from PMPC Star Awards for Movies.
After doing several heavy drama soap operas, Trillo starred in a light drama series with Heart Evangelista, Juan Happy Love Story.
Discography
Studio albums
TomDen (2013, GMA Records) (PARI: Platinum)
Dennis Trillo (2007, IndiMusic)
Singles
"Overdrive" (Lakbay 2 love theme song with Solenn Heussaff) (2016)
"Sa Iyo na Lang Ako" (Hiram na Alaala theme song) (2014)
"Tibok ng Puso" (Sa Puso ni Dok theme song) (2014)
"Kailan Man" (A 100-Year Legacy theme song) (2014)
"Forever" (with Tom Rodriguez) (2014)
"Hinahanap-Hanap Kita" (Adik Sa'Yo theme song) (2009)
"Lumilipad" (2007)
"All About Love" (2007)
Compilation albums
Seasons of Love (2014, GMA Records)
Track 6: "Tibok ng Puso"
Filmography
Television
Television series
Television shows
Drama anthologies
TV specials
Film
Accolades
References
External links
Dennis Trillo - GMA homepage
1981 births
Living people
Filipino male television actors
Filipino male film actors
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
21st-century Filipino male actors
Filipino television personalities
21st-century Filipino male singers
Filipino male models
Filipino male comedians
People from Quezon City
Male actors from Metro Manila
Star Magic Batch 10
Sparkle GMA Artist Center
Filipino people of Chinese descent
Miriam College alumni
GMA Network personalities
GMA Music artists
Viva Artists Agency | true | [
"Tuff Gong Worldwide is a record label formed by Ziggy Marley. He used the same name as his father's label, but changed the word international to worldwide.\n\nHistory\nZiggy Marley started the label under his father's name, changing the international to worldwide. He started the label to do what his father, Bob Marley, couldn't do and make a label that does more than just his own work.\n\nIn 2006, Ziggy Marley released his second solo album as the first album on the label. The same year, he released a live version of the album on both CD and DVD. Also that year, a compilation album titled \"Ziggy Marley in Jamaica\" got released where Ziggy Marley released rare reggae classics.\n\nIn 2009, Ziggy Marley released a live album as part of iTunes's \"Live from SoHo\" series. He released his first children's album titled \"Family Time\" on the label.\n\nIn 2010, he released another compilation album titled \"Dancehall Originators\" that featured Original Dancehall mixes.\n\nDiscography\n 2003: Dragonfly\n 2006: Love Is My Religion\n 2008: Love Is My Religion Live\n 2008: Ziggy Marley in Jamaica\n 2009: Ziggy Live From Soho\n 2009: Family Time\n 2009: Tuff Gong Worldwide Music Sampler\n 2010: Dancehall Originators\n 2011: Wild and Free\n 2013: In Concert\n 2014: Fly Rasta\n 2016 Ziggy Marley\n\nReggae record labels",
"Followers is an album by the American contemporary Christian music (CCM) band Tenth Avenue North. It was released by Provident Label Group, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, under its Reunion Records label, on October 14, 2016. The album reached No. 5 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart, and No. 151 on the Billboard 200. Three singles from the album were released: \"What You Want\" in 2016, and \"I Have This Hope\" and \"Control (Somehow You Want Me)\" in 2017, all of which appeared on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart.\n\nRelease and performance \n\nFollowers was released on October 14, 2016, by Provident Label Group LLC, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. It first charted on both the US Billboard Christian Albums and Billboard 200 on the week of November 5, 2016, peaking that week on both charts at No. 5 and No. 151, respectively.\n\nThree singles were released from the album. The first, \"What You Want\", was released five months in advance of the album on May 13, 2016, and charted on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs list, peaking at No. 17 on September 3, 2016. The other two were released in 2017 after the album, and reached the top 10 on Hot Christian Songs: \"I Have This Hope\" peaked at No. 5 on June 10, 2017, and \"Control (Somehow You Want Me)\" peaked at No. 7 on January 13, 2018.\n\nReception \n\nCCM Magazine gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, and cited its \"killer vocal work on honest, relatable lyrics paired with ... strong songwriting.\"\n\nChristian review website JesusFreakHideout rated the album 3.5 out of 5 stars. The review said the album was \"pretty much what you would expect from a CCM release\" and wrote that \"What You Want\" was \"the most energetic song on the album\". It singled out the opening track as \"excellent\" and the closing track as \"powerful\", and characterized the remaining songs as \"eight solid but otherwise ordinary tracks.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\"Afraid\" (3:48)\n\"What You Want\" (3:37)\n\"Overflow\" (3:40)\n\"I Have This Hope\" (3:24)\n\"One Thing\" (3:28)\n\"Sparrow (Under Heaven's Eyes)\" (3:59)\n\"No One Can Steal Our Joy\" (3:40)\n\"Control (Somehow You Want Me)\" (4:08)\n\"Fighting for You\" (3:22)\n\"I Confess\" (5:15)\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n2016 albums\nTenth Avenue North albums"
]
|
[
"Dennis Trillo",
"2006-2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut",
"What is Kapuso?",
"I don't know.",
"When did he make his music debut?",
"he also played drums as part of the show's \"Starband\".",
"What show?",
"SOP",
"What else did he do in SOP?",
"co-host",
"Did he release any albums?",
"Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007",
"Did the album win any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"What label released the album?",
"IndiMusic."
]
| C_494eb3090880475a9b84ecc703d90e09_0 | Did he do any tours for this album? | 8 | Did Dennis Trillo do any tours for the debut album? | Dennis Trillo | In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband". Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo. On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the "Battle of Mactan" play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna. Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho (born 12 May 1981), widely known as Dennis Trillo, is a Filipino actor, model and recording artist. He is currently a contract star of GMA Network. He was known for his role as Eric del Mundo in the first ever gay-themed series on Philippine TV, My Husband's Lover aired on GMA Network in 2013.
Trillo received his first acting award in 2004 for his role as a cross-dressing spy in the 2004 war film Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita. In April 2016, he appeared in another primetime television series, Juan Happy Love Story, opposite his Dwarfina leading lady Heart Evangelista.
Now being recognized both locally and internationally, he still continues to work as GMA Network's "Drama King".
Personal life
Trillo was born on May 12, 1981, in Quezon City to Florita Florencio Ho, a Filipino, and Abelardo Leslie Ho, a Chinese Filipino from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. He finished high school at Jose Abad Santos Memorial School, Quezon City and spent his grade school years (grades 1–7) at the Ateneo De Manila University. He pursued a college education at Miriam College and received a B.A. in International Studies.
He has a son with his ex-girlfriend Carlene Aguilar, born in 2007.
In 2021, he married his longtime girlfriend Jennylyn Mercado.
Career
Early years
Prior to starting his career in show business, Trillo was once a member of a band called Moyg. For a short period, he played the drums for the DIY band in Baguio. His career in entertainment started in ABS-CBN in 2001 when he was introduced as part of ABS-CBN's Star Circle (now known as Star Magic) batch 10 along with Bea Alonzo, Alfred Vargas and TJ Trinidad. He took part in ABS-CBN's hit television soap operas Pangako Sa 'Yo as Ruel and Sa Dulo Ng Walang Hanggan as Jojo; both were minor characters.
2003–2005: Breakthrough as Kapuso
After transferring to GMA Network and becoming a contract star, he landed his first role for the network in the youth-oriented drama Kahit Kailan where he played a supporting character named David. He was also cast in several outings like Twin Hearts and Love to Love.
In 2004, he had his first main character role in the fantasy show Mulawin. He played Gabriel, a half-human and half-Ravena who became the third wheel in Alwina (Angel Locsin) and Agiluz (Richard Gutierrez) romance. The same year, he had his breakthrough performance when he starred in the Metro Manila Film Festival official entry Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita as a transgender woman during World War II. In this film he received his first acting award as Best Supporting Actor in the 30th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Following this recognition, he received five more Best Actor trophies from the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Golden Screen Awards and the Young Critics Circle. He was also included in the third installment of Mano Po.
The following year, 2005, Trillo officially became a leading man when he was paired with Angel Locsin in the television adaptation of the iconic superhero Darna. He also starred in an afternoon family drama Now and Forever: Agos where he received a Best Drama Actor nomination from PMPC Star Awards for TV. That same year, he reprised his role for Mulawin: The Movie, and appeared in the film Blue Moon.
2006–2010: Kapuso leading man and music debut
In 2005, in GMA Network fantasy series Encantadia, Trillo was cast as lead character in Etheria, where he portrayed the Sapirian prince, Raquim. Midway through the series, GMA Network management announced that Trillo would be pulled out from the said show to once again star in another fantasy-themed television series Majika, in the end Trillo was allowed to complete Etheria. He also starred in the horror-suspense film Pamahiin and was included in the network's noontime show SOP as a co-host where he also played drums as part of the show's "Starband".
Trillo released his self-titled debut album in 2007 under IndiMusic. It was in the same year when he made his fourth Lenten drama special for GMA Network under APT Entertainment entitled Unico Hijo. On August 21, 2007, he started taping for the fantasy series Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan with Aljur Abrenica and Marky Cielo.
On April 27, 2008, five thousand spectators witnessed the Battle of Mactan play, with Trillo playing Ferdinand Magellan at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine. The same year, Trillo joined the stellar cast of Magdusa Ka, an afternoon soap opera which later earned an International Emmy nomination the following year. Late 2008 when he starred in the comic-based superhero series Gagambino, playing as the main character. The following year after Gagambino, he starred into two more primetime dramas: Adik Sa'Yo and the 2009 remake of Darna.
Trillo's hosting roles continued when he replaced Dingdong Dantes as a co-host in the new installment of StarStruck V in 2009. In 2010, he also began co-hosting the variety show, Party Pilipinas. He appeared in Sine Novela Presents: Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak opposite Jennylyn Mercado and portrayed Andrew Tantoco in the Philippine adaptation of the hit Korean series Endless Love.
2011–present: GMA's Drama King; My Husband's Lover
In 2011, Trillo appeared in the romantic-fantasy series Dwarfina where he teamed-up with Heart Evangelista. After playing the lead role in the Philippine adaptation of Temptation of Wife, Trillo lead his most controversial role to date as Eric del Mundo in his second International Emmy nominee drama series My Husband's Lover where he received one acting award from two nominations and a commendation from Asian TV Awards.
After the success of the series, the cast of My Husband's Lover held a concert at Araneta Coliseum named "One More Try: My Husband's Lover The Concert". The same year, Trillo and his screen partner Tom Rodriguez released their album titled TomDen, which is now a certified Platinum record according to the PARI with over 15,000 copies sold.
In 2014, he top-billed the Primetime drama series Hiram na Alaala with Kapuso actress Kris Bernal. He also had a weekly medical drama with Bela Padilla entitled Sa Puso ni Dok under GMA News & Public Affairs department. Trillo visited ABS-CBN via his guesting in Kris TV to promote his 2015 movie You're Still The One alongside Maja Salvador, Ellen Adarna and Richard Yap under Regal Entertainment Inc. and Star Cinema. The same year, Trillo launched his first VIVA Films movie, Felix Manalo where he received a Movie Actor of the Year award from PMPC Star Awards for Movies.
After doing several heavy drama soap operas, Trillo starred in a light drama series with Heart Evangelista, Juan Happy Love Story.
Discography
Studio albums
TomDen (2013, GMA Records) (PARI: Platinum)
Dennis Trillo (2007, IndiMusic)
Singles
"Overdrive" (Lakbay 2 love theme song with Solenn Heussaff) (2016)
"Sa Iyo na Lang Ako" (Hiram na Alaala theme song) (2014)
"Tibok ng Puso" (Sa Puso ni Dok theme song) (2014)
"Kailan Man" (A 100-Year Legacy theme song) (2014)
"Forever" (with Tom Rodriguez) (2014)
"Hinahanap-Hanap Kita" (Adik Sa'Yo theme song) (2009)
"Lumilipad" (2007)
"All About Love" (2007)
Compilation albums
Seasons of Love (2014, GMA Records)
Track 6: "Tibok ng Puso"
Filmography
Television
Television series
Television shows
Drama anthologies
TV specials
Film
Accolades
References
External links
Dennis Trillo - GMA homepage
1981 births
Living people
Filipino male television actors
Filipino male film actors
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
21st-century Filipino male actors
Filipino television personalities
21st-century Filipino male singers
Filipino male models
Filipino male comedians
People from Quezon City
Male actors from Metro Manila
Star Magic Batch 10
Sparkle GMA Artist Center
Filipino people of Chinese descent
Miriam College alumni
GMA Network personalities
GMA Music artists
Viva Artists Agency | false | [
"Maxwell & Jill Scott: The Tour is a co-headlining concert tour by American recording artists Maxwell and Jill Scott. Heavily playing in the United States, the tour supported Maxwell's fourth studio album BLACKsummers'night. Singer Erykah Badu joined as a featured performer on select dates. Maxwell and Scott planned a second leg of the tour for the summer of 2010 (with Melanie Fiona as an opening act), however the leg was canceled abruptly. It was later revealed Maxwell postponed the tour dates until 2011, without Scott joining.\n\nBackground\nFollowing the success of his album and 2009 tour with Common, Maxwell continued promoting his album in the U.S. and other countries for an arena tour with Jill Scott. The tour was announced by various media outlets in March 2010. Many critics deemed the tour an ideal pairing, contrasting the different styles of the artists. Although his last tour was successful, Maxwell admitted to prefer playing small venues for their intimate feel but felt he need to \"[tour] bigger\". He continued, \"Last year, I did a bunch of arenas with Common. It wasn't what I expected. I love a small club; I love a small theater. But it was time for me to do something new, to stretch a bit. You've got to think big. I like to walk around during sound check. Then I know, 'Oh, this is what it's like to be over here, looking at the stage.'\" Scott was set to release her fourth album during the run of the tour, however, it was postponed until 2011. To introduce the tour, she stated:\"[The show] a great night for music lovers. And everyone who wants to shake a little tail feather or feel romantic, whatever the case may be\"\n\nSecond leg cancellation\nDespite the success of the first leg of the tour, Maxwell decided to cancel the remaining dates of the tour at the last moment. An official statement was released citing \"scheduling conflicts with venues\" was the reason behind the cancellation. However, media outlets began to speculate a true reason for the tour's cancellation. Many reported the singer was upset at Scott and special guest Badu going over their set times, with Maxwell being the last performer on the tour. The singer stated he would postpone dates until his 2011 for his fifth studio album, blackSUMMERs'night.\n\nOpening Act\n Guy Torry (select dates)\n\nSet list\nUSA\n\nJill Scott\n\nMaxwell\n\nSource:\n\nTour dates\n\nCancellations and rescheduled shows\n\nReferences\n\nMaxwell (musician) concert tours\nJill Scott concert tours\n2010 concert tours\nCo-headlining concert tours",
"Never Ending may refer to:\n\n \"Never Ending\" (Elvis Presley song), 1964\n \"Never Ending\" (Rihanna song), a song by Rihanna from her 2016 album Anti\n Never Ending (album), an album by Beres Hammond released in 2018\n Never-Ending, a 2004 album by Mystic Prophecy\n Never Ending Tour, a name for Bob Dylan's endless touring schedule since 1988\n Any of Bob Dylan's tours from 1988 and on, see Never Ending Tour#Tours.\n The Never Ending, an American indie rock and folk band"
]
|
[
"Bruno Latour",
"We Have Never Been Modern"
]
| C_f413e9dbddb94d27801f449460db5b29_0 | what is the connection between latour and we have never been modern | 1 | What is the connection between Bruno Latour and We Have Never Been Modern? | Bruno Latour | Latour's work Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern. Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines. Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism. Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom. In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history". CANNOTANSWER | Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. | Bruno Latour (; ; born 22 June 1947) is a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist. He is especially known for his work in the field of science and technology studies (STS). After teaching at the École des Mines de Paris (Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation) from 1982 to 2006, he became Professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he was the scientific director of the Sciences Po Medialab. He retired from several university activities in 2017. He was also a Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.
Latour is best known for his books We Have Never Been Modern (1991; English translation, 1993), Laboratory Life (with Steve Woolgar, 1979) and Science in Action (1987). Although his studies of scientific practice were at one time associated with social constructionist approaches to the philosophy of science, Latour has diverged significantly from such approaches. He is best known for withdrawing from the subjective/objective division and re-developing the approach to work in practice. Latour said in 2017 that he is interested in helping to rebuild trust in science and that some of the authority of science needs to be regained.
Along with Michel Callon and John Law, Latour is one of the primary developers of actor–network theory (ANT), a constructionist approach influenced by the ethnomethodology of Harold Garfinkel, the generative semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas, and (more recently) the sociology of Émile Durkheim's rival Gabriel Tarde.
Biography
Latour is related to a well-known family of winemakers from Burgundy, but is not associated with the similarly named estate in Bordeaux.
As a student, Latour originally focused on philosophy. In 1971–1972, he ranked second and then first (reçu second, premier) in the French national competitive exam (agrégation/CAPES de philosophie). He was deeply influenced by Michel Serres. Latour went on to earn his Ph.D. in philosophical theology in 1975 at the University of Tours. His thesis title was Exégèse et ontologie: une analyse des textes de resurrection (Exegesis and Ontology: An Analysis of the Texts of Resurrection).
He developed an interest in anthropology, and undertook fieldwork in Ivory Coast which resulted in a brief monograph on decolonization, race, and industrial relations. After spending more than twenty years (1982–2006) at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation at the École des Mines in Paris, Latour moved in 2006 to Sciences Po, where he was the first occupant of a chair named for Gabriel Tarde. In recent years he also served as one of the curators of successful art exhibitions at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Germany, including "Iconoclash" (2002) and "Making Things Public" (2005). In 2005 he also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.
Awards and honors
On 22 May 2008, Latour was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal on the occasion of an organizational communication conference held in honor of the work of James R. Taylor, on whom Latour has had an important influence. He holds several other honorary doctorates, as well as France's Légion d'Honneur (2012).
The Dutch "International Spinozaprijs Foundation" will award the "Spinozalens 2020" to Bruno Latour on 24 November 2020.
In 2021 he received the Kyoto Prize in the category "Thought and Ethics".
Holberg Prize
On 13 March 2013, he was announced as the winner of the 2013 Holberg Prize. The prize committee stated that "Bruno Latour has undertaken an ambitious analysis and reinterpretation of modernity, and has challenged fundamental concepts such as the distinction between modern and pre-modern, nature and society, human and non-human." The committee states that "the impact of Latour's work is evident internationally and far beyond studies of the history of science, art history, history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, theology, literature and law."
A 2013 article in Aftenposten by Jon Elster criticised the conferment to Latour, by saying "The question is, does he deserve the prize. ... If the statutes [of the award] had used new knowledge as a main criteria, instead of one of several, then he would be completely unqualified in my opinion."
Main works
Laboratory Life
After his early career efforts, Latour shifted his research interests to focus on laboratory scientists. Latour rose in importance following the 1979 publication of Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts with co-author Steve Woolgar. In the book, the authors undertake an ethnographic study of a neuroendocrinology research laboratory at the Salk Institute. This early work argued that naïve descriptions of the scientific method, in which theories stand or fall on the outcome of a single experiment, are inconsistent with actual laboratory practice.
In the laboratory, Latour and Woolgar observed that a typical experiment produces only inconclusive data that is attributed to failure of the apparatus or experimental method, and that a large part of scientific training involves learning how to make the subjective decision of what data to keep and what data to throw out. Latour and Woolgar argued that, for untrained observers, the entire process resembles not an unbiased search for truth and accuracy but a mechanism for ignoring data that contradicts scientific orthodoxy.
Latour and Woolgar produced a highly heterodox and controversial picture of the sciences. Drawing on the work of Gaston Bachelard, they advance the notion that the objects of scientific study are socially constructed within the laboratory—that they cannot be attributed with an existence outside of the instruments that measure them and the minds that interpret them. They view scientific activity as a system of beliefs, oral traditions and culturally specific practices—in short, science is reconstructed not as a procedure or as a set of principles but as a culture. Latour's 1987 book Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society is one of the key texts of the sociology of scientific knowledge in which he famously wrote his Second Principle as follows: "Scientist and engineers speak in the name of new allies that they have shaped and enrolled; representatives among other representatives, they add these unexpected resources to tip the balance of force in their favor."
Some of Latour's position and findings in this era provoked vehement rebuttals. Gross and Leavitt argue that Latour's position becomes absurd when applied to non-scientific contexts: e.g., if a group of coworkers in a windowless room were debating whether or not it were raining outside and went outdoors to discover raindrops in the air and puddles on the soil, Latour's hypothesis would assert that the rain was socially constructed. Similarly, philosopher John Searle argues that Latour's "extreme social constructivist" position is seriously flawed on several points, and furthermore has inadvertently "comical results".
The Pasteurization of France
After a research project examining the sociology of primatologists, Latour followed up the themes in Laboratory Life with Les Microbes: guerre et paix (published in English as The Pasteurization of France in 1988). In it, he reviews the life and career of one of France's most famous scientists Louis Pasteur and his discovery of microbes, in the fashion of a political biography. Latour highlights the social forces at work in and around Pasteur's career and the uneven manner in which his theories were accepted. By providing more explicitly ideological explanations for the acceptance of Pasteur's work more easily in some quarters than in others, he seeks to undermine the notion that the acceptance and rejection of scientific theories is primarily, or even usually, a matter of experiment, evidence or reason.
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology focuses on the history of an unsuccessful mass-transit project. Aramis PRT (personal rapid transit), a high tech automated subway, had been developed in France during the 70s and 80s and was supposed to be implemented as a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in Paris. It combined the flexibility of an automobile with the efficiency of a subway. Aramis was to be an ideal urban transportation system based on private cars in constant motion and the elimination of unnecessary transfers. This new form of transportation was intended to be as secure and inexpensive as collective transportation. The proposed system had custom-designed motors, sensors, controls, digital electronics, software and a major installation in southern Paris. But in the end, the project died in 1987. Latour argues that the technology failed not because any particular actor killed it, but because the actors failed to sustain it through negotiation and adaptation to a changing social situation. While investigating Aramis's demise, Latour delineates the tenets of actor-network theory. According to Latour's own description of the book, the work aims "at training readers in the booming field of technology studies and at experimenting in the many new literary forms that are necessary to handle mechanisms and automatisms without using the belief that they are mechanical nor automatic."
We Have Never Been Modern
Latour's work Nous n’avons jamais été modernes : Essai d’anthropologie symétrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern.
Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.
Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism.
Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom.
In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history".
Pandora's Hope
Pandora's Hope (1999) marks a return to the themes Latour explored in Science in Action and We Have Never Been Modern. It uses independent but thematically linked essays and case studies to question the authority and reliability of scientific knowledge. Latour uses a narrative, anecdotal approach in a number of the essays, describing his work with pedologists in the Amazon rainforest, the development of the pasteurization process, and the research of French atomic scientists at the outbreak of the Second World War. Latour states that this specific, anecdotal approach to science studies is essential to gaining a full understanding of the discipline: "The only way to understand the reality of science studies is to follow what science studies do best, that is, paying close attention to the details of scientific practice" (p. 24). Some authors have criticized Latour's methodology, including Katherine Pandora, a history of science professor at the University of Oklahoma. In her review of Pandora's Hope, Katherine Pandora states:
"[Latour's] writing can be stimulating, fresh and at times genuinely moving, but it can also display a distractingly mannered style in which a rococo zeal for compounding metaphors, examples, definitions and abstractions can frustrate even readers who approach his work with the best of intentions (notwithstanding the inclusion of a nine-page glossary of terms and liberal use of diagrams in an attempt to achieve the utmost clarity)".
In addition to his epistemological concerns, Latour also explores the political dimension of science studies in Pandora's Hope. Two of the chapters draw on Plato's Gorgias as a means of investigating and highlighting the distinction between content and context. As Katherine Pandora states in her review:
"It is hard not to be caught up in the author's obvious delight in deploying a classic work from antiquity to bring current concerns into sharper focus, following along as he manages to leave the reader with the impression that the protagonists Socrates and Callicles are not only in dialogue with each other but with Latour as well."
Although Latour frames his discussion with a classical model, his examples of fraught political issues are all current and of continuing relevance: global warming, the spread of mad cow disease, and the carcinogenic effects of smoking are all mentioned at various points in Pandora's Hope. In Felix Stalder's article "Beyond constructivism: towards a realistic realism", he summarizes Latour's position on the political dimension of science studies as follows: "These scientific debates have been artificially kept open in order to render impossible any political action against these problems and those who profit from them".
"Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?"
In a 2004 article, Latour questioned the fundamental premises on which he had based most of his career, asking, "Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?" He undertakes a trenchant critique of his own field of study and, more generally, of social criticism in contemporary academia. He suggests that critique, as currently practiced, is bordering on irrelevancy. To maintain any vitality, Latour argues that social critiques require a drastic reappraisal: "our critical equipment deserves as much critical scrutiny as the Pentagon budget." (p. 231) To regain focus and credibility, Latour argues that social critiques must embrace empiricism, to insist on the "cultivation of a stubbornly realist attitude – to speak like William James". (p. 233)
Latour suggests that about 90 per cent of contemporary social criticism displays one of two approaches which he terms "the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 237) The fairy position is anti-fetishist, arguing that "objects of belief" (e.g., religion, arts) are merely concepts created by the projected wishes and desires of the "naive believer"; the "fact position" argues that individuals are dominated, often covertly and without their awareness, by external forces (e.g., economics, gender). (p. 238) "Do you see now why it feels so good to be a critical mind?” asks Latour: no matter which position you take, "You’re always right!" (p. 238–239) Social critics tend to use anti-fetishism against ideas they personally reject; to use "an unrepentant positivist" approach for fields of study they consider valuable; all the while thinking as "a perfectly healthy sturdy realist for what you really cherish." (p. 241) These inconsistencies and double standards go largely unrecognized in social critique because "there is never any crossover between the two lists of objects in the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 241)
The practical result of these approaches being taught to millions of students in elite universities for several decades is a widespread and influential "critical barbarity" that has—like a malign virus created by a "mad scientist"—thus far proven impossible to control. Most troubling, Latour notes that critical ideas have been appropriated by those he describes as conspiracy theorists, including global warming deniers and the 9/11 Truth movement: "Maybe I am taking conspiracy theories too seriously, but I am worried to detect, in those mad mixtures of knee-jerk disbelief, punctilious demands for proofs, and free use of powerful explanation from the social neverland, many of the weapons of social critique." (p. 230)
The conclusion of the article is to argue for a positive framing of critique, to help understand how matters of concern can be supported rather than undermined: "The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naïve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in which to gather. The critic is not the one who alternates haphazardly between antifetishism and positivism like the drunk iconoclast drawn by Goya, but the one for whom, if something is constructed, then it means it is fragile and thus in great need of care and caution."
Latour's article has been highly influential within the field of postcritique, an intellectual movement within literary criticism and cultural studies that seeks to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. The literary critic Rita Felski has named Latour as an important precursor to the project of postcritique.
Reassembling the Social
In Reassembling the Social (2005), Latour continues a reappraisal of his work, developing what he calls a "practical metaphysics", which calls "real" anything that an actor (one whom we are studying) claims as a source of motivation for action. So if someone says, "I was inspired by God to be charitable to my neighbors" we are obliged to recognize the "ontological weight" of their claim, rather than attempting to replace their belief in God's presence with "social stuff", like class, gender, imperialism, etc. Latour’s nuanced metaphysics demands the existence of a plurality of worlds, and the willingness of the researcher to chart ever more. He argues that researchers must give up the hope of fitting their actors into a structure or framework, but Latour believes the benefits of this sacrifice far outweigh the downsides: "Their complex metaphysics would at least be respected, their recalcitrance recognized, their objections deployed, their multiplicity accepted."
For Latour, to talk about metaphysics or ontology–what really is–means paying close empirical attention to the various, contradictory institutions and ideas that bring people together and inspire them to act. Here is Latour's description of metaphysics:
If we call metaphysics the discipline . . . that purports to define the basic structure of the world, then empirical metaphysics is what the controversies over agencies lead to since they ceaselessly populate the world with new drives and, as ceaselessly, contest the existence of others. The question then becomes how to explore the actors' own metaphysics.
A more traditional metaphysicist might object, arguing that this means there are multiple, contradictory realities, since there are "controversies over agencies" – since there is a plurality of contradictory ideas that people claim as a basis for action (God, nature, the state, sexual drives, personal ambition, and so on). This objection manifests the most important difference between traditional philosophical metaphysics and Latour's nuance: for Latour, there is no "basic structure of reality" or a single, self-consistent world. An unknowably large multiplicity of realities, or "worlds" in his terms, exists–one for each actor's sources of agency, inspirations for action. Actors bring "the real" (metaphysics) into being. The task of the researcher is not to find one "basic structure" that explains agency, but to recognize "the metaphysical innovations proposed by ordinary actors". Mapping those metaphysical innovations involves a strong dedication to relativism, Latour argues. The relativist researcher "learns the actors' language," records what they say about what they do, and does not appeal to a higher "structure" to "explain" the actor's motivations. The relativist "takes seriously what [actors] are obstinately saying" and "follows the direction indicated by their fingers when they designate what 'makes them act'". The relativist recognizes the plurality of metaphysics that actors bring into being, and attempts to map them rather than reducing them to a single structure or explanation.
Selected bibliography
Books
Originally published 1979 in Los Angeles, by Sage Publications
Chapters in books
Journal articles
See also
Actant
Blackboxing
Fashionable Nonsense
Graphism thesis
Mapping controversies
Obligatory passage point
Science wars
Social construction of technology
Technological determinism
References
Sources
External links
Bruno Latour's website
1947 births
Living people
People from Beaune
Sociologists of science
Science and technology studies scholars
Social constructionism
Sociology of scientific knowledge
French sociologists
French anthropologists
Mines ParisTech faculty
Actor-network theory
French Roman Catholics
Catholic philosophers
Holberg Prize laureates
French male writers
French male essayists
20th-century French philosophers
21st-century French philosophers
Philosophers of science
Philosophers of technology
Posthumanists
Continental philosophers
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
20th-century male writers
21st-century male writers
Sciences Po faculty | true | [
"We Have Never Been Modern is a 1991 book by Bruno Latour, originally published in French as Nous n'avons jamais été modernes : Essai d'anthropologie symétrique (English translation: 1993).\n\nContent\nThe book is an \"anthropology of science\" that explores the dualistic distinction modernity makes between nature and society. Pre-modern peoples, argues Latour, made no such division. Contemporary matters of public concern such as global warming, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and emerging biotechnologies mix politics, science, popular and specialist discourse to such a degree that a tidy nature/culture dualism is no longer possible. This inconsistency has given rise to post-modern and anti-modern movements. Latour attempts to reconnect the social and natural worlds by arguing that the modernist distinction between nature and culture never existed. In other words, it would be more useful to consider ourselves \"amodern\" or \"nonmodern\". He claims we must rework our thinking to conceive of a \"Parliament of Things\" wherein natural phenomena, social phenomena and the discourse about them are not seen as separate objects to be studied by specialists, but as hybrids made and scrutinized by the public interaction of people, things and concepts.\"Latour speaks of modern and non-modern constitutions, each with four “guarantees”. There is also an implicit notion of a pre-modern constitution as well, though its less codified conventions would not amount to guarantees. Each of his constitutions addresses four, so to speak, ontological realms: the subject, the object, language and being. The realm of the subject is also that of society, communities, culture and the state; the realm of the object is that of things, technologies, facts and nature; the realm of language includes practices of discourse, mediation, translation, delegation and representation; and, finally, the realm of being includes God and the gods, the immortals, the totemized ancestors – it includes questions of existence. For Latour every epoch’s constitution must have conventions and guarantees in these four ontological realms.\nThe four guarantees of the modern constitution for Latour are: (a) that nature (i.e. things, objects) is “transcendent”, or universal in time and space; there to be discovered; (b) that society (the subject, the state) is “immanent”, i.e. it is continually constructed “artificially” by citizens or by subjects; (c) that “translation networks” between these first two realms are “banned”, i.e. the “separation of powers” of these realms is “assured”; (d) that a “crossed out God” acts as “arbitrator” of this dualism.\"\n\nInfluence and misrepresentation \nSpeculative realist Graham Harman points out that Latour has been misrepresented by some as a postmodernist. Harman cites We Have Never Been Modern as crucial to understanding Latour's conceptualisation of the \"postmoderns as moderns a minus sign added\" and therefore dismisses accusations of Latour as a postmodernist. Harman goes on to be influenced by We Have Never Been Modern adding that postmodernism continues to be subject-centric/anthropocentric (as modernity did) in its distinction of the subject from the object. This forms the basis for Harman's object-oriented ontology.\n\nSee also\nGilbert Durand's anthropological trajectory\n\nReferences\n\nSociology of scientific knowledge\nActor-network theory\nScience and technology studies works\nAnthropology books\nModernism\nHarvard University Press books\nWorks by Bruno Latour\n1991 non-fiction books",
"Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences Into Democracy (2004, ) is a book by the French theorist and philosopher of science Bruno Latour. The book is an English translation by Catherine Porter of the French book, Politiques de la nature. It is published by Harvard University Press.\n\nOverview\nIn the book, Latour argues for a new and better take on political ecology (not the discipline but the ecological political movements, e.g. greens) that embraces his feeling that, \"political ecology has nothing to do with nature\". In fact, Latour argues that the idea of nature is unfair because it unfairly allows those engaged in political discourse to \"short-circuit\" discussions. Latour uses Plato's metaphor of \"the cave\" to describe the current role of nature and science in separating facts from values which is the role of politics and non-scientists. Building on the arguments levelled in his previous works, Latour argues that this distinction between facts and values is rarely useful and in many situations dangerous. He claims that it leads to a system that ignores nature's socially constructed status and creates a political order without \"due process of individual will\".\n\nInstead, he calls for a \"new Constitution\" where different individuals can assemble democratically without the definitions of facts and values influenced by current attitudes towards nature and scientific knowledge. Latour describes an alternate set of rules by which this assembly, or collective as he calls it, might come together and be constituted. He also describes the way that entities will be allowed in or out in the future. In describing this collective, Latour draws attention to the role of the spokesperson, who must be doubted but who must speak for otherwise mute things in order to ensure that the collective involves both \"humans and non-humans\". This is also an important aspect of Actor-network theory (ANT) that can be found in his main sociological works.\n\nThe book includes a short summary at the end and a glossary of terms.\n\nReviews of the book \nSal Restivo emphasises that the book is reproducing the insights from Science Studies, which Bruno Latour himself has greatly contributed to. However, Sal Restivo questions whether Latour understood social constructivism and what sociologists actually do.\n\nSee also \n Laboratory life (with Steve Woolgar)\n Science in Action (book)\n Aramis, or the Love of Technology\n We Have Never Been Modern\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Introduction on Latour's website\n\n2004 non-fiction books\nPolitical books\nSociology of scientific knowledge\nScience and technology studies works\nWorks by Bruno Latour"
]
|
[
"Bruno Latour",
"We Have Never Been Modern",
"what is the connection between latour and we have never been modern",
"Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism."
]
| C_f413e9dbddb94d27801f449460db5b29_0 | who did he judge | 2 | Who did Bruno Latour judge? | Bruno Latour | Latour's work Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern. Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines. Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism. Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom. In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history". CANNOTANSWER | He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines. | Bruno Latour (; ; born 22 June 1947) is a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist. He is especially known for his work in the field of science and technology studies (STS). After teaching at the École des Mines de Paris (Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation) from 1982 to 2006, he became Professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he was the scientific director of the Sciences Po Medialab. He retired from several university activities in 2017. He was also a Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.
Latour is best known for his books We Have Never Been Modern (1991; English translation, 1993), Laboratory Life (with Steve Woolgar, 1979) and Science in Action (1987). Although his studies of scientific practice were at one time associated with social constructionist approaches to the philosophy of science, Latour has diverged significantly from such approaches. He is best known for withdrawing from the subjective/objective division and re-developing the approach to work in practice. Latour said in 2017 that he is interested in helping to rebuild trust in science and that some of the authority of science needs to be regained.
Along with Michel Callon and John Law, Latour is one of the primary developers of actor–network theory (ANT), a constructionist approach influenced by the ethnomethodology of Harold Garfinkel, the generative semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas, and (more recently) the sociology of Émile Durkheim's rival Gabriel Tarde.
Biography
Latour is related to a well-known family of winemakers from Burgundy, but is not associated with the similarly named estate in Bordeaux.
As a student, Latour originally focused on philosophy. In 1971–1972, he ranked second and then first (reçu second, premier) in the French national competitive exam (agrégation/CAPES de philosophie). He was deeply influenced by Michel Serres. Latour went on to earn his Ph.D. in philosophical theology in 1975 at the University of Tours. His thesis title was Exégèse et ontologie: une analyse des textes de resurrection (Exegesis and Ontology: An Analysis of the Texts of Resurrection).
He developed an interest in anthropology, and undertook fieldwork in Ivory Coast which resulted in a brief monograph on decolonization, race, and industrial relations. After spending more than twenty years (1982–2006) at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation at the École des Mines in Paris, Latour moved in 2006 to Sciences Po, where he was the first occupant of a chair named for Gabriel Tarde. In recent years he also served as one of the curators of successful art exhibitions at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Germany, including "Iconoclash" (2002) and "Making Things Public" (2005). In 2005 he also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.
Awards and honors
On 22 May 2008, Latour was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal on the occasion of an organizational communication conference held in honor of the work of James R. Taylor, on whom Latour has had an important influence. He holds several other honorary doctorates, as well as France's Légion d'Honneur (2012).
The Dutch "International Spinozaprijs Foundation" will award the "Spinozalens 2020" to Bruno Latour on 24 November 2020.
In 2021 he received the Kyoto Prize in the category "Thought and Ethics".
Holberg Prize
On 13 March 2013, he was announced as the winner of the 2013 Holberg Prize. The prize committee stated that "Bruno Latour has undertaken an ambitious analysis and reinterpretation of modernity, and has challenged fundamental concepts such as the distinction between modern and pre-modern, nature and society, human and non-human." The committee states that "the impact of Latour's work is evident internationally and far beyond studies of the history of science, art history, history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, theology, literature and law."
A 2013 article in Aftenposten by Jon Elster criticised the conferment to Latour, by saying "The question is, does he deserve the prize. ... If the statutes [of the award] had used new knowledge as a main criteria, instead of one of several, then he would be completely unqualified in my opinion."
Main works
Laboratory Life
After his early career efforts, Latour shifted his research interests to focus on laboratory scientists. Latour rose in importance following the 1979 publication of Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts with co-author Steve Woolgar. In the book, the authors undertake an ethnographic study of a neuroendocrinology research laboratory at the Salk Institute. This early work argued that naïve descriptions of the scientific method, in which theories stand or fall on the outcome of a single experiment, are inconsistent with actual laboratory practice.
In the laboratory, Latour and Woolgar observed that a typical experiment produces only inconclusive data that is attributed to failure of the apparatus or experimental method, and that a large part of scientific training involves learning how to make the subjective decision of what data to keep and what data to throw out. Latour and Woolgar argued that, for untrained observers, the entire process resembles not an unbiased search for truth and accuracy but a mechanism for ignoring data that contradicts scientific orthodoxy.
Latour and Woolgar produced a highly heterodox and controversial picture of the sciences. Drawing on the work of Gaston Bachelard, they advance the notion that the objects of scientific study are socially constructed within the laboratory—that they cannot be attributed with an existence outside of the instruments that measure them and the minds that interpret them. They view scientific activity as a system of beliefs, oral traditions and culturally specific practices—in short, science is reconstructed not as a procedure or as a set of principles but as a culture. Latour's 1987 book Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society is one of the key texts of the sociology of scientific knowledge in which he famously wrote his Second Principle as follows: "Scientist and engineers speak in the name of new allies that they have shaped and enrolled; representatives among other representatives, they add these unexpected resources to tip the balance of force in their favor."
Some of Latour's position and findings in this era provoked vehement rebuttals. Gross and Leavitt argue that Latour's position becomes absurd when applied to non-scientific contexts: e.g., if a group of coworkers in a windowless room were debating whether or not it were raining outside and went outdoors to discover raindrops in the air and puddles on the soil, Latour's hypothesis would assert that the rain was socially constructed. Similarly, philosopher John Searle argues that Latour's "extreme social constructivist" position is seriously flawed on several points, and furthermore has inadvertently "comical results".
The Pasteurization of France
After a research project examining the sociology of primatologists, Latour followed up the themes in Laboratory Life with Les Microbes: guerre et paix (published in English as The Pasteurization of France in 1988). In it, he reviews the life and career of one of France's most famous scientists Louis Pasteur and his discovery of microbes, in the fashion of a political biography. Latour highlights the social forces at work in and around Pasteur's career and the uneven manner in which his theories were accepted. By providing more explicitly ideological explanations for the acceptance of Pasteur's work more easily in some quarters than in others, he seeks to undermine the notion that the acceptance and rejection of scientific theories is primarily, or even usually, a matter of experiment, evidence or reason.
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology focuses on the history of an unsuccessful mass-transit project. Aramis PRT (personal rapid transit), a high tech automated subway, had been developed in France during the 70s and 80s and was supposed to be implemented as a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in Paris. It combined the flexibility of an automobile with the efficiency of a subway. Aramis was to be an ideal urban transportation system based on private cars in constant motion and the elimination of unnecessary transfers. This new form of transportation was intended to be as secure and inexpensive as collective transportation. The proposed system had custom-designed motors, sensors, controls, digital electronics, software and a major installation in southern Paris. But in the end, the project died in 1987. Latour argues that the technology failed not because any particular actor killed it, but because the actors failed to sustain it through negotiation and adaptation to a changing social situation. While investigating Aramis's demise, Latour delineates the tenets of actor-network theory. According to Latour's own description of the book, the work aims "at training readers in the booming field of technology studies and at experimenting in the many new literary forms that are necessary to handle mechanisms and automatisms without using the belief that they are mechanical nor automatic."
We Have Never Been Modern
Latour's work Nous n’avons jamais été modernes : Essai d’anthropologie symétrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern.
Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.
Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism.
Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom.
In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history".
Pandora's Hope
Pandora's Hope (1999) marks a return to the themes Latour explored in Science in Action and We Have Never Been Modern. It uses independent but thematically linked essays and case studies to question the authority and reliability of scientific knowledge. Latour uses a narrative, anecdotal approach in a number of the essays, describing his work with pedologists in the Amazon rainforest, the development of the pasteurization process, and the research of French atomic scientists at the outbreak of the Second World War. Latour states that this specific, anecdotal approach to science studies is essential to gaining a full understanding of the discipline: "The only way to understand the reality of science studies is to follow what science studies do best, that is, paying close attention to the details of scientific practice" (p. 24). Some authors have criticized Latour's methodology, including Katherine Pandora, a history of science professor at the University of Oklahoma. In her review of Pandora's Hope, Katherine Pandora states:
"[Latour's] writing can be stimulating, fresh and at times genuinely moving, but it can also display a distractingly mannered style in which a rococo zeal for compounding metaphors, examples, definitions and abstractions can frustrate even readers who approach his work with the best of intentions (notwithstanding the inclusion of a nine-page glossary of terms and liberal use of diagrams in an attempt to achieve the utmost clarity)".
In addition to his epistemological concerns, Latour also explores the political dimension of science studies in Pandora's Hope. Two of the chapters draw on Plato's Gorgias as a means of investigating and highlighting the distinction between content and context. As Katherine Pandora states in her review:
"It is hard not to be caught up in the author's obvious delight in deploying a classic work from antiquity to bring current concerns into sharper focus, following along as he manages to leave the reader with the impression that the protagonists Socrates and Callicles are not only in dialogue with each other but with Latour as well."
Although Latour frames his discussion with a classical model, his examples of fraught political issues are all current and of continuing relevance: global warming, the spread of mad cow disease, and the carcinogenic effects of smoking are all mentioned at various points in Pandora's Hope. In Felix Stalder's article "Beyond constructivism: towards a realistic realism", he summarizes Latour's position on the political dimension of science studies as follows: "These scientific debates have been artificially kept open in order to render impossible any political action against these problems and those who profit from them".
"Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?"
In a 2004 article, Latour questioned the fundamental premises on which he had based most of his career, asking, "Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?" He undertakes a trenchant critique of his own field of study and, more generally, of social criticism in contemporary academia. He suggests that critique, as currently practiced, is bordering on irrelevancy. To maintain any vitality, Latour argues that social critiques require a drastic reappraisal: "our critical equipment deserves as much critical scrutiny as the Pentagon budget." (p. 231) To regain focus and credibility, Latour argues that social critiques must embrace empiricism, to insist on the "cultivation of a stubbornly realist attitude – to speak like William James". (p. 233)
Latour suggests that about 90 per cent of contemporary social criticism displays one of two approaches which he terms "the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 237) The fairy position is anti-fetishist, arguing that "objects of belief" (e.g., religion, arts) are merely concepts created by the projected wishes and desires of the "naive believer"; the "fact position" argues that individuals are dominated, often covertly and without their awareness, by external forces (e.g., economics, gender). (p. 238) "Do you see now why it feels so good to be a critical mind?” asks Latour: no matter which position you take, "You’re always right!" (p. 238–239) Social critics tend to use anti-fetishism against ideas they personally reject; to use "an unrepentant positivist" approach for fields of study they consider valuable; all the while thinking as "a perfectly healthy sturdy realist for what you really cherish." (p. 241) These inconsistencies and double standards go largely unrecognized in social critique because "there is never any crossover between the two lists of objects in the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 241)
The practical result of these approaches being taught to millions of students in elite universities for several decades is a widespread and influential "critical barbarity" that has—like a malign virus created by a "mad scientist"—thus far proven impossible to control. Most troubling, Latour notes that critical ideas have been appropriated by those he describes as conspiracy theorists, including global warming deniers and the 9/11 Truth movement: "Maybe I am taking conspiracy theories too seriously, but I am worried to detect, in those mad mixtures of knee-jerk disbelief, punctilious demands for proofs, and free use of powerful explanation from the social neverland, many of the weapons of social critique." (p. 230)
The conclusion of the article is to argue for a positive framing of critique, to help understand how matters of concern can be supported rather than undermined: "The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naïve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in which to gather. The critic is not the one who alternates haphazardly between antifetishism and positivism like the drunk iconoclast drawn by Goya, but the one for whom, if something is constructed, then it means it is fragile and thus in great need of care and caution."
Latour's article has been highly influential within the field of postcritique, an intellectual movement within literary criticism and cultural studies that seeks to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. The literary critic Rita Felski has named Latour as an important precursor to the project of postcritique.
Reassembling the Social
In Reassembling the Social (2005), Latour continues a reappraisal of his work, developing what he calls a "practical metaphysics", which calls "real" anything that an actor (one whom we are studying) claims as a source of motivation for action. So if someone says, "I was inspired by God to be charitable to my neighbors" we are obliged to recognize the "ontological weight" of their claim, rather than attempting to replace their belief in God's presence with "social stuff", like class, gender, imperialism, etc. Latour’s nuanced metaphysics demands the existence of a plurality of worlds, and the willingness of the researcher to chart ever more. He argues that researchers must give up the hope of fitting their actors into a structure or framework, but Latour believes the benefits of this sacrifice far outweigh the downsides: "Their complex metaphysics would at least be respected, their recalcitrance recognized, their objections deployed, their multiplicity accepted."
For Latour, to talk about metaphysics or ontology–what really is–means paying close empirical attention to the various, contradictory institutions and ideas that bring people together and inspire them to act. Here is Latour's description of metaphysics:
If we call metaphysics the discipline . . . that purports to define the basic structure of the world, then empirical metaphysics is what the controversies over agencies lead to since they ceaselessly populate the world with new drives and, as ceaselessly, contest the existence of others. The question then becomes how to explore the actors' own metaphysics.
A more traditional metaphysicist might object, arguing that this means there are multiple, contradictory realities, since there are "controversies over agencies" – since there is a plurality of contradictory ideas that people claim as a basis for action (God, nature, the state, sexual drives, personal ambition, and so on). This objection manifests the most important difference between traditional philosophical metaphysics and Latour's nuance: for Latour, there is no "basic structure of reality" or a single, self-consistent world. An unknowably large multiplicity of realities, or "worlds" in his terms, exists–one for each actor's sources of agency, inspirations for action. Actors bring "the real" (metaphysics) into being. The task of the researcher is not to find one "basic structure" that explains agency, but to recognize "the metaphysical innovations proposed by ordinary actors". Mapping those metaphysical innovations involves a strong dedication to relativism, Latour argues. The relativist researcher "learns the actors' language," records what they say about what they do, and does not appeal to a higher "structure" to "explain" the actor's motivations. The relativist "takes seriously what [actors] are obstinately saying" and "follows the direction indicated by their fingers when they designate what 'makes them act'". The relativist recognizes the plurality of metaphysics that actors bring into being, and attempts to map them rather than reducing them to a single structure or explanation.
Selected bibliography
Books
Originally published 1979 in Los Angeles, by Sage Publications
Chapters in books
Journal articles
See also
Actant
Blackboxing
Fashionable Nonsense
Graphism thesis
Mapping controversies
Obligatory passage point
Science wars
Social construction of technology
Technological determinism
References
Sources
External links
Bruno Latour's website
1947 births
Living people
People from Beaune
Sociologists of science
Science and technology studies scholars
Social constructionism
Sociology of scientific knowledge
French sociologists
French anthropologists
Mines ParisTech faculty
Actor-network theory
French Roman Catholics
Catholic philosophers
Holberg Prize laureates
French male writers
French male essayists
20th-century French philosophers
21st-century French philosophers
Philosophers of science
Philosophers of technology
Posthumanists
Continental philosophers
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
20th-century male writers
21st-century male writers
Sciences Po faculty | true | [
"Traffic Judge (1952–1972) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was owned by Clifford Mooers, proprietor of Walnut Springs Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Woody Stephens. On November 13, 1956 Clifford Mooers died of a heart attack at New York City's LaGuardia Airport while en route to see Traffic Judge compete in the Narragansett Special. His estate auctioned the horse and on December 24 he was purchased for $362,345.70 by Louis P. Doherty, owner of The Stallion Station on Muir Station Road in Lexington, Kentucky. Traffic Judge's race conditioning was then taken over by another Hall of Fame inductee, James W. Maloney.\n\nTraffic Judge showed some promise at age two when he won the 1954 Prairie State Stakes at Washington Park Race Track in Chicago. In the 1955 U.S. Triple Crown series, Traffic Judge did not run in the Kentucky Derby or Belmont Stakes but did compete in the Preakness Stakes and finished third to winner Nashua. Traffic Judge did however win several important races that year including the Ohio Derby the Ventnor Turf Handicap and the Jerome Handicap for three-year-olds as well as the Woodward Stakes, a major weight-for-age race against older horses.\n\nTraffic Judge won the Laurel Turf Cup Handicap at age four and at age five won two major races for older horses, the Metropolitan and Suburban Handicaps.\n\nRetired to stud, Traffic Judge was the sire of Traffic, the 1963 Hopeful Stakes winner in the United States who went on to stand at stud in France where he was the 1971 Leading sire. Other of Traffic Judge's progeny who were successful in racing included multiple stakes winners Green Ticket (1959), Traffic Mark (1966), Judgeable (1969) and Grade 1 winner Court Ruling (1970). In addition, he sired Best In Show (1965) who was voted Kentucky Broodmare of the Year in 1982.\n\nTraffic Judge died at age twenty in 1972 and was buried at The Stallion Station now known as 505 Farm.\n\nPedigree\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Traffic Judge's pedigree and partial racing stats\n\n1952 racehorse births\n1972 racehorse deaths\nRacehorses bred in the United States\nRacehorses trained in the United States\nThoroughbred family 3-n",
"Chokkalingam Nagappan (born 4 October 1951) is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India served from September 2013 till his retirement in October 2016.\n\nEducation\nNagappan hails from Karur in Tamil Nadu and had his initial schooling there. He did his Pre-University Course in St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli and completed his B.Sc. Degree in Chemistry at Madura College, Madurai. He studied law at Madras Law College and secured Third Rank in the Final University Examination in April, 1974. He did his M.L. Course in Criminal Law and secured First Rank in 1977.\n\nCareer\nHe practiced as Junior Advocate under K. Parasaran, Former Attorney General of India. He was a Part-Time Professor in Madras Law College for 7 years. He was directly recruited as District and Sessions Judge in 1987 and worked as District and Sessions Judge at Cuddalore, Salem and Coimbatore. Thereafter, he worked as the Special Officer, Vigilance Cell, Madras High Court. He was elevated as a Judge of The Madras High Court on 27.9.2000 and appointed as a permanent Judge on 20.09.2002. He was then further elevated as the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court and sworn in on 27.02 2013. He was appointed as a Judge of The Supreme Court of India and sworn in on 19.09.2013.\n\nNagappan who held a relatively short tenure retired as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on 03.10.2016.\n\nNotable Judgements\n\nAadhar\nA three judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court, comprising Nagappan, Jasti Chelameswar, and Sharad Arvind Bobde ratified an earlier order of the Supreme Court and clarified that no Indian citizen without an Aadhaar card can be deprived of basic services and government subsidies.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nProfile in Orissa High Court website\n\n1951 births\nLiving people\nChief Justices of the Orissa High Court\nJudges of the Madras High Court\nJustices of the Supreme Court of India\n20th-century Indian judges\n21st-century Indian judges"
]
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"Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism.",
"who did he judge",
"He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines."
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| C_f413e9dbddb94d27801f449460db5b29_0 | did he have supporters | 3 | Did Bruno Latour have supporters? | Bruno Latour | Latour's work Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern. Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines. Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism. Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom. In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history". CANNOTANSWER | Margaret C. Jacob | Bruno Latour (; ; born 22 June 1947) is a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist. He is especially known for his work in the field of science and technology studies (STS). After teaching at the École des Mines de Paris (Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation) from 1982 to 2006, he became Professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he was the scientific director of the Sciences Po Medialab. He retired from several university activities in 2017. He was also a Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.
Latour is best known for his books We Have Never Been Modern (1991; English translation, 1993), Laboratory Life (with Steve Woolgar, 1979) and Science in Action (1987). Although his studies of scientific practice were at one time associated with social constructionist approaches to the philosophy of science, Latour has diverged significantly from such approaches. He is best known for withdrawing from the subjective/objective division and re-developing the approach to work in practice. Latour said in 2017 that he is interested in helping to rebuild trust in science and that some of the authority of science needs to be regained.
Along with Michel Callon and John Law, Latour is one of the primary developers of actor–network theory (ANT), a constructionist approach influenced by the ethnomethodology of Harold Garfinkel, the generative semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas, and (more recently) the sociology of Émile Durkheim's rival Gabriel Tarde.
Biography
Latour is related to a well-known family of winemakers from Burgundy, but is not associated with the similarly named estate in Bordeaux.
As a student, Latour originally focused on philosophy. In 1971–1972, he ranked second and then first (reçu second, premier) in the French national competitive exam (agrégation/CAPES de philosophie). He was deeply influenced by Michel Serres. Latour went on to earn his Ph.D. in philosophical theology in 1975 at the University of Tours. His thesis title was Exégèse et ontologie: une analyse des textes de resurrection (Exegesis and Ontology: An Analysis of the Texts of Resurrection).
He developed an interest in anthropology, and undertook fieldwork in Ivory Coast which resulted in a brief monograph on decolonization, race, and industrial relations. After spending more than twenty years (1982–2006) at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation at the École des Mines in Paris, Latour moved in 2006 to Sciences Po, where he was the first occupant of a chair named for Gabriel Tarde. In recent years he also served as one of the curators of successful art exhibitions at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Germany, including "Iconoclash" (2002) and "Making Things Public" (2005). In 2005 he also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.
Awards and honors
On 22 May 2008, Latour was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal on the occasion of an organizational communication conference held in honor of the work of James R. Taylor, on whom Latour has had an important influence. He holds several other honorary doctorates, as well as France's Légion d'Honneur (2012).
The Dutch "International Spinozaprijs Foundation" will award the "Spinozalens 2020" to Bruno Latour on 24 November 2020.
In 2021 he received the Kyoto Prize in the category "Thought and Ethics".
Holberg Prize
On 13 March 2013, he was announced as the winner of the 2013 Holberg Prize. The prize committee stated that "Bruno Latour has undertaken an ambitious analysis and reinterpretation of modernity, and has challenged fundamental concepts such as the distinction between modern and pre-modern, nature and society, human and non-human." The committee states that "the impact of Latour's work is evident internationally and far beyond studies of the history of science, art history, history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, theology, literature and law."
A 2013 article in Aftenposten by Jon Elster criticised the conferment to Latour, by saying "The question is, does he deserve the prize. ... If the statutes [of the award] had used new knowledge as a main criteria, instead of one of several, then he would be completely unqualified in my opinion."
Main works
Laboratory Life
After his early career efforts, Latour shifted his research interests to focus on laboratory scientists. Latour rose in importance following the 1979 publication of Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts with co-author Steve Woolgar. In the book, the authors undertake an ethnographic study of a neuroendocrinology research laboratory at the Salk Institute. This early work argued that naïve descriptions of the scientific method, in which theories stand or fall on the outcome of a single experiment, are inconsistent with actual laboratory practice.
In the laboratory, Latour and Woolgar observed that a typical experiment produces only inconclusive data that is attributed to failure of the apparatus or experimental method, and that a large part of scientific training involves learning how to make the subjective decision of what data to keep and what data to throw out. Latour and Woolgar argued that, for untrained observers, the entire process resembles not an unbiased search for truth and accuracy but a mechanism for ignoring data that contradicts scientific orthodoxy.
Latour and Woolgar produced a highly heterodox and controversial picture of the sciences. Drawing on the work of Gaston Bachelard, they advance the notion that the objects of scientific study are socially constructed within the laboratory—that they cannot be attributed with an existence outside of the instruments that measure them and the minds that interpret them. They view scientific activity as a system of beliefs, oral traditions and culturally specific practices—in short, science is reconstructed not as a procedure or as a set of principles but as a culture. Latour's 1987 book Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society is one of the key texts of the sociology of scientific knowledge in which he famously wrote his Second Principle as follows: "Scientist and engineers speak in the name of new allies that they have shaped and enrolled; representatives among other representatives, they add these unexpected resources to tip the balance of force in their favor."
Some of Latour's position and findings in this era provoked vehement rebuttals. Gross and Leavitt argue that Latour's position becomes absurd when applied to non-scientific contexts: e.g., if a group of coworkers in a windowless room were debating whether or not it were raining outside and went outdoors to discover raindrops in the air and puddles on the soil, Latour's hypothesis would assert that the rain was socially constructed. Similarly, philosopher John Searle argues that Latour's "extreme social constructivist" position is seriously flawed on several points, and furthermore has inadvertently "comical results".
The Pasteurization of France
After a research project examining the sociology of primatologists, Latour followed up the themes in Laboratory Life with Les Microbes: guerre et paix (published in English as The Pasteurization of France in 1988). In it, he reviews the life and career of one of France's most famous scientists Louis Pasteur and his discovery of microbes, in the fashion of a political biography. Latour highlights the social forces at work in and around Pasteur's career and the uneven manner in which his theories were accepted. By providing more explicitly ideological explanations for the acceptance of Pasteur's work more easily in some quarters than in others, he seeks to undermine the notion that the acceptance and rejection of scientific theories is primarily, or even usually, a matter of experiment, evidence or reason.
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology focuses on the history of an unsuccessful mass-transit project. Aramis PRT (personal rapid transit), a high tech automated subway, had been developed in France during the 70s and 80s and was supposed to be implemented as a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in Paris. It combined the flexibility of an automobile with the efficiency of a subway. Aramis was to be an ideal urban transportation system based on private cars in constant motion and the elimination of unnecessary transfers. This new form of transportation was intended to be as secure and inexpensive as collective transportation. The proposed system had custom-designed motors, sensors, controls, digital electronics, software and a major installation in southern Paris. But in the end, the project died in 1987. Latour argues that the technology failed not because any particular actor killed it, but because the actors failed to sustain it through negotiation and adaptation to a changing social situation. While investigating Aramis's demise, Latour delineates the tenets of actor-network theory. According to Latour's own description of the book, the work aims "at training readers in the booming field of technology studies and at experimenting in the many new literary forms that are necessary to handle mechanisms and automatisms without using the belief that they are mechanical nor automatic."
We Have Never Been Modern
Latour's work Nous n’avons jamais été modernes : Essai d’anthropologie symétrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern.
Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.
Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism.
Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom.
In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history".
Pandora's Hope
Pandora's Hope (1999) marks a return to the themes Latour explored in Science in Action and We Have Never Been Modern. It uses independent but thematically linked essays and case studies to question the authority and reliability of scientific knowledge. Latour uses a narrative, anecdotal approach in a number of the essays, describing his work with pedologists in the Amazon rainforest, the development of the pasteurization process, and the research of French atomic scientists at the outbreak of the Second World War. Latour states that this specific, anecdotal approach to science studies is essential to gaining a full understanding of the discipline: "The only way to understand the reality of science studies is to follow what science studies do best, that is, paying close attention to the details of scientific practice" (p. 24). Some authors have criticized Latour's methodology, including Katherine Pandora, a history of science professor at the University of Oklahoma. In her review of Pandora's Hope, Katherine Pandora states:
"[Latour's] writing can be stimulating, fresh and at times genuinely moving, but it can also display a distractingly mannered style in which a rococo zeal for compounding metaphors, examples, definitions and abstractions can frustrate even readers who approach his work with the best of intentions (notwithstanding the inclusion of a nine-page glossary of terms and liberal use of diagrams in an attempt to achieve the utmost clarity)".
In addition to his epistemological concerns, Latour also explores the political dimension of science studies in Pandora's Hope. Two of the chapters draw on Plato's Gorgias as a means of investigating and highlighting the distinction between content and context. As Katherine Pandora states in her review:
"It is hard not to be caught up in the author's obvious delight in deploying a classic work from antiquity to bring current concerns into sharper focus, following along as he manages to leave the reader with the impression that the protagonists Socrates and Callicles are not only in dialogue with each other but with Latour as well."
Although Latour frames his discussion with a classical model, his examples of fraught political issues are all current and of continuing relevance: global warming, the spread of mad cow disease, and the carcinogenic effects of smoking are all mentioned at various points in Pandora's Hope. In Felix Stalder's article "Beyond constructivism: towards a realistic realism", he summarizes Latour's position on the political dimension of science studies as follows: "These scientific debates have been artificially kept open in order to render impossible any political action against these problems and those who profit from them".
"Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?"
In a 2004 article, Latour questioned the fundamental premises on which he had based most of his career, asking, "Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?" He undertakes a trenchant critique of his own field of study and, more generally, of social criticism in contemporary academia. He suggests that critique, as currently practiced, is bordering on irrelevancy. To maintain any vitality, Latour argues that social critiques require a drastic reappraisal: "our critical equipment deserves as much critical scrutiny as the Pentagon budget." (p. 231) To regain focus and credibility, Latour argues that social critiques must embrace empiricism, to insist on the "cultivation of a stubbornly realist attitude – to speak like William James". (p. 233)
Latour suggests that about 90 per cent of contemporary social criticism displays one of two approaches which he terms "the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 237) The fairy position is anti-fetishist, arguing that "objects of belief" (e.g., religion, arts) are merely concepts created by the projected wishes and desires of the "naive believer"; the "fact position" argues that individuals are dominated, often covertly and without their awareness, by external forces (e.g., economics, gender). (p. 238) "Do you see now why it feels so good to be a critical mind?” asks Latour: no matter which position you take, "You’re always right!" (p. 238–239) Social critics tend to use anti-fetishism against ideas they personally reject; to use "an unrepentant positivist" approach for fields of study they consider valuable; all the while thinking as "a perfectly healthy sturdy realist for what you really cherish." (p. 241) These inconsistencies and double standards go largely unrecognized in social critique because "there is never any crossover between the two lists of objects in the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 241)
The practical result of these approaches being taught to millions of students in elite universities for several decades is a widespread and influential "critical barbarity" that has—like a malign virus created by a "mad scientist"—thus far proven impossible to control. Most troubling, Latour notes that critical ideas have been appropriated by those he describes as conspiracy theorists, including global warming deniers and the 9/11 Truth movement: "Maybe I am taking conspiracy theories too seriously, but I am worried to detect, in those mad mixtures of knee-jerk disbelief, punctilious demands for proofs, and free use of powerful explanation from the social neverland, many of the weapons of social critique." (p. 230)
The conclusion of the article is to argue for a positive framing of critique, to help understand how matters of concern can be supported rather than undermined: "The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naïve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in which to gather. The critic is not the one who alternates haphazardly between antifetishism and positivism like the drunk iconoclast drawn by Goya, but the one for whom, if something is constructed, then it means it is fragile and thus in great need of care and caution."
Latour's article has been highly influential within the field of postcritique, an intellectual movement within literary criticism and cultural studies that seeks to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. The literary critic Rita Felski has named Latour as an important precursor to the project of postcritique.
Reassembling the Social
In Reassembling the Social (2005), Latour continues a reappraisal of his work, developing what he calls a "practical metaphysics", which calls "real" anything that an actor (one whom we are studying) claims as a source of motivation for action. So if someone says, "I was inspired by God to be charitable to my neighbors" we are obliged to recognize the "ontological weight" of their claim, rather than attempting to replace their belief in God's presence with "social stuff", like class, gender, imperialism, etc. Latour’s nuanced metaphysics demands the existence of a plurality of worlds, and the willingness of the researcher to chart ever more. He argues that researchers must give up the hope of fitting their actors into a structure or framework, but Latour believes the benefits of this sacrifice far outweigh the downsides: "Their complex metaphysics would at least be respected, their recalcitrance recognized, their objections deployed, their multiplicity accepted."
For Latour, to talk about metaphysics or ontology–what really is–means paying close empirical attention to the various, contradictory institutions and ideas that bring people together and inspire them to act. Here is Latour's description of metaphysics:
If we call metaphysics the discipline . . . that purports to define the basic structure of the world, then empirical metaphysics is what the controversies over agencies lead to since they ceaselessly populate the world with new drives and, as ceaselessly, contest the existence of others. The question then becomes how to explore the actors' own metaphysics.
A more traditional metaphysicist might object, arguing that this means there are multiple, contradictory realities, since there are "controversies over agencies" – since there is a plurality of contradictory ideas that people claim as a basis for action (God, nature, the state, sexual drives, personal ambition, and so on). This objection manifests the most important difference between traditional philosophical metaphysics and Latour's nuance: for Latour, there is no "basic structure of reality" or a single, self-consistent world. An unknowably large multiplicity of realities, or "worlds" in his terms, exists–one for each actor's sources of agency, inspirations for action. Actors bring "the real" (metaphysics) into being. The task of the researcher is not to find one "basic structure" that explains agency, but to recognize "the metaphysical innovations proposed by ordinary actors". Mapping those metaphysical innovations involves a strong dedication to relativism, Latour argues. The relativist researcher "learns the actors' language," records what they say about what they do, and does not appeal to a higher "structure" to "explain" the actor's motivations. The relativist "takes seriously what [actors] are obstinately saying" and "follows the direction indicated by their fingers when they designate what 'makes them act'". The relativist recognizes the plurality of metaphysics that actors bring into being, and attempts to map them rather than reducing them to a single structure or explanation.
Selected bibliography
Books
Originally published 1979 in Los Angeles, by Sage Publications
Chapters in books
Journal articles
See also
Actant
Blackboxing
Fashionable Nonsense
Graphism thesis
Mapping controversies
Obligatory passage point
Science wars
Social construction of technology
Technological determinism
References
Sources
External links
Bruno Latour's website
1947 births
Living people
People from Beaune
Sociologists of science
Science and technology studies scholars
Social constructionism
Sociology of scientific knowledge
French sociologists
French anthropologists
Mines ParisTech faculty
Actor-network theory
French Roman Catholics
Catholic philosophers
Holberg Prize laureates
French male writers
French male essayists
20th-century French philosophers
21st-century French philosophers
Philosophers of science
Philosophers of technology
Posthumanists
Continental philosophers
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
20th-century male writers
21st-century male writers
Sciences Po faculty | true | [
"The Poznań or Grecque is a form of sporting celebration that involves supporters standing with their backs to the pitch, linking shoulders side-by-side and jumping on the spot in unison. It is mostly associated with supporters of football clubs Lech Poznań in Poland, Manchester City in England, Celtic in Scotland, Deportivo Alavés in Spain, and the Western Sydney Wanderers in Australia, although it has been performed by fans of many football clubs throughout the world. Its first use is thought to have been as a protest against club management while still supporting the team.\n\nUsage \nThe Poznań Celebration involves the fans turning their backs to the pitch, joining arms and jumping up and down in unison. In Poland, and among many fans across Europe, it is not called \"the Poznań\" but is known as a \"Grecque\", and it is performed by fans of many teams.\n\nDespite initially failing to impress Manchester City fans when it was done during the teams' meeting in the UEFA Europa League group stage on 21 October 2010, it was subsequently adopted by City supporters during a game early the following month. The activity was coined 'The Poznań' by Manchester City fans, in homage to the club that inspired them to celebrate in this way. Apart from odd occasions, it died out as a regular celebration within a couple of seasons. The Poznań was briefly adopted by other English football supporters, notably those of Leicester City after their clash with Manchester City in the third round of the FA Cup in January 2011, and is referred to by English football fans as \"doing the Poznań\".\n\nIt has also been used to mock Manchester City fans, such as when newly promoted side Cardiff City beat them 3-2 in August 2013. More examples include when Arsenal supporters did the Poznań celebration after Mikel Arteta scored the winning goal for Arsenal in April 2012 and when Arsenal beat Manchester City in the Premier League. Manchester City supporters did it during a Manchester derby game in the 2010–11 FA Cup semi-final as well as Bayern Munich fans during a Champions League group match against them in October 2013. Arsenal supporters also did the Poznań during the 3-0 win in the 2014 FA Community Shield against Man City, and again in January 2015, when Arsenal beat them 0-2, as did Crystal Palace fans at the 2016 FA Cup Final against Manchester United.\n\nInitially, the supporters group of Australian club Western Sydney Wanderers, The Red and Black Bloc, performed it in the 80th minute of matches to represent the first football match played in Western Sydney in 1880. Subsequently, this has grown into an all stadium celebration. In return, their local rival, Sydney FC and their hard-core supporters \"The Cove\" have performed it in retribution when they are in a winning position as the 90th minute nears during their local derby.\n\nAlternatives \nFans of the Scottish club Celtic have a similar celebration known as \"The Huddle\", whilst also facing away from the pitch; the words sung by the fans are \"Let's All Do The Huddle\". The \"Huddle\" performed by Celtic fans is closely linked to the on-field huddle conducted by the Celtic team prior to kick-off which was introduced by Tony Mowbray during his playing career at the club in the mid 1990s. Over the years, Celtic fans have carried out various versions of the huddle, although the first example of it being performed by large numbers of the club's supporters at a game was during a 3-0 win over Rangers at Celtic Park in February 2011.\n\nSupporters of Deportivo Alavés, a La Liga team, have been known to celebrate most of their team's goals with a variation of \"The Poznań\" since at least 2014, in which they stand with their backs to the pitch, linking shoulders side-by-side and jumping on the spot while they sing the tune to the Pippi Longstocking TV series.\n\nFC Copenhagen Ultras have the past several years celebrated wins using a variant of the Poznań where the fans turn their backs to the pitch and jump from side to side while the players on the pitch do the same.\n\nSee also \nThe Bouncy\nMexican wave\n\"Jump Around\", a 1992 song by American hip hop group House of Pain used as the backdrop for similar fan actions\n\nReferences \n\nAssociation football culture\nLech Poznań\nManchester City F.C.\nWestern Sydney Wanderers FC\nArticles containing video clips",
"Old Indonesia Derby (commonly known as El Clasico Indonesia or Indonesia Super Big Match) is the name given in football to any match between fierce rivals Persija Jakarta and Persib Bandung. The rivalry between the two teams began to heat up since the 2000s. with the hostility of supporters, and has spread both sides as a prestigious match in Indonesian Football.\n\nOrigin \nBefore Indonesia's independence, in 1930 a football association in Indonesia called the Inlandsche Stedenwedstrden was held, the football clubs Persib Bandung and Persija Jakarta met several times, but the matches were normal. After Indonesia's independence, clubs in Indonesia began to form again and a football association in Indonesia was again organized called the Perserikatan in 1950 to 1995. At that time meetings between the two clubs were also rare, Persib Bandung had several hot matches but with PSMS Medan, the competition they can be called a classic derby, Persib Bandung several times stepped into the final which was held at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium and their supporters always filled the stands, Persija Jakarta at that time did not have many fans, until in the late 1990s Persija Jakarta fans were formed, in the 2000s clashes between supporters often occurred and caused problems, here the competition spread to teams and clubs until now many events occur.\n\nResults\n\nOfficial match results \n\nSource: \n\nData Incomplete\n\nPerserikatan era\n\nLiga Indonesia era\n\nHead-to-head results overall\nUpdate 1 Maret 2022Data Incomplete\n\nRecords \nData from 2007-08 Liga Indonesia Premier DivisionAs 10 July 2019\n\nMost appearances\n Players in bold are still active\n\nTop goalscorer\n Players in bold are still active\n\nClean sheet\n Players in bold are still active\n\nMen in both teams\nNote: \n Since Liga Indonesia era (1994 - present)\n Players in bold are still active\n\nPlayers who played for both clubs\n\nPersija then Persib\n\nPersib then Persija\n\nHead coaches who coached for both clubs\n \nsource:\n\nHonours\n\nSupporters\nTheir supporters have never met after the start of hostilities between supporters of Persija and Persib in the 2000s, to date. Many conflicts occur including the death of one of the supporters and clashes which resulted in injury.\n\nPersija Jakarta\nPersija Jakarta's supporters called The Jakmania. Founded in 1997 by Gugun Gondrong and Ferry Indrasjarief with orange colour as their identity. The Jakmania is one of the biggest football club supporters in Indonesia.\n\nPersib Bandung\nPersib Bandung fans often refer to themselves as Bobotoh, this name comes from the Sundanese language. Literally as people provide support, spirit and encouragement, for those who do the match. There are several groups of Persib Bandung supporters but the most famous and the beginning of hostility with Persija Jakarta supporters is the Viking Persib Club (VPC).\n\nTragedy \nTwo biggest tragedy occurred on March 5 2012, when Rangga Cipta Nugraha was beaten to the ground with a stadium bench only because he cheered happily when the Persib player scored, some say that the blood on his head did not stop pouring even until he was put into a grave.\n\nAnother tragedy happened on September 23, 2018, when before the match begins, one of the Jakmania members, Haringga Sirla, was killed by some unscrupulous host fans. Condolences for Haringga also flowed from the netizens throughout social media. In response to the incident, the Football Association of Indonesia forced Persib Bandung to pay a IDR 100 million (US$6,634) fine and play the remainder the team's home matches of the 2018 season behind closed doors.\n\nReconciliation\nUntil now, many parties want these two supporters to unite, but there are still many who provoke either from The Jakmania or Bobotoh, whether on social media or in real life. The dark past makes these two supporters difficult to unite, even to the point that there is a slogan, \"Biarkan Permusuhan Ini Tetap Abadi\", which means, \"Let This Feud Remain Eternal\" from one of the main figure Bobotoh frontman.\n\nSee also\nSports rivalry\nList of association football rivalries\nNationalism and sport\nLiga 1 (Indonesia)\nEastern Green and Western Green Derby\n\nReferences\n\nPersija Jakarta\nPersib Bandung\nIndonesia Super League\nSport in Jakarta\nBandung"
]
|
[
"Bruno Latour",
"We Have Never Been Modern",
"what is the connection between latour and we have never been modern",
"Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism.",
"who did he judge",
"He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.",
"did he have supporters",
"Margaret C. Jacob"
]
| C_f413e9dbddb94d27801f449460db5b29_0 | what is important about his work | 4 | What is important about Bruno Latour's work? | Bruno Latour | Latour's work Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern. Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines. Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism. Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom. In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history". CANNOTANSWER | Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. | Bruno Latour (; ; born 22 June 1947) is a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist. He is especially known for his work in the field of science and technology studies (STS). After teaching at the École des Mines de Paris (Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation) from 1982 to 2006, he became Professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he was the scientific director of the Sciences Po Medialab. He retired from several university activities in 2017. He was also a Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.
Latour is best known for his books We Have Never Been Modern (1991; English translation, 1993), Laboratory Life (with Steve Woolgar, 1979) and Science in Action (1987). Although his studies of scientific practice were at one time associated with social constructionist approaches to the philosophy of science, Latour has diverged significantly from such approaches. He is best known for withdrawing from the subjective/objective division and re-developing the approach to work in practice. Latour said in 2017 that he is interested in helping to rebuild trust in science and that some of the authority of science needs to be regained.
Along with Michel Callon and John Law, Latour is one of the primary developers of actor–network theory (ANT), a constructionist approach influenced by the ethnomethodology of Harold Garfinkel, the generative semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas, and (more recently) the sociology of Émile Durkheim's rival Gabriel Tarde.
Biography
Latour is related to a well-known family of winemakers from Burgundy, but is not associated with the similarly named estate in Bordeaux.
As a student, Latour originally focused on philosophy. In 1971–1972, he ranked second and then first (reçu second, premier) in the French national competitive exam (agrégation/CAPES de philosophie). He was deeply influenced by Michel Serres. Latour went on to earn his Ph.D. in philosophical theology in 1975 at the University of Tours. His thesis title was Exégèse et ontologie: une analyse des textes de resurrection (Exegesis and Ontology: An Analysis of the Texts of Resurrection).
He developed an interest in anthropology, and undertook fieldwork in Ivory Coast which resulted in a brief monograph on decolonization, race, and industrial relations. After spending more than twenty years (1982–2006) at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation at the École des Mines in Paris, Latour moved in 2006 to Sciences Po, where he was the first occupant of a chair named for Gabriel Tarde. In recent years he also served as one of the curators of successful art exhibitions at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Germany, including "Iconoclash" (2002) and "Making Things Public" (2005). In 2005 he also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.
Awards and honors
On 22 May 2008, Latour was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal on the occasion of an organizational communication conference held in honor of the work of James R. Taylor, on whom Latour has had an important influence. He holds several other honorary doctorates, as well as France's Légion d'Honneur (2012).
The Dutch "International Spinozaprijs Foundation" will award the "Spinozalens 2020" to Bruno Latour on 24 November 2020.
In 2021 he received the Kyoto Prize in the category "Thought and Ethics".
Holberg Prize
On 13 March 2013, he was announced as the winner of the 2013 Holberg Prize. The prize committee stated that "Bruno Latour has undertaken an ambitious analysis and reinterpretation of modernity, and has challenged fundamental concepts such as the distinction between modern and pre-modern, nature and society, human and non-human." The committee states that "the impact of Latour's work is evident internationally and far beyond studies of the history of science, art history, history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, theology, literature and law."
A 2013 article in Aftenposten by Jon Elster criticised the conferment to Latour, by saying "The question is, does he deserve the prize. ... If the statutes [of the award] had used new knowledge as a main criteria, instead of one of several, then he would be completely unqualified in my opinion."
Main works
Laboratory Life
After his early career efforts, Latour shifted his research interests to focus on laboratory scientists. Latour rose in importance following the 1979 publication of Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts with co-author Steve Woolgar. In the book, the authors undertake an ethnographic study of a neuroendocrinology research laboratory at the Salk Institute. This early work argued that naïve descriptions of the scientific method, in which theories stand or fall on the outcome of a single experiment, are inconsistent with actual laboratory practice.
In the laboratory, Latour and Woolgar observed that a typical experiment produces only inconclusive data that is attributed to failure of the apparatus or experimental method, and that a large part of scientific training involves learning how to make the subjective decision of what data to keep and what data to throw out. Latour and Woolgar argued that, for untrained observers, the entire process resembles not an unbiased search for truth and accuracy but a mechanism for ignoring data that contradicts scientific orthodoxy.
Latour and Woolgar produced a highly heterodox and controversial picture of the sciences. Drawing on the work of Gaston Bachelard, they advance the notion that the objects of scientific study are socially constructed within the laboratory—that they cannot be attributed with an existence outside of the instruments that measure them and the minds that interpret them. They view scientific activity as a system of beliefs, oral traditions and culturally specific practices—in short, science is reconstructed not as a procedure or as a set of principles but as a culture. Latour's 1987 book Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society is one of the key texts of the sociology of scientific knowledge in which he famously wrote his Second Principle as follows: "Scientist and engineers speak in the name of new allies that they have shaped and enrolled; representatives among other representatives, they add these unexpected resources to tip the balance of force in their favor."
Some of Latour's position and findings in this era provoked vehement rebuttals. Gross and Leavitt argue that Latour's position becomes absurd when applied to non-scientific contexts: e.g., if a group of coworkers in a windowless room were debating whether or not it were raining outside and went outdoors to discover raindrops in the air and puddles on the soil, Latour's hypothesis would assert that the rain was socially constructed. Similarly, philosopher John Searle argues that Latour's "extreme social constructivist" position is seriously flawed on several points, and furthermore has inadvertently "comical results".
The Pasteurization of France
After a research project examining the sociology of primatologists, Latour followed up the themes in Laboratory Life with Les Microbes: guerre et paix (published in English as The Pasteurization of France in 1988). In it, he reviews the life and career of one of France's most famous scientists Louis Pasteur and his discovery of microbes, in the fashion of a political biography. Latour highlights the social forces at work in and around Pasteur's career and the uneven manner in which his theories were accepted. By providing more explicitly ideological explanations for the acceptance of Pasteur's work more easily in some quarters than in others, he seeks to undermine the notion that the acceptance and rejection of scientific theories is primarily, or even usually, a matter of experiment, evidence or reason.
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology focuses on the history of an unsuccessful mass-transit project. Aramis PRT (personal rapid transit), a high tech automated subway, had been developed in France during the 70s and 80s and was supposed to be implemented as a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in Paris. It combined the flexibility of an automobile with the efficiency of a subway. Aramis was to be an ideal urban transportation system based on private cars in constant motion and the elimination of unnecessary transfers. This new form of transportation was intended to be as secure and inexpensive as collective transportation. The proposed system had custom-designed motors, sensors, controls, digital electronics, software and a major installation in southern Paris. But in the end, the project died in 1987. Latour argues that the technology failed not because any particular actor killed it, but because the actors failed to sustain it through negotiation and adaptation to a changing social situation. While investigating Aramis's demise, Latour delineates the tenets of actor-network theory. According to Latour's own description of the book, the work aims "at training readers in the booming field of technology studies and at experimenting in the many new literary forms that are necessary to handle mechanisms and automatisms without using the belief that they are mechanical nor automatic."
We Have Never Been Modern
Latour's work Nous n’avons jamais été modernes : Essai d’anthropologie symétrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern.
Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.
Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism.
Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom.
In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history".
Pandora's Hope
Pandora's Hope (1999) marks a return to the themes Latour explored in Science in Action and We Have Never Been Modern. It uses independent but thematically linked essays and case studies to question the authority and reliability of scientific knowledge. Latour uses a narrative, anecdotal approach in a number of the essays, describing his work with pedologists in the Amazon rainforest, the development of the pasteurization process, and the research of French atomic scientists at the outbreak of the Second World War. Latour states that this specific, anecdotal approach to science studies is essential to gaining a full understanding of the discipline: "The only way to understand the reality of science studies is to follow what science studies do best, that is, paying close attention to the details of scientific practice" (p. 24). Some authors have criticized Latour's methodology, including Katherine Pandora, a history of science professor at the University of Oklahoma. In her review of Pandora's Hope, Katherine Pandora states:
"[Latour's] writing can be stimulating, fresh and at times genuinely moving, but it can also display a distractingly mannered style in which a rococo zeal for compounding metaphors, examples, definitions and abstractions can frustrate even readers who approach his work with the best of intentions (notwithstanding the inclusion of a nine-page glossary of terms and liberal use of diagrams in an attempt to achieve the utmost clarity)".
In addition to his epistemological concerns, Latour also explores the political dimension of science studies in Pandora's Hope. Two of the chapters draw on Plato's Gorgias as a means of investigating and highlighting the distinction between content and context. As Katherine Pandora states in her review:
"It is hard not to be caught up in the author's obvious delight in deploying a classic work from antiquity to bring current concerns into sharper focus, following along as he manages to leave the reader with the impression that the protagonists Socrates and Callicles are not only in dialogue with each other but with Latour as well."
Although Latour frames his discussion with a classical model, his examples of fraught political issues are all current and of continuing relevance: global warming, the spread of mad cow disease, and the carcinogenic effects of smoking are all mentioned at various points in Pandora's Hope. In Felix Stalder's article "Beyond constructivism: towards a realistic realism", he summarizes Latour's position on the political dimension of science studies as follows: "These scientific debates have been artificially kept open in order to render impossible any political action against these problems and those who profit from them".
"Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?"
In a 2004 article, Latour questioned the fundamental premises on which he had based most of his career, asking, "Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?" He undertakes a trenchant critique of his own field of study and, more generally, of social criticism in contemporary academia. He suggests that critique, as currently practiced, is bordering on irrelevancy. To maintain any vitality, Latour argues that social critiques require a drastic reappraisal: "our critical equipment deserves as much critical scrutiny as the Pentagon budget." (p. 231) To regain focus and credibility, Latour argues that social critiques must embrace empiricism, to insist on the "cultivation of a stubbornly realist attitude – to speak like William James". (p. 233)
Latour suggests that about 90 per cent of contemporary social criticism displays one of two approaches which he terms "the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 237) The fairy position is anti-fetishist, arguing that "objects of belief" (e.g., religion, arts) are merely concepts created by the projected wishes and desires of the "naive believer"; the "fact position" argues that individuals are dominated, often covertly and without their awareness, by external forces (e.g., economics, gender). (p. 238) "Do you see now why it feels so good to be a critical mind?” asks Latour: no matter which position you take, "You’re always right!" (p. 238–239) Social critics tend to use anti-fetishism against ideas they personally reject; to use "an unrepentant positivist" approach for fields of study they consider valuable; all the while thinking as "a perfectly healthy sturdy realist for what you really cherish." (p. 241) These inconsistencies and double standards go largely unrecognized in social critique because "there is never any crossover between the two lists of objects in the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 241)
The practical result of these approaches being taught to millions of students in elite universities for several decades is a widespread and influential "critical barbarity" that has—like a malign virus created by a "mad scientist"—thus far proven impossible to control. Most troubling, Latour notes that critical ideas have been appropriated by those he describes as conspiracy theorists, including global warming deniers and the 9/11 Truth movement: "Maybe I am taking conspiracy theories too seriously, but I am worried to detect, in those mad mixtures of knee-jerk disbelief, punctilious demands for proofs, and free use of powerful explanation from the social neverland, many of the weapons of social critique." (p. 230)
The conclusion of the article is to argue for a positive framing of critique, to help understand how matters of concern can be supported rather than undermined: "The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naïve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in which to gather. The critic is not the one who alternates haphazardly between antifetishism and positivism like the drunk iconoclast drawn by Goya, but the one for whom, if something is constructed, then it means it is fragile and thus in great need of care and caution."
Latour's article has been highly influential within the field of postcritique, an intellectual movement within literary criticism and cultural studies that seeks to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. The literary critic Rita Felski has named Latour as an important precursor to the project of postcritique.
Reassembling the Social
In Reassembling the Social (2005), Latour continues a reappraisal of his work, developing what he calls a "practical metaphysics", which calls "real" anything that an actor (one whom we are studying) claims as a source of motivation for action. So if someone says, "I was inspired by God to be charitable to my neighbors" we are obliged to recognize the "ontological weight" of their claim, rather than attempting to replace their belief in God's presence with "social stuff", like class, gender, imperialism, etc. Latour’s nuanced metaphysics demands the existence of a plurality of worlds, and the willingness of the researcher to chart ever more. He argues that researchers must give up the hope of fitting their actors into a structure or framework, but Latour believes the benefits of this sacrifice far outweigh the downsides: "Their complex metaphysics would at least be respected, their recalcitrance recognized, their objections deployed, their multiplicity accepted."
For Latour, to talk about metaphysics or ontology–what really is–means paying close empirical attention to the various, contradictory institutions and ideas that bring people together and inspire them to act. Here is Latour's description of metaphysics:
If we call metaphysics the discipline . . . that purports to define the basic structure of the world, then empirical metaphysics is what the controversies over agencies lead to since they ceaselessly populate the world with new drives and, as ceaselessly, contest the existence of others. The question then becomes how to explore the actors' own metaphysics.
A more traditional metaphysicist might object, arguing that this means there are multiple, contradictory realities, since there are "controversies over agencies" – since there is a plurality of contradictory ideas that people claim as a basis for action (God, nature, the state, sexual drives, personal ambition, and so on). This objection manifests the most important difference between traditional philosophical metaphysics and Latour's nuance: for Latour, there is no "basic structure of reality" or a single, self-consistent world. An unknowably large multiplicity of realities, or "worlds" in his terms, exists–one for each actor's sources of agency, inspirations for action. Actors bring "the real" (metaphysics) into being. The task of the researcher is not to find one "basic structure" that explains agency, but to recognize "the metaphysical innovations proposed by ordinary actors". Mapping those metaphysical innovations involves a strong dedication to relativism, Latour argues. The relativist researcher "learns the actors' language," records what they say about what they do, and does not appeal to a higher "structure" to "explain" the actor's motivations. The relativist "takes seriously what [actors] are obstinately saying" and "follows the direction indicated by their fingers when they designate what 'makes them act'". The relativist recognizes the plurality of metaphysics that actors bring into being, and attempts to map them rather than reducing them to a single structure or explanation.
Selected bibliography
Books
Originally published 1979 in Los Angeles, by Sage Publications
Chapters in books
Journal articles
See also
Actant
Blackboxing
Fashionable Nonsense
Graphism thesis
Mapping controversies
Obligatory passage point
Science wars
Social construction of technology
Technological determinism
References
Sources
External links
Bruno Latour's website
1947 births
Living people
People from Beaune
Sociologists of science
Science and technology studies scholars
Social constructionism
Sociology of scientific knowledge
French sociologists
French anthropologists
Mines ParisTech faculty
Actor-network theory
French Roman Catholics
Catholic philosophers
Holberg Prize laureates
French male writers
French male essayists
20th-century French philosophers
21st-century French philosophers
Philosophers of science
Philosophers of technology
Posthumanists
Continental philosophers
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
20th-century male writers
21st-century male writers
Sciences Po faculty | true | [
"Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative is a book on coming up with creative ideas written by Austin Kleon and published in 2012 from Workman Publishing. The book, has since then become a New York Times Bestseller. Kleon presents himself as a young writer and artist emphasizing that creativity is everywhere and is for everyone. In his own words, \"You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself\".\n\nBackdrop\nWhen Mr. Kleon was asked to address college students at Broome Community College in upstate New York in 2011, he shaped his speech around a simple list of ten things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out at their age. They were: 'Steal like an artist; Don't wait until you know who you are to start making things; Write the book you want to read; Use your hands; Side projects are important; Do good work and put it where people can see it; Geography is no longer our master; Be nice (the world is a small town.); Be boring (it's the only way to get work done.); and, Creativity is subtraction.\nAfter giving the speech, he posted the text and slides of the talk to his popular blog.\nThe talk went viral, and Kleon dug deeper and expanded to create the book, for anyone attempting to make things - art, a career, a life - in the digital age.\n\nThe Book\nKleon describes ten basic principles to boost your creativity. He lists them on the back cover of the book so that they're easily referenced. The book is small, full of illustrations and several poems in the style of his newspaper cutouts by Kleon.\n\nKleon responds by writing, “the reason to copy your heroes and their style is so that you might somehow get a glimpse into their minds\". Kleon reminds throughout his book that “nothing is original… all creative work builds on what came before.” This sentiment is also a foundation for effective ELA teaching: From our past experiences as readers and writers, we can design better learning conditions for our students.\n\nEach chapter is dedicated to one of the ten principles, which are represented by the following:\n\n1. Steal like an artist:\nThe author cautions that he does not mean ‘steal’ as in plagiarise, skim or rip off — but study, credit, remix, mash up and transform. Creative work builds on what came before, and thus nothing is completely original.\n\n2. Don't wait until you know who you are to start making things:\nYou have to start doing the work you want to be doing, you have to immerse, internalise and even dress like the person you aspire to be. “You don’t have to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes,” Kleon urges. Go beyond imitation to emulation.\n\n3. Write the book you want to read:\nIt is important to do what you want to do, and insert your take on things of art.\n\n4. Use your hands:\nIt is important to step away from the screen and immerse in actual physical work. “Computers have robbed us of the feeling that we’re actually making things,” Kleon cautions. \"Involve your full body, and not just your brains.\"\n\n5. Side projects are important:\nHobbies are important because they keep you happy. “A hobby is something that gives but doesn’t take,” Kleon says.\n\n6. Do good work and put it where people can see it:\nSharing your work and even your thoughts about what you like help you get good feedback and more ideas.\n\n7. Geography is no longer our master:\n“Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our brains work harder,” Kleon explains. Constraints can also act favorably – bad winters or summers can force you to be indoors and work on your projects.\n\n8. Be nice (the world is a small town.):\nStop fighting and channel your rage into a creative pursuit. Show appreciation for the good things you see around you.\n\n9. Be boring (it's the only way to get work done.):\nYou can’t be creative all the time, so set a routine – for example, with a regular day job which sets a fixed schedule and exposes you to new people and skills.\n\n10. Creativity is subtraction\":\nIn an age of information overload and abundance, focus is important. Choose what you want to leave out of your key work. “Nothing is more paralysing than the idea of limitless possibilities. The best way to get over creative block is to simply place some constraints on yourself,” Kleon says.\n\nReferences\n\n2012 non-fiction books\nAmerican non-fiction books\nBooks about creativity",
"What Work Is is a collection of poetry by Philip Levine. The collection has many themes that are representative of Levine's writing including physical labor, class identity, family relationships and personal loss. Its primary focus on work and the working class led to it being studied with emphasis on Marxist literary criticism. The focus on work is expressed in thematically different ways throughout the collection. Furthermore, much of the collection was shaped by concerns for blue collar workers as well as nationwide political events.\n\n\"What Work Is\" was first published in 1991 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in New York. \nThis poetry collection won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1991.\n\nThemes\nMajor themes that run throughout the collection mostly pertain to the American working class. Many of the characters in the poems are vivid images of American workers. Many of the settings of the poems are blue collar jobs. Plumbing and plating factories, brass factories, automobile manufacturing plants, as well as neighborhoods in Detroit all give the setting to the themes that play out. Yet the poetry finds its power when Levine reveals the inner lives of his characters. Many of the characters are not only workers, but artists, readers, and academics. Levine's poetry is accessible and moving and is utterly American.\n\nThe poems in \"What Work Is\" are more subtle in their thematic construction. Levine does not use caricatures in these poems but instead intimates real blue-collar workers. Many of the poems give a representation of a station of life not common in the subject matter of contemporary American poetry. Although not all of \"What Work Is\" is primarily about the working class. Instead the poems have a wide range and variety. However many of these poems, despite their subject matter, show elements that identify with the working class or work in general. This helps place this collection within the tradition of working class poetry. For instance, besides work, love also is a major theme for Levine in this collection. \"What Work Is\" is a poem primarily written for his brother, and the difficulty of expressing that love. Often enough the theme of love is expressed in a subdued way and is shadowing the bolder themes most largely associated with work. The poems feature different types of work, some of which reflect the actual work experience of the author. For instance, the poems \"Fear and Fame\" and \"Growth\" are direct accounts of two of Levine's jobs as a young man. \"Fear and Fame\" is based on a job Levine had cleaning out and refilling acid vats in his mid twenties. \"Growth\" is about the job Levine held at a soap factory at the age of fourteen. Many of Levine's poems are based on his experience growing up in Detroit. The titular poem, \"What Work Is\", is based on Levine's experience of waiting in a Detroit employment line. \"The Right Cross\" is related to a boxing teacher who taught Levine to defend himself while growing up in Detroit.\n\nStyle\n\nThe cadence of many of the poems in the collection are simple free verse. The rhythm and dictation of much of the collection is normal and easily accessible. Though \"What Work Is\" takes on many sophisticated subjects such as death, love, loss, and struggle, the collection maintains an easy-to-access feeling. Levine's work in this collection is not to obscure or make grandiose, but instead to reveal and show plainly matters that are important. Levine's structures and word choices reflect this mood of his poetry as he rarely uses complicated punctuation or rhythms. Instead of using highly symbolic words or imagery \"What Work Is\" tends to contain direct images and a more direct and perceptible intention. This use of strong and stable syntax allows one to perceive the people and places in the collection without getting caught up in the construction of the poems. Levine's intention is more of a narrative one, for the reader to get caught up in the images of the poem rather than the words.\n\nAnalysis\n\nMuch of the work done on Levine's poetry is Marxist literary criticism. Because the subject matter and Levine's focus on work, Marxist Criticism seems to be the most fitting. Rumiano proposes a Marxist reading of much of Levine's work in a dissertation. Rumiano analyzes many of Levine's poems and work in a Marxist manner as it relates to the working class characters that appear in Levine's poetry. Most notable are the concerns with the power struggles of the working class, working conditions, and how a life as a worker relates to a politics of living.\n\n\"What Work Is\"\nAccording to Ruo, in this poem Levine defines and expresses the struggles between the working class and the upper middle class. Two different aspects of the poem support and define this struggle. Firstly the narrator's brother is at home recovering after a hard night of labor. This means that the brother can not find time to practice singing opera which is what he most wants to do. If he were a member of the upper class he would not have to expend himself at the cost of his education just to survive. It can be seen as one way the working-class upper-class struggle is defined. Secondly the narrator, who waits in line to see if he can get a job that day, is at the mercy of the upper-class manager who decides who can work or not. This represents the struggle between the two classes as well as the balance of power between the two.\n\nContemporary critics often label Levine a working class poet, describing his writing as working class verse. Levine’s poetry illustrates one of the most basic tenets of Marxist theory: that class antagonisms comprise all of human history.\n\n\"Growth\"\nThis poem is about a job Levine had when he was a boy. The poem's narrator takes a retrospective look at his job at the soap factory. Rumiano states that the main issues and concerns in this poem are: the lack of communication, lack of a superior, and the hellish nature of the task that the narrator is performing and its effect upon him.\n\nCritical reception\n\nMuch of the collection contains a series of grim and brooding passages. Paul Gray, a contributor of \"Time\" called Levine's narrators “guerrillas, trapped in an endless battle long after the war is lost.” This may refer to instances where Levine recalls his childhood hometown of Detroit. Yet others, such as Marie Borroff, suggest that Levine's work is joyful despite its painful material.\n\nInitial reviews for What Work Is praised Levine for his working-class subject matter, which represented a marked change from contemporary poets who wrote more about the domestic sphere. Levine's 1991 collection made an important digression from a trend of \"meditation about a seemingly inconsequential comer of one's personal life\" to the earnestness of work: \"unglamorous, bluecollar, industrial, assembly-line work\". Richard Hugo stated in the American Poetry Review that “Levine’s poems are important because in them we hear and we care.” Hugo shares a similar opinion as other critics of Levine's work; it is edgy, gritty, and brutal but also beautiful and hopeful.\n\nLevine once referred to himself as “a dirty Detroit Jew with bad manners\", and he has sometimes been criticized for leaning too hard on his blue-collar bona fides. The critic Adam Kirsch, writing in The Times Book Review in 1999, noted, accurately enough, that “in his autobiographical essays he goes out of his way to tell us that he is essentially a peasant.”\n\nDavid Baker, writing about What Work Is (1991) in the Kenyon Review, said Levine has “one of our most resonant voices of social conviction and witness, and he speaks with a powerful clarity…What Work Is may be one of the most important books of poetry of our time. Poem after poem confronts the terribly damaged conditions of American labor, whose circumstance has perhaps never been more wrecked.”\n\nAfter Levine was named Poet Laureate, What Work Is reached the top of Amazon.com's \"Movers and Shakers\" list.\n\nContents\n\nI\n\"Fear and Fame\"\n\"Coming Close\"\n\"Fire\"\n\"Every Blessed Day\"\n\"Growth\"\n\"Innocence\"\n\"Coming Home from the Post Office\"\n\"Among Children\"\n\"What Work Is\"\n\nII\n\"Snails\"\n\"My Grave\"\n\"Agnus Dei\"\n\"Facts\"\n\"Gin\"\n\"Perennials\"\n\"Above the World\"\n\"M.Degas Teaches Art & Science at Durfee Intermediate School\"\n\nIII\n\"Burned\"\n\nIV\n\"Soloing\"\n\"Scouting\"\n\"Coming of Age in Michigan\"\n\"The Right Cross\"\n\"The Sweetness of Bobby Hefka\"\n\"On the River\"\n\"The Seventh Summer\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNew Poet Laureate Philip Levine's 'Absolute Truth'''] on NPR, [August 14, 2011] (audio)\nNobody's Detroit in Harper's Magazine'', [March 2010\nPoetry Foundation Recorded Poetry Readings (audio)\n\n1991 books\nAmerican poetry collections\nWorks by Philip Levine\nNational Book Award for Poetry winning works"
]
|
[
"Bruno Latour",
"We Have Never Been Modern",
"what is the connection between latour and we have never been modern",
"Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism.",
"who did he judge",
"He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.",
"did he have supporters",
"Margaret C. Jacob",
"what is important about his work",
"Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato."
]
| C_f413e9dbddb94d27801f449460db5b29_0 | was he right | 5 | Was Bruno Latour right regarding his case studies of the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity? | Bruno Latour | Latour's work Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern. Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines. Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism. Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom. In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Bruno Latour (; ; born 22 June 1947) is a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist. He is especially known for his work in the field of science and technology studies (STS). After teaching at the École des Mines de Paris (Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation) from 1982 to 2006, he became Professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he was the scientific director of the Sciences Po Medialab. He retired from several university activities in 2017. He was also a Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.
Latour is best known for his books We Have Never Been Modern (1991; English translation, 1993), Laboratory Life (with Steve Woolgar, 1979) and Science in Action (1987). Although his studies of scientific practice were at one time associated with social constructionist approaches to the philosophy of science, Latour has diverged significantly from such approaches. He is best known for withdrawing from the subjective/objective division and re-developing the approach to work in practice. Latour said in 2017 that he is interested in helping to rebuild trust in science and that some of the authority of science needs to be regained.
Along with Michel Callon and John Law, Latour is one of the primary developers of actor–network theory (ANT), a constructionist approach influenced by the ethnomethodology of Harold Garfinkel, the generative semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas, and (more recently) the sociology of Émile Durkheim's rival Gabriel Tarde.
Biography
Latour is related to a well-known family of winemakers from Burgundy, but is not associated with the similarly named estate in Bordeaux.
As a student, Latour originally focused on philosophy. In 1971–1972, he ranked second and then first (reçu second, premier) in the French national competitive exam (agrégation/CAPES de philosophie). He was deeply influenced by Michel Serres. Latour went on to earn his Ph.D. in philosophical theology in 1975 at the University of Tours. His thesis title was Exégèse et ontologie: une analyse des textes de resurrection (Exegesis and Ontology: An Analysis of the Texts of Resurrection).
He developed an interest in anthropology, and undertook fieldwork in Ivory Coast which resulted in a brief monograph on decolonization, race, and industrial relations. After spending more than twenty years (1982–2006) at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation at the École des Mines in Paris, Latour moved in 2006 to Sciences Po, where he was the first occupant of a chair named for Gabriel Tarde. In recent years he also served as one of the curators of successful art exhibitions at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Germany, including "Iconoclash" (2002) and "Making Things Public" (2005). In 2005 he also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.
Awards and honors
On 22 May 2008, Latour was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal on the occasion of an organizational communication conference held in honor of the work of James R. Taylor, on whom Latour has had an important influence. He holds several other honorary doctorates, as well as France's Légion d'Honneur (2012).
The Dutch "International Spinozaprijs Foundation" will award the "Spinozalens 2020" to Bruno Latour on 24 November 2020.
In 2021 he received the Kyoto Prize in the category "Thought and Ethics".
Holberg Prize
On 13 March 2013, he was announced as the winner of the 2013 Holberg Prize. The prize committee stated that "Bruno Latour has undertaken an ambitious analysis and reinterpretation of modernity, and has challenged fundamental concepts such as the distinction between modern and pre-modern, nature and society, human and non-human." The committee states that "the impact of Latour's work is evident internationally and far beyond studies of the history of science, art history, history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, theology, literature and law."
A 2013 article in Aftenposten by Jon Elster criticised the conferment to Latour, by saying "The question is, does he deserve the prize. ... If the statutes [of the award] had used new knowledge as a main criteria, instead of one of several, then he would be completely unqualified in my opinion."
Main works
Laboratory Life
After his early career efforts, Latour shifted his research interests to focus on laboratory scientists. Latour rose in importance following the 1979 publication of Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts with co-author Steve Woolgar. In the book, the authors undertake an ethnographic study of a neuroendocrinology research laboratory at the Salk Institute. This early work argued that naïve descriptions of the scientific method, in which theories stand or fall on the outcome of a single experiment, are inconsistent with actual laboratory practice.
In the laboratory, Latour and Woolgar observed that a typical experiment produces only inconclusive data that is attributed to failure of the apparatus or experimental method, and that a large part of scientific training involves learning how to make the subjective decision of what data to keep and what data to throw out. Latour and Woolgar argued that, for untrained observers, the entire process resembles not an unbiased search for truth and accuracy but a mechanism for ignoring data that contradicts scientific orthodoxy.
Latour and Woolgar produced a highly heterodox and controversial picture of the sciences. Drawing on the work of Gaston Bachelard, they advance the notion that the objects of scientific study are socially constructed within the laboratory—that they cannot be attributed with an existence outside of the instruments that measure them and the minds that interpret them. They view scientific activity as a system of beliefs, oral traditions and culturally specific practices—in short, science is reconstructed not as a procedure or as a set of principles but as a culture. Latour's 1987 book Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society is one of the key texts of the sociology of scientific knowledge in which he famously wrote his Second Principle as follows: "Scientist and engineers speak in the name of new allies that they have shaped and enrolled; representatives among other representatives, they add these unexpected resources to tip the balance of force in their favor."
Some of Latour's position and findings in this era provoked vehement rebuttals. Gross and Leavitt argue that Latour's position becomes absurd when applied to non-scientific contexts: e.g., if a group of coworkers in a windowless room were debating whether or not it were raining outside and went outdoors to discover raindrops in the air and puddles on the soil, Latour's hypothesis would assert that the rain was socially constructed. Similarly, philosopher John Searle argues that Latour's "extreme social constructivist" position is seriously flawed on several points, and furthermore has inadvertently "comical results".
The Pasteurization of France
After a research project examining the sociology of primatologists, Latour followed up the themes in Laboratory Life with Les Microbes: guerre et paix (published in English as The Pasteurization of France in 1988). In it, he reviews the life and career of one of France's most famous scientists Louis Pasteur and his discovery of microbes, in the fashion of a political biography. Latour highlights the social forces at work in and around Pasteur's career and the uneven manner in which his theories were accepted. By providing more explicitly ideological explanations for the acceptance of Pasteur's work more easily in some quarters than in others, he seeks to undermine the notion that the acceptance and rejection of scientific theories is primarily, or even usually, a matter of experiment, evidence or reason.
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology focuses on the history of an unsuccessful mass-transit project. Aramis PRT (personal rapid transit), a high tech automated subway, had been developed in France during the 70s and 80s and was supposed to be implemented as a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in Paris. It combined the flexibility of an automobile with the efficiency of a subway. Aramis was to be an ideal urban transportation system based on private cars in constant motion and the elimination of unnecessary transfers. This new form of transportation was intended to be as secure and inexpensive as collective transportation. The proposed system had custom-designed motors, sensors, controls, digital electronics, software and a major installation in southern Paris. But in the end, the project died in 1987. Latour argues that the technology failed not because any particular actor killed it, but because the actors failed to sustain it through negotiation and adaptation to a changing social situation. While investigating Aramis's demise, Latour delineates the tenets of actor-network theory. According to Latour's own description of the book, the work aims "at training readers in the booming field of technology studies and at experimenting in the many new literary forms that are necessary to handle mechanisms and automatisms without using the belief that they are mechanical nor automatic."
We Have Never Been Modern
Latour's work Nous n’avons jamais été modernes : Essai d’anthropologie symétrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern.
Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.
Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism.
Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom.
In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history".
Pandora's Hope
Pandora's Hope (1999) marks a return to the themes Latour explored in Science in Action and We Have Never Been Modern. It uses independent but thematically linked essays and case studies to question the authority and reliability of scientific knowledge. Latour uses a narrative, anecdotal approach in a number of the essays, describing his work with pedologists in the Amazon rainforest, the development of the pasteurization process, and the research of French atomic scientists at the outbreak of the Second World War. Latour states that this specific, anecdotal approach to science studies is essential to gaining a full understanding of the discipline: "The only way to understand the reality of science studies is to follow what science studies do best, that is, paying close attention to the details of scientific practice" (p. 24). Some authors have criticized Latour's methodology, including Katherine Pandora, a history of science professor at the University of Oklahoma. In her review of Pandora's Hope, Katherine Pandora states:
"[Latour's] writing can be stimulating, fresh and at times genuinely moving, but it can also display a distractingly mannered style in which a rococo zeal for compounding metaphors, examples, definitions and abstractions can frustrate even readers who approach his work with the best of intentions (notwithstanding the inclusion of a nine-page glossary of terms and liberal use of diagrams in an attempt to achieve the utmost clarity)".
In addition to his epistemological concerns, Latour also explores the political dimension of science studies in Pandora's Hope. Two of the chapters draw on Plato's Gorgias as a means of investigating and highlighting the distinction between content and context. As Katherine Pandora states in her review:
"It is hard not to be caught up in the author's obvious delight in deploying a classic work from antiquity to bring current concerns into sharper focus, following along as he manages to leave the reader with the impression that the protagonists Socrates and Callicles are not only in dialogue with each other but with Latour as well."
Although Latour frames his discussion with a classical model, his examples of fraught political issues are all current and of continuing relevance: global warming, the spread of mad cow disease, and the carcinogenic effects of smoking are all mentioned at various points in Pandora's Hope. In Felix Stalder's article "Beyond constructivism: towards a realistic realism", he summarizes Latour's position on the political dimension of science studies as follows: "These scientific debates have been artificially kept open in order to render impossible any political action against these problems and those who profit from them".
"Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?"
In a 2004 article, Latour questioned the fundamental premises on which he had based most of his career, asking, "Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?" He undertakes a trenchant critique of his own field of study and, more generally, of social criticism in contemporary academia. He suggests that critique, as currently practiced, is bordering on irrelevancy. To maintain any vitality, Latour argues that social critiques require a drastic reappraisal: "our critical equipment deserves as much critical scrutiny as the Pentagon budget." (p. 231) To regain focus and credibility, Latour argues that social critiques must embrace empiricism, to insist on the "cultivation of a stubbornly realist attitude – to speak like William James". (p. 233)
Latour suggests that about 90 per cent of contemporary social criticism displays one of two approaches which he terms "the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 237) The fairy position is anti-fetishist, arguing that "objects of belief" (e.g., religion, arts) are merely concepts created by the projected wishes and desires of the "naive believer"; the "fact position" argues that individuals are dominated, often covertly and without their awareness, by external forces (e.g., economics, gender). (p. 238) "Do you see now why it feels so good to be a critical mind?” asks Latour: no matter which position you take, "You’re always right!" (p. 238–239) Social critics tend to use anti-fetishism against ideas they personally reject; to use "an unrepentant positivist" approach for fields of study they consider valuable; all the while thinking as "a perfectly healthy sturdy realist for what you really cherish." (p. 241) These inconsistencies and double standards go largely unrecognized in social critique because "there is never any crossover between the two lists of objects in the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 241)
The practical result of these approaches being taught to millions of students in elite universities for several decades is a widespread and influential "critical barbarity" that has—like a malign virus created by a "mad scientist"—thus far proven impossible to control. Most troubling, Latour notes that critical ideas have been appropriated by those he describes as conspiracy theorists, including global warming deniers and the 9/11 Truth movement: "Maybe I am taking conspiracy theories too seriously, but I am worried to detect, in those mad mixtures of knee-jerk disbelief, punctilious demands for proofs, and free use of powerful explanation from the social neverland, many of the weapons of social critique." (p. 230)
The conclusion of the article is to argue for a positive framing of critique, to help understand how matters of concern can be supported rather than undermined: "The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naïve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in which to gather. The critic is not the one who alternates haphazardly between antifetishism and positivism like the drunk iconoclast drawn by Goya, but the one for whom, if something is constructed, then it means it is fragile and thus in great need of care and caution."
Latour's article has been highly influential within the field of postcritique, an intellectual movement within literary criticism and cultural studies that seeks to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. The literary critic Rita Felski has named Latour as an important precursor to the project of postcritique.
Reassembling the Social
In Reassembling the Social (2005), Latour continues a reappraisal of his work, developing what he calls a "practical metaphysics", which calls "real" anything that an actor (one whom we are studying) claims as a source of motivation for action. So if someone says, "I was inspired by God to be charitable to my neighbors" we are obliged to recognize the "ontological weight" of their claim, rather than attempting to replace their belief in God's presence with "social stuff", like class, gender, imperialism, etc. Latour’s nuanced metaphysics demands the existence of a plurality of worlds, and the willingness of the researcher to chart ever more. He argues that researchers must give up the hope of fitting their actors into a structure or framework, but Latour believes the benefits of this sacrifice far outweigh the downsides: "Their complex metaphysics would at least be respected, their recalcitrance recognized, their objections deployed, their multiplicity accepted."
For Latour, to talk about metaphysics or ontology–what really is–means paying close empirical attention to the various, contradictory institutions and ideas that bring people together and inspire them to act. Here is Latour's description of metaphysics:
If we call metaphysics the discipline . . . that purports to define the basic structure of the world, then empirical metaphysics is what the controversies over agencies lead to since they ceaselessly populate the world with new drives and, as ceaselessly, contest the existence of others. The question then becomes how to explore the actors' own metaphysics.
A more traditional metaphysicist might object, arguing that this means there are multiple, contradictory realities, since there are "controversies over agencies" – since there is a plurality of contradictory ideas that people claim as a basis for action (God, nature, the state, sexual drives, personal ambition, and so on). This objection manifests the most important difference between traditional philosophical metaphysics and Latour's nuance: for Latour, there is no "basic structure of reality" or a single, self-consistent world. An unknowably large multiplicity of realities, or "worlds" in his terms, exists–one for each actor's sources of agency, inspirations for action. Actors bring "the real" (metaphysics) into being. The task of the researcher is not to find one "basic structure" that explains agency, but to recognize "the metaphysical innovations proposed by ordinary actors". Mapping those metaphysical innovations involves a strong dedication to relativism, Latour argues. The relativist researcher "learns the actors' language," records what they say about what they do, and does not appeal to a higher "structure" to "explain" the actor's motivations. The relativist "takes seriously what [actors] are obstinately saying" and "follows the direction indicated by their fingers when they designate what 'makes them act'". The relativist recognizes the plurality of metaphysics that actors bring into being, and attempts to map them rather than reducing them to a single structure or explanation.
Selected bibliography
Books
Originally published 1979 in Los Angeles, by Sage Publications
Chapters in books
Journal articles
See also
Actant
Blackboxing
Fashionable Nonsense
Graphism thesis
Mapping controversies
Obligatory passage point
Science wars
Social construction of technology
Technological determinism
References
Sources
External links
Bruno Latour's website
1947 births
Living people
People from Beaune
Sociologists of science
Science and technology studies scholars
Social constructionism
Sociology of scientific knowledge
French sociologists
French anthropologists
Mines ParisTech faculty
Actor-network theory
French Roman Catholics
Catholic philosophers
Holberg Prize laureates
French male writers
French male essayists
20th-century French philosophers
21st-century French philosophers
Philosophers of science
Philosophers of technology
Posthumanists
Continental philosophers
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
20th-century male writers
21st-century male writers
Sciences Po faculty | false | [
"Keith Wayne Colwell (born October 3, 1947) is a Canadian politician, who served as a member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, representing the riding of Preston-Dartmouth for the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, from 1993 to 1999 and from 2003 to 2021.\n\nEarly life\nColwell was raised in Jemseg, New Brunswick. Since the 1990s, he has owned and operated a manufacturing company and was one of the founding members of the Enterprise Forum for Nova Scotia.\n\nPolitical career\nColwell successfully ran for the Liberal nomination in the riding of Eastern Shore in spring 1993. He was elected in the 1993 provincial election and was re-elected in the 1998 provincial election. Following his re-election, Colwell was appointed to the Executive Council of Nova Scotia where he served as Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Minister of Consumer Services, as well as holding other cabinet responsibilities.\n\nColwell was defeated in the 1999 provincial election by Bill Dooks. Turning to municipal politics, Colwell was elected to Halifax Regional Council on October 30, 1999, in a by-election for the Halifax Regional Municipality where he represented District 3 (Preston/Porters Lake). Colwell was re-elected in District 3 in the 2000 municipal general election.\n\nColwell successfully ran for the Liberal nomination in the riding of Preston and was elected in the 2003 provincial election. He was re-elected in the 2006 and 2009 provincial elections. The riding name was changed in 2013 to Preston-Dartmouth and he was re-elected in the 2013 provincial election.\n\nColwell was honoured for his efforts in successfully banning the burning of tires in Nova Scotia and has been a volunteer fireman with 13 years of experience.\n\nIn May 2013, Colwell was allegedly the victim of an assault by Percy Paris, a fellow member of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia. \"Yesterday in the house of assembly, I was assaulted and threatened by the minister of economic and rural development and tourism,\" Colwell said in a statement. \"This improper behaviour by the minister was quite clearly an execution of a threat and intimidation, an attempt to prevent me from performing my function as a legislator, elected representative for my constituents and member of this assembly.\" Paris was charged with assault and uttering threats.\n\nOn October 22, 2013, Colwell was appointed to the Executive Council of Nova Scotia where he serves as Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Minister of Agriculture, Minister responsible for Part II of the Gaming Control Act, as well as Minister responsible for the Maritime Provinces Harness Racing Commission Act.\n\nPersonal life\nHe and his wife Elizabeth currently live in Porters Lake.\n\nElectoral record\n\n|-\n\n|Liberal\n|Keith Colwell\n|align=\"right\"|3,326 \n|align=\"right\"|58.39\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n\n|New Democratic Party\n|André Cain\n|align=\"right\"|1,816\n|align=\"right\"|31.88\n|align=\"right\"| \n|-\n\n|Progressive Conservative\n|Andrew J. Mecke\n|align=\"right\"|554\n|align=\"right\"|9.73\n|align=\"right\"|\n|}\n\n|-\n\n|Liberal\n|Keith Colwell\n|align=\"right\"|1908\n|align=\"right\"|42.20\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n\n|New Democratic Party\n|Janet Sutcliffe\n|align=\"right\"|1316\n|align=\"right\"|29.11\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n\n|Progressive Conservative\n|Dwayne Provo\n|align=\"right\"|1240\n|align=\"right\"|27.43\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n\n|}\n\n|-\n\n|Liberal\n|Keith Colwell\n|align=\"right\"|1853\n|align=\"right\"|42.13\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n\n|Progressive Conservative\n|Dwayne Provo\n|align=\"right\"|1610\n|align=\"right\"|36.83\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n\n|New Democratic Party\n|Douglas Sparks\n|align=\"right\"|843\n|align=\"right\"|19.17\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n\n|}\n\n|-\n\n|Liberal\n|Keith Colwell\n|align=\"right\"|1411\n|align=\"right\"|33.90\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n\n|Progressive Conservative\n|David Hensbee\n|align=\"right\"|1361\n|align=\"right\"|32.92\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n\n|New Democratic Party\n|Douglas Sparks\n|align=\"right\"|1331\n|align=\"right\"|31.97\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n\n|}\n\n|-\n \n|Progressive Conservative\n|Bill Dooks\n|align=\"right\"|3637\n|align=\"right\"|\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n \n|Liberal\n|Keith Colwell\n|align=\"right\"|2695\n|align=\"right\"|\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n \n|New Democratic Party\n|Mary-Alice Tzagarakis\n|align=\"right\"|1970\n|align=\"right\"|\n|align=\"right\"|\n\n|}\n\n|-\n \n|Liberal\n|Keith Colwell\n|align=\"right\"|3,760\n|align=\"right\"|\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n \n|Progressive Conservative\n|Tom McInnes\n|align=\"right\"|3,523\n|align=\"right\"|\n|align=\"right\"|\n|-\n \n|New Democratic Party\n|Gary Moore\n|align=\"right\"|1,369\n|align=\"right\"|\n|align=\"right\"|\n|}\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Members of the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly\n Liberal caucus profile\n\nLiving people\nNova Scotia Liberal Party MLAs\n1947 births\nMembers of the Executive Council of Nova Scotia\nPeople from Queens County, New Brunswick\nHalifax Regional Municipality councillors\n21st-century Canadian politicians",
"Josef \"Joe\" Saxinger (February 2, 1930 – July 3, 2008) was a German-born farmer, business owner and political figure in Saskatchewan. He represented Kinistino from 1986 to 1991 in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan as a Progressive Conservative.\n\nHe was born in Niederbrünst and was educated in Haag and Passau. Saxinger trained as a tool and die maker. He came to Canada in 1954 and settled in the Cudworth district. Saxinger farmed, operated a car dealership, Saxinger Motors, and then operated Saxinger Farm Parts and Implements. He was later a partner in the Sagehill Buffalo Ranch. He was married twice: first to Eleonore Lobl in 1956 and then to Delphine Nielsen in 2006. Saxinger served as fire chief for Cudworth.\n\nHe was defeated by Armand Roy when he ran for reelection to the Saskatchewan assembly in 1991.\n\nElectoral history\n\n|-\n \n|style=\"width: 130px\"|Progressive Conservative\n|Joe Saxinger\n|align=\"right\"|3,900\n|align=\"right\"|49.11%\n|align=\"right\"|-2.46\n \n|NDP\n|Don Cody\n|align=\"right\"|3,748\n|align=\"right\"|47.20%\n|align=\"right\"|+1.76\n\n|- bgcolor=\"white\"\n!align=\"left\" colspan=3|Total\n!align=\"right\"|7,941\n!align=\"right\"|100.00%\n!align=\"right\"|\n\n|-\n \n|style=\"width: 130px\"|NDP\n|Armand Roy\n|align=\"right\"|4,298\n|align=\"right\"|50.32%\n|align=\"right\"|+3.12\n \n|Progressive Conservative\n|Joe Saxinger\n|align=\"right\"|2,918\n|align=\"right\"|34.16%\n|align=\"right\"|-14.95\n\n|- bgcolor=\"white\"\n!align=\"left\" colspan=3|Total\n!align=\"right\"|8,542\n!align=\"right\"|100.00%\n!align=\"right\"|\n\nReferences \n\n1930 births\n2008 deaths\nProgressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan MLAs\nGerman emigrants to Canada\nPeople from Passau (district)"
]
|
[
"Bruno Latour",
"We Have Never Been Modern",
"what is the connection between latour and we have never been modern",
"Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism.",
"who did he judge",
"He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.",
"did he have supporters",
"Margaret C. Jacob",
"what is important about his work",
"Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato.",
"was he right",
"I don't know."
]
| C_f413e9dbddb94d27801f449460db5b29_0 | what books did he write | 6 | What books did Bruno Latour write? | Bruno Latour | Latour's work Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern. Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines. Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism. Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom. In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history". CANNOTANSWER | Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique | Bruno Latour (; ; born 22 June 1947) is a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist. He is especially known for his work in the field of science and technology studies (STS). After teaching at the École des Mines de Paris (Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation) from 1982 to 2006, he became Professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he was the scientific director of the Sciences Po Medialab. He retired from several university activities in 2017. He was also a Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.
Latour is best known for his books We Have Never Been Modern (1991; English translation, 1993), Laboratory Life (with Steve Woolgar, 1979) and Science in Action (1987). Although his studies of scientific practice were at one time associated with social constructionist approaches to the philosophy of science, Latour has diverged significantly from such approaches. He is best known for withdrawing from the subjective/objective division and re-developing the approach to work in practice. Latour said in 2017 that he is interested in helping to rebuild trust in science and that some of the authority of science needs to be regained.
Along with Michel Callon and John Law, Latour is one of the primary developers of actor–network theory (ANT), a constructionist approach influenced by the ethnomethodology of Harold Garfinkel, the generative semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas, and (more recently) the sociology of Émile Durkheim's rival Gabriel Tarde.
Biography
Latour is related to a well-known family of winemakers from Burgundy, but is not associated with the similarly named estate in Bordeaux.
As a student, Latour originally focused on philosophy. In 1971–1972, he ranked second and then first (reçu second, premier) in the French national competitive exam (agrégation/CAPES de philosophie). He was deeply influenced by Michel Serres. Latour went on to earn his Ph.D. in philosophical theology in 1975 at the University of Tours. His thesis title was Exégèse et ontologie: une analyse des textes de resurrection (Exegesis and Ontology: An Analysis of the Texts of Resurrection).
He developed an interest in anthropology, and undertook fieldwork in Ivory Coast which resulted in a brief monograph on decolonization, race, and industrial relations. After spending more than twenty years (1982–2006) at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation at the École des Mines in Paris, Latour moved in 2006 to Sciences Po, where he was the first occupant of a chair named for Gabriel Tarde. In recent years he also served as one of the curators of successful art exhibitions at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Germany, including "Iconoclash" (2002) and "Making Things Public" (2005). In 2005 he also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.
Awards and honors
On 22 May 2008, Latour was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal on the occasion of an organizational communication conference held in honor of the work of James R. Taylor, on whom Latour has had an important influence. He holds several other honorary doctorates, as well as France's Légion d'Honneur (2012).
The Dutch "International Spinozaprijs Foundation" will award the "Spinozalens 2020" to Bruno Latour on 24 November 2020.
In 2021 he received the Kyoto Prize in the category "Thought and Ethics".
Holberg Prize
On 13 March 2013, he was announced as the winner of the 2013 Holberg Prize. The prize committee stated that "Bruno Latour has undertaken an ambitious analysis and reinterpretation of modernity, and has challenged fundamental concepts such as the distinction between modern and pre-modern, nature and society, human and non-human." The committee states that "the impact of Latour's work is evident internationally and far beyond studies of the history of science, art history, history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, theology, literature and law."
A 2013 article in Aftenposten by Jon Elster criticised the conferment to Latour, by saying "The question is, does he deserve the prize. ... If the statutes [of the award] had used new knowledge as a main criteria, instead of one of several, then he would be completely unqualified in my opinion."
Main works
Laboratory Life
After his early career efforts, Latour shifted his research interests to focus on laboratory scientists. Latour rose in importance following the 1979 publication of Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts with co-author Steve Woolgar. In the book, the authors undertake an ethnographic study of a neuroendocrinology research laboratory at the Salk Institute. This early work argued that naïve descriptions of the scientific method, in which theories stand or fall on the outcome of a single experiment, are inconsistent with actual laboratory practice.
In the laboratory, Latour and Woolgar observed that a typical experiment produces only inconclusive data that is attributed to failure of the apparatus or experimental method, and that a large part of scientific training involves learning how to make the subjective decision of what data to keep and what data to throw out. Latour and Woolgar argued that, for untrained observers, the entire process resembles not an unbiased search for truth and accuracy but a mechanism for ignoring data that contradicts scientific orthodoxy.
Latour and Woolgar produced a highly heterodox and controversial picture of the sciences. Drawing on the work of Gaston Bachelard, they advance the notion that the objects of scientific study are socially constructed within the laboratory—that they cannot be attributed with an existence outside of the instruments that measure them and the minds that interpret them. They view scientific activity as a system of beliefs, oral traditions and culturally specific practices—in short, science is reconstructed not as a procedure or as a set of principles but as a culture. Latour's 1987 book Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society is one of the key texts of the sociology of scientific knowledge in which he famously wrote his Second Principle as follows: "Scientist and engineers speak in the name of new allies that they have shaped and enrolled; representatives among other representatives, they add these unexpected resources to tip the balance of force in their favor."
Some of Latour's position and findings in this era provoked vehement rebuttals. Gross and Leavitt argue that Latour's position becomes absurd when applied to non-scientific contexts: e.g., if a group of coworkers in a windowless room were debating whether or not it were raining outside and went outdoors to discover raindrops in the air and puddles on the soil, Latour's hypothesis would assert that the rain was socially constructed. Similarly, philosopher John Searle argues that Latour's "extreme social constructivist" position is seriously flawed on several points, and furthermore has inadvertently "comical results".
The Pasteurization of France
After a research project examining the sociology of primatologists, Latour followed up the themes in Laboratory Life with Les Microbes: guerre et paix (published in English as The Pasteurization of France in 1988). In it, he reviews the life and career of one of France's most famous scientists Louis Pasteur and his discovery of microbes, in the fashion of a political biography. Latour highlights the social forces at work in and around Pasteur's career and the uneven manner in which his theories were accepted. By providing more explicitly ideological explanations for the acceptance of Pasteur's work more easily in some quarters than in others, he seeks to undermine the notion that the acceptance and rejection of scientific theories is primarily, or even usually, a matter of experiment, evidence or reason.
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology focuses on the history of an unsuccessful mass-transit project. Aramis PRT (personal rapid transit), a high tech automated subway, had been developed in France during the 70s and 80s and was supposed to be implemented as a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in Paris. It combined the flexibility of an automobile with the efficiency of a subway. Aramis was to be an ideal urban transportation system based on private cars in constant motion and the elimination of unnecessary transfers. This new form of transportation was intended to be as secure and inexpensive as collective transportation. The proposed system had custom-designed motors, sensors, controls, digital electronics, software and a major installation in southern Paris. But in the end, the project died in 1987. Latour argues that the technology failed not because any particular actor killed it, but because the actors failed to sustain it through negotiation and adaptation to a changing social situation. While investigating Aramis's demise, Latour delineates the tenets of actor-network theory. According to Latour's own description of the book, the work aims "at training readers in the booming field of technology studies and at experimenting in the many new literary forms that are necessary to handle mechanisms and automatisms without using the belief that they are mechanical nor automatic."
We Have Never Been Modern
Latour's work Nous n’avons jamais été modernes : Essai d’anthropologie symétrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern.
Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.
Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism.
Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom.
In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history".
Pandora's Hope
Pandora's Hope (1999) marks a return to the themes Latour explored in Science in Action and We Have Never Been Modern. It uses independent but thematically linked essays and case studies to question the authority and reliability of scientific knowledge. Latour uses a narrative, anecdotal approach in a number of the essays, describing his work with pedologists in the Amazon rainforest, the development of the pasteurization process, and the research of French atomic scientists at the outbreak of the Second World War. Latour states that this specific, anecdotal approach to science studies is essential to gaining a full understanding of the discipline: "The only way to understand the reality of science studies is to follow what science studies do best, that is, paying close attention to the details of scientific practice" (p. 24). Some authors have criticized Latour's methodology, including Katherine Pandora, a history of science professor at the University of Oklahoma. In her review of Pandora's Hope, Katherine Pandora states:
"[Latour's] writing can be stimulating, fresh and at times genuinely moving, but it can also display a distractingly mannered style in which a rococo zeal for compounding metaphors, examples, definitions and abstractions can frustrate even readers who approach his work with the best of intentions (notwithstanding the inclusion of a nine-page glossary of terms and liberal use of diagrams in an attempt to achieve the utmost clarity)".
In addition to his epistemological concerns, Latour also explores the political dimension of science studies in Pandora's Hope. Two of the chapters draw on Plato's Gorgias as a means of investigating and highlighting the distinction between content and context. As Katherine Pandora states in her review:
"It is hard not to be caught up in the author's obvious delight in deploying a classic work from antiquity to bring current concerns into sharper focus, following along as he manages to leave the reader with the impression that the protagonists Socrates and Callicles are not only in dialogue with each other but with Latour as well."
Although Latour frames his discussion with a classical model, his examples of fraught political issues are all current and of continuing relevance: global warming, the spread of mad cow disease, and the carcinogenic effects of smoking are all mentioned at various points in Pandora's Hope. In Felix Stalder's article "Beyond constructivism: towards a realistic realism", he summarizes Latour's position on the political dimension of science studies as follows: "These scientific debates have been artificially kept open in order to render impossible any political action against these problems and those who profit from them".
"Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?"
In a 2004 article, Latour questioned the fundamental premises on which he had based most of his career, asking, "Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?" He undertakes a trenchant critique of his own field of study and, more generally, of social criticism in contemporary academia. He suggests that critique, as currently practiced, is bordering on irrelevancy. To maintain any vitality, Latour argues that social critiques require a drastic reappraisal: "our critical equipment deserves as much critical scrutiny as the Pentagon budget." (p. 231) To regain focus and credibility, Latour argues that social critiques must embrace empiricism, to insist on the "cultivation of a stubbornly realist attitude – to speak like William James". (p. 233)
Latour suggests that about 90 per cent of contemporary social criticism displays one of two approaches which he terms "the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 237) The fairy position is anti-fetishist, arguing that "objects of belief" (e.g., religion, arts) are merely concepts created by the projected wishes and desires of the "naive believer"; the "fact position" argues that individuals are dominated, often covertly and without their awareness, by external forces (e.g., economics, gender). (p. 238) "Do you see now why it feels so good to be a critical mind?” asks Latour: no matter which position you take, "You’re always right!" (p. 238–239) Social critics tend to use anti-fetishism against ideas they personally reject; to use "an unrepentant positivist" approach for fields of study they consider valuable; all the while thinking as "a perfectly healthy sturdy realist for what you really cherish." (p. 241) These inconsistencies and double standards go largely unrecognized in social critique because "there is never any crossover between the two lists of objects in the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 241)
The practical result of these approaches being taught to millions of students in elite universities for several decades is a widespread and influential "critical barbarity" that has—like a malign virus created by a "mad scientist"—thus far proven impossible to control. Most troubling, Latour notes that critical ideas have been appropriated by those he describes as conspiracy theorists, including global warming deniers and the 9/11 Truth movement: "Maybe I am taking conspiracy theories too seriously, but I am worried to detect, in those mad mixtures of knee-jerk disbelief, punctilious demands for proofs, and free use of powerful explanation from the social neverland, many of the weapons of social critique." (p. 230)
The conclusion of the article is to argue for a positive framing of critique, to help understand how matters of concern can be supported rather than undermined: "The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naïve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in which to gather. The critic is not the one who alternates haphazardly between antifetishism and positivism like the drunk iconoclast drawn by Goya, but the one for whom, if something is constructed, then it means it is fragile and thus in great need of care and caution."
Latour's article has been highly influential within the field of postcritique, an intellectual movement within literary criticism and cultural studies that seeks to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. The literary critic Rita Felski has named Latour as an important precursor to the project of postcritique.
Reassembling the Social
In Reassembling the Social (2005), Latour continues a reappraisal of his work, developing what he calls a "practical metaphysics", which calls "real" anything that an actor (one whom we are studying) claims as a source of motivation for action. So if someone says, "I was inspired by God to be charitable to my neighbors" we are obliged to recognize the "ontological weight" of their claim, rather than attempting to replace their belief in God's presence with "social stuff", like class, gender, imperialism, etc. Latour’s nuanced metaphysics demands the existence of a plurality of worlds, and the willingness of the researcher to chart ever more. He argues that researchers must give up the hope of fitting their actors into a structure or framework, but Latour believes the benefits of this sacrifice far outweigh the downsides: "Their complex metaphysics would at least be respected, their recalcitrance recognized, their objections deployed, their multiplicity accepted."
For Latour, to talk about metaphysics or ontology–what really is–means paying close empirical attention to the various, contradictory institutions and ideas that bring people together and inspire them to act. Here is Latour's description of metaphysics:
If we call metaphysics the discipline . . . that purports to define the basic structure of the world, then empirical metaphysics is what the controversies over agencies lead to since they ceaselessly populate the world with new drives and, as ceaselessly, contest the existence of others. The question then becomes how to explore the actors' own metaphysics.
A more traditional metaphysicist might object, arguing that this means there are multiple, contradictory realities, since there are "controversies over agencies" – since there is a plurality of contradictory ideas that people claim as a basis for action (God, nature, the state, sexual drives, personal ambition, and so on). This objection manifests the most important difference between traditional philosophical metaphysics and Latour's nuance: for Latour, there is no "basic structure of reality" or a single, self-consistent world. An unknowably large multiplicity of realities, or "worlds" in his terms, exists–one for each actor's sources of agency, inspirations for action. Actors bring "the real" (metaphysics) into being. The task of the researcher is not to find one "basic structure" that explains agency, but to recognize "the metaphysical innovations proposed by ordinary actors". Mapping those metaphysical innovations involves a strong dedication to relativism, Latour argues. The relativist researcher "learns the actors' language," records what they say about what they do, and does not appeal to a higher "structure" to "explain" the actor's motivations. The relativist "takes seriously what [actors] are obstinately saying" and "follows the direction indicated by their fingers when they designate what 'makes them act'". The relativist recognizes the plurality of metaphysics that actors bring into being, and attempts to map them rather than reducing them to a single structure or explanation.
Selected bibliography
Books
Originally published 1979 in Los Angeles, by Sage Publications
Chapters in books
Journal articles
See also
Actant
Blackboxing
Fashionable Nonsense
Graphism thesis
Mapping controversies
Obligatory passage point
Science wars
Social construction of technology
Technological determinism
References
Sources
External links
Bruno Latour's website
1947 births
Living people
People from Beaune
Sociologists of science
Science and technology studies scholars
Social constructionism
Sociology of scientific knowledge
French sociologists
French anthropologists
Mines ParisTech faculty
Actor-network theory
French Roman Catholics
Catholic philosophers
Holberg Prize laureates
French male writers
French male essayists
20th-century French philosophers
21st-century French philosophers
Philosophers of science
Philosophers of technology
Posthumanists
Continental philosophers
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
20th-century male writers
21st-century male writers
Sciences Po faculty | false | [
"I Write What I Like (full name I Write What I Like: Selected Writings by Steve Biko) is a compilation of writings from anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko.\n\nI Write What I Like contains a selection of Biko's writings from 1969, when he became the president of the South African Student Organisation, to 1972, when he was prohibited from publishing. Originally published in 1978, the book was republished in 1987 and April 2002. The book's title was taken from the title under which he had published his writings in the SASO newsletter under the pseudonym Frank Talk.\n\nI Write What I Like reflects Biko's conviction that black people in South Africa could not be liberated until they united to break their chains of servitude, a key tenet of the Black Consciousness Movement that he helped found.\n\nThe collection was edited by Aelred Stubbs. The book includes a preface by Archbishop Desmond Tutu; an introduction by Malusi and Thoko Mpumlwana, who were both involved with Biko in the Black Consciousness Movement; a memoir of Biko by Father Aelred Stubbs, his longtime pastor and friend; and a new foreword by Professor Lewis Gordon.\n\nReferences\n\n1978 non-fiction books\n2002 non-fiction books\nBooks about apartheid\nPolitical books\nSouth African non-fiction books",
"Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety was published in 1991 by the British Railways Board. The British Railways Board had asked Roald Dahl to write the text of the booklet, and Quentin Blake to illustrate it, to help young people enjoy using the railways safely.\n\nThe booklet is structured as a conversation with children. In the introduction, Dahl laments that adults are always telling children what to do and what not to do, and says he would not have agreed to write the booklet, which tells children what to do, if not for the importance of what he is about to discuss. He then goes on to list the \"dreaded DOs and DON'Ts\" of railway safety – such as not to ride a bicycle or skateboard on a station platform, stand on platform edges, walk along rail tracks, or open train doors while the train is moving.\n\nMany of the rules of safety given in the booklet are accompanied by humorous or sobering Blake illustrations. Some of the DOs and DON'Ts also include anecdotes from Dahl—sometimes personal, sometimes statistical—reinforcing why they are important rules to follow.\n\nDistribution\n\nThe booklet was distributed in UK primary schools to pupils in 1991, often alongside video presentations of railway safety films, such as Robbie.\n\n1991 children's books\nChildren's books by Roald Dahl\nBooks published posthumously\nBooks by Roald Dahl\nChildren's non-fiction books"
]
|
[
"Bruno Latour",
"We Have Never Been Modern",
"what is the connection between latour and we have never been modern",
"Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism.",
"who did he judge",
"He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.",
"did he have supporters",
"Margaret C. Jacob",
"what is important about his work",
"Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato.",
"was he right",
"I don't know.",
"what books did he write",
"Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique"
]
| C_f413e9dbddb94d27801f449460db5b29_0 | what year did he write it | 7 | What year did Bruno Latour write Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique? | Bruno Latour | Latour's work Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern. Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines. Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism. Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom. In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history". CANNOTANSWER | first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 | Bruno Latour (; ; born 22 June 1947) is a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist. He is especially known for his work in the field of science and technology studies (STS). After teaching at the École des Mines de Paris (Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation) from 1982 to 2006, he became Professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he was the scientific director of the Sciences Po Medialab. He retired from several university activities in 2017. He was also a Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.
Latour is best known for his books We Have Never Been Modern (1991; English translation, 1993), Laboratory Life (with Steve Woolgar, 1979) and Science in Action (1987). Although his studies of scientific practice were at one time associated with social constructionist approaches to the philosophy of science, Latour has diverged significantly from such approaches. He is best known for withdrawing from the subjective/objective division and re-developing the approach to work in practice. Latour said in 2017 that he is interested in helping to rebuild trust in science and that some of the authority of science needs to be regained.
Along with Michel Callon and John Law, Latour is one of the primary developers of actor–network theory (ANT), a constructionist approach influenced by the ethnomethodology of Harold Garfinkel, the generative semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas, and (more recently) the sociology of Émile Durkheim's rival Gabriel Tarde.
Biography
Latour is related to a well-known family of winemakers from Burgundy, but is not associated with the similarly named estate in Bordeaux.
As a student, Latour originally focused on philosophy. In 1971–1972, he ranked second and then first (reçu second, premier) in the French national competitive exam (agrégation/CAPES de philosophie). He was deeply influenced by Michel Serres. Latour went on to earn his Ph.D. in philosophical theology in 1975 at the University of Tours. His thesis title was Exégèse et ontologie: une analyse des textes de resurrection (Exegesis and Ontology: An Analysis of the Texts of Resurrection).
He developed an interest in anthropology, and undertook fieldwork in Ivory Coast which resulted in a brief monograph on decolonization, race, and industrial relations. After spending more than twenty years (1982–2006) at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation at the École des Mines in Paris, Latour moved in 2006 to Sciences Po, where he was the first occupant of a chair named for Gabriel Tarde. In recent years he also served as one of the curators of successful art exhibitions at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Germany, including "Iconoclash" (2002) and "Making Things Public" (2005). In 2005 he also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.
Awards and honors
On 22 May 2008, Latour was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal on the occasion of an organizational communication conference held in honor of the work of James R. Taylor, on whom Latour has had an important influence. He holds several other honorary doctorates, as well as France's Légion d'Honneur (2012).
The Dutch "International Spinozaprijs Foundation" will award the "Spinozalens 2020" to Bruno Latour on 24 November 2020.
In 2021 he received the Kyoto Prize in the category "Thought and Ethics".
Holberg Prize
On 13 March 2013, he was announced as the winner of the 2013 Holberg Prize. The prize committee stated that "Bruno Latour has undertaken an ambitious analysis and reinterpretation of modernity, and has challenged fundamental concepts such as the distinction between modern and pre-modern, nature and society, human and non-human." The committee states that "the impact of Latour's work is evident internationally and far beyond studies of the history of science, art history, history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, theology, literature and law."
A 2013 article in Aftenposten by Jon Elster criticised the conferment to Latour, by saying "The question is, does he deserve the prize. ... If the statutes [of the award] had used new knowledge as a main criteria, instead of one of several, then he would be completely unqualified in my opinion."
Main works
Laboratory Life
After his early career efforts, Latour shifted his research interests to focus on laboratory scientists. Latour rose in importance following the 1979 publication of Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts with co-author Steve Woolgar. In the book, the authors undertake an ethnographic study of a neuroendocrinology research laboratory at the Salk Institute. This early work argued that naïve descriptions of the scientific method, in which theories stand or fall on the outcome of a single experiment, are inconsistent with actual laboratory practice.
In the laboratory, Latour and Woolgar observed that a typical experiment produces only inconclusive data that is attributed to failure of the apparatus or experimental method, and that a large part of scientific training involves learning how to make the subjective decision of what data to keep and what data to throw out. Latour and Woolgar argued that, for untrained observers, the entire process resembles not an unbiased search for truth and accuracy but a mechanism for ignoring data that contradicts scientific orthodoxy.
Latour and Woolgar produced a highly heterodox and controversial picture of the sciences. Drawing on the work of Gaston Bachelard, they advance the notion that the objects of scientific study are socially constructed within the laboratory—that they cannot be attributed with an existence outside of the instruments that measure them and the minds that interpret them. They view scientific activity as a system of beliefs, oral traditions and culturally specific practices—in short, science is reconstructed not as a procedure or as a set of principles but as a culture. Latour's 1987 book Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society is one of the key texts of the sociology of scientific knowledge in which he famously wrote his Second Principle as follows: "Scientist and engineers speak in the name of new allies that they have shaped and enrolled; representatives among other representatives, they add these unexpected resources to tip the balance of force in their favor."
Some of Latour's position and findings in this era provoked vehement rebuttals. Gross and Leavitt argue that Latour's position becomes absurd when applied to non-scientific contexts: e.g., if a group of coworkers in a windowless room were debating whether or not it were raining outside and went outdoors to discover raindrops in the air and puddles on the soil, Latour's hypothesis would assert that the rain was socially constructed. Similarly, philosopher John Searle argues that Latour's "extreme social constructivist" position is seriously flawed on several points, and furthermore has inadvertently "comical results".
The Pasteurization of France
After a research project examining the sociology of primatologists, Latour followed up the themes in Laboratory Life with Les Microbes: guerre et paix (published in English as The Pasteurization of France in 1988). In it, he reviews the life and career of one of France's most famous scientists Louis Pasteur and his discovery of microbes, in the fashion of a political biography. Latour highlights the social forces at work in and around Pasteur's career and the uneven manner in which his theories were accepted. By providing more explicitly ideological explanations for the acceptance of Pasteur's work more easily in some quarters than in others, he seeks to undermine the notion that the acceptance and rejection of scientific theories is primarily, or even usually, a matter of experiment, evidence or reason.
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology focuses on the history of an unsuccessful mass-transit project. Aramis PRT (personal rapid transit), a high tech automated subway, had been developed in France during the 70s and 80s and was supposed to be implemented as a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in Paris. It combined the flexibility of an automobile with the efficiency of a subway. Aramis was to be an ideal urban transportation system based on private cars in constant motion and the elimination of unnecessary transfers. This new form of transportation was intended to be as secure and inexpensive as collective transportation. The proposed system had custom-designed motors, sensors, controls, digital electronics, software and a major installation in southern Paris. But in the end, the project died in 1987. Latour argues that the technology failed not because any particular actor killed it, but because the actors failed to sustain it through negotiation and adaptation to a changing social situation. While investigating Aramis's demise, Latour delineates the tenets of actor-network theory. According to Latour's own description of the book, the work aims "at training readers in the booming field of technology studies and at experimenting in the many new literary forms that are necessary to handle mechanisms and automatisms without using the belief that they are mechanical nor automatic."
We Have Never Been Modern
Latour's work Nous n’avons jamais été modernes : Essai d’anthropologie symétrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern.
Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.
Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism.
Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom.
In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history".
Pandora's Hope
Pandora's Hope (1999) marks a return to the themes Latour explored in Science in Action and We Have Never Been Modern. It uses independent but thematically linked essays and case studies to question the authority and reliability of scientific knowledge. Latour uses a narrative, anecdotal approach in a number of the essays, describing his work with pedologists in the Amazon rainforest, the development of the pasteurization process, and the research of French atomic scientists at the outbreak of the Second World War. Latour states that this specific, anecdotal approach to science studies is essential to gaining a full understanding of the discipline: "The only way to understand the reality of science studies is to follow what science studies do best, that is, paying close attention to the details of scientific practice" (p. 24). Some authors have criticized Latour's methodology, including Katherine Pandora, a history of science professor at the University of Oklahoma. In her review of Pandora's Hope, Katherine Pandora states:
"[Latour's] writing can be stimulating, fresh and at times genuinely moving, but it can also display a distractingly mannered style in which a rococo zeal for compounding metaphors, examples, definitions and abstractions can frustrate even readers who approach his work with the best of intentions (notwithstanding the inclusion of a nine-page glossary of terms and liberal use of diagrams in an attempt to achieve the utmost clarity)".
In addition to his epistemological concerns, Latour also explores the political dimension of science studies in Pandora's Hope. Two of the chapters draw on Plato's Gorgias as a means of investigating and highlighting the distinction between content and context. As Katherine Pandora states in her review:
"It is hard not to be caught up in the author's obvious delight in deploying a classic work from antiquity to bring current concerns into sharper focus, following along as he manages to leave the reader with the impression that the protagonists Socrates and Callicles are not only in dialogue with each other but with Latour as well."
Although Latour frames his discussion with a classical model, his examples of fraught political issues are all current and of continuing relevance: global warming, the spread of mad cow disease, and the carcinogenic effects of smoking are all mentioned at various points in Pandora's Hope. In Felix Stalder's article "Beyond constructivism: towards a realistic realism", he summarizes Latour's position on the political dimension of science studies as follows: "These scientific debates have been artificially kept open in order to render impossible any political action against these problems and those who profit from them".
"Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?"
In a 2004 article, Latour questioned the fundamental premises on which he had based most of his career, asking, "Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?" He undertakes a trenchant critique of his own field of study and, more generally, of social criticism in contemporary academia. He suggests that critique, as currently practiced, is bordering on irrelevancy. To maintain any vitality, Latour argues that social critiques require a drastic reappraisal: "our critical equipment deserves as much critical scrutiny as the Pentagon budget." (p. 231) To regain focus and credibility, Latour argues that social critiques must embrace empiricism, to insist on the "cultivation of a stubbornly realist attitude – to speak like William James". (p. 233)
Latour suggests that about 90 per cent of contemporary social criticism displays one of two approaches which he terms "the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 237) The fairy position is anti-fetishist, arguing that "objects of belief" (e.g., religion, arts) are merely concepts created by the projected wishes and desires of the "naive believer"; the "fact position" argues that individuals are dominated, often covertly and without their awareness, by external forces (e.g., economics, gender). (p. 238) "Do you see now why it feels so good to be a critical mind?” asks Latour: no matter which position you take, "You’re always right!" (p. 238–239) Social critics tend to use anti-fetishism against ideas they personally reject; to use "an unrepentant positivist" approach for fields of study they consider valuable; all the while thinking as "a perfectly healthy sturdy realist for what you really cherish." (p. 241) These inconsistencies and double standards go largely unrecognized in social critique because "there is never any crossover between the two lists of objects in the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 241)
The practical result of these approaches being taught to millions of students in elite universities for several decades is a widespread and influential "critical barbarity" that has—like a malign virus created by a "mad scientist"—thus far proven impossible to control. Most troubling, Latour notes that critical ideas have been appropriated by those he describes as conspiracy theorists, including global warming deniers and the 9/11 Truth movement: "Maybe I am taking conspiracy theories too seriously, but I am worried to detect, in those mad mixtures of knee-jerk disbelief, punctilious demands for proofs, and free use of powerful explanation from the social neverland, many of the weapons of social critique." (p. 230)
The conclusion of the article is to argue for a positive framing of critique, to help understand how matters of concern can be supported rather than undermined: "The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naïve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in which to gather. The critic is not the one who alternates haphazardly between antifetishism and positivism like the drunk iconoclast drawn by Goya, but the one for whom, if something is constructed, then it means it is fragile and thus in great need of care and caution."
Latour's article has been highly influential within the field of postcritique, an intellectual movement within literary criticism and cultural studies that seeks to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. The literary critic Rita Felski has named Latour as an important precursor to the project of postcritique.
Reassembling the Social
In Reassembling the Social (2005), Latour continues a reappraisal of his work, developing what he calls a "practical metaphysics", which calls "real" anything that an actor (one whom we are studying) claims as a source of motivation for action. So if someone says, "I was inspired by God to be charitable to my neighbors" we are obliged to recognize the "ontological weight" of their claim, rather than attempting to replace their belief in God's presence with "social stuff", like class, gender, imperialism, etc. Latour’s nuanced metaphysics demands the existence of a plurality of worlds, and the willingness of the researcher to chart ever more. He argues that researchers must give up the hope of fitting their actors into a structure or framework, but Latour believes the benefits of this sacrifice far outweigh the downsides: "Their complex metaphysics would at least be respected, their recalcitrance recognized, their objections deployed, their multiplicity accepted."
For Latour, to talk about metaphysics or ontology–what really is–means paying close empirical attention to the various, contradictory institutions and ideas that bring people together and inspire them to act. Here is Latour's description of metaphysics:
If we call metaphysics the discipline . . . that purports to define the basic structure of the world, then empirical metaphysics is what the controversies over agencies lead to since they ceaselessly populate the world with new drives and, as ceaselessly, contest the existence of others. The question then becomes how to explore the actors' own metaphysics.
A more traditional metaphysicist might object, arguing that this means there are multiple, contradictory realities, since there are "controversies over agencies" – since there is a plurality of contradictory ideas that people claim as a basis for action (God, nature, the state, sexual drives, personal ambition, and so on). This objection manifests the most important difference between traditional philosophical metaphysics and Latour's nuance: for Latour, there is no "basic structure of reality" or a single, self-consistent world. An unknowably large multiplicity of realities, or "worlds" in his terms, exists–one for each actor's sources of agency, inspirations for action. Actors bring "the real" (metaphysics) into being. The task of the researcher is not to find one "basic structure" that explains agency, but to recognize "the metaphysical innovations proposed by ordinary actors". Mapping those metaphysical innovations involves a strong dedication to relativism, Latour argues. The relativist researcher "learns the actors' language," records what they say about what they do, and does not appeal to a higher "structure" to "explain" the actor's motivations. The relativist "takes seriously what [actors] are obstinately saying" and "follows the direction indicated by their fingers when they designate what 'makes them act'". The relativist recognizes the plurality of metaphysics that actors bring into being, and attempts to map them rather than reducing them to a single structure or explanation.
Selected bibliography
Books
Originally published 1979 in Los Angeles, by Sage Publications
Chapters in books
Journal articles
See also
Actant
Blackboxing
Fashionable Nonsense
Graphism thesis
Mapping controversies
Obligatory passage point
Science wars
Social construction of technology
Technological determinism
References
Sources
External links
Bruno Latour's website
1947 births
Living people
People from Beaune
Sociologists of science
Science and technology studies scholars
Social constructionism
Sociology of scientific knowledge
French sociologists
French anthropologists
Mines ParisTech faculty
Actor-network theory
French Roman Catholics
Catholic philosophers
Holberg Prize laureates
French male writers
French male essayists
20th-century French philosophers
21st-century French philosophers
Philosophers of science
Philosophers of technology
Posthumanists
Continental philosophers
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
20th-century male writers
21st-century male writers
Sciences Po faculty | true | [
"This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In) is the third studio album by American rock band Chevelle. Debuting at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 based on nearly 90,000 copies sold in its first week, it charted higher than its predecessor, Wonder What's Next but did not exceed its debut position. The album did not manage to match its predecessor's commercial success, but was certified platinum. This Type of Thinking follows generally the same heavy style as Wonder What's Next with popular singles like \"Vitamin R\" and \"The Clincher\". It would be the first of two records produced by Michael \"Elvis\" Baskette. This was also the final album featuring bassist Joe Loeffler, who departed from the band in 2005.\n\nBackground and recording\nComing off a highly successful major label debut, Chevelle finishing touring on December 17, 2003. They set out to write a follow-up album from scratch at the onset of the following year in what drummer Sam Loeffler described as a different approach to writing. He also noted how the band felt significant pressure from their label to not simply match but topple the platinum success of Wonder What's Next. In a 2004 interview, Loeffler described the process of approaching This Type of Thinking:\n\"We went home for Christmas and after New Year's we went into the studio and we said, 'All right, we have to write a whole record in basically four months.' We had no songs, so we had to write that whole record and we ended up taking five months. We wanted to go heavy, we wanted to do a lot of double-bass drum, kind of syncopated rhythms, and we wanted to basically write songs that we could bob our heads to. That was sort of where we started. We're a heavy melodic rock band, that's what we like to write, and that's what we like to play. And that's what we did.\"\n\nThis time around, Chevelle opted to produce their own album with the help of Michael \"Elvis\" Baskette. This Type of Thinking would continue the balance of melody and heaviness of its predecessor. And much like the final track on Wonder What's Next, \"Bend the Bracket\" would be recorded simply as an acoustic demo for its unpolished presentation.\n\nCritical reception\n\nAllMusic editor Johnny Loftus observes the album as \"...flatly mixed, lost in depression, and obsessed with rewriting \"Sober\" for a new generation of lank-haired misunderstoods.\"\n\nMelodic calls it \"...a real quality album that you will never get bored of.\", praising the songs \"The Clincher\", \"Vitamin R (Leading Us Along)\" and \"Another Know It All\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nChevelle\n Pete Loeffler – guitar, vocals\n Joe Loeffler – bass, backing vocals\n Sam Loeffler – drums\n\nTechnical personnel\n Andy Wallace – mixing\n Ben Goldman – A&R\n Christian Lantry – photography\n Dave Holdredge – digital editing, drum programming, engineer\n Eddy Schreyer – mastering\n Farra Mathews – A&R\n Jef Moll – assistant\n Josh Wilbur – digital editing\n Katharina Fritsch – cover sculpture\n Kevin Dean – assistant\n Michael \"Elvis\" Baskette – engineer, producer\n Sean Evans – art direction\n Steve Sisco – assistant\n\nCharts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n2004 albums\nAlbums produced by Michael Baskette\nChevelle (band) albums\nEpic Records albums",
"I Write What I Like (full name I Write What I Like: Selected Writings by Steve Biko) is a compilation of writings from anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko.\n\nI Write What I Like contains a selection of Biko's writings from 1969, when he became the president of the South African Student Organisation, to 1972, when he was prohibited from publishing. Originally published in 1978, the book was republished in 1987 and April 2002. The book's title was taken from the title under which he had published his writings in the SASO newsletter under the pseudonym Frank Talk.\n\nI Write What I Like reflects Biko's conviction that black people in South Africa could not be liberated until they united to break their chains of servitude, a key tenet of the Black Consciousness Movement that he helped found.\n\nThe collection was edited by Aelred Stubbs. The book includes a preface by Archbishop Desmond Tutu; an introduction by Malusi and Thoko Mpumlwana, who were both involved with Biko in the Black Consciousness Movement; a memoir of Biko by Father Aelred Stubbs, his longtime pastor and friend; and a new foreword by Professor Lewis Gordon.\n\nReferences\n\n1978 non-fiction books\n2002 non-fiction books\nBooks about apartheid\nPolitical books\nSouth African non-fiction books"
]
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"Bruno Latour",
"We Have Never Been Modern",
"what is the connection between latour and we have never been modern",
"Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism.",
"who did he judge",
"He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.",
"did he have supporters",
"Margaret C. Jacob",
"what is important about his work",
"Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato.",
"was he right",
"I don't know.",
"what books did he write",
"Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique",
"what year did he write it",
"first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993"
]
| C_f413e9dbddb94d27801f449460db5b29_0 | was it a popular book | 8 | Was Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique a popular book? | Bruno Latour | Latour's work Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes : Essais d'anthropologie symetrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern. Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines. Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism. Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom. In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Bruno Latour (; ; born 22 June 1947) is a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist. He is especially known for his work in the field of science and technology studies (STS). After teaching at the École des Mines de Paris (Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation) from 1982 to 2006, he became Professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he was the scientific director of the Sciences Po Medialab. He retired from several university activities in 2017. He was also a Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.
Latour is best known for his books We Have Never Been Modern (1991; English translation, 1993), Laboratory Life (with Steve Woolgar, 1979) and Science in Action (1987). Although his studies of scientific practice were at one time associated with social constructionist approaches to the philosophy of science, Latour has diverged significantly from such approaches. He is best known for withdrawing from the subjective/objective division and re-developing the approach to work in practice. Latour said in 2017 that he is interested in helping to rebuild trust in science and that some of the authority of science needs to be regained.
Along with Michel Callon and John Law, Latour is one of the primary developers of actor–network theory (ANT), a constructionist approach influenced by the ethnomethodology of Harold Garfinkel, the generative semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas, and (more recently) the sociology of Émile Durkheim's rival Gabriel Tarde.
Biography
Latour is related to a well-known family of winemakers from Burgundy, but is not associated with the similarly named estate in Bordeaux.
As a student, Latour originally focused on philosophy. In 1971–1972, he ranked second and then first (reçu second, premier) in the French national competitive exam (agrégation/CAPES de philosophie). He was deeply influenced by Michel Serres. Latour went on to earn his Ph.D. in philosophical theology in 1975 at the University of Tours. His thesis title was Exégèse et ontologie: une analyse des textes de resurrection (Exegesis and Ontology: An Analysis of the Texts of Resurrection).
He developed an interest in anthropology, and undertook fieldwork in Ivory Coast which resulted in a brief monograph on decolonization, race, and industrial relations. After spending more than twenty years (1982–2006) at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation at the École des Mines in Paris, Latour moved in 2006 to Sciences Po, where he was the first occupant of a chair named for Gabriel Tarde. In recent years he also served as one of the curators of successful art exhibitions at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Germany, including "Iconoclash" (2002) and "Making Things Public" (2005). In 2005 he also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.
Awards and honors
On 22 May 2008, Latour was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal on the occasion of an organizational communication conference held in honor of the work of James R. Taylor, on whom Latour has had an important influence. He holds several other honorary doctorates, as well as France's Légion d'Honneur (2012).
The Dutch "International Spinozaprijs Foundation" will award the "Spinozalens 2020" to Bruno Latour on 24 November 2020.
In 2021 he received the Kyoto Prize in the category "Thought and Ethics".
Holberg Prize
On 13 March 2013, he was announced as the winner of the 2013 Holberg Prize. The prize committee stated that "Bruno Latour has undertaken an ambitious analysis and reinterpretation of modernity, and has challenged fundamental concepts such as the distinction between modern and pre-modern, nature and society, human and non-human." The committee states that "the impact of Latour's work is evident internationally and far beyond studies of the history of science, art history, history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, theology, literature and law."
A 2013 article in Aftenposten by Jon Elster criticised the conferment to Latour, by saying "The question is, does he deserve the prize. ... If the statutes [of the award] had used new knowledge as a main criteria, instead of one of several, then he would be completely unqualified in my opinion."
Main works
Laboratory Life
After his early career efforts, Latour shifted his research interests to focus on laboratory scientists. Latour rose in importance following the 1979 publication of Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts with co-author Steve Woolgar. In the book, the authors undertake an ethnographic study of a neuroendocrinology research laboratory at the Salk Institute. This early work argued that naïve descriptions of the scientific method, in which theories stand or fall on the outcome of a single experiment, are inconsistent with actual laboratory practice.
In the laboratory, Latour and Woolgar observed that a typical experiment produces only inconclusive data that is attributed to failure of the apparatus or experimental method, and that a large part of scientific training involves learning how to make the subjective decision of what data to keep and what data to throw out. Latour and Woolgar argued that, for untrained observers, the entire process resembles not an unbiased search for truth and accuracy but a mechanism for ignoring data that contradicts scientific orthodoxy.
Latour and Woolgar produced a highly heterodox and controversial picture of the sciences. Drawing on the work of Gaston Bachelard, they advance the notion that the objects of scientific study are socially constructed within the laboratory—that they cannot be attributed with an existence outside of the instruments that measure them and the minds that interpret them. They view scientific activity as a system of beliefs, oral traditions and culturally specific practices—in short, science is reconstructed not as a procedure or as a set of principles but as a culture. Latour's 1987 book Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society is one of the key texts of the sociology of scientific knowledge in which he famously wrote his Second Principle as follows: "Scientist and engineers speak in the name of new allies that they have shaped and enrolled; representatives among other representatives, they add these unexpected resources to tip the balance of force in their favor."
Some of Latour's position and findings in this era provoked vehement rebuttals. Gross and Leavitt argue that Latour's position becomes absurd when applied to non-scientific contexts: e.g., if a group of coworkers in a windowless room were debating whether or not it were raining outside and went outdoors to discover raindrops in the air and puddles on the soil, Latour's hypothesis would assert that the rain was socially constructed. Similarly, philosopher John Searle argues that Latour's "extreme social constructivist" position is seriously flawed on several points, and furthermore has inadvertently "comical results".
The Pasteurization of France
After a research project examining the sociology of primatologists, Latour followed up the themes in Laboratory Life with Les Microbes: guerre et paix (published in English as The Pasteurization of France in 1988). In it, he reviews the life and career of one of France's most famous scientists Louis Pasteur and his discovery of microbes, in the fashion of a political biography. Latour highlights the social forces at work in and around Pasteur's career and the uneven manner in which his theories were accepted. By providing more explicitly ideological explanations for the acceptance of Pasteur's work more easily in some quarters than in others, he seeks to undermine the notion that the acceptance and rejection of scientific theories is primarily, or even usually, a matter of experiment, evidence or reason.
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology
Aramis, or, The Love of Technology focuses on the history of an unsuccessful mass-transit project. Aramis PRT (personal rapid transit), a high tech automated subway, had been developed in France during the 70s and 80s and was supposed to be implemented as a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in Paris. It combined the flexibility of an automobile with the efficiency of a subway. Aramis was to be an ideal urban transportation system based on private cars in constant motion and the elimination of unnecessary transfers. This new form of transportation was intended to be as secure and inexpensive as collective transportation. The proposed system had custom-designed motors, sensors, controls, digital electronics, software and a major installation in southern Paris. But in the end, the project died in 1987. Latour argues that the technology failed not because any particular actor killed it, but because the actors failed to sustain it through negotiation and adaptation to a changing social situation. While investigating Aramis's demise, Latour delineates the tenets of actor-network theory. According to Latour's own description of the book, the work aims "at training readers in the booming field of technology studies and at experimenting in the many new literary forms that are necessary to handle mechanisms and automatisms without using the belief that they are mechanical nor automatic."
We Have Never Been Modern
Latour's work Nous n’avons jamais été modernes : Essai d’anthropologie symétrique was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as We Have Never Been Modern.
Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.
Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism.
Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom.
In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history".
Pandora's Hope
Pandora's Hope (1999) marks a return to the themes Latour explored in Science in Action and We Have Never Been Modern. It uses independent but thematically linked essays and case studies to question the authority and reliability of scientific knowledge. Latour uses a narrative, anecdotal approach in a number of the essays, describing his work with pedologists in the Amazon rainforest, the development of the pasteurization process, and the research of French atomic scientists at the outbreak of the Second World War. Latour states that this specific, anecdotal approach to science studies is essential to gaining a full understanding of the discipline: "The only way to understand the reality of science studies is to follow what science studies do best, that is, paying close attention to the details of scientific practice" (p. 24). Some authors have criticized Latour's methodology, including Katherine Pandora, a history of science professor at the University of Oklahoma. In her review of Pandora's Hope, Katherine Pandora states:
"[Latour's] writing can be stimulating, fresh and at times genuinely moving, but it can also display a distractingly mannered style in which a rococo zeal for compounding metaphors, examples, definitions and abstractions can frustrate even readers who approach his work with the best of intentions (notwithstanding the inclusion of a nine-page glossary of terms and liberal use of diagrams in an attempt to achieve the utmost clarity)".
In addition to his epistemological concerns, Latour also explores the political dimension of science studies in Pandora's Hope. Two of the chapters draw on Plato's Gorgias as a means of investigating and highlighting the distinction between content and context. As Katherine Pandora states in her review:
"It is hard not to be caught up in the author's obvious delight in deploying a classic work from antiquity to bring current concerns into sharper focus, following along as he manages to leave the reader with the impression that the protagonists Socrates and Callicles are not only in dialogue with each other but with Latour as well."
Although Latour frames his discussion with a classical model, his examples of fraught political issues are all current and of continuing relevance: global warming, the spread of mad cow disease, and the carcinogenic effects of smoking are all mentioned at various points in Pandora's Hope. In Felix Stalder's article "Beyond constructivism: towards a realistic realism", he summarizes Latour's position on the political dimension of science studies as follows: "These scientific debates have been artificially kept open in order to render impossible any political action against these problems and those who profit from them".
"Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?"
In a 2004 article, Latour questioned the fundamental premises on which he had based most of his career, asking, "Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?" He undertakes a trenchant critique of his own field of study and, more generally, of social criticism in contemporary academia. He suggests that critique, as currently practiced, is bordering on irrelevancy. To maintain any vitality, Latour argues that social critiques require a drastic reappraisal: "our critical equipment deserves as much critical scrutiny as the Pentagon budget." (p. 231) To regain focus and credibility, Latour argues that social critiques must embrace empiricism, to insist on the "cultivation of a stubbornly realist attitude – to speak like William James". (p. 233)
Latour suggests that about 90 per cent of contemporary social criticism displays one of two approaches which he terms "the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 237) The fairy position is anti-fetishist, arguing that "objects of belief" (e.g., religion, arts) are merely concepts created by the projected wishes and desires of the "naive believer"; the "fact position" argues that individuals are dominated, often covertly and without their awareness, by external forces (e.g., economics, gender). (p. 238) "Do you see now why it feels so good to be a critical mind?” asks Latour: no matter which position you take, "You’re always right!" (p. 238–239) Social critics tend to use anti-fetishism against ideas they personally reject; to use "an unrepentant positivist" approach for fields of study they consider valuable; all the while thinking as "a perfectly healthy sturdy realist for what you really cherish." (p. 241) These inconsistencies and double standards go largely unrecognized in social critique because "there is never any crossover between the two lists of objects in the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 241)
The practical result of these approaches being taught to millions of students in elite universities for several decades is a widespread and influential "critical barbarity" that has—like a malign virus created by a "mad scientist"—thus far proven impossible to control. Most troubling, Latour notes that critical ideas have been appropriated by those he describes as conspiracy theorists, including global warming deniers and the 9/11 Truth movement: "Maybe I am taking conspiracy theories too seriously, but I am worried to detect, in those mad mixtures of knee-jerk disbelief, punctilious demands for proofs, and free use of powerful explanation from the social neverland, many of the weapons of social critique." (p. 230)
The conclusion of the article is to argue for a positive framing of critique, to help understand how matters of concern can be supported rather than undermined: "The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naïve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in which to gather. The critic is not the one who alternates haphazardly between antifetishism and positivism like the drunk iconoclast drawn by Goya, but the one for whom, if something is constructed, then it means it is fragile and thus in great need of care and caution."
Latour's article has been highly influential within the field of postcritique, an intellectual movement within literary criticism and cultural studies that seeks to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. The literary critic Rita Felski has named Latour as an important precursor to the project of postcritique.
Reassembling the Social
In Reassembling the Social (2005), Latour continues a reappraisal of his work, developing what he calls a "practical metaphysics", which calls "real" anything that an actor (one whom we are studying) claims as a source of motivation for action. So if someone says, "I was inspired by God to be charitable to my neighbors" we are obliged to recognize the "ontological weight" of their claim, rather than attempting to replace their belief in God's presence with "social stuff", like class, gender, imperialism, etc. Latour’s nuanced metaphysics demands the existence of a plurality of worlds, and the willingness of the researcher to chart ever more. He argues that researchers must give up the hope of fitting their actors into a structure or framework, but Latour believes the benefits of this sacrifice far outweigh the downsides: "Their complex metaphysics would at least be respected, their recalcitrance recognized, their objections deployed, their multiplicity accepted."
For Latour, to talk about metaphysics or ontology–what really is–means paying close empirical attention to the various, contradictory institutions and ideas that bring people together and inspire them to act. Here is Latour's description of metaphysics:
If we call metaphysics the discipline . . . that purports to define the basic structure of the world, then empirical metaphysics is what the controversies over agencies lead to since they ceaselessly populate the world with new drives and, as ceaselessly, contest the existence of others. The question then becomes how to explore the actors' own metaphysics.
A more traditional metaphysicist might object, arguing that this means there are multiple, contradictory realities, since there are "controversies over agencies" – since there is a plurality of contradictory ideas that people claim as a basis for action (God, nature, the state, sexual drives, personal ambition, and so on). This objection manifests the most important difference between traditional philosophical metaphysics and Latour's nuance: for Latour, there is no "basic structure of reality" or a single, self-consistent world. An unknowably large multiplicity of realities, or "worlds" in his terms, exists–one for each actor's sources of agency, inspirations for action. Actors bring "the real" (metaphysics) into being. The task of the researcher is not to find one "basic structure" that explains agency, but to recognize "the metaphysical innovations proposed by ordinary actors". Mapping those metaphysical innovations involves a strong dedication to relativism, Latour argues. The relativist researcher "learns the actors' language," records what they say about what they do, and does not appeal to a higher "structure" to "explain" the actor's motivations. The relativist "takes seriously what [actors] are obstinately saying" and "follows the direction indicated by their fingers when they designate what 'makes them act'". The relativist recognizes the plurality of metaphysics that actors bring into being, and attempts to map them rather than reducing them to a single structure or explanation.
Selected bibliography
Books
Originally published 1979 in Los Angeles, by Sage Publications
Chapters in books
Journal articles
See also
Actant
Blackboxing
Fashionable Nonsense
Graphism thesis
Mapping controversies
Obligatory passage point
Science wars
Social construction of technology
Technological determinism
References
Sources
External links
Bruno Latour's website
1947 births
Living people
People from Beaune
Sociologists of science
Science and technology studies scholars
Social constructionism
Sociology of scientific knowledge
French sociologists
French anthropologists
Mines ParisTech faculty
Actor-network theory
French Roman Catholics
Catholic philosophers
Holberg Prize laureates
French male writers
French male essayists
20th-century French philosophers
21st-century French philosophers
Philosophers of science
Philosophers of technology
Posthumanists
Continental philosophers
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
20th-century male writers
21st-century male writers
Sciences Po faculty | false | [
"John Brand (19 August 1744 – 11 September 1806) was an English antiquarian and Church of England clergyman. He was author of Observations on Popular Antiquities: including the whole of Mr Bourne's “Antiquitates Vulgares,” with addenda to every chapter of that work.\n\nLife\n\nBorn in Washington, County Durham, he was educated at the Royal Grammar School and Lincoln College, Oxford. Initially apprenticed as a cordwainer, he obtained a degree from Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1775 and was appointed perpetual curate of Cramlington.\nBrand was appointed Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1784 and was annually re-elected until his death.\n\nHe was buried in the nearby churchyard of St Mary-at-Hill. When this churchyard was cleared, his remains were moved to West Norwood Cemetery within the enclosure that the church acquired there in 1847.\n\nWorks\nBrand wrote Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain: Including the Whole of Mr. Bourne's Antiquitates Vulgares (1777), generally referred to as Popular Antiquities. (The incorporated work was the Popular Antiquities of Henry Bourne, published 1725, with Brand's own extensive annotations). Material from it was afterwards broadly incorporated into William Hone's Every Day Book, Year Book, etc., and in Chambers' Book of Days, which had wide popular circulation. The Popular Antiquities were further revised and enlarged by Sir Henry Ellis. The expression \"popular antiquities\" was overtaken in the 19th century by \"folklore\". The book was again reworked as an alphabetical dictionary in Faiths and folklore ; a dictionary of national beliefs, superstitions and popular customs, (1905) by William Carew Hazlitt.\n\nReferences\n\nShort biography\", St Andrew's Church\", British History Online (see footnote 33)\nObservations on Popular Antiquities, Chiefly Illustrating the Origin of our Vulgar Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions by John Brand: A New Edition with the additions of Sir Henry Ellis (Chatto and Windus, London 1900). (This pre-dates the alphabetical extension, revision and correction accessed below.)\n R. H. Sweet, ‘Brand, John (1744–1806)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography\n\nExternal links\n \n\nEnglish antiquarians\nFellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London\nPeople from Washington, Tyne and Wear\n1744 births\n1806 deaths\nPeople educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne\nBurials at West Norwood Cemetery\n18th-century English Anglican priests\n19th-century English Anglican priests",
"The Book of Indian Birds by Salim Ali is a landmark book on Indian ornithology, which helped spark popular interest in the birds of India. First published in 1941, it is currently in its 13th edition. Most of the older books on Indian birds were meant for identification using specimens in the hand and the only other field guide, Hugh Whistler's Popular Handbook Of Indian Birds was published in London, was getting out of date and not readily available in India. The book of Indian birds provided a popular bird-guide in a low-cost edition. \n\nThe J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership, while awarding Salim Ali in 1976, said in its citation:\n... your book, the Book of Indian Birds which in its way was the seminal natural history volume for everyone in India.\n\nThe second edition of the book was published in 1942, subsequent editions being in 1944, 1945, 1961, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1977, 1979 (11th edition with reprints in 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1992), 1996 (12th edition) and 2002 (13th edition).\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nBook of Indian Birds (1941 edition) Archive.org copy\n\nOrnithological handbooks\nMemorials to Salim Ali"
]
|
[
"Mark Henry",
"Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998-2000)"
]
| C_a8710470bf874ec9a8952c68996f9cd5_1 | What is sexual chocolate? | 1 | What is Mark Henry's sexual chocolate? | Mark Henry | Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager. During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname Sexual Chocolate, and was involved in controversial angles with Chyna and a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. After this, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF women from Chyna to Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand. Henry was part of various other embarrassing and infamous storylines, including one about him overcoming sex addiction. CANNOTANSWER | Henry gave himself the nickname Sexual Chocolate, | Mark Jerrold Henry (born June 12, 1971) is an American powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter, strongman, and retired professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator/analyst, coach, and talent scout. He is best known for his 25-year career in WWE where he was a two-time world champion. He is a two-time Olympian (1992 and 1996) and a gold, silver, and bronze medalist at the Pan American Games in 1995. As a powerlifter, he was WDFPF World Champion (1995) and a two-time U.S. National Champion (1995 and 1997) as well as an all-time raw world record holder in the squat and deadlift. Currently, he still holds the WDFPF world records in the squat, deadlift and total and the USAPL American record in the deadlift since 1995. He is credited for the biggest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a drug tested athlete, regardless of weight class, as well as the greatest raw deadlift by an American citizen.
In weightlifting, Henry was a three-time U.S. National Weightlifting Champion (1993, 1994, 1996), an American Open winner (1992), a two-time U.S. Olympic Festival Champion (1993 and 1994) and a NACAC champion (1996). He holds all three Senior US American weightlifting records of 1993–1997. In 2002 he won the first annual Arnold Strongman Classic.
Since joining the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1996, he became a one-time WWF European Champion and a two-time world champion, having held the ECW Championship in 2008, and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship in 2011. In first winning the ECW Championship, Henry became only the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history (after The Rock, Booker T, and Bobby Lashley).
In April 2018, Henry was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018.
Early life
Henry was born in the small town of Silsbee in East Texas, 90 miles northeast of Houston. As a child, he was a big wrestling fan and André the Giant was his favorite wrestler. While attending a wrestling show in Beaumont, Texas, young Henry tried to touch André as he was walking down the aisle, but tripped over the barricade. André picked him up out of the crowd and put him back behind the barricade. When Henry was 12 years old, his father, Ernest, died of complications from diabetes. When he was 14 years old, Henry was diagnosed with dyslexia.
Henry comes from a family in which almost all of the men are larger than average, especially his great uncle Chudd, who was 6 ft 7 in, weighed approximately , never had a pair of manufactured shoes, and was known as the strongest man in the Piney Woods of East Texas.
Henry played football in high school until his senior year, when he strained ligaments in his wrist during the first game of the year and scored below 700 on the SAT.
Powerlifting career
By the time Mark Henry was in the fourth grade, he was and weighed . His mother bought a set of weights for him when he was ten years old. During Henry's freshman year at Silsbee High School, he was already able to squat , which was well over school record. As an 18-year-old high school senior, Henry was called "the world's strongest teenager" by the Los Angeles Times, and made it into the headlines in early 1990 for winning the National High School Powerlifting Championships and setting teenage lifting world records in the squat and total . By the time Henry finished high school, he was a three-time Texas state champion with state and national records in all four powerlifting categories—the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at as well as the total at .
At the Texas High School Powerlifting Championships in April 1990, Terry Todd, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin and former weightlifter, spotted Henry and persuaded him to go to Austin after he graduated to train in the Olympic style of weightlifting. In July 1990 at the USPF Senior National Powerlifting Championships, 19-year-old Henry came second only to the legendary six-time World Powerlifting Champion Kirk Karwoski. While powerlifting relies primarily on brute strength and power, which Henry obviously possessed, Olympic weightlifting is considered more sophisticated, involving more agility, timing, flexibility and technique. There have been few lifters in history who have been able to be successful in both lifting disciplines. Mastering the technique of weightlifting usually takes many years of practice, but Henry broke four national junior records in weightlifting after only eight months of training. In April 1991, he won the United States National Junior Championships; 20 days later he placed fourth at the U.S. Senior National Championships, and finished sixth at the Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Germany two months later. Only few weeks afterwards, he became 1991's International Junior Champion in Powerlifiting as well. In Henry's first year in competitive weightlifting, he broke all three junior (20 and under) American records 12 times, and became the United States' top Superheavyweight, surpassing Mario Martinez.
At the age of 19, Henry had already managed to qualify for the weightlifting competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he finished tenth in the Super- Heavyweight class. Ten months before the 1992 Olympics, Henry had begun training with Dragomir Cioroslan, a bronze medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics, who said that he had "never seen anyone with Mark's raw talent". After the Olympics, Henry became more determined to focus on weightlifting and began competing all over the world. In late 1992 he took the win at the USA Weightlifting American Open and further proved his dominance on the American soil by winning not only the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships, but also the U.S. Olympic Festival Championships in 1993 and 1994. At the 1995 Pan American Games Henry won a gold, silver and bronze medal.
Having reached the pinnacle of weightlifting on a National and continental level, he competed again in powerlifting and shocked the world by winning the ADFPA U.S. National Powerlifting Championships in 1995 with a raw Powerlifting Total. Despite competing without supportive equipment in contrast to the other competitors, Henry managed to outclass the lifter in second place by , defeating not only five-time IPF World Powerlifting Champion and 12 time USAPL National Powerlifting Champion Brad Gillingham, but also America's Strongest Man of 1997 Mark Philippi. In the process he set all-time world records in the raw deadlift at and the squat without a squat suit at as well as the all-time drug tested raw total at . Later that same year in October, he competed in the drug-free Powerlifting World Championships and won again, even though he trained on the powerlifts only sparingly—due his main focus still being on the two Olympic lifts. He not only become World Champion by winning the competition but also bettered his previous all-time squat world record to and his all-time drug tested world record total to .
In 1996 Henry became the North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Champion. He earned the right to compete at the Olympics by winning the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships in the Spring of 1996 for a third time. During his victory Henry became Senior US American record holder (1993–1997) in the Snatch at , Clean and jerk at , and Total at , improving all of his three previous personal bests. This total, in the opinion of many experts in track field of international lifting—including Dragomir Cioroslan, the '96s coach of the U.S. team—was the highest ever made by an athlete who had never used anabolic steroids—who was lifetime drugfree. By that time, at the age of 24, Henry was generally acknowledged as the strongest man in the world, even by many of the Eastern Bloc athletes who outrank him in weightlifting. No one in the history of the sports had ever lifted as much as him in the five competitive lifts—the snatch and the clean and jerk in weightlifting—the squat, bench press and deadlift in powerlifting. To this day, his five lift total is still the greatest in history by a fair amount—making him arguably one of the strongest men that ever lived and stamp him, according to lifting statistician Herb Glossbrenner, as history's greatest lifter.
In the months prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Henry received more attention and publicity than any lifter in recent United States history. He guested at Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and The Oprah Winfrey Show and was featured on HBO Inside Sports and The Today Show. He was also featured in dozens of magazines including U.S. News & World Report, People Vanity Fair, ESPN The Magazine and Life where he was photographed nude by famed artist Annie Lebowitz. During this period he connected with WWE owner Vince McMahon for the first time, which led to him signing a 10-year deal as professional wrestler.
Henry improved his lifts to in the snatch and in the clean-and-jerk during his final eight weeks of preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Henry at 6-foot-4-inches tall and bodyweight, became the largest athlete in Olympic history and was voted captain of the Olympic weightlifting team. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury during the competition and was unable to approach his normal performance level. Due to the injury he had to drop out after his first clean and jerk attempt and finished with a disappointing 14th place. His appearance at the Olympics proved to be his last official competition in Olympic weightlifting, as he retired from weightlifting, vowing never to return unless the sport is "cleaned up" of anabolic steroid use.
Since his career start as a professional wrestler shortly after the Olympics, he broke his leg in the fall of 1996. But by the summer of the following year he had rehabilitated it enough to be able to compete at the USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997, where he won the competition to become the U.S National Powerlifting Champion in the Super Heavyweight class again. He had planned to continue heavy training in powerlifting, although his travel schedule as a professional wrestler with the WWF (now WWE) has made sustained training difficult. Mark's WWF contract was unique in many ways, allowing him at least three months off each year from wrestling, so he can train for the national and world championships in weightlifting or powerlifting. Barring injury, Mark had originally hoped to return to the platform in late 1998, to lift for many more years, and to eventually squat at least without a “squat suit” and to deadlift .
Although in early 1998 he was still able to do five repetitions in the bench press with , three repetitions in the squat with (with no suit and no knee wraps), and three repetitions in the standing press with in training, while traveling with the World Wrestling Federation, he never returned to compete again in official championships in favor of his wrestling career. He weighed at that time, and his right upper arm was measured at 24” by Terry Todd. By basically ending his lifting career at the age of 26, it is probable that he never reached his full physical potential as a professional lifter. Henry remains the youngest man in history to squat more than 900 pounds without a squat suit as well as the youngest to total more than 2,300 pounds raw – he's the only person ever to have accomplished any of these feats at under 25 years of age.
Personal powerlifting records
Powerlifting Competition Records
done in official Powerlifting full meets
Squat – raw with knee wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ former all-time unequipped squat world record for over a decade in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2007)
→ current WDFPF world record squat in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record squat without a suit in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ currently heaviest walked-out raw squat of all time (without a monolift) regardless of weight class or federation since 1995
Deadlift – raw (done on July 16, 1995 ADFPA (USAPL))
→ former all-time raw world record deadlift in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2009)
→ current all-time highest raw deadlift ever pulled by an American in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ current Open Men American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current all-time US national championship record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current USAPL American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested raw world record deadlift (in SHW class only) since 1995
Powerlifting Total – ( / () raw with wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ current WDFPF world record in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record unequipped powerlifting total in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best official lifts) – ()
Powerlifting Gym Records (unofficial)
Squat –
Bench press –
Deadlift –
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best unofficial lifts) – ()
Front Squat –
Behind-the-neck-press – over
Weightlifting Competition Records
done in official competition
Snatch: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American snatch record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Clean and jerk: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American clean&jerk record 1993–1997 in SHW class
Weightlifting Total: – snatch: / clean&jerk: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American weightlifting total record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Weightlifting Gym Records (unofficial)
all three done in training after the 1996's U.S. Nationals, but prior to the Olympics '96
Snatch:
Clean&jerk:
Weightlifting Total:
Combined lifting records
official weightlifting total + official powerlifting total = Combined Supertotal:
+ = raw with wraps
→ current all-time highest combined weightlifting/powerlifting total in history (since 1996*)
5 official weightlifting & powerlifting lifts combined – the snatch + the clean-and-jerk and the squat + bench press + deadlift = Five-Lift-Combined-Total:
+ + + + =
→ current all-time highest 5 lift total in history (since 1996*)
* both combined all-time records had previously been held by legendary powerlifter Jon Cole
Holding these all-time records in the lifting sports makes Mark Henry arguably one of the strongest men in history. Having achieved this at the very young age of 24 while being lifetime drug-free makes it even more impressive. Many experts in the field, including Bill Kazmaier, Jan and Terry Todd, Dr. Robert M. Goldman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Muscle & Fitness magazine and Flex magazine, consider him to be "one of the Strongest Men that ever lived" or even "the most naturally gifted strongman in history".
When asked in September 2003, who the strongest man in the world is today [2003], Bill Kazmaier, considered by many to be the greatest strongman of all time, stated: "It would have to be Mark Henry. [...] I think he's one of the strongest men in the history of the world, without a doubt."
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
Early career (1996–1997)
At the age of 24, Henry made his first appearance on World Wrestling Federation (WWF) programming on the March 11, 1996 episode of Monday Night Raw, where he press slammed Jerry Lawler, who was ridiculing Henry while interviewing him in the ring. After Henry competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics, the WWF signed him to a ten-year contract. Trained by professional wrestler Leo Burke, his first feud in the WWF was with Lawler. At the pay-per-view event, SummerSlam in August 1996, Henry came to the aid of Jake Roberts who was suffering indignity at the hands of Lawler. His debut wrestling match was at In Your House: Mind Games on September 22, 1996, where he defeated Lawler. The feud continued on the live circuit during subsequent weeks. On the November 4 episode of Raw, Henry served as a cornerman for Barry Windham in a match against Goldust. He was set to team with Windham, Marc Mero and Rocky Maivia to take on the team of Lawler, Goldust, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Crush at Survivor Series, but was replaced by Jake Roberts when he was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury. On the November 17 episode of Superstars, Henry defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Crush and Goldust in a tug of war contest. Henry's career was then stalled as, over the next year, he took time off to heal injuries and engage in further training. In November 1997, he returned to the ring, making his televised return the following month. By the end of the year, he was a regular fixture on WWF programming, defeating Steve Lombardi on the December 15 episode of Raw, and beating The Sultan on the December 27 episode of Shotgun.
Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998–2000)
Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After short feuds against Ken Shamrock and Vader, Henry participated in his faction's enmity against D-Generation X, which included a romantic storyline with DX member Chyna. When The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager.
During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname "Sexual Chocolate", adopting a ladies' man character. He first resumed his storyline with former enemy Chyna, but it ended with her betraying him in a controversial angle including a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view.
The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. He was part of a storyline about him overcoming sex addiction, which he accomplished thanks to The Godfather.
After this twist, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF veteran wrestler Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand.
Ohio Valley Wrestling and strongman competitions (2000–2002)
In 2000, Henry was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to improve his conditioning and wrestling skills. In OVW, he teamed with Nick Dinsmore to compete in a tournament for the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship in mid-2001. Later that year, Henry's mother died, causing him to go on hiatus from wrestling. He felt he had to compete in the "Super Bowl of weight lifting"—the Arnold Strongman Classic—in honor of his mother, who gave him his first weight set when he was a child.
Four months prior to the contest, Henry began lifting the heaviest of weights and trained for the first time since 1997 for a major lifting competition. He had never been a professional strongman before, but in the coming contest he was to face the very best of the best of professional strongmen, such as the #1 ranked strongman in the world, and defending World's Strongest Man competition winner of 2001 Svend Karlsen, World's Strongest Man winner of 2006 Phil Pfister, World Powerlifting Champion of 2001 and equipped deadlift world record holder Andy Bolton, World Muscle Power Champion, Olympic weightlifting Champion Raimonds Bergmanis, and reigning America's Strongest Man of 2001 Brian Schoonveld.
On February 22, 2002 in Columbus, Ohio the competition, consisting of four events, designed to determine the lifter with the greatest overall body power, began. Henry surprised everybody when he won the first event, setting a world record in the process by lifting the Apollon's Axle three times overhead. Only three men in history had ever been able to press it at all. By deadlifting for two repetitions in the second event and easily pushing a or more Hummer with nearly flat tires in the third event, Henry kept his lead continuously throughout the competition and never gave it up again. In the final "Farmer's Walk"-event Henry quickly carried the roughly of railroad ties up an incline, winning the whole competition convincingly to capture the winning prize — a US$75,000 Hummer, a vacation cruise and $10,000 cash.
Since Henry had only trained for four months and defeated the crème-de-là-crème of worldwide strongmen, who had been practicing for years, his win was a shock for strongman experts worldwide, but remained basically unnoticed by the wrestling audience. Henry proved to be worthy of the title "World's Strongest Man" not only by winning the contest, but also by achieving it in record time. By doing so he was again seen as the legit "strongest man in the world" by many lifting experts for a second time since 1996.
Various feuds (2002–2007)
Henry returned to the WWE the next month and was sent to the SmackDown! brand, where he developed an in-ring persona of performing "tests of strength" while other wrestlers took bets on the tests, but the gimmick met with little success. During this time he competed against such superstars as Chris Jericho and Christian. After being used sporadically on WWE (formerly WWF) television during 2002, as he was training for a weightlifting contest, and suffering a knee injury, Henry was sent back to OVW for more training.
In August 2003, Henry returned to WWE television on the Raw roster as a heel where he found some success as a member of "Thuggin' And Buggin' Enterprises", a group of African Americans led by Theodore Long who worked a race angle in which they felt they were victims of racism and were being held down by the "white man". During that time, Henry was involved in a brief program with World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg when former champion, Triple H, put a bounty on Goldberg. This was followed by a brief rivalry with Shawn Michaels, before he engaged in a rivalry with Booker T. After defeating Booker T twice, once in a street fight and once in a six-man tag team match, he lost to Booker T at the Armageddon pay-per-view in December 2003. At a practice session in OVW in February 2004, Henry tore his quadriceps muscle, and was out for over a year after undergoing surgery. Henry was then utilized by WWE as a public relations figure during his recovery, before returning to OVW to finish out 2005.
During the December 30 episode of SmackDown!, Henry made his return to television, as he interfered in a WWE Tag Team Championship match, joining with MNM (Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, and Melina), to help them defeat Rey Mysterio and Batista for the championship. A week later on SmackDown!, Henry got in a confrontation with the World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, and went on to interfere in a steel cage match between MNM and the team of Mysterio and Batista, helping MNM to retain their titles. Henry then had another match with Batista at a live event where Batista received a severely torn triceps that required surgery, forcing him to vacate his title. On the January 10, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, Henry was involved in a Battle Royal for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. He was finally eliminated by Kurt Angle, who won the title.
A week later, Henry received assistance from Daivari, who turned on Angle and announced that he was the manager of Henry. With Daivari at his side, Henry faced Angle for the World Heavyweight Championship at the 2006 Royal Rumble in January, losing when Angle hit him with a chair (without the referee seeing) and pinned him with a roll-up.
On the March 3 episode of SmackDown!, Henry interfered in a World Heavyweight Championship match between Angle and The Undertaker, attacking the latter when he was seconds from possibly winning the title. Henry then performed a diving splash on Undertaker, driving him through the announcer's table. Henry was then challenged to a casket match by Undertaker at WrestleMania 22. Henry vowed to defeat The Undertaker and end his undefeated streak at WrestleMania, but The Undertaker defeated him. Henry had a rematch against The Undertaker on the April 7 episode of SmackDown!. It ended in a no-contest when Daivari introduced his debuting client, The Great Khali. Khali went to the ring and attacked The Undertaker, starting a new feud and ending Henry's.
During the rest of April and May, Henry gained a pinfall victory over the World Heavyweight Champion, Rey Mysterio in a non-title match. Henry entered the King of the Ring Tournament, and lost to Bobby Lashley in the first round. He later cost Kurt Angle his World Heavyweight Championship opportunity against Mysterio, when he jumped off the top rope and crushed Angle through a table. Henry was then challenged by Angle to face off at Judgment Day, Henry then sent a "message" to Angle by defeating Paul Burchill. At Judgment Day, Henry defeated Angle by countout. Although winning, Angle got his revenge after the match by hitting Henry with a chair and putting him through a table.
Henry later went on what was referred to as a "path of destruction", causing injuries to numerous superstars. Henry "took out" Chris Benoit and Paul Burchill on this path of destruction, and attacked Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero. These events led up to a feud with the returning Batista, whom Henry had put out of action with a legitimate injury several months beforehand. When Batista returned he and Henry were scheduled to face one another at The Great American Bash in July. Weeks before that event, however, on the July 15, 2006 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIII, Henry was involved in a six-man tag team match with King Booker and Finlay against Batista, Rey Mysterio, and Bobby Lashley. During the match, Henry was injured, canceling the scheduled match at The Great American Bash, as Henry needed surgery. Doctors later found that Henry completely tore his patella tendon off the bone and split his patella completely in two.
Henry returned on the May 11, 2007 episode of SmackDown!, after weeks of vignettes hyping his return. He attacked The Undertaker after a World Heavyweight Championship steel cage match with Batista, allowing Edge to take advantage of the situation and use his Money in the Bank contract. Henry then began a short feud with Kane, defeating him in a Lumberjack Match at One Night Stand. Shortly after, Henry made an open challenge to the SmackDown! locker room, which nobody ever accepted. In the coming weeks he faced various jobbers—wrestlers who consistently lose to make their opponents look stronger—and quickly defeated them all. On the August 3 episode of SmackDown!, he claimed that nobody accepted the open challenge to step into the ring with him because of what he had done to The Undertaker, presenting footage of his assault on The Undertaker. The Undertaker responded over the following weeks, playing various mind games with Henry. Henry finally faced The Undertaker again at Unforgiven in September, losing to him after being given a Last Ride. Two weeks later, Henry lost a rematch to The Undertaker after The Undertaker performed a chokeslam on Henry.
ECW Champion (2007–2009)
After a short hiatus, Henry returned to WWE programming on the October 23 episode of ECW, attacking Kane, along with The Great Khali and Big Daddy V. Henry then began teaming with Big Daddy V against Kane and CM Punk, and was briefly managed by Big Daddy V's manager, Matt Striker. At Armageddon, Henry and Big Daddy V defeated Kane and Punk. Before WrestleMania XXIV aired, Henry participated in a 24-man battle royal to determine the number one contender for the ECW Championship, but failed to win.
As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Henry was drafted to the ECW brand. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Kane and Big Show in a triple threat match to capture the ECW Championship in his debut match as an ECW superstar. This was his first world championship in WWE, which also made him the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history. Upon winning the title, it was made exclusive to the ECW brand once again. Henry's title win came nearly a full decade after he was awarded the European Championship, which was back in 1999 and the only title he held in WWE. A few weeks later, Hall of Famer Tony Atlas returned to WWE to act as Henry's manager. Shortly after, ECW General Manager, Theodore Long, unveiled a new, entirely platinum ECW Championship belt design. In August, Henry defended the title against Matt Hardy at SummerSlam after getting himself disqualified; however championships cannot change hands via disqualification, meaning that Henry retained the title. Henry later lost the title to Hardy at September's Unforgiven in the Championship Scramble match.
Henry attempted to regain the championship throughout the end of 2008, and had a match against Hardy at No Mercy, but failed as he was unsuccessful. Henry and Atlas then engaged in a scripted rivalry against Finlay and Hornswoggle, which included Henry losing a Belfast Brawl to Finlay at Armageddon. At the start of 2009, Henry qualified for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 25, and was involved in a series of matches with the other competitors on Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. He was unsuccessful at WrestleMania, however, as CM Punk won the match. In May, Henry began a rivalry with Evan Bourne, which began after Bourne defeated Henry by countout on the May 26 episode of ECW.
Tag team championship pursuits (2009–2011)
On June 29, Henry was traded to the Raw brand and redebuted for the brand that night as the third opponent in a three-on-one gauntlet match against WWE Champion Randy Orton, which he won, turning Henry into a face in the process. In August 2009, Henry formed a tag team with Montel Vontavious Porter and the two challenged the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and The Big Show) for the title at Breaking Point, but were unsuccessful. They stopped teaming afterwards, becoming involved in separate storylines, until the February 15, 2010 episode of Raw in which they defeated the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Big Show and The Miz in a non-title match. The next week they challenged The Big Show and The Miz in a title match but were unsuccessful. At Extreme Rules, Henry and MVP fought for a chance to become number one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, but were the second team eliminated in a gauntlet match by The Big Show and The Miz. Ultimately, The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith) won the match.
Henry mentored Lucky Cannon in the second season of NXT. Cannon was eliminated on the August 10 episode of NXT. In September, Henry began teaming with Evan Bourne, starting at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, where they entered a Tag Team Turmoil for the WWE Tag Team Championship. They made it to the final two before being defeated by Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. The team came to an end in October when Bourne suffered an injury and was taken out of action. Henry then formed a team with Yoshi Tatsu on the November 29 episode of Raw, defeating WWE Tag Team Champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, after a distraction by John Cena. They received a shot at the championship the next week, in a fatal four-way elimination tag team match, which also included The Usos and Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov. Henry and Tatsu were the first team eliminated in the match.
World Heavyweight Champion (2011–2012)
On the April 25, 2011 episode of Raw, Henry was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 WWE draft. In the main event of the night, Henry attacked his teammates John Cena and Christian, turning heel in the process. On the May 27 episode of SmackDown, Henry participated in a Triple Threat match against Sheamus and Christian to decide the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by Sheamus. On the June 17 episode of SmackDown, Henry was scheduled to face an angry and emotionally unstable Big Show, who warned Henry not to get into the ring; Henry ignored the warning and Big Show assaulted him before the match could begin. This act ignited a feud between the two; Henry attacked Big Show both backstage and during matches while on the July 1 episode of SmackDown, Big Show's music played during Henry's match against Randy Orton, causing Henry to be counted out and costing him a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. Henry reacted by destroying the audio equipment and attacking a technician. Henry faced Big Show in a singles match at Money in the Bank and won. After the match, Henry crushed Big Show's leg with a chair, (kayfabe) injuring him, an act Henry later referenced as an induction into the "Hall of Pain". Henry did the same to Kane on the next episode of SmackDown, and in the months ahead, Vladimir Kozlov and The Great Khali suffered the same fate.
On the July 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry was informed that he could no longer compete as no one dared to fight him, but Sheamus interrupted, saying that he wasn't afraid of Henry before slapping him. At SummerSlam, Henry defeated Sheamus by count-out after slamming him through a ring barricade. On the August 19 episode of SmackDown, Henry won a 20-man Battle Royal to become the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship to face Randy Orton at Night of Champions, and throughout weeks on SmackDown and Raw, Henry regularly attacked Orton, getting an advantage over him. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Orton to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. Henry successfully defended the title against Orton at Hell in a Cell in a Hell in a Cell match.
On the October 7 episode of SmackDown, Big Show returned and chokeslammed Henry through the announce table, thus earning a title shot against Henry at Vengeance. During the match, Henry superplexed Big Show from the top rope, causing the ring to collapse from the impact and the match to be ruled a no contest. Henry began a feud with the Money in the Bank briefcase holder Daniel Bryan on the November 4 episode of SmackDown, challenging Bryan to a non-title match to prove that Bryan could not become champion. During the match, Big Show knocked out Henry, making him win by disqualification. Big Show then urged Bryan to cash in his contract, but Henry recovered and attacked both Bryan and Big Show before the match could start. At Survivor Series, Henry retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Big Show after a low blow that disqualified Henry. Angered by Henry's cowardice, Big Show crushed Henry's ankle with a steel chair. On the November 25 episode of SmackDown, Henry was knocked out again by Big Show, at which point Bryan cashed in his briefcase for a title match and quickly pinned Henry. However, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long revealed that Henry was not medically cleared to compete and voided the match, so Henry remained champion and the briefcase was returned to Bryan. Later that night, Bryan won a fatal-four-way match to face Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage. On the November 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry defeated Bryan in a steel cage match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
henAt TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Henry lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Big Show in a chairs match. After the match, Henry knocked Big Show out, resulting in Daniel Bryan cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. On the January 20 episode of SmackDown, Bryan retained the championship against Henry in a lumberjack match after Bryan provoked the lumberjacks to come in and attack them to cause a no contest. At the 2012 Royal Rumble event, Henry faced Bryan and Big Show in a triple threat steel cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship; Bryan escaped the cage to retain the title. On the February 3 episode of SmackDown, Henry was suspended indefinitely (in storyline) by SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long, after Henry physically accosted Long as he demanded a one-on-one rematch that night with Bryan. In reality, Henry had suffered a hyper-extended knee the previous week. Henry returned to in-ring action on the February 20 episode of Raw, losing to Sheamus. On the April 2 and 9 episodes of Raw, Henry faced CM Punk for the WWE Championship which he won by count-out and disqualification; as a result, Punk retained his title. On the April 16 episode of Raw, Punk defeated Henry in a no-disqualification, no count-out match to retain the WWE Championship. On May 14, Henry announced he was going under a career-threatening surgery for an injury.
Final feuds (2013–2017)
After a nine-month absence, Henry made his return on the February 4, 2013 episode of Raw, brutally attacking Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry defeated Randy Orton to earn a spot in the number one contenders' Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber. At the pay-per-view on February 17, Henry eliminated Daniel Bryan and Kane before being eliminated by Randy Orton. After his elimination, Henry attacked the three remaining participants before being escorted out by WWE officials. Henry then began a feud with Ryback after several non-verbal confrontations. On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, Henry was defeated by Ryback via disqualification, following interference from The Shield. Afterward, Henry delivered the World's Strongest Slam to Ryback three times in a row. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, Henry defeated Ryback in a singles match. Later that month, Henry reignited a feud with Sheamus by repeatedly attacking Sheamus backstage. Henry and Sheamus then challenged each other in tests of strength, but with Sheamus unable to best Henry, he resorted to attacking Henry with Brogue Kicks. After Sheamus (during his match) Brogue Kicked Henry (who was on commentary), Henry snapped and brutally whipped Sheamus with a belt. This led to a strap match on May 19 at Extreme Rules, where Sheamus emerged victorious. With the loss to Sheamus, Henry declared that he was "going home".
After being absent from television due to injuries, Henry used social media to tease his retirement. On the June 17 episode of Raw, Henry returned, interrupting WWE Champion John Cena and delivering an emotional retirement speech, which was revealed as a ruse when Henry gave Cena a World's Strongest Slam after concluding his speech. The segment was highly praised by fans and critics. With Henry stating his intent to challenge for the "only title he's never held", he was granted a WWE Championship match against Cena at Money in the Bank. On July 14 at the pay-per-view, Henry failed in his title challenge against Cena after submitting to the STF. The following night on Raw, Henry cut a promo to congratulate Cena on his win and asked for a rematch for SummerSlam, but was ultimately attacked by The Shield, turning face in the process for the first time since 2011. Henry continued his face turn the following week, by confronting The Shield and teaming together with The Usos to fend them off. Henry and the Usos went on to lose to The Shield in two six-man tag team matches, the first on the July 29 episode of Raw, and the second on the August 7 episode of Main Event. On the August 12 episode of Raw, Henry competed in a Battle Royal to determine the number one contender for the United States Championship, but was the last man eliminated by Rob Van Dam. After the match, Henry and Van Dam were confronted by The Shield, before the returning Big Show came to their aid. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry, Show, and Van Dam defeated The Shield in a six-man tag team match. After a suspected hamstring injury on August 31 at the TD Garden in Boston Massachusetts, Henry was cleared to compete. Henry, however, took time off and during his time off, he dropped down to and shaved his head bald.
Henry returned to in-ring action on November 24 at Survivor Series, answering Ryback's open challenge and defeating him. On the January 6, 2014 episode of Raw, Henry tried to confront Brock Lesnar during separate encounters after Lesnar's return, resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 the first time and then Lesnar injured Henry's arm after getting it in a kimura lock hold, causing Henry to wail in pain and be absent. He returned on February 10 episode of Raw, and answered Dean Ambrose's open challenge for the United States Championship, but was unable to win the title due to interference by the rest of The Shield. In March, Henry suffered another attack from Lesnar, this time resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 through the announcing table.
On the August 4 episode of Raw, Henry defeated Damien Sandow after a few months absence. That same week on SmackDown, Henry formed a tag team with Big Show to defeat RybAxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel). On the August 18 episode of Raw, Henry entered a feud with Rusev by attacking him. This set up a match between Henry and Rusev at Night of Champions, which he lost by submission. The following night on Raw, he lost to Rusev again by knockout via submission. On the October 27 episode of Raw, Henry attacked Big Show during their tag team match against Gold and Stardust, and turning heel in the process. On the November 3 episode of Raw, Henry lost to Big Show via disqualification and slammed Big Show onto the steel steps. On the November 10 Raw, he joined The Authority's team to face John Cena's team at Survivor Series. On November 23 at Survivor Series, Henry was the first to be eliminated from Team Authority 50 seconds into the match after being knocked out by Big Show. Henry then took another hiatus due to an unspecified injury.
Henry returned on the March 12, 2015 episode of SmackDown, confronting Roman Reigns for having a lack of identity and for not being respected, resulting in Reigns attacking Henry. The attack caused Henry to become a believer in Reigns, and turning face in the process. Henry was unsuccessful in the Elimination Chamber match for the vacant Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber, replacing Rusev who was injured, but was eliminated by Sheamus At Royal Rumble pre-show on January 24, 2016, Henry teamed with Jack Swagger to win a Fatal 4-Way tag team match to earn their spots in the Royal Rumble match. Despite this victory, Henry entered the Rumble match at #22 and lasted only 47 seconds when he was quickly eliminated by The Wyatt Family. At WrestleMania 32, Henry entered his third André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where he made it to the final six competitors until being eliminated by Kane and Darren Young.
On July 19, at the 2016 WWE draft, Henry was drafted to Raw. On the August 1 episode of Raw, Henry claimed he still "had a lot left in him" when he spoke of reviving the Hall of Pain and his participation in the Olympics. Raw General Manager Mick Foley gave Henry a United States Championship match, but Henry would lose by submission to Rusev. In October, Henry allied himself with R-Truth and Goldust in a feud against Titus O'Neil and The Shining Stars (Primo and Epico), in which Henry's team came out victorious. Henry returned at the Royal Rumble on January 29, 2017 as entrant number 6, only to be eliminated by Braun Strowman. He unsuccessfully competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33.
Retirement and WWE Hall of Famer (2017–2021)
Following WrestleMania 33, Henry retired and transitioned into a backstage producers role. He later made his return in a backstage cameo at the Raw 25 Years event in January 2018. On March 19, 2018, it was announced that Henry would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Big Show, who was one of his closest friends in WWE. On April 27, at the Greatest Royal Rumble, Henry participated in the event's Royal Rumble match, scoring 3 eliminations, but was himself eliminated by Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler. In early 2019, Henry took on a backstage mentoring role helping talent work on their off-air attitude, including cleanliness and respect in the locker room.
Henry appeared on the January 4, 2021 episode of Raw, on its Raw Legends Night special, where in he appeared riding on a scooter due to an injured leg. He was verbally confronted by Randy Orton in what was his final appearance in WWE.
All Elite Wrestling (2021–present)
Henry made his debut for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on May 30, 2021 at Double or Nothing where it was announced that he will be a part of the commentary team for its new show AEW Rampage, as well as a coach.
Personal life
Henry has an older brother named Pat. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Jana, son Jacob, and daughter Joanna. He also has a two-foot ferret named Pipe. He drives a Hummer that he won in the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic. On September 10, 2012, Henry served as one of the pallbearers for actor Michael Clarke Duncan's funeral.
In March 2019, Henry pledged to donate his brain to CTE research once he dies.
Filmography
Film
Video games
Henry appears in the following licensed wrestling video games:
Championships, records, and accomplishments
Powerlifting
Championships Participation – High School Level
Two times 1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting TEAM Championships (in Division I under Silsbee High School)
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1988 in SHW division
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1989 in SHW division
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division
1st place in National High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 18
results: Powerlifting Total – (+
Championships Participation – Junior&Senior Level
1st place in International Junior (20–23) Powerlifting Championships 1991 in SHW division at age 20
2nd place in Men's USPF Senior National Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 19
results: Powerlifting Total – (
1st place in ADFPA (USAPL) National Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
1st place in WDFPF World Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
1st place in USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997 in SHW division at age 26
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
Records*
Teen III (18–19 years) Level
Teen-age World Records in the squat at and total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
Teen-age US American Records in the squat at , bench press , dead lift and total at set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in all four powerlifting categories – the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at as well as the total at at age 19.
Current Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in the squat at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991
Collegiate Level
Current Texas State Collegiate Record holder in the squat at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
Junior Level (20–23 years)
Current Texas State Junior Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
Senior Level (24+ years)
Current Texas State Record holder in the squat at , the deadlift at and the total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) from July 16, 1995 to October 29, 1995
Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from October 29, 1995 to June 7, 2010** (+regardless of weight class until November 4, 2007***)
Former All-time raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from July 16, 1995 to May 23, 2010**** (+regardless of weight class until July 4, 2009*****)
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at in SHW class only since July 16, 1995
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total World Record holder at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
Current All-time American Record holder in the raw deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since July 16, 1995
Current American Record holder in the deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Current All-time US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Federation Records
World Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation (WDFPF) World Records
Current WDFPF World Record holder in the squat at , the deadlift at and the total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since October 29, 1995 (categorized as "open equipped", despite performed in singlet&knee sleeves only/without suit)
U.S.A. Powerlifting (USAPL) US American Records
Current USAPL US American Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Current US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Special Powerlifting Honors
"The World's Strongest Teen-ager" by the Los Angeles Times in April 1990.
Mark Henry was voted in the All-time Top 25 All-Mens US Powerlifting Nationals Team in 2007.
Mark Henry is the only human in history who has not only squatted more than without a squat suit, but also deadlifted more than raw.
Mark Henry is the only human in history to have squatted more than without a squat suit and deadlifted more than raw in one and the same powerlifting meet.
Mark Henry's raw squat and deadlift, done on July 16, 1995 is the highest raw "squat-pull-2-lift-total" (squat+deadlift=) ever lifted in a competition. (Andrei Malanichev's squat and deadlift = on October 22, 2011 being the 2nd highest ever; Mark Henry's squat and deadlift = being the 3rd highest, Benedikt Magnusson's squat and deadlift = being the 4th highest; Malanichev's squat and deadlift = being the 5th; Don Reinhoudt's squat and deadlift = being th 6th)
Mark Henry does not only hold the greatest all-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total in history at , but also the second greatest in history at .
* incomplete
** surpassed by Robert Wilkerson (SHW class) of the United States with a raw squat with knee wraps on June 7, 2010 at the Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) Nationals (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class*** surpassed by Sergiy Karnaukhov (308-pound-class) of Ukraine] with a raw squat with knee wraps on November 4, 2007 as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world record**** surpassed by Andy Bolton (SHW class) of the United Kingdom with a raw deadlift on May 23, 2010 (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class (+regardless of weight class)***** surpassed by Konstantin Konstantinovs (308-pound-class) of Latvia] with a raw deadlift without a belt on July 4, 2009 (drug-tested competition) as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world recordWeightlifting
Olympic Games
Olympic Games team member representing USA at the Olympics 1992 in Barcelona, Spain, finishing 10th place in SHW division at age 21
Team Captain of the Olympic Weightlifting team representing USA at the Olympics 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, finishing 14th in SHW division due to back injury at age 25
Pan American Games
Silver Medalist in the Olympic weightlifting Total in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: total – 804 pounds
Gold Medalist in the Snatch in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: snatch – 391 1/4 pounds, setting an American record
Bronze Medalist in Clean and jerk in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: clean and jerk – snatch 412 3/4 pounds
North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Championships
1st place in North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division
U.S. National Weightlifting Championships
1st place in U.S. National Junior Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
results: total: 326.0 kg – snatch: 156.0 kg / clean&jerk: 170.0 kg
4th place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
results: total: 325.0 kg – snatch: 150.0 kg / clean&jerk: 175.0 kg
3rd place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
results: total: 365.0 kg – snatch: 165.0 kg / clean&jerk: 200.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 21
results: total: 385.0 kg – snatch: 175.0 kg / clean&jerk: 210.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
results: total: 387.5 kg – snatch: 172.5 kg / clean&jerk: 215.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 24
results: total: 400.0 kg – snatch: 180.0 kg / clean&jerk: 220.0 kg
Mark Henry was voted as the #1 outstanding lifter of the championships
U.S. Olympic Festival Championships
1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 23
USA Weightlifting American Open Championships
2nd place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
1st place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 21
RECORDS
Junior US American record holder (+110 kg) in the Snatch at 162.5 kg, Clean and jerk at 202.5 kg, and Total at 362.5 kg (1986–1992)
Senior US American record holder (+108 kg) in the Snatch at 180.0 kg, Clean and jerk at 220.0 kg, and Total at 400.0 kg (1993–1997)
Strength athletics
Arnold Classic
Arnold Strongman Classic – Winner 2002
First man in history to one-hand clean and push press the "unliftable" Thomas Inch dumbbell (; diameter handle)
The Second Strongest Man That Ever Lived according to Flex Magazine
International Sports Hall of Fame
International Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2012)
Professional wrestling
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2019)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Frank Gotch Award (2021)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated''
Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2011)
Ranked No. 9 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2012
Ranked No. 472 of the top 500 greatest wrestlers in the "PWI Years" in 2003
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
ECW Championship (1 time)
World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF European Championship (1 time)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2018)
Slammy Award (3 times)
"Holy $#!+ Move of the Year" (2011)
Feat of Strength of the Year (2013)
Match of the Year (2014) –
See also
List of strongmen
List of powerlifters
References
External links
Mark Henry – The Strongest Man That Ever Lived (article by Ben Tatar)
Mark Henry's impressive achievements over the ropes by Katie Raymonds on WWE.com
International Sports Hall of Fame: Mark Henry featured in pictures and Acceptance Speech video clips
Powerliftingwatch of all-time powerlifting records, including Mark Henry's
Video: Mark Henry at the Arnold Strongman Classic 2002 (introduction+Apollon's Wheel+Inch dumbbell)
Video: Mark Henry lifting the "unliftable" Thomas Inch Dumbbell as the first man in history
Video: Mark Henry wins the 1995 USAPL (ADFPA) National Powerlifting Championships and deadlifts 903 lb
1971 births
All Elite Wrestling personnel
American male professional wrestlers
American male weightlifters
American powerlifters
American strength athletes
African-American male professional wrestlers
ECW champions
ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions
Living people
Olympic weightlifters of the United States
Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States
Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States
Pan American Games medalists in weightlifting
Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States
People with dyslexia
People from Silsbee, Texas
Professional wrestlers from Texas
The Nation of Domination members
Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Weightlifters at the 1995 Pan American Games
Weightlifters at the 1996 Summer Olympics
World Heavyweight Champions (WWE)
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF European Champions
Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American sportspeople | false | [
"Food and sexuality have been associated in various ways throughout history. Foods such as chocolate and oysters are said to be aphrodisiacs. In some cultures animal testicles and other items are consumed to increase sexual potency. Food items also provide symbolism, such as the biblical \"forbidden fruit\" or the cherry with its associations related to virginity. Food items are also used metaphorically in slang sexual terminology and poetry. Some foods are considered sensual for their appearance, texture and taste. Whipped cream, melted chocolate, jam, cake batter, pies, and peanut butter are sometimes used for intimate titillation in an act known as sploshing. The relationship between food and sex has also been explored in books and cinema.\n\nArt and literature\n\nThe connection between food and sexuality has been explored in various art works. A 1998 art show, Reflect, an exhibition of works by Monali Meher explored connections and themes including voyeurism, stereotypes, consumerism, freedom and advertising. A display of food and sex related artworks from 19th- and 20th-century American artists was one of 16 concept groupings at a New York Historical Society show in 1991.\n\nIn sociology and anthropology\nTasting food, tasting freedom by Sidney Wilfred Mintz includes essays taking \"an anthropological view of food, including its relationship to power, freedom, and purity.\" Food and Sex is also a chapter in Breaking the food seduction by Neal D. Barnard, Joanne Stepaniak. and a topic discussed in Women's conflicts about eating and sexuality by Rosalyn M. Meadow and Lillie Weiss.\n\nChocolate aphrodisiac controversy\nAlthough some foods do qualify as aphrodisiacs, and chocolate has been thought to be an aphrodisiac for many years, there is some controversy surrounding whether it truly is an aphrodisiac. A study conducted by Salonia et al. (2006) evaluated the sexual function of women who reported that they ate chocolate daily, and women who reported they did not eat chocolate. The study concluded that once scores were adjusted for age, there were no significant differences in the sexual arousal, satisfaction, desire or distress of those who ate chocolate daily and those who did not. This illustrates that the consumption of chocolate has no effect on sexual function. Likewise, Shamloul (2010) concluded that there is little scientific evidence suggesting that natural aphrodisiacs are an effective method of enhancing sexual desire or performance, nor are they an effective treatment of sexual dysfunction. \nOn the contrary, some studies suggest that chocolate is an aphrodisiac and claim that its chemical components such as phenylethylamine, causes an increase in pleasure and sexual drive and N-acylethanolamines, causes an increase in sensitivity and euphoria (Afoakwa, E. 2008). Other studies suggest it is the flavinoids and serotonin found in chocolate that regulate vasoconstriction and dilation and increase female genital functioning, and thus sexual functioning (Shamloul, 2010).\nDue to these conflicting views, and the lack of scientific evidence currently available, it is clear that firm conclusions cannot be drawn on whether chocolate is an aphrodisiac.\n\nExamples in media \n\nThe movies Tampopo, 9½ Weeks, Chocolat, Like Water for Chocolate, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Babette's Feast are among those exploring the relationship. The film Tom Jones contains a notable eating scene.\n\nSongs that feature metaphors of food for sex include \"Les sucettes\" (1966), \"Le Banana Split\" (1979), \"Peaches & Cream\" (2001) and \"Lollipop\" (2008). The cover of the Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass 1965 album Whipped Cream and Other Delights famously features a woman covered in whipped cream.\n\nIn the movie American Pie a young adult engages in simulated intercourse with a pie. Carl's Junior advertisements have featured a scantily clad Paris Hilton rapturously eating one of the company's burger offerings.\n\nSymbolism\n\nSome foods are symbolic or act as metaphors for body parts involved in sexual relations. Common examples include eggplant, bananas, zucchini and cucumbers as phallic symbols, and peaches as vaginal symbols. Melons have a similar use and are sometimes used as stand-ins for breasts, as in the Austin Powers movie where they are used to cover up an Elizabeth Hurley chest.\n\nSee also\n Bread dildo\n Nyotaimori\n Erotica\n Food porn\n Vorarephilia\n\nReferences\n\nErotica\nHuman sexuality\nFood and drink culture",
"Kamasutra is a Romanian chocolate shaped like kamasutra positions. The Kamasutra chocolate was invented in 2007 by Florin Balan and distributed by the chocolate factory SC Pralin SRL at Cisnădie in Sibiu County. It is most often consumed in Romania during Saint Valentine day. Chocolate Kamasutra was inspired by Khajurajo temple and is available in four sizes 40g, 70g, 200g and 350g.\nKamasutra chocolates are being marketed as a mood enhancing gift for a partner. It is suggested by creators to be used as a romantic way of suggesting new sexual experiences which can lead to healthier relationship.\n\nA French chocolatier named Jacques Bockel also produces chocolates called kamasutra, starting in France in 2011 and available till this day.\n\nReferences \n\nRomanian sweets"
]
|
[
"Mark Henry",
"Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998-2000)",
"What is sexual chocolate?",
"Henry gave himself the nickname Sexual Chocolate,"
]
| C_a8710470bf874ec9a8952c68996f9cd5_1 | How did he come up with that nickname? | 2 | How did Mark Henry come up with the nickname Sexual Chocolate? | Mark Henry | Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager. During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname Sexual Chocolate, and was involved in controversial angles with Chyna and a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. After this, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF women from Chyna to Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand. Henry was part of various other embarrassing and infamous storylines, including one about him overcoming sex addiction. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Mark Jerrold Henry (born June 12, 1971) is an American powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter, strongman, and retired professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator/analyst, coach, and talent scout. He is best known for his 25-year career in WWE where he was a two-time world champion. He is a two-time Olympian (1992 and 1996) and a gold, silver, and bronze medalist at the Pan American Games in 1995. As a powerlifter, he was WDFPF World Champion (1995) and a two-time U.S. National Champion (1995 and 1997) as well as an all-time raw world record holder in the squat and deadlift. Currently, he still holds the WDFPF world records in the squat, deadlift and total and the USAPL American record in the deadlift since 1995. He is credited for the biggest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a drug tested athlete, regardless of weight class, as well as the greatest raw deadlift by an American citizen.
In weightlifting, Henry was a three-time U.S. National Weightlifting Champion (1993, 1994, 1996), an American Open winner (1992), a two-time U.S. Olympic Festival Champion (1993 and 1994) and a NACAC champion (1996). He holds all three Senior US American weightlifting records of 1993–1997. In 2002 he won the first annual Arnold Strongman Classic.
Since joining the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1996, he became a one-time WWF European Champion and a two-time world champion, having held the ECW Championship in 2008, and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship in 2011. In first winning the ECW Championship, Henry became only the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history (after The Rock, Booker T, and Bobby Lashley).
In April 2018, Henry was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018.
Early life
Henry was born in the small town of Silsbee in East Texas, 90 miles northeast of Houston. As a child, he was a big wrestling fan and André the Giant was his favorite wrestler. While attending a wrestling show in Beaumont, Texas, young Henry tried to touch André as he was walking down the aisle, but tripped over the barricade. André picked him up out of the crowd and put him back behind the barricade. When Henry was 12 years old, his father, Ernest, died of complications from diabetes. When he was 14 years old, Henry was diagnosed with dyslexia.
Henry comes from a family in which almost all of the men are larger than average, especially his great uncle Chudd, who was 6 ft 7 in, weighed approximately , never had a pair of manufactured shoes, and was known as the strongest man in the Piney Woods of East Texas.
Henry played football in high school until his senior year, when he strained ligaments in his wrist during the first game of the year and scored below 700 on the SAT.
Powerlifting career
By the time Mark Henry was in the fourth grade, he was and weighed . His mother bought a set of weights for him when he was ten years old. During Henry's freshman year at Silsbee High School, he was already able to squat , which was well over school record. As an 18-year-old high school senior, Henry was called "the world's strongest teenager" by the Los Angeles Times, and made it into the headlines in early 1990 for winning the National High School Powerlifting Championships and setting teenage lifting world records in the squat and total . By the time Henry finished high school, he was a three-time Texas state champion with state and national records in all four powerlifting categories—the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at as well as the total at .
At the Texas High School Powerlifting Championships in April 1990, Terry Todd, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin and former weightlifter, spotted Henry and persuaded him to go to Austin after he graduated to train in the Olympic style of weightlifting. In July 1990 at the USPF Senior National Powerlifting Championships, 19-year-old Henry came second only to the legendary six-time World Powerlifting Champion Kirk Karwoski. While powerlifting relies primarily on brute strength and power, which Henry obviously possessed, Olympic weightlifting is considered more sophisticated, involving more agility, timing, flexibility and technique. There have been few lifters in history who have been able to be successful in both lifting disciplines. Mastering the technique of weightlifting usually takes many years of practice, but Henry broke four national junior records in weightlifting after only eight months of training. In April 1991, he won the United States National Junior Championships; 20 days later he placed fourth at the U.S. Senior National Championships, and finished sixth at the Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Germany two months later. Only few weeks afterwards, he became 1991's International Junior Champion in Powerlifiting as well. In Henry's first year in competitive weightlifting, he broke all three junior (20 and under) American records 12 times, and became the United States' top Superheavyweight, surpassing Mario Martinez.
At the age of 19, Henry had already managed to qualify for the weightlifting competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he finished tenth in the Super- Heavyweight class. Ten months before the 1992 Olympics, Henry had begun training with Dragomir Cioroslan, a bronze medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics, who said that he had "never seen anyone with Mark's raw talent". After the Olympics, Henry became more determined to focus on weightlifting and began competing all over the world. In late 1992 he took the win at the USA Weightlifting American Open and further proved his dominance on the American soil by winning not only the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships, but also the U.S. Olympic Festival Championships in 1993 and 1994. At the 1995 Pan American Games Henry won a gold, silver and bronze medal.
Having reached the pinnacle of weightlifting on a National and continental level, he competed again in powerlifting and shocked the world by winning the ADFPA U.S. National Powerlifting Championships in 1995 with a raw Powerlifting Total. Despite competing without supportive equipment in contrast to the other competitors, Henry managed to outclass the lifter in second place by , defeating not only five-time IPF World Powerlifting Champion and 12 time USAPL National Powerlifting Champion Brad Gillingham, but also America's Strongest Man of 1997 Mark Philippi. In the process he set all-time world records in the raw deadlift at and the squat without a squat suit at as well as the all-time drug tested raw total at . Later that same year in October, he competed in the drug-free Powerlifting World Championships and won again, even though he trained on the powerlifts only sparingly—due his main focus still being on the two Olympic lifts. He not only become World Champion by winning the competition but also bettered his previous all-time squat world record to and his all-time drug tested world record total to .
In 1996 Henry became the North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Champion. He earned the right to compete at the Olympics by winning the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships in the Spring of 1996 for a third time. During his victory Henry became Senior US American record holder (1993–1997) in the Snatch at , Clean and jerk at , and Total at , improving all of his three previous personal bests. This total, in the opinion of many experts in track field of international lifting—including Dragomir Cioroslan, the '96s coach of the U.S. team—was the highest ever made by an athlete who had never used anabolic steroids—who was lifetime drugfree. By that time, at the age of 24, Henry was generally acknowledged as the strongest man in the world, even by many of the Eastern Bloc athletes who outrank him in weightlifting. No one in the history of the sports had ever lifted as much as him in the five competitive lifts—the snatch and the clean and jerk in weightlifting—the squat, bench press and deadlift in powerlifting. To this day, his five lift total is still the greatest in history by a fair amount—making him arguably one of the strongest men that ever lived and stamp him, according to lifting statistician Herb Glossbrenner, as history's greatest lifter.
In the months prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Henry received more attention and publicity than any lifter in recent United States history. He guested at Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and The Oprah Winfrey Show and was featured on HBO Inside Sports and The Today Show. He was also featured in dozens of magazines including U.S. News & World Report, People Vanity Fair, ESPN The Magazine and Life where he was photographed nude by famed artist Annie Lebowitz. During this period he connected with WWE owner Vince McMahon for the first time, which led to him signing a 10-year deal as professional wrestler.
Henry improved his lifts to in the snatch and in the clean-and-jerk during his final eight weeks of preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Henry at 6-foot-4-inches tall and bodyweight, became the largest athlete in Olympic history and was voted captain of the Olympic weightlifting team. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury during the competition and was unable to approach his normal performance level. Due to the injury he had to drop out after his first clean and jerk attempt and finished with a disappointing 14th place. His appearance at the Olympics proved to be his last official competition in Olympic weightlifting, as he retired from weightlifting, vowing never to return unless the sport is "cleaned up" of anabolic steroid use.
Since his career start as a professional wrestler shortly after the Olympics, he broke his leg in the fall of 1996. But by the summer of the following year he had rehabilitated it enough to be able to compete at the USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997, where he won the competition to become the U.S National Powerlifting Champion in the Super Heavyweight class again. He had planned to continue heavy training in powerlifting, although his travel schedule as a professional wrestler with the WWF (now WWE) has made sustained training difficult. Mark's WWF contract was unique in many ways, allowing him at least three months off each year from wrestling, so he can train for the national and world championships in weightlifting or powerlifting. Barring injury, Mark had originally hoped to return to the platform in late 1998, to lift for many more years, and to eventually squat at least without a “squat suit” and to deadlift .
Although in early 1998 he was still able to do five repetitions in the bench press with , three repetitions in the squat with (with no suit and no knee wraps), and three repetitions in the standing press with in training, while traveling with the World Wrestling Federation, he never returned to compete again in official championships in favor of his wrestling career. He weighed at that time, and his right upper arm was measured at 24” by Terry Todd. By basically ending his lifting career at the age of 26, it is probable that he never reached his full physical potential as a professional lifter. Henry remains the youngest man in history to squat more than 900 pounds without a squat suit as well as the youngest to total more than 2,300 pounds raw – he's the only person ever to have accomplished any of these feats at under 25 years of age.
Personal powerlifting records
Powerlifting Competition Records
done in official Powerlifting full meets
Squat – raw with knee wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ former all-time unequipped squat world record for over a decade in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2007)
→ current WDFPF world record squat in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record squat without a suit in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ currently heaviest walked-out raw squat of all time (without a monolift) regardless of weight class or federation since 1995
Deadlift – raw (done on July 16, 1995 ADFPA (USAPL))
→ former all-time raw world record deadlift in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2009)
→ current all-time highest raw deadlift ever pulled by an American in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ current Open Men American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current all-time US national championship record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current USAPL American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested raw world record deadlift (in SHW class only) since 1995
Powerlifting Total – ( / () raw with wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ current WDFPF world record in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record unequipped powerlifting total in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best official lifts) – ()
Powerlifting Gym Records (unofficial)
Squat –
Bench press –
Deadlift –
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best unofficial lifts) – ()
Front Squat –
Behind-the-neck-press – over
Weightlifting Competition Records
done in official competition
Snatch: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American snatch record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Clean and jerk: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American clean&jerk record 1993–1997 in SHW class
Weightlifting Total: – snatch: / clean&jerk: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American weightlifting total record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Weightlifting Gym Records (unofficial)
all three done in training after the 1996's U.S. Nationals, but prior to the Olympics '96
Snatch:
Clean&jerk:
Weightlifting Total:
Combined lifting records
official weightlifting total + official powerlifting total = Combined Supertotal:
+ = raw with wraps
→ current all-time highest combined weightlifting/powerlifting total in history (since 1996*)
5 official weightlifting & powerlifting lifts combined – the snatch + the clean-and-jerk and the squat + bench press + deadlift = Five-Lift-Combined-Total:
+ + + + =
→ current all-time highest 5 lift total in history (since 1996*)
* both combined all-time records had previously been held by legendary powerlifter Jon Cole
Holding these all-time records in the lifting sports makes Mark Henry arguably one of the strongest men in history. Having achieved this at the very young age of 24 while being lifetime drug-free makes it even more impressive. Many experts in the field, including Bill Kazmaier, Jan and Terry Todd, Dr. Robert M. Goldman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Muscle & Fitness magazine and Flex magazine, consider him to be "one of the Strongest Men that ever lived" or even "the most naturally gifted strongman in history".
When asked in September 2003, who the strongest man in the world is today [2003], Bill Kazmaier, considered by many to be the greatest strongman of all time, stated: "It would have to be Mark Henry. [...] I think he's one of the strongest men in the history of the world, without a doubt."
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
Early career (1996–1997)
At the age of 24, Henry made his first appearance on World Wrestling Federation (WWF) programming on the March 11, 1996 episode of Monday Night Raw, where he press slammed Jerry Lawler, who was ridiculing Henry while interviewing him in the ring. After Henry competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics, the WWF signed him to a ten-year contract. Trained by professional wrestler Leo Burke, his first feud in the WWF was with Lawler. At the pay-per-view event, SummerSlam in August 1996, Henry came to the aid of Jake Roberts who was suffering indignity at the hands of Lawler. His debut wrestling match was at In Your House: Mind Games on September 22, 1996, where he defeated Lawler. The feud continued on the live circuit during subsequent weeks. On the November 4 episode of Raw, Henry served as a cornerman for Barry Windham in a match against Goldust. He was set to team with Windham, Marc Mero and Rocky Maivia to take on the team of Lawler, Goldust, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Crush at Survivor Series, but was replaced by Jake Roberts when he was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury. On the November 17 episode of Superstars, Henry defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Crush and Goldust in a tug of war contest. Henry's career was then stalled as, over the next year, he took time off to heal injuries and engage in further training. In November 1997, he returned to the ring, making his televised return the following month. By the end of the year, he was a regular fixture on WWF programming, defeating Steve Lombardi on the December 15 episode of Raw, and beating The Sultan on the December 27 episode of Shotgun.
Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998–2000)
Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After short feuds against Ken Shamrock and Vader, Henry participated in his faction's enmity against D-Generation X, which included a romantic storyline with DX member Chyna. When The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager.
During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname "Sexual Chocolate", adopting a ladies' man character. He first resumed his storyline with former enemy Chyna, but it ended with her betraying him in a controversial angle including a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view.
The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. He was part of a storyline about him overcoming sex addiction, which he accomplished thanks to The Godfather.
After this twist, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF veteran wrestler Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand.
Ohio Valley Wrestling and strongman competitions (2000–2002)
In 2000, Henry was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to improve his conditioning and wrestling skills. In OVW, he teamed with Nick Dinsmore to compete in a tournament for the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship in mid-2001. Later that year, Henry's mother died, causing him to go on hiatus from wrestling. He felt he had to compete in the "Super Bowl of weight lifting"—the Arnold Strongman Classic—in honor of his mother, who gave him his first weight set when he was a child.
Four months prior to the contest, Henry began lifting the heaviest of weights and trained for the first time since 1997 for a major lifting competition. He had never been a professional strongman before, but in the coming contest he was to face the very best of the best of professional strongmen, such as the #1 ranked strongman in the world, and defending World's Strongest Man competition winner of 2001 Svend Karlsen, World's Strongest Man winner of 2006 Phil Pfister, World Powerlifting Champion of 2001 and equipped deadlift world record holder Andy Bolton, World Muscle Power Champion, Olympic weightlifting Champion Raimonds Bergmanis, and reigning America's Strongest Man of 2001 Brian Schoonveld.
On February 22, 2002 in Columbus, Ohio the competition, consisting of four events, designed to determine the lifter with the greatest overall body power, began. Henry surprised everybody when he won the first event, setting a world record in the process by lifting the Apollon's Axle three times overhead. Only three men in history had ever been able to press it at all. By deadlifting for two repetitions in the second event and easily pushing a or more Hummer with nearly flat tires in the third event, Henry kept his lead continuously throughout the competition and never gave it up again. In the final "Farmer's Walk"-event Henry quickly carried the roughly of railroad ties up an incline, winning the whole competition convincingly to capture the winning prize — a US$75,000 Hummer, a vacation cruise and $10,000 cash.
Since Henry had only trained for four months and defeated the crème-de-là-crème of worldwide strongmen, who had been practicing for years, his win was a shock for strongman experts worldwide, but remained basically unnoticed by the wrestling audience. Henry proved to be worthy of the title "World's Strongest Man" not only by winning the contest, but also by achieving it in record time. By doing so he was again seen as the legit "strongest man in the world" by many lifting experts for a second time since 1996.
Various feuds (2002–2007)
Henry returned to the WWE the next month and was sent to the SmackDown! brand, where he developed an in-ring persona of performing "tests of strength" while other wrestlers took bets on the tests, but the gimmick met with little success. During this time he competed against such superstars as Chris Jericho and Christian. After being used sporadically on WWE (formerly WWF) television during 2002, as he was training for a weightlifting contest, and suffering a knee injury, Henry was sent back to OVW for more training.
In August 2003, Henry returned to WWE television on the Raw roster as a heel where he found some success as a member of "Thuggin' And Buggin' Enterprises", a group of African Americans led by Theodore Long who worked a race angle in which they felt they were victims of racism and were being held down by the "white man". During that time, Henry was involved in a brief program with World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg when former champion, Triple H, put a bounty on Goldberg. This was followed by a brief rivalry with Shawn Michaels, before he engaged in a rivalry with Booker T. After defeating Booker T twice, once in a street fight and once in a six-man tag team match, he lost to Booker T at the Armageddon pay-per-view in December 2003. At a practice session in OVW in February 2004, Henry tore his quadriceps muscle, and was out for over a year after undergoing surgery. Henry was then utilized by WWE as a public relations figure during his recovery, before returning to OVW to finish out 2005.
During the December 30 episode of SmackDown!, Henry made his return to television, as he interfered in a WWE Tag Team Championship match, joining with MNM (Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, and Melina), to help them defeat Rey Mysterio and Batista for the championship. A week later on SmackDown!, Henry got in a confrontation with the World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, and went on to interfere in a steel cage match between MNM and the team of Mysterio and Batista, helping MNM to retain their titles. Henry then had another match with Batista at a live event where Batista received a severely torn triceps that required surgery, forcing him to vacate his title. On the January 10, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, Henry was involved in a Battle Royal for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. He was finally eliminated by Kurt Angle, who won the title.
A week later, Henry received assistance from Daivari, who turned on Angle and announced that he was the manager of Henry. With Daivari at his side, Henry faced Angle for the World Heavyweight Championship at the 2006 Royal Rumble in January, losing when Angle hit him with a chair (without the referee seeing) and pinned him with a roll-up.
On the March 3 episode of SmackDown!, Henry interfered in a World Heavyweight Championship match between Angle and The Undertaker, attacking the latter when he was seconds from possibly winning the title. Henry then performed a diving splash on Undertaker, driving him through the announcer's table. Henry was then challenged to a casket match by Undertaker at WrestleMania 22. Henry vowed to defeat The Undertaker and end his undefeated streak at WrestleMania, but The Undertaker defeated him. Henry had a rematch against The Undertaker on the April 7 episode of SmackDown!. It ended in a no-contest when Daivari introduced his debuting client, The Great Khali. Khali went to the ring and attacked The Undertaker, starting a new feud and ending Henry's.
During the rest of April and May, Henry gained a pinfall victory over the World Heavyweight Champion, Rey Mysterio in a non-title match. Henry entered the King of the Ring Tournament, and lost to Bobby Lashley in the first round. He later cost Kurt Angle his World Heavyweight Championship opportunity against Mysterio, when he jumped off the top rope and crushed Angle through a table. Henry was then challenged by Angle to face off at Judgment Day, Henry then sent a "message" to Angle by defeating Paul Burchill. At Judgment Day, Henry defeated Angle by countout. Although winning, Angle got his revenge after the match by hitting Henry with a chair and putting him through a table.
Henry later went on what was referred to as a "path of destruction", causing injuries to numerous superstars. Henry "took out" Chris Benoit and Paul Burchill on this path of destruction, and attacked Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero. These events led up to a feud with the returning Batista, whom Henry had put out of action with a legitimate injury several months beforehand. When Batista returned he and Henry were scheduled to face one another at The Great American Bash in July. Weeks before that event, however, on the July 15, 2006 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIII, Henry was involved in a six-man tag team match with King Booker and Finlay against Batista, Rey Mysterio, and Bobby Lashley. During the match, Henry was injured, canceling the scheduled match at The Great American Bash, as Henry needed surgery. Doctors later found that Henry completely tore his patella tendon off the bone and split his patella completely in two.
Henry returned on the May 11, 2007 episode of SmackDown!, after weeks of vignettes hyping his return. He attacked The Undertaker after a World Heavyweight Championship steel cage match with Batista, allowing Edge to take advantage of the situation and use his Money in the Bank contract. Henry then began a short feud with Kane, defeating him in a Lumberjack Match at One Night Stand. Shortly after, Henry made an open challenge to the SmackDown! locker room, which nobody ever accepted. In the coming weeks he faced various jobbers—wrestlers who consistently lose to make their opponents look stronger—and quickly defeated them all. On the August 3 episode of SmackDown!, he claimed that nobody accepted the open challenge to step into the ring with him because of what he had done to The Undertaker, presenting footage of his assault on The Undertaker. The Undertaker responded over the following weeks, playing various mind games with Henry. Henry finally faced The Undertaker again at Unforgiven in September, losing to him after being given a Last Ride. Two weeks later, Henry lost a rematch to The Undertaker after The Undertaker performed a chokeslam on Henry.
ECW Champion (2007–2009)
After a short hiatus, Henry returned to WWE programming on the October 23 episode of ECW, attacking Kane, along with The Great Khali and Big Daddy V. Henry then began teaming with Big Daddy V against Kane and CM Punk, and was briefly managed by Big Daddy V's manager, Matt Striker. At Armageddon, Henry and Big Daddy V defeated Kane and Punk. Before WrestleMania XXIV aired, Henry participated in a 24-man battle royal to determine the number one contender for the ECW Championship, but failed to win.
As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Henry was drafted to the ECW brand. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Kane and Big Show in a triple threat match to capture the ECW Championship in his debut match as an ECW superstar. This was his first world championship in WWE, which also made him the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history. Upon winning the title, it was made exclusive to the ECW brand once again. Henry's title win came nearly a full decade after he was awarded the European Championship, which was back in 1999 and the only title he held in WWE. A few weeks later, Hall of Famer Tony Atlas returned to WWE to act as Henry's manager. Shortly after, ECW General Manager, Theodore Long, unveiled a new, entirely platinum ECW Championship belt design. In August, Henry defended the title against Matt Hardy at SummerSlam after getting himself disqualified; however championships cannot change hands via disqualification, meaning that Henry retained the title. Henry later lost the title to Hardy at September's Unforgiven in the Championship Scramble match.
Henry attempted to regain the championship throughout the end of 2008, and had a match against Hardy at No Mercy, but failed as he was unsuccessful. Henry and Atlas then engaged in a scripted rivalry against Finlay and Hornswoggle, which included Henry losing a Belfast Brawl to Finlay at Armageddon. At the start of 2009, Henry qualified for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 25, and was involved in a series of matches with the other competitors on Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. He was unsuccessful at WrestleMania, however, as CM Punk won the match. In May, Henry began a rivalry with Evan Bourne, which began after Bourne defeated Henry by countout on the May 26 episode of ECW.
Tag team championship pursuits (2009–2011)
On June 29, Henry was traded to the Raw brand and redebuted for the brand that night as the third opponent in a three-on-one gauntlet match against WWE Champion Randy Orton, which he won, turning Henry into a face in the process. In August 2009, Henry formed a tag team with Montel Vontavious Porter and the two challenged the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and The Big Show) for the title at Breaking Point, but were unsuccessful. They stopped teaming afterwards, becoming involved in separate storylines, until the February 15, 2010 episode of Raw in which they defeated the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Big Show and The Miz in a non-title match. The next week they challenged The Big Show and The Miz in a title match but were unsuccessful. At Extreme Rules, Henry and MVP fought for a chance to become number one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, but were the second team eliminated in a gauntlet match by The Big Show and The Miz. Ultimately, The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith) won the match.
Henry mentored Lucky Cannon in the second season of NXT. Cannon was eliminated on the August 10 episode of NXT. In September, Henry began teaming with Evan Bourne, starting at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, where they entered a Tag Team Turmoil for the WWE Tag Team Championship. They made it to the final two before being defeated by Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. The team came to an end in October when Bourne suffered an injury and was taken out of action. Henry then formed a team with Yoshi Tatsu on the November 29 episode of Raw, defeating WWE Tag Team Champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, after a distraction by John Cena. They received a shot at the championship the next week, in a fatal four-way elimination tag team match, which also included The Usos and Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov. Henry and Tatsu were the first team eliminated in the match.
World Heavyweight Champion (2011–2012)
On the April 25, 2011 episode of Raw, Henry was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 WWE draft. In the main event of the night, Henry attacked his teammates John Cena and Christian, turning heel in the process. On the May 27 episode of SmackDown, Henry participated in a Triple Threat match against Sheamus and Christian to decide the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by Sheamus. On the June 17 episode of SmackDown, Henry was scheduled to face an angry and emotionally unstable Big Show, who warned Henry not to get into the ring; Henry ignored the warning and Big Show assaulted him before the match could begin. This act ignited a feud between the two; Henry attacked Big Show both backstage and during matches while on the July 1 episode of SmackDown, Big Show's music played during Henry's match against Randy Orton, causing Henry to be counted out and costing him a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. Henry reacted by destroying the audio equipment and attacking a technician. Henry faced Big Show in a singles match at Money in the Bank and won. After the match, Henry crushed Big Show's leg with a chair, (kayfabe) injuring him, an act Henry later referenced as an induction into the "Hall of Pain". Henry did the same to Kane on the next episode of SmackDown, and in the months ahead, Vladimir Kozlov and The Great Khali suffered the same fate.
On the July 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry was informed that he could no longer compete as no one dared to fight him, but Sheamus interrupted, saying that he wasn't afraid of Henry before slapping him. At SummerSlam, Henry defeated Sheamus by count-out after slamming him through a ring barricade. On the August 19 episode of SmackDown, Henry won a 20-man Battle Royal to become the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship to face Randy Orton at Night of Champions, and throughout weeks on SmackDown and Raw, Henry regularly attacked Orton, getting an advantage over him. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Orton to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. Henry successfully defended the title against Orton at Hell in a Cell in a Hell in a Cell match.
On the October 7 episode of SmackDown, Big Show returned and chokeslammed Henry through the announce table, thus earning a title shot against Henry at Vengeance. During the match, Henry superplexed Big Show from the top rope, causing the ring to collapse from the impact and the match to be ruled a no contest. Henry began a feud with the Money in the Bank briefcase holder Daniel Bryan on the November 4 episode of SmackDown, challenging Bryan to a non-title match to prove that Bryan could not become champion. During the match, Big Show knocked out Henry, making him win by disqualification. Big Show then urged Bryan to cash in his contract, but Henry recovered and attacked both Bryan and Big Show before the match could start. At Survivor Series, Henry retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Big Show after a low blow that disqualified Henry. Angered by Henry's cowardice, Big Show crushed Henry's ankle with a steel chair. On the November 25 episode of SmackDown, Henry was knocked out again by Big Show, at which point Bryan cashed in his briefcase for a title match and quickly pinned Henry. However, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long revealed that Henry was not medically cleared to compete and voided the match, so Henry remained champion and the briefcase was returned to Bryan. Later that night, Bryan won a fatal-four-way match to face Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage. On the November 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry defeated Bryan in a steel cage match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
henAt TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Henry lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Big Show in a chairs match. After the match, Henry knocked Big Show out, resulting in Daniel Bryan cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. On the January 20 episode of SmackDown, Bryan retained the championship against Henry in a lumberjack match after Bryan provoked the lumberjacks to come in and attack them to cause a no contest. At the 2012 Royal Rumble event, Henry faced Bryan and Big Show in a triple threat steel cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship; Bryan escaped the cage to retain the title. On the February 3 episode of SmackDown, Henry was suspended indefinitely (in storyline) by SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long, after Henry physically accosted Long as he demanded a one-on-one rematch that night with Bryan. In reality, Henry had suffered a hyper-extended knee the previous week. Henry returned to in-ring action on the February 20 episode of Raw, losing to Sheamus. On the April 2 and 9 episodes of Raw, Henry faced CM Punk for the WWE Championship which he won by count-out and disqualification; as a result, Punk retained his title. On the April 16 episode of Raw, Punk defeated Henry in a no-disqualification, no count-out match to retain the WWE Championship. On May 14, Henry announced he was going under a career-threatening surgery for an injury.
Final feuds (2013–2017)
After a nine-month absence, Henry made his return on the February 4, 2013 episode of Raw, brutally attacking Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry defeated Randy Orton to earn a spot in the number one contenders' Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber. At the pay-per-view on February 17, Henry eliminated Daniel Bryan and Kane before being eliminated by Randy Orton. After his elimination, Henry attacked the three remaining participants before being escorted out by WWE officials. Henry then began a feud with Ryback after several non-verbal confrontations. On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, Henry was defeated by Ryback via disqualification, following interference from The Shield. Afterward, Henry delivered the World's Strongest Slam to Ryback three times in a row. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, Henry defeated Ryback in a singles match. Later that month, Henry reignited a feud with Sheamus by repeatedly attacking Sheamus backstage. Henry and Sheamus then challenged each other in tests of strength, but with Sheamus unable to best Henry, he resorted to attacking Henry with Brogue Kicks. After Sheamus (during his match) Brogue Kicked Henry (who was on commentary), Henry snapped and brutally whipped Sheamus with a belt. This led to a strap match on May 19 at Extreme Rules, where Sheamus emerged victorious. With the loss to Sheamus, Henry declared that he was "going home".
After being absent from television due to injuries, Henry used social media to tease his retirement. On the June 17 episode of Raw, Henry returned, interrupting WWE Champion John Cena and delivering an emotional retirement speech, which was revealed as a ruse when Henry gave Cena a World's Strongest Slam after concluding his speech. The segment was highly praised by fans and critics. With Henry stating his intent to challenge for the "only title he's never held", he was granted a WWE Championship match against Cena at Money in the Bank. On July 14 at the pay-per-view, Henry failed in his title challenge against Cena after submitting to the STF. The following night on Raw, Henry cut a promo to congratulate Cena on his win and asked for a rematch for SummerSlam, but was ultimately attacked by The Shield, turning face in the process for the first time since 2011. Henry continued his face turn the following week, by confronting The Shield and teaming together with The Usos to fend them off. Henry and the Usos went on to lose to The Shield in two six-man tag team matches, the first on the July 29 episode of Raw, and the second on the August 7 episode of Main Event. On the August 12 episode of Raw, Henry competed in a Battle Royal to determine the number one contender for the United States Championship, but was the last man eliminated by Rob Van Dam. After the match, Henry and Van Dam were confronted by The Shield, before the returning Big Show came to their aid. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry, Show, and Van Dam defeated The Shield in a six-man tag team match. After a suspected hamstring injury on August 31 at the TD Garden in Boston Massachusetts, Henry was cleared to compete. Henry, however, took time off and during his time off, he dropped down to and shaved his head bald.
Henry returned to in-ring action on November 24 at Survivor Series, answering Ryback's open challenge and defeating him. On the January 6, 2014 episode of Raw, Henry tried to confront Brock Lesnar during separate encounters after Lesnar's return, resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 the first time and then Lesnar injured Henry's arm after getting it in a kimura lock hold, causing Henry to wail in pain and be absent. He returned on February 10 episode of Raw, and answered Dean Ambrose's open challenge for the United States Championship, but was unable to win the title due to interference by the rest of The Shield. In March, Henry suffered another attack from Lesnar, this time resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 through the announcing table.
On the August 4 episode of Raw, Henry defeated Damien Sandow after a few months absence. That same week on SmackDown, Henry formed a tag team with Big Show to defeat RybAxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel). On the August 18 episode of Raw, Henry entered a feud with Rusev by attacking him. This set up a match between Henry and Rusev at Night of Champions, which he lost by submission. The following night on Raw, he lost to Rusev again by knockout via submission. On the October 27 episode of Raw, Henry attacked Big Show during their tag team match against Gold and Stardust, and turning heel in the process. On the November 3 episode of Raw, Henry lost to Big Show via disqualification and slammed Big Show onto the steel steps. On the November 10 Raw, he joined The Authority's team to face John Cena's team at Survivor Series. On November 23 at Survivor Series, Henry was the first to be eliminated from Team Authority 50 seconds into the match after being knocked out by Big Show. Henry then took another hiatus due to an unspecified injury.
Henry returned on the March 12, 2015 episode of SmackDown, confronting Roman Reigns for having a lack of identity and for not being respected, resulting in Reigns attacking Henry. The attack caused Henry to become a believer in Reigns, and turning face in the process. Henry was unsuccessful in the Elimination Chamber match for the vacant Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber, replacing Rusev who was injured, but was eliminated by Sheamus At Royal Rumble pre-show on January 24, 2016, Henry teamed with Jack Swagger to win a Fatal 4-Way tag team match to earn their spots in the Royal Rumble match. Despite this victory, Henry entered the Rumble match at #22 and lasted only 47 seconds when he was quickly eliminated by The Wyatt Family. At WrestleMania 32, Henry entered his third André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where he made it to the final six competitors until being eliminated by Kane and Darren Young.
On July 19, at the 2016 WWE draft, Henry was drafted to Raw. On the August 1 episode of Raw, Henry claimed he still "had a lot left in him" when he spoke of reviving the Hall of Pain and his participation in the Olympics. Raw General Manager Mick Foley gave Henry a United States Championship match, but Henry would lose by submission to Rusev. In October, Henry allied himself with R-Truth and Goldust in a feud against Titus O'Neil and The Shining Stars (Primo and Epico), in which Henry's team came out victorious. Henry returned at the Royal Rumble on January 29, 2017 as entrant number 6, only to be eliminated by Braun Strowman. He unsuccessfully competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33.
Retirement and WWE Hall of Famer (2017–2021)
Following WrestleMania 33, Henry retired and transitioned into a backstage producers role. He later made his return in a backstage cameo at the Raw 25 Years event in January 2018. On March 19, 2018, it was announced that Henry would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Big Show, who was one of his closest friends in WWE. On April 27, at the Greatest Royal Rumble, Henry participated in the event's Royal Rumble match, scoring 3 eliminations, but was himself eliminated by Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler. In early 2019, Henry took on a backstage mentoring role helping talent work on their off-air attitude, including cleanliness and respect in the locker room.
Henry appeared on the January 4, 2021 episode of Raw, on its Raw Legends Night special, where in he appeared riding on a scooter due to an injured leg. He was verbally confronted by Randy Orton in what was his final appearance in WWE.
All Elite Wrestling (2021–present)
Henry made his debut for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on May 30, 2021 at Double or Nothing where it was announced that he will be a part of the commentary team for its new show AEW Rampage, as well as a coach.
Personal life
Henry has an older brother named Pat. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Jana, son Jacob, and daughter Joanna. He also has a two-foot ferret named Pipe. He drives a Hummer that he won in the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic. On September 10, 2012, Henry served as one of the pallbearers for actor Michael Clarke Duncan's funeral.
In March 2019, Henry pledged to donate his brain to CTE research once he dies.
Filmography
Film
Video games
Henry appears in the following licensed wrestling video games:
Championships, records, and accomplishments
Powerlifting
Championships Participation – High School Level
Two times 1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting TEAM Championships (in Division I under Silsbee High School)
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1988 in SHW division
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1989 in SHW division
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division
1st place in National High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 18
results: Powerlifting Total – (+
Championships Participation – Junior&Senior Level
1st place in International Junior (20–23) Powerlifting Championships 1991 in SHW division at age 20
2nd place in Men's USPF Senior National Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 19
results: Powerlifting Total – (
1st place in ADFPA (USAPL) National Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
1st place in WDFPF World Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
1st place in USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997 in SHW division at age 26
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
Records*
Teen III (18–19 years) Level
Teen-age World Records in the squat at and total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
Teen-age US American Records in the squat at , bench press , dead lift and total at set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in all four powerlifting categories – the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at as well as the total at at age 19.
Current Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in the squat at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991
Collegiate Level
Current Texas State Collegiate Record holder in the squat at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
Junior Level (20–23 years)
Current Texas State Junior Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
Senior Level (24+ years)
Current Texas State Record holder in the squat at , the deadlift at and the total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) from July 16, 1995 to October 29, 1995
Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from October 29, 1995 to June 7, 2010** (+regardless of weight class until November 4, 2007***)
Former All-time raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from July 16, 1995 to May 23, 2010**** (+regardless of weight class until July 4, 2009*****)
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at in SHW class only since July 16, 1995
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total World Record holder at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
Current All-time American Record holder in the raw deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since July 16, 1995
Current American Record holder in the deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Current All-time US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Federation Records
World Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation (WDFPF) World Records
Current WDFPF World Record holder in the squat at , the deadlift at and the total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since October 29, 1995 (categorized as "open equipped", despite performed in singlet&knee sleeves only/without suit)
U.S.A. Powerlifting (USAPL) US American Records
Current USAPL US American Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Current US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Special Powerlifting Honors
"The World's Strongest Teen-ager" by the Los Angeles Times in April 1990.
Mark Henry was voted in the All-time Top 25 All-Mens US Powerlifting Nationals Team in 2007.
Mark Henry is the only human in history who has not only squatted more than without a squat suit, but also deadlifted more than raw.
Mark Henry is the only human in history to have squatted more than without a squat suit and deadlifted more than raw in one and the same powerlifting meet.
Mark Henry's raw squat and deadlift, done on July 16, 1995 is the highest raw "squat-pull-2-lift-total" (squat+deadlift=) ever lifted in a competition. (Andrei Malanichev's squat and deadlift = on October 22, 2011 being the 2nd highest ever; Mark Henry's squat and deadlift = being the 3rd highest, Benedikt Magnusson's squat and deadlift = being the 4th highest; Malanichev's squat and deadlift = being the 5th; Don Reinhoudt's squat and deadlift = being th 6th)
Mark Henry does not only hold the greatest all-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total in history at , but also the second greatest in history at .
* incomplete
** surpassed by Robert Wilkerson (SHW class) of the United States with a raw squat with knee wraps on June 7, 2010 at the Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) Nationals (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class*** surpassed by Sergiy Karnaukhov (308-pound-class) of Ukraine] with a raw squat with knee wraps on November 4, 2007 as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world record**** surpassed by Andy Bolton (SHW class) of the United Kingdom with a raw deadlift on May 23, 2010 (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class (+regardless of weight class)***** surpassed by Konstantin Konstantinovs (308-pound-class) of Latvia] with a raw deadlift without a belt on July 4, 2009 (drug-tested competition) as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world recordWeightlifting
Olympic Games
Olympic Games team member representing USA at the Olympics 1992 in Barcelona, Spain, finishing 10th place in SHW division at age 21
Team Captain of the Olympic Weightlifting team representing USA at the Olympics 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, finishing 14th in SHW division due to back injury at age 25
Pan American Games
Silver Medalist in the Olympic weightlifting Total in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: total – 804 pounds
Gold Medalist in the Snatch in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: snatch – 391 1/4 pounds, setting an American record
Bronze Medalist in Clean and jerk in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: clean and jerk – snatch 412 3/4 pounds
North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Championships
1st place in North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division
U.S. National Weightlifting Championships
1st place in U.S. National Junior Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
results: total: 326.0 kg – snatch: 156.0 kg / clean&jerk: 170.0 kg
4th place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
results: total: 325.0 kg – snatch: 150.0 kg / clean&jerk: 175.0 kg
3rd place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
results: total: 365.0 kg – snatch: 165.0 kg / clean&jerk: 200.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 21
results: total: 385.0 kg – snatch: 175.0 kg / clean&jerk: 210.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
results: total: 387.5 kg – snatch: 172.5 kg / clean&jerk: 215.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 24
results: total: 400.0 kg – snatch: 180.0 kg / clean&jerk: 220.0 kg
Mark Henry was voted as the #1 outstanding lifter of the championships
U.S. Olympic Festival Championships
1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 23
USA Weightlifting American Open Championships
2nd place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
1st place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 21
RECORDS
Junior US American record holder (+110 kg) in the Snatch at 162.5 kg, Clean and jerk at 202.5 kg, and Total at 362.5 kg (1986–1992)
Senior US American record holder (+108 kg) in the Snatch at 180.0 kg, Clean and jerk at 220.0 kg, and Total at 400.0 kg (1993–1997)
Strength athletics
Arnold Classic
Arnold Strongman Classic – Winner 2002
First man in history to one-hand clean and push press the "unliftable" Thomas Inch dumbbell (; diameter handle)
The Second Strongest Man That Ever Lived according to Flex Magazine
International Sports Hall of Fame
International Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2012)
Professional wrestling
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2019)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Frank Gotch Award (2021)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated''
Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2011)
Ranked No. 9 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2012
Ranked No. 472 of the top 500 greatest wrestlers in the "PWI Years" in 2003
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
ECW Championship (1 time)
World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF European Championship (1 time)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2018)
Slammy Award (3 times)
"Holy $#!+ Move of the Year" (2011)
Feat of Strength of the Year (2013)
Match of the Year (2014) –
See also
List of strongmen
List of powerlifters
References
External links
Mark Henry – The Strongest Man That Ever Lived (article by Ben Tatar)
Mark Henry's impressive achievements over the ropes by Katie Raymonds on WWE.com
International Sports Hall of Fame: Mark Henry featured in pictures and Acceptance Speech video clips
Powerliftingwatch of all-time powerlifting records, including Mark Henry's
Video: Mark Henry at the Arnold Strongman Classic 2002 (introduction+Apollon's Wheel+Inch dumbbell)
Video: Mark Henry lifting the "unliftable" Thomas Inch Dumbbell as the first man in history
Video: Mark Henry wins the 1995 USAPL (ADFPA) National Powerlifting Championships and deadlifts 903 lb
1971 births
All Elite Wrestling personnel
American male professional wrestlers
American male weightlifters
American powerlifters
American strength athletes
African-American male professional wrestlers
ECW champions
ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions
Living people
Olympic weightlifters of the United States
Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States
Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States
Pan American Games medalists in weightlifting
Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States
People with dyslexia
People from Silsbee, Texas
Professional wrestlers from Texas
The Nation of Domination members
Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Weightlifters at the 1995 Pan American Games
Weightlifters at the 1996 Summer Olympics
World Heavyweight Champions (WWE)
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF European Champions
Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American sportspeople | false | [
"Panthongtae Shinawatra (born December 2, 1979) (; ), nickname Oak, is the only son of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.\n\nHe became a billionaire after having been given a large portion of his father's stock in Shin Corporation which transferred to him shortly before Thaksin ascended to the position of prime minister.\n\nPanthongtae was admitted to the Faculty of Engineering at Thammasat University in 1998. However, he dropped out after one year. In 2000, he enrolled in Ramkhamhaeng University, an open admission government university, where he studied political science. In August 2002, his studies attracted media attention when he was accused of cheating in an exam. A three-week university investigation concluded that Panthongtae had made a mistake by carrying unrelated notes into the exam room and he was cleared of wrongdoing, yet he automatically failed the political science subject he was sitting. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2003.\n\nAn amateur photographer, Panthongtae founded in 2003 a production company called How Come Entertainment (now Voice TV Co. Ltd.), which was awarded an exclusive advertising contract for the MRT and many other government contracts when his father was prime minister. This caused controversy and drew charges of nepotism, as How Come was a new firm and the advertising concession for the subway had previously been awarded to the long established Triad Networks Company.\n\nIn early 2006, Panthongtae was involved in his family's sale of Shin Corporation stock to Temasek Holdings of Singapore. Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that Panthongtae, as director of Ample Rich Investments (a shell company set up in the British Virgin Islands to control Shin stock), had failed to properly notify the regulators of his holdings in Shin and sale of Shin shares, in transactions that occurred in 2000, 2001 and 2002.\n\nPrasong Vinaiphiat, deputy director of the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission, said: \"The case is not severe because Panthongtae did inform the SEC but his report was not totally correct.\" He was fined 5.982 million baht (about US$150,000) for three violations of the Securities and Exchange Act.\n\nIn November 2009, Panthongtae's company Voice TV (formerly How Come Entertainment) launched its own digital TV station of the same name with 300 million baht.\n\nReferences\n\n\"Premier's son graduates\", The Nation, June 24, 2003.\n\"The How Come subway deal\", 2bangkok.com.\n\"Panthongtae breached reporting regulations - SEC\", The Nation, February 24, 2006.\n\nExternal links\nHow Come Entertainment\nVoiceTV\n\nPanthongtae Shinawatra\nLiving people\n1979 births\nManchester City F.C. directors and chairmen\nPanthongtae Shinawatra\nPanthongtae Shinawatra\nPanthongtae Shinawatra",
"The 1923 Toledo Rockets football team was an American football team that represented Toledo University (renamed the University of Toledo in 1967) during the 1923 college football season. In their first season under head coach Pat Dwyer, the team compiled a 6–4 record, the first winning season in program history, won the Northwest Ohio League championship, and shut out its opponents in all six victories. The team's 87 points against Findlay established the program's single game scoring record and remains the second highest point total in program history. Gib Stick's 30 point tally in the Findlay game also remains tied for the second highest single game scoring total in program history.\n\nThe team captain was James Pierce, the first African-American to hold the position. Pierce became a professor after graduation.\n\nAccording to the Toledo media guide, the program's nickname dates to the 1923 season. The 1923 season opened with a game against Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh. According to the media guide, the Pittsburgh reporters in the press box were surprised to learn that the Toledo team did not have a nickname and asked a Toledo student, James Neal, to come up with a nickname. Neal suggested the team be called the Skyrockets, and the sportswriters shortened the name to Rockets. The Rockets nickname has been in use since 1923.\n\nSchedule\n\nReferences\n\nToledo\nToledo Rockets football seasons\nNorthwest Ohio League football champion seasons\nToledo Rockets football"
]
|
[
"Mark Henry",
"Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998-2000)",
"What is sexual chocolate?",
"Henry gave himself the nickname Sexual Chocolate,",
"How did he come up with that nickname?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_a8710470bf874ec9a8952c68996f9cd5_1 | What is Nation of Domination? | 3 | What is Mark Henry's Nation of Domination? | Mark Henry | Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager. During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname Sexual Chocolate, and was involved in controversial angles with Chyna and a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. After this, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF women from Chyna to Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand. Henry was part of various other embarrassing and infamous storylines, including one about him overcoming sex addiction. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Mark Jerrold Henry (born June 12, 1971) is an American powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter, strongman, and retired professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator/analyst, coach, and talent scout. He is best known for his 25-year career in WWE where he was a two-time world champion. He is a two-time Olympian (1992 and 1996) and a gold, silver, and bronze medalist at the Pan American Games in 1995. As a powerlifter, he was WDFPF World Champion (1995) and a two-time U.S. National Champion (1995 and 1997) as well as an all-time raw world record holder in the squat and deadlift. Currently, he still holds the WDFPF world records in the squat, deadlift and total and the USAPL American record in the deadlift since 1995. He is credited for the biggest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a drug tested athlete, regardless of weight class, as well as the greatest raw deadlift by an American citizen.
In weightlifting, Henry was a three-time U.S. National Weightlifting Champion (1993, 1994, 1996), an American Open winner (1992), a two-time U.S. Olympic Festival Champion (1993 and 1994) and a NACAC champion (1996). He holds all three Senior US American weightlifting records of 1993–1997. In 2002 he won the first annual Arnold Strongman Classic.
Since joining the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1996, he became a one-time WWF European Champion and a two-time world champion, having held the ECW Championship in 2008, and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship in 2011. In first winning the ECW Championship, Henry became only the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history (after The Rock, Booker T, and Bobby Lashley).
In April 2018, Henry was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018.
Early life
Henry was born in the small town of Silsbee in East Texas, 90 miles northeast of Houston. As a child, he was a big wrestling fan and André the Giant was his favorite wrestler. While attending a wrestling show in Beaumont, Texas, young Henry tried to touch André as he was walking down the aisle, but tripped over the barricade. André picked him up out of the crowd and put him back behind the barricade. When Henry was 12 years old, his father, Ernest, died of complications from diabetes. When he was 14 years old, Henry was diagnosed with dyslexia.
Henry comes from a family in which almost all of the men are larger than average, especially his great uncle Chudd, who was 6 ft 7 in, weighed approximately , never had a pair of manufactured shoes, and was known as the strongest man in the Piney Woods of East Texas.
Henry played football in high school until his senior year, when he strained ligaments in his wrist during the first game of the year and scored below 700 on the SAT.
Powerlifting career
By the time Mark Henry was in the fourth grade, he was and weighed . His mother bought a set of weights for him when he was ten years old. During Henry's freshman year at Silsbee High School, he was already able to squat , which was well over school record. As an 18-year-old high school senior, Henry was called "the world's strongest teenager" by the Los Angeles Times, and made it into the headlines in early 1990 for winning the National High School Powerlifting Championships and setting teenage lifting world records in the squat and total . By the time Henry finished high school, he was a three-time Texas state champion with state and national records in all four powerlifting categories—the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at as well as the total at .
At the Texas High School Powerlifting Championships in April 1990, Terry Todd, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin and former weightlifter, spotted Henry and persuaded him to go to Austin after he graduated to train in the Olympic style of weightlifting. In July 1990 at the USPF Senior National Powerlifting Championships, 19-year-old Henry came second only to the legendary six-time World Powerlifting Champion Kirk Karwoski. While powerlifting relies primarily on brute strength and power, which Henry obviously possessed, Olympic weightlifting is considered more sophisticated, involving more agility, timing, flexibility and technique. There have been few lifters in history who have been able to be successful in both lifting disciplines. Mastering the technique of weightlifting usually takes many years of practice, but Henry broke four national junior records in weightlifting after only eight months of training. In April 1991, he won the United States National Junior Championships; 20 days later he placed fourth at the U.S. Senior National Championships, and finished sixth at the Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Germany two months later. Only few weeks afterwards, he became 1991's International Junior Champion in Powerlifiting as well. In Henry's first year in competitive weightlifting, he broke all three junior (20 and under) American records 12 times, and became the United States' top Superheavyweight, surpassing Mario Martinez.
At the age of 19, Henry had already managed to qualify for the weightlifting competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he finished tenth in the Super- Heavyweight class. Ten months before the 1992 Olympics, Henry had begun training with Dragomir Cioroslan, a bronze medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics, who said that he had "never seen anyone with Mark's raw talent". After the Olympics, Henry became more determined to focus on weightlifting and began competing all over the world. In late 1992 he took the win at the USA Weightlifting American Open and further proved his dominance on the American soil by winning not only the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships, but also the U.S. Olympic Festival Championships in 1993 and 1994. At the 1995 Pan American Games Henry won a gold, silver and bronze medal.
Having reached the pinnacle of weightlifting on a National and continental level, he competed again in powerlifting and shocked the world by winning the ADFPA U.S. National Powerlifting Championships in 1995 with a raw Powerlifting Total. Despite competing without supportive equipment in contrast to the other competitors, Henry managed to outclass the lifter in second place by , defeating not only five-time IPF World Powerlifting Champion and 12 time USAPL National Powerlifting Champion Brad Gillingham, but also America's Strongest Man of 1997 Mark Philippi. In the process he set all-time world records in the raw deadlift at and the squat without a squat suit at as well as the all-time drug tested raw total at . Later that same year in October, he competed in the drug-free Powerlifting World Championships and won again, even though he trained on the powerlifts only sparingly—due his main focus still being on the two Olympic lifts. He not only become World Champion by winning the competition but also bettered his previous all-time squat world record to and his all-time drug tested world record total to .
In 1996 Henry became the North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Champion. He earned the right to compete at the Olympics by winning the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships in the Spring of 1996 for a third time. During his victory Henry became Senior US American record holder (1993–1997) in the Snatch at , Clean and jerk at , and Total at , improving all of his three previous personal bests. This total, in the opinion of many experts in track field of international lifting—including Dragomir Cioroslan, the '96s coach of the U.S. team—was the highest ever made by an athlete who had never used anabolic steroids—who was lifetime drugfree. By that time, at the age of 24, Henry was generally acknowledged as the strongest man in the world, even by many of the Eastern Bloc athletes who outrank him in weightlifting. No one in the history of the sports had ever lifted as much as him in the five competitive lifts—the snatch and the clean and jerk in weightlifting—the squat, bench press and deadlift in powerlifting. To this day, his five lift total is still the greatest in history by a fair amount—making him arguably one of the strongest men that ever lived and stamp him, according to lifting statistician Herb Glossbrenner, as history's greatest lifter.
In the months prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Henry received more attention and publicity than any lifter in recent United States history. He guested at Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and The Oprah Winfrey Show and was featured on HBO Inside Sports and The Today Show. He was also featured in dozens of magazines including U.S. News & World Report, People Vanity Fair, ESPN The Magazine and Life where he was photographed nude by famed artist Annie Lebowitz. During this period he connected with WWE owner Vince McMahon for the first time, which led to him signing a 10-year deal as professional wrestler.
Henry improved his lifts to in the snatch and in the clean-and-jerk during his final eight weeks of preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Henry at 6-foot-4-inches tall and bodyweight, became the largest athlete in Olympic history and was voted captain of the Olympic weightlifting team. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury during the competition and was unable to approach his normal performance level. Due to the injury he had to drop out after his first clean and jerk attempt and finished with a disappointing 14th place. His appearance at the Olympics proved to be his last official competition in Olympic weightlifting, as he retired from weightlifting, vowing never to return unless the sport is "cleaned up" of anabolic steroid use.
Since his career start as a professional wrestler shortly after the Olympics, he broke his leg in the fall of 1996. But by the summer of the following year he had rehabilitated it enough to be able to compete at the USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997, where he won the competition to become the U.S National Powerlifting Champion in the Super Heavyweight class again. He had planned to continue heavy training in powerlifting, although his travel schedule as a professional wrestler with the WWF (now WWE) has made sustained training difficult. Mark's WWF contract was unique in many ways, allowing him at least three months off each year from wrestling, so he can train for the national and world championships in weightlifting or powerlifting. Barring injury, Mark had originally hoped to return to the platform in late 1998, to lift for many more years, and to eventually squat at least without a “squat suit” and to deadlift .
Although in early 1998 he was still able to do five repetitions in the bench press with , three repetitions in the squat with (with no suit and no knee wraps), and three repetitions in the standing press with in training, while traveling with the World Wrestling Federation, he never returned to compete again in official championships in favor of his wrestling career. He weighed at that time, and his right upper arm was measured at 24” by Terry Todd. By basically ending his lifting career at the age of 26, it is probable that he never reached his full physical potential as a professional lifter. Henry remains the youngest man in history to squat more than 900 pounds without a squat suit as well as the youngest to total more than 2,300 pounds raw – he's the only person ever to have accomplished any of these feats at under 25 years of age.
Personal powerlifting records
Powerlifting Competition Records
done in official Powerlifting full meets
Squat – raw with knee wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ former all-time unequipped squat world record for over a decade in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2007)
→ current WDFPF world record squat in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record squat without a suit in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ currently heaviest walked-out raw squat of all time (without a monolift) regardless of weight class or federation since 1995
Deadlift – raw (done on July 16, 1995 ADFPA (USAPL))
→ former all-time raw world record deadlift in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2009)
→ current all-time highest raw deadlift ever pulled by an American in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ current Open Men American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current all-time US national championship record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current USAPL American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested raw world record deadlift (in SHW class only) since 1995
Powerlifting Total – ( / () raw with wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ current WDFPF world record in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record unequipped powerlifting total in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best official lifts) – ()
Powerlifting Gym Records (unofficial)
Squat –
Bench press –
Deadlift –
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best unofficial lifts) – ()
Front Squat –
Behind-the-neck-press – over
Weightlifting Competition Records
done in official competition
Snatch: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American snatch record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Clean and jerk: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American clean&jerk record 1993–1997 in SHW class
Weightlifting Total: – snatch: / clean&jerk: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American weightlifting total record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Weightlifting Gym Records (unofficial)
all three done in training after the 1996's U.S. Nationals, but prior to the Olympics '96
Snatch:
Clean&jerk:
Weightlifting Total:
Combined lifting records
official weightlifting total + official powerlifting total = Combined Supertotal:
+ = raw with wraps
→ current all-time highest combined weightlifting/powerlifting total in history (since 1996*)
5 official weightlifting & powerlifting lifts combined – the snatch + the clean-and-jerk and the squat + bench press + deadlift = Five-Lift-Combined-Total:
+ + + + =
→ current all-time highest 5 lift total in history (since 1996*)
* both combined all-time records had previously been held by legendary powerlifter Jon Cole
Holding these all-time records in the lifting sports makes Mark Henry arguably one of the strongest men in history. Having achieved this at the very young age of 24 while being lifetime drug-free makes it even more impressive. Many experts in the field, including Bill Kazmaier, Jan and Terry Todd, Dr. Robert M. Goldman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Muscle & Fitness magazine and Flex magazine, consider him to be "one of the Strongest Men that ever lived" or even "the most naturally gifted strongman in history".
When asked in September 2003, who the strongest man in the world is today [2003], Bill Kazmaier, considered by many to be the greatest strongman of all time, stated: "It would have to be Mark Henry. [...] I think he's one of the strongest men in the history of the world, without a doubt."
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
Early career (1996–1997)
At the age of 24, Henry made his first appearance on World Wrestling Federation (WWF) programming on the March 11, 1996 episode of Monday Night Raw, where he press slammed Jerry Lawler, who was ridiculing Henry while interviewing him in the ring. After Henry competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics, the WWF signed him to a ten-year contract. Trained by professional wrestler Leo Burke, his first feud in the WWF was with Lawler. At the pay-per-view event, SummerSlam in August 1996, Henry came to the aid of Jake Roberts who was suffering indignity at the hands of Lawler. His debut wrestling match was at In Your House: Mind Games on September 22, 1996, where he defeated Lawler. The feud continued on the live circuit during subsequent weeks. On the November 4 episode of Raw, Henry served as a cornerman for Barry Windham in a match against Goldust. He was set to team with Windham, Marc Mero and Rocky Maivia to take on the team of Lawler, Goldust, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Crush at Survivor Series, but was replaced by Jake Roberts when he was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury. On the November 17 episode of Superstars, Henry defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Crush and Goldust in a tug of war contest. Henry's career was then stalled as, over the next year, he took time off to heal injuries and engage in further training. In November 1997, he returned to the ring, making his televised return the following month. By the end of the year, he was a regular fixture on WWF programming, defeating Steve Lombardi on the December 15 episode of Raw, and beating The Sultan on the December 27 episode of Shotgun.
Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998–2000)
Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After short feuds against Ken Shamrock and Vader, Henry participated in his faction's enmity against D-Generation X, which included a romantic storyline with DX member Chyna. When The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager.
During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname "Sexual Chocolate", adopting a ladies' man character. He first resumed his storyline with former enemy Chyna, but it ended with her betraying him in a controversial angle including a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view.
The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. He was part of a storyline about him overcoming sex addiction, which he accomplished thanks to The Godfather.
After this twist, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF veteran wrestler Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand.
Ohio Valley Wrestling and strongman competitions (2000–2002)
In 2000, Henry was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to improve his conditioning and wrestling skills. In OVW, he teamed with Nick Dinsmore to compete in a tournament for the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship in mid-2001. Later that year, Henry's mother died, causing him to go on hiatus from wrestling. He felt he had to compete in the "Super Bowl of weight lifting"—the Arnold Strongman Classic—in honor of his mother, who gave him his first weight set when he was a child.
Four months prior to the contest, Henry began lifting the heaviest of weights and trained for the first time since 1997 for a major lifting competition. He had never been a professional strongman before, but in the coming contest he was to face the very best of the best of professional strongmen, such as the #1 ranked strongman in the world, and defending World's Strongest Man competition winner of 2001 Svend Karlsen, World's Strongest Man winner of 2006 Phil Pfister, World Powerlifting Champion of 2001 and equipped deadlift world record holder Andy Bolton, World Muscle Power Champion, Olympic weightlifting Champion Raimonds Bergmanis, and reigning America's Strongest Man of 2001 Brian Schoonveld.
On February 22, 2002 in Columbus, Ohio the competition, consisting of four events, designed to determine the lifter with the greatest overall body power, began. Henry surprised everybody when he won the first event, setting a world record in the process by lifting the Apollon's Axle three times overhead. Only three men in history had ever been able to press it at all. By deadlifting for two repetitions in the second event and easily pushing a or more Hummer with nearly flat tires in the third event, Henry kept his lead continuously throughout the competition and never gave it up again. In the final "Farmer's Walk"-event Henry quickly carried the roughly of railroad ties up an incline, winning the whole competition convincingly to capture the winning prize — a US$75,000 Hummer, a vacation cruise and $10,000 cash.
Since Henry had only trained for four months and defeated the crème-de-là-crème of worldwide strongmen, who had been practicing for years, his win was a shock for strongman experts worldwide, but remained basically unnoticed by the wrestling audience. Henry proved to be worthy of the title "World's Strongest Man" not only by winning the contest, but also by achieving it in record time. By doing so he was again seen as the legit "strongest man in the world" by many lifting experts for a second time since 1996.
Various feuds (2002–2007)
Henry returned to the WWE the next month and was sent to the SmackDown! brand, where he developed an in-ring persona of performing "tests of strength" while other wrestlers took bets on the tests, but the gimmick met with little success. During this time he competed against such superstars as Chris Jericho and Christian. After being used sporadically on WWE (formerly WWF) television during 2002, as he was training for a weightlifting contest, and suffering a knee injury, Henry was sent back to OVW for more training.
In August 2003, Henry returned to WWE television on the Raw roster as a heel where he found some success as a member of "Thuggin' And Buggin' Enterprises", a group of African Americans led by Theodore Long who worked a race angle in which they felt they were victims of racism and were being held down by the "white man". During that time, Henry was involved in a brief program with World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg when former champion, Triple H, put a bounty on Goldberg. This was followed by a brief rivalry with Shawn Michaels, before he engaged in a rivalry with Booker T. After defeating Booker T twice, once in a street fight and once in a six-man tag team match, he lost to Booker T at the Armageddon pay-per-view in December 2003. At a practice session in OVW in February 2004, Henry tore his quadriceps muscle, and was out for over a year after undergoing surgery. Henry was then utilized by WWE as a public relations figure during his recovery, before returning to OVW to finish out 2005.
During the December 30 episode of SmackDown!, Henry made his return to television, as he interfered in a WWE Tag Team Championship match, joining with MNM (Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, and Melina), to help them defeat Rey Mysterio and Batista for the championship. A week later on SmackDown!, Henry got in a confrontation with the World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, and went on to interfere in a steel cage match between MNM and the team of Mysterio and Batista, helping MNM to retain their titles. Henry then had another match with Batista at a live event where Batista received a severely torn triceps that required surgery, forcing him to vacate his title. On the January 10, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, Henry was involved in a Battle Royal for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. He was finally eliminated by Kurt Angle, who won the title.
A week later, Henry received assistance from Daivari, who turned on Angle and announced that he was the manager of Henry. With Daivari at his side, Henry faced Angle for the World Heavyweight Championship at the 2006 Royal Rumble in January, losing when Angle hit him with a chair (without the referee seeing) and pinned him with a roll-up.
On the March 3 episode of SmackDown!, Henry interfered in a World Heavyweight Championship match between Angle and The Undertaker, attacking the latter when he was seconds from possibly winning the title. Henry then performed a diving splash on Undertaker, driving him through the announcer's table. Henry was then challenged to a casket match by Undertaker at WrestleMania 22. Henry vowed to defeat The Undertaker and end his undefeated streak at WrestleMania, but The Undertaker defeated him. Henry had a rematch against The Undertaker on the April 7 episode of SmackDown!. It ended in a no-contest when Daivari introduced his debuting client, The Great Khali. Khali went to the ring and attacked The Undertaker, starting a new feud and ending Henry's.
During the rest of April and May, Henry gained a pinfall victory over the World Heavyweight Champion, Rey Mysterio in a non-title match. Henry entered the King of the Ring Tournament, and lost to Bobby Lashley in the first round. He later cost Kurt Angle his World Heavyweight Championship opportunity against Mysterio, when he jumped off the top rope and crushed Angle through a table. Henry was then challenged by Angle to face off at Judgment Day, Henry then sent a "message" to Angle by defeating Paul Burchill. At Judgment Day, Henry defeated Angle by countout. Although winning, Angle got his revenge after the match by hitting Henry with a chair and putting him through a table.
Henry later went on what was referred to as a "path of destruction", causing injuries to numerous superstars. Henry "took out" Chris Benoit and Paul Burchill on this path of destruction, and attacked Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero. These events led up to a feud with the returning Batista, whom Henry had put out of action with a legitimate injury several months beforehand. When Batista returned he and Henry were scheduled to face one another at The Great American Bash in July. Weeks before that event, however, on the July 15, 2006 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIII, Henry was involved in a six-man tag team match with King Booker and Finlay against Batista, Rey Mysterio, and Bobby Lashley. During the match, Henry was injured, canceling the scheduled match at The Great American Bash, as Henry needed surgery. Doctors later found that Henry completely tore his patella tendon off the bone and split his patella completely in two.
Henry returned on the May 11, 2007 episode of SmackDown!, after weeks of vignettes hyping his return. He attacked The Undertaker after a World Heavyweight Championship steel cage match with Batista, allowing Edge to take advantage of the situation and use his Money in the Bank contract. Henry then began a short feud with Kane, defeating him in a Lumberjack Match at One Night Stand. Shortly after, Henry made an open challenge to the SmackDown! locker room, which nobody ever accepted. In the coming weeks he faced various jobbers—wrestlers who consistently lose to make their opponents look stronger—and quickly defeated them all. On the August 3 episode of SmackDown!, he claimed that nobody accepted the open challenge to step into the ring with him because of what he had done to The Undertaker, presenting footage of his assault on The Undertaker. The Undertaker responded over the following weeks, playing various mind games with Henry. Henry finally faced The Undertaker again at Unforgiven in September, losing to him after being given a Last Ride. Two weeks later, Henry lost a rematch to The Undertaker after The Undertaker performed a chokeslam on Henry.
ECW Champion (2007–2009)
After a short hiatus, Henry returned to WWE programming on the October 23 episode of ECW, attacking Kane, along with The Great Khali and Big Daddy V. Henry then began teaming with Big Daddy V against Kane and CM Punk, and was briefly managed by Big Daddy V's manager, Matt Striker. At Armageddon, Henry and Big Daddy V defeated Kane and Punk. Before WrestleMania XXIV aired, Henry participated in a 24-man battle royal to determine the number one contender for the ECW Championship, but failed to win.
As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Henry was drafted to the ECW brand. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Kane and Big Show in a triple threat match to capture the ECW Championship in his debut match as an ECW superstar. This was his first world championship in WWE, which also made him the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history. Upon winning the title, it was made exclusive to the ECW brand once again. Henry's title win came nearly a full decade after he was awarded the European Championship, which was back in 1999 and the only title he held in WWE. A few weeks later, Hall of Famer Tony Atlas returned to WWE to act as Henry's manager. Shortly after, ECW General Manager, Theodore Long, unveiled a new, entirely platinum ECW Championship belt design. In August, Henry defended the title against Matt Hardy at SummerSlam after getting himself disqualified; however championships cannot change hands via disqualification, meaning that Henry retained the title. Henry later lost the title to Hardy at September's Unforgiven in the Championship Scramble match.
Henry attempted to regain the championship throughout the end of 2008, and had a match against Hardy at No Mercy, but failed as he was unsuccessful. Henry and Atlas then engaged in a scripted rivalry against Finlay and Hornswoggle, which included Henry losing a Belfast Brawl to Finlay at Armageddon. At the start of 2009, Henry qualified for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 25, and was involved in a series of matches with the other competitors on Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. He was unsuccessful at WrestleMania, however, as CM Punk won the match. In May, Henry began a rivalry with Evan Bourne, which began after Bourne defeated Henry by countout on the May 26 episode of ECW.
Tag team championship pursuits (2009–2011)
On June 29, Henry was traded to the Raw brand and redebuted for the brand that night as the third opponent in a three-on-one gauntlet match against WWE Champion Randy Orton, which he won, turning Henry into a face in the process. In August 2009, Henry formed a tag team with Montel Vontavious Porter and the two challenged the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and The Big Show) for the title at Breaking Point, but were unsuccessful. They stopped teaming afterwards, becoming involved in separate storylines, until the February 15, 2010 episode of Raw in which they defeated the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Big Show and The Miz in a non-title match. The next week they challenged The Big Show and The Miz in a title match but were unsuccessful. At Extreme Rules, Henry and MVP fought for a chance to become number one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, but were the second team eliminated in a gauntlet match by The Big Show and The Miz. Ultimately, The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith) won the match.
Henry mentored Lucky Cannon in the second season of NXT. Cannon was eliminated on the August 10 episode of NXT. In September, Henry began teaming with Evan Bourne, starting at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, where they entered a Tag Team Turmoil for the WWE Tag Team Championship. They made it to the final two before being defeated by Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. The team came to an end in October when Bourne suffered an injury and was taken out of action. Henry then formed a team with Yoshi Tatsu on the November 29 episode of Raw, defeating WWE Tag Team Champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, after a distraction by John Cena. They received a shot at the championship the next week, in a fatal four-way elimination tag team match, which also included The Usos and Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov. Henry and Tatsu were the first team eliminated in the match.
World Heavyweight Champion (2011–2012)
On the April 25, 2011 episode of Raw, Henry was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 WWE draft. In the main event of the night, Henry attacked his teammates John Cena and Christian, turning heel in the process. On the May 27 episode of SmackDown, Henry participated in a Triple Threat match against Sheamus and Christian to decide the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by Sheamus. On the June 17 episode of SmackDown, Henry was scheduled to face an angry and emotionally unstable Big Show, who warned Henry not to get into the ring; Henry ignored the warning and Big Show assaulted him before the match could begin. This act ignited a feud between the two; Henry attacked Big Show both backstage and during matches while on the July 1 episode of SmackDown, Big Show's music played during Henry's match against Randy Orton, causing Henry to be counted out and costing him a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. Henry reacted by destroying the audio equipment and attacking a technician. Henry faced Big Show in a singles match at Money in the Bank and won. After the match, Henry crushed Big Show's leg with a chair, (kayfabe) injuring him, an act Henry later referenced as an induction into the "Hall of Pain". Henry did the same to Kane on the next episode of SmackDown, and in the months ahead, Vladimir Kozlov and The Great Khali suffered the same fate.
On the July 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry was informed that he could no longer compete as no one dared to fight him, but Sheamus interrupted, saying that he wasn't afraid of Henry before slapping him. At SummerSlam, Henry defeated Sheamus by count-out after slamming him through a ring barricade. On the August 19 episode of SmackDown, Henry won a 20-man Battle Royal to become the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship to face Randy Orton at Night of Champions, and throughout weeks on SmackDown and Raw, Henry regularly attacked Orton, getting an advantage over him. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Orton to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. Henry successfully defended the title against Orton at Hell in a Cell in a Hell in a Cell match.
On the October 7 episode of SmackDown, Big Show returned and chokeslammed Henry through the announce table, thus earning a title shot against Henry at Vengeance. During the match, Henry superplexed Big Show from the top rope, causing the ring to collapse from the impact and the match to be ruled a no contest. Henry began a feud with the Money in the Bank briefcase holder Daniel Bryan on the November 4 episode of SmackDown, challenging Bryan to a non-title match to prove that Bryan could not become champion. During the match, Big Show knocked out Henry, making him win by disqualification. Big Show then urged Bryan to cash in his contract, but Henry recovered and attacked both Bryan and Big Show before the match could start. At Survivor Series, Henry retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Big Show after a low blow that disqualified Henry. Angered by Henry's cowardice, Big Show crushed Henry's ankle with a steel chair. On the November 25 episode of SmackDown, Henry was knocked out again by Big Show, at which point Bryan cashed in his briefcase for a title match and quickly pinned Henry. However, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long revealed that Henry was not medically cleared to compete and voided the match, so Henry remained champion and the briefcase was returned to Bryan. Later that night, Bryan won a fatal-four-way match to face Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage. On the November 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry defeated Bryan in a steel cage match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
henAt TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Henry lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Big Show in a chairs match. After the match, Henry knocked Big Show out, resulting in Daniel Bryan cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. On the January 20 episode of SmackDown, Bryan retained the championship against Henry in a lumberjack match after Bryan provoked the lumberjacks to come in and attack them to cause a no contest. At the 2012 Royal Rumble event, Henry faced Bryan and Big Show in a triple threat steel cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship; Bryan escaped the cage to retain the title. On the February 3 episode of SmackDown, Henry was suspended indefinitely (in storyline) by SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long, after Henry physically accosted Long as he demanded a one-on-one rematch that night with Bryan. In reality, Henry had suffered a hyper-extended knee the previous week. Henry returned to in-ring action on the February 20 episode of Raw, losing to Sheamus. On the April 2 and 9 episodes of Raw, Henry faced CM Punk for the WWE Championship which he won by count-out and disqualification; as a result, Punk retained his title. On the April 16 episode of Raw, Punk defeated Henry in a no-disqualification, no count-out match to retain the WWE Championship. On May 14, Henry announced he was going under a career-threatening surgery for an injury.
Final feuds (2013–2017)
After a nine-month absence, Henry made his return on the February 4, 2013 episode of Raw, brutally attacking Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry defeated Randy Orton to earn a spot in the number one contenders' Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber. At the pay-per-view on February 17, Henry eliminated Daniel Bryan and Kane before being eliminated by Randy Orton. After his elimination, Henry attacked the three remaining participants before being escorted out by WWE officials. Henry then began a feud with Ryback after several non-verbal confrontations. On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, Henry was defeated by Ryback via disqualification, following interference from The Shield. Afterward, Henry delivered the World's Strongest Slam to Ryback three times in a row. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, Henry defeated Ryback in a singles match. Later that month, Henry reignited a feud with Sheamus by repeatedly attacking Sheamus backstage. Henry and Sheamus then challenged each other in tests of strength, but with Sheamus unable to best Henry, he resorted to attacking Henry with Brogue Kicks. After Sheamus (during his match) Brogue Kicked Henry (who was on commentary), Henry snapped and brutally whipped Sheamus with a belt. This led to a strap match on May 19 at Extreme Rules, where Sheamus emerged victorious. With the loss to Sheamus, Henry declared that he was "going home".
After being absent from television due to injuries, Henry used social media to tease his retirement. On the June 17 episode of Raw, Henry returned, interrupting WWE Champion John Cena and delivering an emotional retirement speech, which was revealed as a ruse when Henry gave Cena a World's Strongest Slam after concluding his speech. The segment was highly praised by fans and critics. With Henry stating his intent to challenge for the "only title he's never held", he was granted a WWE Championship match against Cena at Money in the Bank. On July 14 at the pay-per-view, Henry failed in his title challenge against Cena after submitting to the STF. The following night on Raw, Henry cut a promo to congratulate Cena on his win and asked for a rematch for SummerSlam, but was ultimately attacked by The Shield, turning face in the process for the first time since 2011. Henry continued his face turn the following week, by confronting The Shield and teaming together with The Usos to fend them off. Henry and the Usos went on to lose to The Shield in two six-man tag team matches, the first on the July 29 episode of Raw, and the second on the August 7 episode of Main Event. On the August 12 episode of Raw, Henry competed in a Battle Royal to determine the number one contender for the United States Championship, but was the last man eliminated by Rob Van Dam. After the match, Henry and Van Dam were confronted by The Shield, before the returning Big Show came to their aid. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry, Show, and Van Dam defeated The Shield in a six-man tag team match. After a suspected hamstring injury on August 31 at the TD Garden in Boston Massachusetts, Henry was cleared to compete. Henry, however, took time off and during his time off, he dropped down to and shaved his head bald.
Henry returned to in-ring action on November 24 at Survivor Series, answering Ryback's open challenge and defeating him. On the January 6, 2014 episode of Raw, Henry tried to confront Brock Lesnar during separate encounters after Lesnar's return, resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 the first time and then Lesnar injured Henry's arm after getting it in a kimura lock hold, causing Henry to wail in pain and be absent. He returned on February 10 episode of Raw, and answered Dean Ambrose's open challenge for the United States Championship, but was unable to win the title due to interference by the rest of The Shield. In March, Henry suffered another attack from Lesnar, this time resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 through the announcing table.
On the August 4 episode of Raw, Henry defeated Damien Sandow after a few months absence. That same week on SmackDown, Henry formed a tag team with Big Show to defeat RybAxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel). On the August 18 episode of Raw, Henry entered a feud with Rusev by attacking him. This set up a match between Henry and Rusev at Night of Champions, which he lost by submission. The following night on Raw, he lost to Rusev again by knockout via submission. On the October 27 episode of Raw, Henry attacked Big Show during their tag team match against Gold and Stardust, and turning heel in the process. On the November 3 episode of Raw, Henry lost to Big Show via disqualification and slammed Big Show onto the steel steps. On the November 10 Raw, he joined The Authority's team to face John Cena's team at Survivor Series. On November 23 at Survivor Series, Henry was the first to be eliminated from Team Authority 50 seconds into the match after being knocked out by Big Show. Henry then took another hiatus due to an unspecified injury.
Henry returned on the March 12, 2015 episode of SmackDown, confronting Roman Reigns for having a lack of identity and for not being respected, resulting in Reigns attacking Henry. The attack caused Henry to become a believer in Reigns, and turning face in the process. Henry was unsuccessful in the Elimination Chamber match for the vacant Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber, replacing Rusev who was injured, but was eliminated by Sheamus At Royal Rumble pre-show on January 24, 2016, Henry teamed with Jack Swagger to win a Fatal 4-Way tag team match to earn their spots in the Royal Rumble match. Despite this victory, Henry entered the Rumble match at #22 and lasted only 47 seconds when he was quickly eliminated by The Wyatt Family. At WrestleMania 32, Henry entered his third André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where he made it to the final six competitors until being eliminated by Kane and Darren Young.
On July 19, at the 2016 WWE draft, Henry was drafted to Raw. On the August 1 episode of Raw, Henry claimed he still "had a lot left in him" when he spoke of reviving the Hall of Pain and his participation in the Olympics. Raw General Manager Mick Foley gave Henry a United States Championship match, but Henry would lose by submission to Rusev. In October, Henry allied himself with R-Truth and Goldust in a feud against Titus O'Neil and The Shining Stars (Primo and Epico), in which Henry's team came out victorious. Henry returned at the Royal Rumble on January 29, 2017 as entrant number 6, only to be eliminated by Braun Strowman. He unsuccessfully competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33.
Retirement and WWE Hall of Famer (2017–2021)
Following WrestleMania 33, Henry retired and transitioned into a backstage producers role. He later made his return in a backstage cameo at the Raw 25 Years event in January 2018. On March 19, 2018, it was announced that Henry would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Big Show, who was one of his closest friends in WWE. On April 27, at the Greatest Royal Rumble, Henry participated in the event's Royal Rumble match, scoring 3 eliminations, but was himself eliminated by Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler. In early 2019, Henry took on a backstage mentoring role helping talent work on their off-air attitude, including cleanliness and respect in the locker room.
Henry appeared on the January 4, 2021 episode of Raw, on its Raw Legends Night special, where in he appeared riding on a scooter due to an injured leg. He was verbally confronted by Randy Orton in what was his final appearance in WWE.
All Elite Wrestling (2021–present)
Henry made his debut for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on May 30, 2021 at Double or Nothing where it was announced that he will be a part of the commentary team for its new show AEW Rampage, as well as a coach.
Personal life
Henry has an older brother named Pat. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Jana, son Jacob, and daughter Joanna. He also has a two-foot ferret named Pipe. He drives a Hummer that he won in the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic. On September 10, 2012, Henry served as one of the pallbearers for actor Michael Clarke Duncan's funeral.
In March 2019, Henry pledged to donate his brain to CTE research once he dies.
Filmography
Film
Video games
Henry appears in the following licensed wrestling video games:
Championships, records, and accomplishments
Powerlifting
Championships Participation – High School Level
Two times 1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting TEAM Championships (in Division I under Silsbee High School)
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1988 in SHW division
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1989 in SHW division
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division
1st place in National High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 18
results: Powerlifting Total – (+
Championships Participation – Junior&Senior Level
1st place in International Junior (20–23) Powerlifting Championships 1991 in SHW division at age 20
2nd place in Men's USPF Senior National Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 19
results: Powerlifting Total – (
1st place in ADFPA (USAPL) National Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
1st place in WDFPF World Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
1st place in USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997 in SHW division at age 26
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
Records*
Teen III (18–19 years) Level
Teen-age World Records in the squat at and total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
Teen-age US American Records in the squat at , bench press , dead lift and total at set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in all four powerlifting categories – the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at as well as the total at at age 19.
Current Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in the squat at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991
Collegiate Level
Current Texas State Collegiate Record holder in the squat at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
Junior Level (20–23 years)
Current Texas State Junior Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
Senior Level (24+ years)
Current Texas State Record holder in the squat at , the deadlift at and the total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) from July 16, 1995 to October 29, 1995
Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from October 29, 1995 to June 7, 2010** (+regardless of weight class until November 4, 2007***)
Former All-time raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from July 16, 1995 to May 23, 2010**** (+regardless of weight class until July 4, 2009*****)
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at in SHW class only since July 16, 1995
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total World Record holder at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
Current All-time American Record holder in the raw deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since July 16, 1995
Current American Record holder in the deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Current All-time US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Federation Records
World Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation (WDFPF) World Records
Current WDFPF World Record holder in the squat at , the deadlift at and the total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since October 29, 1995 (categorized as "open equipped", despite performed in singlet&knee sleeves only/without suit)
U.S.A. Powerlifting (USAPL) US American Records
Current USAPL US American Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Current US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Special Powerlifting Honors
"The World's Strongest Teen-ager" by the Los Angeles Times in April 1990.
Mark Henry was voted in the All-time Top 25 All-Mens US Powerlifting Nationals Team in 2007.
Mark Henry is the only human in history who has not only squatted more than without a squat suit, but also deadlifted more than raw.
Mark Henry is the only human in history to have squatted more than without a squat suit and deadlifted more than raw in one and the same powerlifting meet.
Mark Henry's raw squat and deadlift, done on July 16, 1995 is the highest raw "squat-pull-2-lift-total" (squat+deadlift=) ever lifted in a competition. (Andrei Malanichev's squat and deadlift = on October 22, 2011 being the 2nd highest ever; Mark Henry's squat and deadlift = being the 3rd highest, Benedikt Magnusson's squat and deadlift = being the 4th highest; Malanichev's squat and deadlift = being the 5th; Don Reinhoudt's squat and deadlift = being th 6th)
Mark Henry does not only hold the greatest all-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total in history at , but also the second greatest in history at .
* incomplete
** surpassed by Robert Wilkerson (SHW class) of the United States with a raw squat with knee wraps on June 7, 2010 at the Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) Nationals (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class*** surpassed by Sergiy Karnaukhov (308-pound-class) of Ukraine] with a raw squat with knee wraps on November 4, 2007 as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world record**** surpassed by Andy Bolton (SHW class) of the United Kingdom with a raw deadlift on May 23, 2010 (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class (+regardless of weight class)***** surpassed by Konstantin Konstantinovs (308-pound-class) of Latvia] with a raw deadlift without a belt on July 4, 2009 (drug-tested competition) as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world recordWeightlifting
Olympic Games
Olympic Games team member representing USA at the Olympics 1992 in Barcelona, Spain, finishing 10th place in SHW division at age 21
Team Captain of the Olympic Weightlifting team representing USA at the Olympics 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, finishing 14th in SHW division due to back injury at age 25
Pan American Games
Silver Medalist in the Olympic weightlifting Total in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: total – 804 pounds
Gold Medalist in the Snatch in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: snatch – 391 1/4 pounds, setting an American record
Bronze Medalist in Clean and jerk in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: clean and jerk – snatch 412 3/4 pounds
North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Championships
1st place in North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division
U.S. National Weightlifting Championships
1st place in U.S. National Junior Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
results: total: 326.0 kg – snatch: 156.0 kg / clean&jerk: 170.0 kg
4th place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
results: total: 325.0 kg – snatch: 150.0 kg / clean&jerk: 175.0 kg
3rd place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
results: total: 365.0 kg – snatch: 165.0 kg / clean&jerk: 200.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 21
results: total: 385.0 kg – snatch: 175.0 kg / clean&jerk: 210.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
results: total: 387.5 kg – snatch: 172.5 kg / clean&jerk: 215.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 24
results: total: 400.0 kg – snatch: 180.0 kg / clean&jerk: 220.0 kg
Mark Henry was voted as the #1 outstanding lifter of the championships
U.S. Olympic Festival Championships
1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 23
USA Weightlifting American Open Championships
2nd place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
1st place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 21
RECORDS
Junior US American record holder (+110 kg) in the Snatch at 162.5 kg, Clean and jerk at 202.5 kg, and Total at 362.5 kg (1986–1992)
Senior US American record holder (+108 kg) in the Snatch at 180.0 kg, Clean and jerk at 220.0 kg, and Total at 400.0 kg (1993–1997)
Strength athletics
Arnold Classic
Arnold Strongman Classic – Winner 2002
First man in history to one-hand clean and push press the "unliftable" Thomas Inch dumbbell (; diameter handle)
The Second Strongest Man That Ever Lived according to Flex Magazine
International Sports Hall of Fame
International Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2012)
Professional wrestling
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2019)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Frank Gotch Award (2021)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated''
Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2011)
Ranked No. 9 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2012
Ranked No. 472 of the top 500 greatest wrestlers in the "PWI Years" in 2003
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
ECW Championship (1 time)
World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF European Championship (1 time)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2018)
Slammy Award (3 times)
"Holy $#!+ Move of the Year" (2011)
Feat of Strength of the Year (2013)
Match of the Year (2014) –
See also
List of strongmen
List of powerlifters
References
External links
Mark Henry – The Strongest Man That Ever Lived (article by Ben Tatar)
Mark Henry's impressive achievements over the ropes by Katie Raymonds on WWE.com
International Sports Hall of Fame: Mark Henry featured in pictures and Acceptance Speech video clips
Powerliftingwatch of all-time powerlifting records, including Mark Henry's
Video: Mark Henry at the Arnold Strongman Classic 2002 (introduction+Apollon's Wheel+Inch dumbbell)
Video: Mark Henry lifting the "unliftable" Thomas Inch Dumbbell as the first man in history
Video: Mark Henry wins the 1995 USAPL (ADFPA) National Powerlifting Championships and deadlifts 903 lb
1971 births
All Elite Wrestling personnel
American male professional wrestlers
American male weightlifters
American powerlifters
American strength athletes
African-American male professional wrestlers
ECW champions
ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions
Living people
Olympic weightlifters of the United States
Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States
Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States
Pan American Games medalists in weightlifting
Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States
People with dyslexia
People from Silsbee, Texas
Professional wrestlers from Texas
The Nation of Domination members
Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Weightlifters at the 1995 Pan American Games
Weightlifters at the 1996 Summer Olympics
World Heavyweight Champions (WWE)
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF European Champions
Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American sportspeople | false | [
"Domination analysis of an approximation algorithm is a way to estimate its performance, introduced by Glover and Punnen in 1997. Unlike the classical approximation ratio analysis, which compares the numerical quality of a calculated solution with that of an optimal solution, domination analysis involves examining the rank of the calculated solution in the sorted order of all possible solutions. In this style of analysis, an algorithm is said to have dominance number or domination number K, if there exists a subset of K different solutions to the problem among which the algorithm's output is the best. Domination analysis can also be expressed using a domination ratio, which is the fraction of the solution space that is no better than the given solution; this number always lies within the interval [0,1], with larger numbers indicating better solutions. Domination analysis is most commonly applied to problems for which the total number of possible solutions is known and for which exact solution is difficult.\n\nFor instance, in the Traveling salesman problem, there are (n-1)! possible solutions for a problem instance with n cities. If an algorithm can be shown to have dominance number close to (n-1)!, or equivalently to have domination ratio close to 1, then it can be taken as preferable to an algorithm with lower dominance number.\n\nIf it is possible to efficiently find random samples of a problem's solution space, as it is in the Traveling salesman problem, then it is straightforward for a randomized algorithm to find a solution that with high probability has high domination ratio: simply construct a set of samples and select the best solution from among them. (See, e.g., Orlin and Sharma.)\n\nThe dominance number described here should not be confused with the domination number of a graph, which refers to the number of vertices in the smallest dominating set of the graph.\n\nRecently, a growing number of articles in which domination analysis has been applied to assess the performance of heuristics has appeared. This kind of analysis may be seen as competing with the classical approximation ratio analysis tradition. The two measures may also be viewed as complementary.\n\nKnown Results \nThis section contains a technical survey of known results.\n\nVertex Cover \n Inapproximability. Let ε > 0. Unless P=NP, there is no polynomial algorithm for Vertex Cover\n such that its domination number is greater than 3^((n-n^ε)/3).\n\nKnapsack \n Inapproximability. Let ε > 0. Unless P=NP, there is no polynomial algorithm for Knapsack\n such that its domination number is greater than 2^(n-n^ε).\n\nMax Satisfiability\n\nTSP\n\nReferences \n \n \n \n\nApproximation algorithms",
"Domination or dominant may refer to:\n\nSociety\n World domination, which is mainly a conspiracy theory\n Colonialism in which one group (usually a nation) invades another region for material gain or to eliminate competition\n Chauvinism in which a person or group consider themselves to be superior, and thus entitled to use force to dominate others\n Sexual dominance involving individuals in a subset of BDSM behaviour\n Hierarchy\n Patriarchy\n\nMusic\n Dominant (music), a diatonic scale step and diatonic function in tonal music theory\n Dominant seventh chord, a four-note chord consisting of a major triad and a minor seventh\n Domination (Cannonball Adderley album), 1965\n Domination (Domino album), 2004\n Domination (Morbid Angel album), 1995\n Domination (Morifade album), 2004\n \"Domination\", a song by Band-Maid from World Domination\n \"Domination\", a song by Pantera from Cowboys from Hell\n \"Domination\", a song by Symphony X from Paradise Lost\n \"Domination\", a song by Way Out West from Way Out West\n \"Domination\", a song by Within the Ruins from Black Heart\n\nGames\n Domination (chess), where a chess piece with wide movement cannot avoid capture\n Domination (video game), a turn-based computer game\n Domination (poker), a way of rating a poker hand\n Domination, also known as Focus, a 1964 game designed by Sid Sackson\n Domination (role-playing game), a tabletop role-playing game\n DomiNations, a 2015 mobile strategy game\n\nScience\n Dominant wind, winds that blow predominantly from a single general direction over a particular point on the Earth's surface\n Dominance (linguistics), a relationship between syntactic nodes\n\nBiology\n Dominance (genetics), one allele is expressed over a second allele at the same locus\n Footedness, the natural preference of one's left or right foot\n Handedness, a better performance or preference for use of a hand \n Ocular dominance, the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other\n Dominance (ecology), the degree to which a taxon is more numerous than its competitors in an ecological community\n\nMathematics\n Dominating decision rule, in decision theory\n Domination number, in graph theory\n Dominant maps, in rational mapping\n\nOther uses\n Domination (angel), in Christian angelology\n Dominant CZ, a Czech Czech company\n The Domination, a dystopian alternate history series by S. M. Stirling\n Dominance and submission, in an erotic episode or lifestyle\n\nSee also\n Britney: Domination, a 2019 Las Vegas residency concert by Britney Spears\n Dominance (disambiguation)\n Dominator (disambiguation)\n Male dominance (disambiguation)"
]
|
[
"Mark Henry",
"Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998-2000)",
"What is sexual chocolate?",
"Henry gave himself the nickname Sexual Chocolate,",
"How did he come up with that nickname?",
"I don't know.",
"What is Nation of Domination?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_a8710470bf874ec9a8952c68996f9cd5_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 4 | Other than Mark Henry's nicknames, Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Mark Henry | Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager. During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname Sexual Chocolate, and was involved in controversial angles with Chyna and a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. After this, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF women from Chyna to Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand. Henry was part of various other embarrassing and infamous storylines, including one about him overcoming sex addiction. CANNOTANSWER | Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF women from Chyna to Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. | Mark Jerrold Henry (born June 12, 1971) is an American powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter, strongman, and retired professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator/analyst, coach, and talent scout. He is best known for his 25-year career in WWE where he was a two-time world champion. He is a two-time Olympian (1992 and 1996) and a gold, silver, and bronze medalist at the Pan American Games in 1995. As a powerlifter, he was WDFPF World Champion (1995) and a two-time U.S. National Champion (1995 and 1997) as well as an all-time raw world record holder in the squat and deadlift. Currently, he still holds the WDFPF world records in the squat, deadlift and total and the USAPL American record in the deadlift since 1995. He is credited for the biggest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a drug tested athlete, regardless of weight class, as well as the greatest raw deadlift by an American citizen.
In weightlifting, Henry was a three-time U.S. National Weightlifting Champion (1993, 1994, 1996), an American Open winner (1992), a two-time U.S. Olympic Festival Champion (1993 and 1994) and a NACAC champion (1996). He holds all three Senior US American weightlifting records of 1993–1997. In 2002 he won the first annual Arnold Strongman Classic.
Since joining the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1996, he became a one-time WWF European Champion and a two-time world champion, having held the ECW Championship in 2008, and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship in 2011. In first winning the ECW Championship, Henry became only the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history (after The Rock, Booker T, and Bobby Lashley).
In April 2018, Henry was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018.
Early life
Henry was born in the small town of Silsbee in East Texas, 90 miles northeast of Houston. As a child, he was a big wrestling fan and André the Giant was his favorite wrestler. While attending a wrestling show in Beaumont, Texas, young Henry tried to touch André as he was walking down the aisle, but tripped over the barricade. André picked him up out of the crowd and put him back behind the barricade. When Henry was 12 years old, his father, Ernest, died of complications from diabetes. When he was 14 years old, Henry was diagnosed with dyslexia.
Henry comes from a family in which almost all of the men are larger than average, especially his great uncle Chudd, who was 6 ft 7 in, weighed approximately , never had a pair of manufactured shoes, and was known as the strongest man in the Piney Woods of East Texas.
Henry played football in high school until his senior year, when he strained ligaments in his wrist during the first game of the year and scored below 700 on the SAT.
Powerlifting career
By the time Mark Henry was in the fourth grade, he was and weighed . His mother bought a set of weights for him when he was ten years old. During Henry's freshman year at Silsbee High School, he was already able to squat , which was well over school record. As an 18-year-old high school senior, Henry was called "the world's strongest teenager" by the Los Angeles Times, and made it into the headlines in early 1990 for winning the National High School Powerlifting Championships and setting teenage lifting world records in the squat and total . By the time Henry finished high school, he was a three-time Texas state champion with state and national records in all four powerlifting categories—the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at as well as the total at .
At the Texas High School Powerlifting Championships in April 1990, Terry Todd, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin and former weightlifter, spotted Henry and persuaded him to go to Austin after he graduated to train in the Olympic style of weightlifting. In July 1990 at the USPF Senior National Powerlifting Championships, 19-year-old Henry came second only to the legendary six-time World Powerlifting Champion Kirk Karwoski. While powerlifting relies primarily on brute strength and power, which Henry obviously possessed, Olympic weightlifting is considered more sophisticated, involving more agility, timing, flexibility and technique. There have been few lifters in history who have been able to be successful in both lifting disciplines. Mastering the technique of weightlifting usually takes many years of practice, but Henry broke four national junior records in weightlifting after only eight months of training. In April 1991, he won the United States National Junior Championships; 20 days later he placed fourth at the U.S. Senior National Championships, and finished sixth at the Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Germany two months later. Only few weeks afterwards, he became 1991's International Junior Champion in Powerlifiting as well. In Henry's first year in competitive weightlifting, he broke all three junior (20 and under) American records 12 times, and became the United States' top Superheavyweight, surpassing Mario Martinez.
At the age of 19, Henry had already managed to qualify for the weightlifting competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he finished tenth in the Super- Heavyweight class. Ten months before the 1992 Olympics, Henry had begun training with Dragomir Cioroslan, a bronze medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics, who said that he had "never seen anyone with Mark's raw talent". After the Olympics, Henry became more determined to focus on weightlifting and began competing all over the world. In late 1992 he took the win at the USA Weightlifting American Open and further proved his dominance on the American soil by winning not only the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships, but also the U.S. Olympic Festival Championships in 1993 and 1994. At the 1995 Pan American Games Henry won a gold, silver and bronze medal.
Having reached the pinnacle of weightlifting on a National and continental level, he competed again in powerlifting and shocked the world by winning the ADFPA U.S. National Powerlifting Championships in 1995 with a raw Powerlifting Total. Despite competing without supportive equipment in contrast to the other competitors, Henry managed to outclass the lifter in second place by , defeating not only five-time IPF World Powerlifting Champion and 12 time USAPL National Powerlifting Champion Brad Gillingham, but also America's Strongest Man of 1997 Mark Philippi. In the process he set all-time world records in the raw deadlift at and the squat without a squat suit at as well as the all-time drug tested raw total at . Later that same year in October, he competed in the drug-free Powerlifting World Championships and won again, even though he trained on the powerlifts only sparingly—due his main focus still being on the two Olympic lifts. He not only become World Champion by winning the competition but also bettered his previous all-time squat world record to and his all-time drug tested world record total to .
In 1996 Henry became the North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Champion. He earned the right to compete at the Olympics by winning the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships in the Spring of 1996 for a third time. During his victory Henry became Senior US American record holder (1993–1997) in the Snatch at , Clean and jerk at , and Total at , improving all of his three previous personal bests. This total, in the opinion of many experts in track field of international lifting—including Dragomir Cioroslan, the '96s coach of the U.S. team—was the highest ever made by an athlete who had never used anabolic steroids—who was lifetime drugfree. By that time, at the age of 24, Henry was generally acknowledged as the strongest man in the world, even by many of the Eastern Bloc athletes who outrank him in weightlifting. No one in the history of the sports had ever lifted as much as him in the five competitive lifts—the snatch and the clean and jerk in weightlifting—the squat, bench press and deadlift in powerlifting. To this day, his five lift total is still the greatest in history by a fair amount—making him arguably one of the strongest men that ever lived and stamp him, according to lifting statistician Herb Glossbrenner, as history's greatest lifter.
In the months prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Henry received more attention and publicity than any lifter in recent United States history. He guested at Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and The Oprah Winfrey Show and was featured on HBO Inside Sports and The Today Show. He was also featured in dozens of magazines including U.S. News & World Report, People Vanity Fair, ESPN The Magazine and Life where he was photographed nude by famed artist Annie Lebowitz. During this period he connected with WWE owner Vince McMahon for the first time, which led to him signing a 10-year deal as professional wrestler.
Henry improved his lifts to in the snatch and in the clean-and-jerk during his final eight weeks of preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Henry at 6-foot-4-inches tall and bodyweight, became the largest athlete in Olympic history and was voted captain of the Olympic weightlifting team. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury during the competition and was unable to approach his normal performance level. Due to the injury he had to drop out after his first clean and jerk attempt and finished with a disappointing 14th place. His appearance at the Olympics proved to be his last official competition in Olympic weightlifting, as he retired from weightlifting, vowing never to return unless the sport is "cleaned up" of anabolic steroid use.
Since his career start as a professional wrestler shortly after the Olympics, he broke his leg in the fall of 1996. But by the summer of the following year he had rehabilitated it enough to be able to compete at the USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997, where he won the competition to become the U.S National Powerlifting Champion in the Super Heavyweight class again. He had planned to continue heavy training in powerlifting, although his travel schedule as a professional wrestler with the WWF (now WWE) has made sustained training difficult. Mark's WWF contract was unique in many ways, allowing him at least three months off each year from wrestling, so he can train for the national and world championships in weightlifting or powerlifting. Barring injury, Mark had originally hoped to return to the platform in late 1998, to lift for many more years, and to eventually squat at least without a “squat suit” and to deadlift .
Although in early 1998 he was still able to do five repetitions in the bench press with , three repetitions in the squat with (with no suit and no knee wraps), and three repetitions in the standing press with in training, while traveling with the World Wrestling Federation, he never returned to compete again in official championships in favor of his wrestling career. He weighed at that time, and his right upper arm was measured at 24” by Terry Todd. By basically ending his lifting career at the age of 26, it is probable that he never reached his full physical potential as a professional lifter. Henry remains the youngest man in history to squat more than 900 pounds without a squat suit as well as the youngest to total more than 2,300 pounds raw – he's the only person ever to have accomplished any of these feats at under 25 years of age.
Personal powerlifting records
Powerlifting Competition Records
done in official Powerlifting full meets
Squat – raw with knee wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ former all-time unequipped squat world record for over a decade in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2007)
→ current WDFPF world record squat in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record squat without a suit in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ currently heaviest walked-out raw squat of all time (without a monolift) regardless of weight class or federation since 1995
Deadlift – raw (done on July 16, 1995 ADFPA (USAPL))
→ former all-time raw world record deadlift in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2009)
→ current all-time highest raw deadlift ever pulled by an American in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ current Open Men American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current all-time US national championship record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current USAPL American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested raw world record deadlift (in SHW class only) since 1995
Powerlifting Total – ( / () raw with wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ current WDFPF world record in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record unequipped powerlifting total in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best official lifts) – ()
Powerlifting Gym Records (unofficial)
Squat –
Bench press –
Deadlift –
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best unofficial lifts) – ()
Front Squat –
Behind-the-neck-press – over
Weightlifting Competition Records
done in official competition
Snatch: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American snatch record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Clean and jerk: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American clean&jerk record 1993–1997 in SHW class
Weightlifting Total: – snatch: / clean&jerk: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American weightlifting total record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Weightlifting Gym Records (unofficial)
all three done in training after the 1996's U.S. Nationals, but prior to the Olympics '96
Snatch:
Clean&jerk:
Weightlifting Total:
Combined lifting records
official weightlifting total + official powerlifting total = Combined Supertotal:
+ = raw with wraps
→ current all-time highest combined weightlifting/powerlifting total in history (since 1996*)
5 official weightlifting & powerlifting lifts combined – the snatch + the clean-and-jerk and the squat + bench press + deadlift = Five-Lift-Combined-Total:
+ + + + =
→ current all-time highest 5 lift total in history (since 1996*)
* both combined all-time records had previously been held by legendary powerlifter Jon Cole
Holding these all-time records in the lifting sports makes Mark Henry arguably one of the strongest men in history. Having achieved this at the very young age of 24 while being lifetime drug-free makes it even more impressive. Many experts in the field, including Bill Kazmaier, Jan and Terry Todd, Dr. Robert M. Goldman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Muscle & Fitness magazine and Flex magazine, consider him to be "one of the Strongest Men that ever lived" or even "the most naturally gifted strongman in history".
When asked in September 2003, who the strongest man in the world is today [2003], Bill Kazmaier, considered by many to be the greatest strongman of all time, stated: "It would have to be Mark Henry. [...] I think he's one of the strongest men in the history of the world, without a doubt."
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
Early career (1996–1997)
At the age of 24, Henry made his first appearance on World Wrestling Federation (WWF) programming on the March 11, 1996 episode of Monday Night Raw, where he press slammed Jerry Lawler, who was ridiculing Henry while interviewing him in the ring. After Henry competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics, the WWF signed him to a ten-year contract. Trained by professional wrestler Leo Burke, his first feud in the WWF was with Lawler. At the pay-per-view event, SummerSlam in August 1996, Henry came to the aid of Jake Roberts who was suffering indignity at the hands of Lawler. His debut wrestling match was at In Your House: Mind Games on September 22, 1996, where he defeated Lawler. The feud continued on the live circuit during subsequent weeks. On the November 4 episode of Raw, Henry served as a cornerman for Barry Windham in a match against Goldust. He was set to team with Windham, Marc Mero and Rocky Maivia to take on the team of Lawler, Goldust, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Crush at Survivor Series, but was replaced by Jake Roberts when he was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury. On the November 17 episode of Superstars, Henry defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Crush and Goldust in a tug of war contest. Henry's career was then stalled as, over the next year, he took time off to heal injuries and engage in further training. In November 1997, he returned to the ring, making his televised return the following month. By the end of the year, he was a regular fixture on WWF programming, defeating Steve Lombardi on the December 15 episode of Raw, and beating The Sultan on the December 27 episode of Shotgun.
Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998–2000)
Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After short feuds against Ken Shamrock and Vader, Henry participated in his faction's enmity against D-Generation X, which included a romantic storyline with DX member Chyna. When The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager.
During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname "Sexual Chocolate", adopting a ladies' man character. He first resumed his storyline with former enemy Chyna, but it ended with her betraying him in a controversial angle including a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view.
The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. He was part of a storyline about him overcoming sex addiction, which he accomplished thanks to The Godfather.
After this twist, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF veteran wrestler Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand.
Ohio Valley Wrestling and strongman competitions (2000–2002)
In 2000, Henry was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to improve his conditioning and wrestling skills. In OVW, he teamed with Nick Dinsmore to compete in a tournament for the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship in mid-2001. Later that year, Henry's mother died, causing him to go on hiatus from wrestling. He felt he had to compete in the "Super Bowl of weight lifting"—the Arnold Strongman Classic—in honor of his mother, who gave him his first weight set when he was a child.
Four months prior to the contest, Henry began lifting the heaviest of weights and trained for the first time since 1997 for a major lifting competition. He had never been a professional strongman before, but in the coming contest he was to face the very best of the best of professional strongmen, such as the #1 ranked strongman in the world, and defending World's Strongest Man competition winner of 2001 Svend Karlsen, World's Strongest Man winner of 2006 Phil Pfister, World Powerlifting Champion of 2001 and equipped deadlift world record holder Andy Bolton, World Muscle Power Champion, Olympic weightlifting Champion Raimonds Bergmanis, and reigning America's Strongest Man of 2001 Brian Schoonveld.
On February 22, 2002 in Columbus, Ohio the competition, consisting of four events, designed to determine the lifter with the greatest overall body power, began. Henry surprised everybody when he won the first event, setting a world record in the process by lifting the Apollon's Axle three times overhead. Only three men in history had ever been able to press it at all. By deadlifting for two repetitions in the second event and easily pushing a or more Hummer with nearly flat tires in the third event, Henry kept his lead continuously throughout the competition and never gave it up again. In the final "Farmer's Walk"-event Henry quickly carried the roughly of railroad ties up an incline, winning the whole competition convincingly to capture the winning prize — a US$75,000 Hummer, a vacation cruise and $10,000 cash.
Since Henry had only trained for four months and defeated the crème-de-là-crème of worldwide strongmen, who had been practicing for years, his win was a shock for strongman experts worldwide, but remained basically unnoticed by the wrestling audience. Henry proved to be worthy of the title "World's Strongest Man" not only by winning the contest, but also by achieving it in record time. By doing so he was again seen as the legit "strongest man in the world" by many lifting experts for a second time since 1996.
Various feuds (2002–2007)
Henry returned to the WWE the next month and was sent to the SmackDown! brand, where he developed an in-ring persona of performing "tests of strength" while other wrestlers took bets on the tests, but the gimmick met with little success. During this time he competed against such superstars as Chris Jericho and Christian. After being used sporadically on WWE (formerly WWF) television during 2002, as he was training for a weightlifting contest, and suffering a knee injury, Henry was sent back to OVW for more training.
In August 2003, Henry returned to WWE television on the Raw roster as a heel where he found some success as a member of "Thuggin' And Buggin' Enterprises", a group of African Americans led by Theodore Long who worked a race angle in which they felt they were victims of racism and were being held down by the "white man". During that time, Henry was involved in a brief program with World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg when former champion, Triple H, put a bounty on Goldberg. This was followed by a brief rivalry with Shawn Michaels, before he engaged in a rivalry with Booker T. After defeating Booker T twice, once in a street fight and once in a six-man tag team match, he lost to Booker T at the Armageddon pay-per-view in December 2003. At a practice session in OVW in February 2004, Henry tore his quadriceps muscle, and was out for over a year after undergoing surgery. Henry was then utilized by WWE as a public relations figure during his recovery, before returning to OVW to finish out 2005.
During the December 30 episode of SmackDown!, Henry made his return to television, as he interfered in a WWE Tag Team Championship match, joining with MNM (Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, and Melina), to help them defeat Rey Mysterio and Batista for the championship. A week later on SmackDown!, Henry got in a confrontation with the World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, and went on to interfere in a steel cage match between MNM and the team of Mysterio and Batista, helping MNM to retain their titles. Henry then had another match with Batista at a live event where Batista received a severely torn triceps that required surgery, forcing him to vacate his title. On the January 10, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, Henry was involved in a Battle Royal for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. He was finally eliminated by Kurt Angle, who won the title.
A week later, Henry received assistance from Daivari, who turned on Angle and announced that he was the manager of Henry. With Daivari at his side, Henry faced Angle for the World Heavyweight Championship at the 2006 Royal Rumble in January, losing when Angle hit him with a chair (without the referee seeing) and pinned him with a roll-up.
On the March 3 episode of SmackDown!, Henry interfered in a World Heavyweight Championship match between Angle and The Undertaker, attacking the latter when he was seconds from possibly winning the title. Henry then performed a diving splash on Undertaker, driving him through the announcer's table. Henry was then challenged to a casket match by Undertaker at WrestleMania 22. Henry vowed to defeat The Undertaker and end his undefeated streak at WrestleMania, but The Undertaker defeated him. Henry had a rematch against The Undertaker on the April 7 episode of SmackDown!. It ended in a no-contest when Daivari introduced his debuting client, The Great Khali. Khali went to the ring and attacked The Undertaker, starting a new feud and ending Henry's.
During the rest of April and May, Henry gained a pinfall victory over the World Heavyweight Champion, Rey Mysterio in a non-title match. Henry entered the King of the Ring Tournament, and lost to Bobby Lashley in the first round. He later cost Kurt Angle his World Heavyweight Championship opportunity against Mysterio, when he jumped off the top rope and crushed Angle through a table. Henry was then challenged by Angle to face off at Judgment Day, Henry then sent a "message" to Angle by defeating Paul Burchill. At Judgment Day, Henry defeated Angle by countout. Although winning, Angle got his revenge after the match by hitting Henry with a chair and putting him through a table.
Henry later went on what was referred to as a "path of destruction", causing injuries to numerous superstars. Henry "took out" Chris Benoit and Paul Burchill on this path of destruction, and attacked Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero. These events led up to a feud with the returning Batista, whom Henry had put out of action with a legitimate injury several months beforehand. When Batista returned he and Henry were scheduled to face one another at The Great American Bash in July. Weeks before that event, however, on the July 15, 2006 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIII, Henry was involved in a six-man tag team match with King Booker and Finlay against Batista, Rey Mysterio, and Bobby Lashley. During the match, Henry was injured, canceling the scheduled match at The Great American Bash, as Henry needed surgery. Doctors later found that Henry completely tore his patella tendon off the bone and split his patella completely in two.
Henry returned on the May 11, 2007 episode of SmackDown!, after weeks of vignettes hyping his return. He attacked The Undertaker after a World Heavyweight Championship steel cage match with Batista, allowing Edge to take advantage of the situation and use his Money in the Bank contract. Henry then began a short feud with Kane, defeating him in a Lumberjack Match at One Night Stand. Shortly after, Henry made an open challenge to the SmackDown! locker room, which nobody ever accepted. In the coming weeks he faced various jobbers—wrestlers who consistently lose to make their opponents look stronger—and quickly defeated them all. On the August 3 episode of SmackDown!, he claimed that nobody accepted the open challenge to step into the ring with him because of what he had done to The Undertaker, presenting footage of his assault on The Undertaker. The Undertaker responded over the following weeks, playing various mind games with Henry. Henry finally faced The Undertaker again at Unforgiven in September, losing to him after being given a Last Ride. Two weeks later, Henry lost a rematch to The Undertaker after The Undertaker performed a chokeslam on Henry.
ECW Champion (2007–2009)
After a short hiatus, Henry returned to WWE programming on the October 23 episode of ECW, attacking Kane, along with The Great Khali and Big Daddy V. Henry then began teaming with Big Daddy V against Kane and CM Punk, and was briefly managed by Big Daddy V's manager, Matt Striker. At Armageddon, Henry and Big Daddy V defeated Kane and Punk. Before WrestleMania XXIV aired, Henry participated in a 24-man battle royal to determine the number one contender for the ECW Championship, but failed to win.
As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Henry was drafted to the ECW brand. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Kane and Big Show in a triple threat match to capture the ECW Championship in his debut match as an ECW superstar. This was his first world championship in WWE, which also made him the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history. Upon winning the title, it was made exclusive to the ECW brand once again. Henry's title win came nearly a full decade after he was awarded the European Championship, which was back in 1999 and the only title he held in WWE. A few weeks later, Hall of Famer Tony Atlas returned to WWE to act as Henry's manager. Shortly after, ECW General Manager, Theodore Long, unveiled a new, entirely platinum ECW Championship belt design. In August, Henry defended the title against Matt Hardy at SummerSlam after getting himself disqualified; however championships cannot change hands via disqualification, meaning that Henry retained the title. Henry later lost the title to Hardy at September's Unforgiven in the Championship Scramble match.
Henry attempted to regain the championship throughout the end of 2008, and had a match against Hardy at No Mercy, but failed as he was unsuccessful. Henry and Atlas then engaged in a scripted rivalry against Finlay and Hornswoggle, which included Henry losing a Belfast Brawl to Finlay at Armageddon. At the start of 2009, Henry qualified for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 25, and was involved in a series of matches with the other competitors on Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. He was unsuccessful at WrestleMania, however, as CM Punk won the match. In May, Henry began a rivalry with Evan Bourne, which began after Bourne defeated Henry by countout on the May 26 episode of ECW.
Tag team championship pursuits (2009–2011)
On June 29, Henry was traded to the Raw brand and redebuted for the brand that night as the third opponent in a three-on-one gauntlet match against WWE Champion Randy Orton, which he won, turning Henry into a face in the process. In August 2009, Henry formed a tag team with Montel Vontavious Porter and the two challenged the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and The Big Show) for the title at Breaking Point, but were unsuccessful. They stopped teaming afterwards, becoming involved in separate storylines, until the February 15, 2010 episode of Raw in which they defeated the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Big Show and The Miz in a non-title match. The next week they challenged The Big Show and The Miz in a title match but were unsuccessful. At Extreme Rules, Henry and MVP fought for a chance to become number one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, but were the second team eliminated in a gauntlet match by The Big Show and The Miz. Ultimately, The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith) won the match.
Henry mentored Lucky Cannon in the second season of NXT. Cannon was eliminated on the August 10 episode of NXT. In September, Henry began teaming with Evan Bourne, starting at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, where they entered a Tag Team Turmoil for the WWE Tag Team Championship. They made it to the final two before being defeated by Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. The team came to an end in October when Bourne suffered an injury and was taken out of action. Henry then formed a team with Yoshi Tatsu on the November 29 episode of Raw, defeating WWE Tag Team Champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, after a distraction by John Cena. They received a shot at the championship the next week, in a fatal four-way elimination tag team match, which also included The Usos and Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov. Henry and Tatsu were the first team eliminated in the match.
World Heavyweight Champion (2011–2012)
On the April 25, 2011 episode of Raw, Henry was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 WWE draft. In the main event of the night, Henry attacked his teammates John Cena and Christian, turning heel in the process. On the May 27 episode of SmackDown, Henry participated in a Triple Threat match against Sheamus and Christian to decide the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by Sheamus. On the June 17 episode of SmackDown, Henry was scheduled to face an angry and emotionally unstable Big Show, who warned Henry not to get into the ring; Henry ignored the warning and Big Show assaulted him before the match could begin. This act ignited a feud between the two; Henry attacked Big Show both backstage and during matches while on the July 1 episode of SmackDown, Big Show's music played during Henry's match against Randy Orton, causing Henry to be counted out and costing him a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. Henry reacted by destroying the audio equipment and attacking a technician. Henry faced Big Show in a singles match at Money in the Bank and won. After the match, Henry crushed Big Show's leg with a chair, (kayfabe) injuring him, an act Henry later referenced as an induction into the "Hall of Pain". Henry did the same to Kane on the next episode of SmackDown, and in the months ahead, Vladimir Kozlov and The Great Khali suffered the same fate.
On the July 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry was informed that he could no longer compete as no one dared to fight him, but Sheamus interrupted, saying that he wasn't afraid of Henry before slapping him. At SummerSlam, Henry defeated Sheamus by count-out after slamming him through a ring barricade. On the August 19 episode of SmackDown, Henry won a 20-man Battle Royal to become the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship to face Randy Orton at Night of Champions, and throughout weeks on SmackDown and Raw, Henry regularly attacked Orton, getting an advantage over him. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Orton to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. Henry successfully defended the title against Orton at Hell in a Cell in a Hell in a Cell match.
On the October 7 episode of SmackDown, Big Show returned and chokeslammed Henry through the announce table, thus earning a title shot against Henry at Vengeance. During the match, Henry superplexed Big Show from the top rope, causing the ring to collapse from the impact and the match to be ruled a no contest. Henry began a feud with the Money in the Bank briefcase holder Daniel Bryan on the November 4 episode of SmackDown, challenging Bryan to a non-title match to prove that Bryan could not become champion. During the match, Big Show knocked out Henry, making him win by disqualification. Big Show then urged Bryan to cash in his contract, but Henry recovered and attacked both Bryan and Big Show before the match could start. At Survivor Series, Henry retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Big Show after a low blow that disqualified Henry. Angered by Henry's cowardice, Big Show crushed Henry's ankle with a steel chair. On the November 25 episode of SmackDown, Henry was knocked out again by Big Show, at which point Bryan cashed in his briefcase for a title match and quickly pinned Henry. However, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long revealed that Henry was not medically cleared to compete and voided the match, so Henry remained champion and the briefcase was returned to Bryan. Later that night, Bryan won a fatal-four-way match to face Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage. On the November 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry defeated Bryan in a steel cage match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
henAt TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Henry lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Big Show in a chairs match. After the match, Henry knocked Big Show out, resulting in Daniel Bryan cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. On the January 20 episode of SmackDown, Bryan retained the championship against Henry in a lumberjack match after Bryan provoked the lumberjacks to come in and attack them to cause a no contest. At the 2012 Royal Rumble event, Henry faced Bryan and Big Show in a triple threat steel cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship; Bryan escaped the cage to retain the title. On the February 3 episode of SmackDown, Henry was suspended indefinitely (in storyline) by SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long, after Henry physically accosted Long as he demanded a one-on-one rematch that night with Bryan. In reality, Henry had suffered a hyper-extended knee the previous week. Henry returned to in-ring action on the February 20 episode of Raw, losing to Sheamus. On the April 2 and 9 episodes of Raw, Henry faced CM Punk for the WWE Championship which he won by count-out and disqualification; as a result, Punk retained his title. On the April 16 episode of Raw, Punk defeated Henry in a no-disqualification, no count-out match to retain the WWE Championship. On May 14, Henry announced he was going under a career-threatening surgery for an injury.
Final feuds (2013–2017)
After a nine-month absence, Henry made his return on the February 4, 2013 episode of Raw, brutally attacking Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry defeated Randy Orton to earn a spot in the number one contenders' Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber. At the pay-per-view on February 17, Henry eliminated Daniel Bryan and Kane before being eliminated by Randy Orton. After his elimination, Henry attacked the three remaining participants before being escorted out by WWE officials. Henry then began a feud with Ryback after several non-verbal confrontations. On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, Henry was defeated by Ryback via disqualification, following interference from The Shield. Afterward, Henry delivered the World's Strongest Slam to Ryback three times in a row. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, Henry defeated Ryback in a singles match. Later that month, Henry reignited a feud with Sheamus by repeatedly attacking Sheamus backstage. Henry and Sheamus then challenged each other in tests of strength, but with Sheamus unable to best Henry, he resorted to attacking Henry with Brogue Kicks. After Sheamus (during his match) Brogue Kicked Henry (who was on commentary), Henry snapped and brutally whipped Sheamus with a belt. This led to a strap match on May 19 at Extreme Rules, where Sheamus emerged victorious. With the loss to Sheamus, Henry declared that he was "going home".
After being absent from television due to injuries, Henry used social media to tease his retirement. On the June 17 episode of Raw, Henry returned, interrupting WWE Champion John Cena and delivering an emotional retirement speech, which was revealed as a ruse when Henry gave Cena a World's Strongest Slam after concluding his speech. The segment was highly praised by fans and critics. With Henry stating his intent to challenge for the "only title he's never held", he was granted a WWE Championship match against Cena at Money in the Bank. On July 14 at the pay-per-view, Henry failed in his title challenge against Cena after submitting to the STF. The following night on Raw, Henry cut a promo to congratulate Cena on his win and asked for a rematch for SummerSlam, but was ultimately attacked by The Shield, turning face in the process for the first time since 2011. Henry continued his face turn the following week, by confronting The Shield and teaming together with The Usos to fend them off. Henry and the Usos went on to lose to The Shield in two six-man tag team matches, the first on the July 29 episode of Raw, and the second on the August 7 episode of Main Event. On the August 12 episode of Raw, Henry competed in a Battle Royal to determine the number one contender for the United States Championship, but was the last man eliminated by Rob Van Dam. After the match, Henry and Van Dam were confronted by The Shield, before the returning Big Show came to their aid. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry, Show, and Van Dam defeated The Shield in a six-man tag team match. After a suspected hamstring injury on August 31 at the TD Garden in Boston Massachusetts, Henry was cleared to compete. Henry, however, took time off and during his time off, he dropped down to and shaved his head bald.
Henry returned to in-ring action on November 24 at Survivor Series, answering Ryback's open challenge and defeating him. On the January 6, 2014 episode of Raw, Henry tried to confront Brock Lesnar during separate encounters after Lesnar's return, resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 the first time and then Lesnar injured Henry's arm after getting it in a kimura lock hold, causing Henry to wail in pain and be absent. He returned on February 10 episode of Raw, and answered Dean Ambrose's open challenge for the United States Championship, but was unable to win the title due to interference by the rest of The Shield. In March, Henry suffered another attack from Lesnar, this time resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 through the announcing table.
On the August 4 episode of Raw, Henry defeated Damien Sandow after a few months absence. That same week on SmackDown, Henry formed a tag team with Big Show to defeat RybAxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel). On the August 18 episode of Raw, Henry entered a feud with Rusev by attacking him. This set up a match between Henry and Rusev at Night of Champions, which he lost by submission. The following night on Raw, he lost to Rusev again by knockout via submission. On the October 27 episode of Raw, Henry attacked Big Show during their tag team match against Gold and Stardust, and turning heel in the process. On the November 3 episode of Raw, Henry lost to Big Show via disqualification and slammed Big Show onto the steel steps. On the November 10 Raw, he joined The Authority's team to face John Cena's team at Survivor Series. On November 23 at Survivor Series, Henry was the first to be eliminated from Team Authority 50 seconds into the match after being knocked out by Big Show. Henry then took another hiatus due to an unspecified injury.
Henry returned on the March 12, 2015 episode of SmackDown, confronting Roman Reigns for having a lack of identity and for not being respected, resulting in Reigns attacking Henry. The attack caused Henry to become a believer in Reigns, and turning face in the process. Henry was unsuccessful in the Elimination Chamber match for the vacant Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber, replacing Rusev who was injured, but was eliminated by Sheamus At Royal Rumble pre-show on January 24, 2016, Henry teamed with Jack Swagger to win a Fatal 4-Way tag team match to earn their spots in the Royal Rumble match. Despite this victory, Henry entered the Rumble match at #22 and lasted only 47 seconds when he was quickly eliminated by The Wyatt Family. At WrestleMania 32, Henry entered his third André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where he made it to the final six competitors until being eliminated by Kane and Darren Young.
On July 19, at the 2016 WWE draft, Henry was drafted to Raw. On the August 1 episode of Raw, Henry claimed he still "had a lot left in him" when he spoke of reviving the Hall of Pain and his participation in the Olympics. Raw General Manager Mick Foley gave Henry a United States Championship match, but Henry would lose by submission to Rusev. In October, Henry allied himself with R-Truth and Goldust in a feud against Titus O'Neil and The Shining Stars (Primo and Epico), in which Henry's team came out victorious. Henry returned at the Royal Rumble on January 29, 2017 as entrant number 6, only to be eliminated by Braun Strowman. He unsuccessfully competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33.
Retirement and WWE Hall of Famer (2017–2021)
Following WrestleMania 33, Henry retired and transitioned into a backstage producers role. He later made his return in a backstage cameo at the Raw 25 Years event in January 2018. On March 19, 2018, it was announced that Henry would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Big Show, who was one of his closest friends in WWE. On April 27, at the Greatest Royal Rumble, Henry participated in the event's Royal Rumble match, scoring 3 eliminations, but was himself eliminated by Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler. In early 2019, Henry took on a backstage mentoring role helping talent work on their off-air attitude, including cleanliness and respect in the locker room.
Henry appeared on the January 4, 2021 episode of Raw, on its Raw Legends Night special, where in he appeared riding on a scooter due to an injured leg. He was verbally confronted by Randy Orton in what was his final appearance in WWE.
All Elite Wrestling (2021–present)
Henry made his debut for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on May 30, 2021 at Double or Nothing where it was announced that he will be a part of the commentary team for its new show AEW Rampage, as well as a coach.
Personal life
Henry has an older brother named Pat. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Jana, son Jacob, and daughter Joanna. He also has a two-foot ferret named Pipe. He drives a Hummer that he won in the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic. On September 10, 2012, Henry served as one of the pallbearers for actor Michael Clarke Duncan's funeral.
In March 2019, Henry pledged to donate his brain to CTE research once he dies.
Filmography
Film
Video games
Henry appears in the following licensed wrestling video games:
Championships, records, and accomplishments
Powerlifting
Championships Participation – High School Level
Two times 1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting TEAM Championships (in Division I under Silsbee High School)
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1988 in SHW division
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1989 in SHW division
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division
1st place in National High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 18
results: Powerlifting Total – (+
Championships Participation – Junior&Senior Level
1st place in International Junior (20–23) Powerlifting Championships 1991 in SHW division at age 20
2nd place in Men's USPF Senior National Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 19
results: Powerlifting Total – (
1st place in ADFPA (USAPL) National Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
1st place in WDFPF World Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
1st place in USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997 in SHW division at age 26
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
Records*
Teen III (18–19 years) Level
Teen-age World Records in the squat at and total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
Teen-age US American Records in the squat at , bench press , dead lift and total at set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in all four powerlifting categories – the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at as well as the total at at age 19.
Current Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in the squat at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991
Collegiate Level
Current Texas State Collegiate Record holder in the squat at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
Junior Level (20–23 years)
Current Texas State Junior Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
Senior Level (24+ years)
Current Texas State Record holder in the squat at , the deadlift at and the total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) from July 16, 1995 to October 29, 1995
Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from October 29, 1995 to June 7, 2010** (+regardless of weight class until November 4, 2007***)
Former All-time raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from July 16, 1995 to May 23, 2010**** (+regardless of weight class until July 4, 2009*****)
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at in SHW class only since July 16, 1995
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total World Record holder at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
Current All-time American Record holder in the raw deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since July 16, 1995
Current American Record holder in the deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Current All-time US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Federation Records
World Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation (WDFPF) World Records
Current WDFPF World Record holder in the squat at , the deadlift at and the total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since October 29, 1995 (categorized as "open equipped", despite performed in singlet&knee sleeves only/without suit)
U.S.A. Powerlifting (USAPL) US American Records
Current USAPL US American Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Current US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Special Powerlifting Honors
"The World's Strongest Teen-ager" by the Los Angeles Times in April 1990.
Mark Henry was voted in the All-time Top 25 All-Mens US Powerlifting Nationals Team in 2007.
Mark Henry is the only human in history who has not only squatted more than without a squat suit, but also deadlifted more than raw.
Mark Henry is the only human in history to have squatted more than without a squat suit and deadlifted more than raw in one and the same powerlifting meet.
Mark Henry's raw squat and deadlift, done on July 16, 1995 is the highest raw "squat-pull-2-lift-total" (squat+deadlift=) ever lifted in a competition. (Andrei Malanichev's squat and deadlift = on October 22, 2011 being the 2nd highest ever; Mark Henry's squat and deadlift = being the 3rd highest, Benedikt Magnusson's squat and deadlift = being the 4th highest; Malanichev's squat and deadlift = being the 5th; Don Reinhoudt's squat and deadlift = being th 6th)
Mark Henry does not only hold the greatest all-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total in history at , but also the second greatest in history at .
* incomplete
** surpassed by Robert Wilkerson (SHW class) of the United States with a raw squat with knee wraps on June 7, 2010 at the Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) Nationals (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class*** surpassed by Sergiy Karnaukhov (308-pound-class) of Ukraine] with a raw squat with knee wraps on November 4, 2007 as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world record**** surpassed by Andy Bolton (SHW class) of the United Kingdom with a raw deadlift on May 23, 2010 (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class (+regardless of weight class)***** surpassed by Konstantin Konstantinovs (308-pound-class) of Latvia] with a raw deadlift without a belt on July 4, 2009 (drug-tested competition) as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world recordWeightlifting
Olympic Games
Olympic Games team member representing USA at the Olympics 1992 in Barcelona, Spain, finishing 10th place in SHW division at age 21
Team Captain of the Olympic Weightlifting team representing USA at the Olympics 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, finishing 14th in SHW division due to back injury at age 25
Pan American Games
Silver Medalist in the Olympic weightlifting Total in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: total – 804 pounds
Gold Medalist in the Snatch in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: snatch – 391 1/4 pounds, setting an American record
Bronze Medalist in Clean and jerk in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: clean and jerk – snatch 412 3/4 pounds
North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Championships
1st place in North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division
U.S. National Weightlifting Championships
1st place in U.S. National Junior Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
results: total: 326.0 kg – snatch: 156.0 kg / clean&jerk: 170.0 kg
4th place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
results: total: 325.0 kg – snatch: 150.0 kg / clean&jerk: 175.0 kg
3rd place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
results: total: 365.0 kg – snatch: 165.0 kg / clean&jerk: 200.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 21
results: total: 385.0 kg – snatch: 175.0 kg / clean&jerk: 210.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
results: total: 387.5 kg – snatch: 172.5 kg / clean&jerk: 215.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 24
results: total: 400.0 kg – snatch: 180.0 kg / clean&jerk: 220.0 kg
Mark Henry was voted as the #1 outstanding lifter of the championships
U.S. Olympic Festival Championships
1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 23
USA Weightlifting American Open Championships
2nd place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
1st place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 21
RECORDS
Junior US American record holder (+110 kg) in the Snatch at 162.5 kg, Clean and jerk at 202.5 kg, and Total at 362.5 kg (1986–1992)
Senior US American record holder (+108 kg) in the Snatch at 180.0 kg, Clean and jerk at 220.0 kg, and Total at 400.0 kg (1993–1997)
Strength athletics
Arnold Classic
Arnold Strongman Classic – Winner 2002
First man in history to one-hand clean and push press the "unliftable" Thomas Inch dumbbell (; diameter handle)
The Second Strongest Man That Ever Lived according to Flex Magazine
International Sports Hall of Fame
International Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2012)
Professional wrestling
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2019)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Frank Gotch Award (2021)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated''
Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2011)
Ranked No. 9 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2012
Ranked No. 472 of the top 500 greatest wrestlers in the "PWI Years" in 2003
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
ECW Championship (1 time)
World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF European Championship (1 time)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2018)
Slammy Award (3 times)
"Holy $#!+ Move of the Year" (2011)
Feat of Strength of the Year (2013)
Match of the Year (2014) –
See also
List of strongmen
List of powerlifters
References
External links
Mark Henry – The Strongest Man That Ever Lived (article by Ben Tatar)
Mark Henry's impressive achievements over the ropes by Katie Raymonds on WWE.com
International Sports Hall of Fame: Mark Henry featured in pictures and Acceptance Speech video clips
Powerliftingwatch of all-time powerlifting records, including Mark Henry's
Video: Mark Henry at the Arnold Strongman Classic 2002 (introduction+Apollon's Wheel+Inch dumbbell)
Video: Mark Henry lifting the "unliftable" Thomas Inch Dumbbell as the first man in history
Video: Mark Henry wins the 1995 USAPL (ADFPA) National Powerlifting Championships and deadlifts 903 lb
1971 births
All Elite Wrestling personnel
American male professional wrestlers
American male weightlifters
American powerlifters
American strength athletes
African-American male professional wrestlers
ECW champions
ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions
Living people
Olympic weightlifters of the United States
Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States
Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States
Pan American Games medalists in weightlifting
Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States
People with dyslexia
People from Silsbee, Texas
Professional wrestlers from Texas
The Nation of Domination members
Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Weightlifters at the 1995 Pan American Games
Weightlifters at the 1996 Summer Olympics
World Heavyweight Champions (WWE)
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF European Champions
Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American sportspeople | 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"
]
|
[
"Mark Henry",
"Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998-2000)",
"What is sexual chocolate?",
"Henry gave himself the nickname Sexual Chocolate,",
"How did he come up with that nickname?",
"I don't know.",
"What is Nation of Domination?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF women from Chyna to Mae Young as part of the \"Sexual Chocolate\" character."
]
| C_a8710470bf874ec9a8952c68996f9cd5_1 | How did the critics respond to this? | 5 | How did the critics respond to Mark Henry romancing WWF women? | Mark Henry | Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager. During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname Sexual Chocolate, and was involved in controversial angles with Chyna and a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. After this, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF women from Chyna to Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand. Henry was part of various other embarrassing and infamous storylines, including one about him overcoming sex addiction. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Mark Jerrold Henry (born June 12, 1971) is an American powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter, strongman, and retired professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator/analyst, coach, and talent scout. He is best known for his 25-year career in WWE where he was a two-time world champion. He is a two-time Olympian (1992 and 1996) and a gold, silver, and bronze medalist at the Pan American Games in 1995. As a powerlifter, he was WDFPF World Champion (1995) and a two-time U.S. National Champion (1995 and 1997) as well as an all-time raw world record holder in the squat and deadlift. Currently, he still holds the WDFPF world records in the squat, deadlift and total and the USAPL American record in the deadlift since 1995. He is credited for the biggest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a drug tested athlete, regardless of weight class, as well as the greatest raw deadlift by an American citizen.
In weightlifting, Henry was a three-time U.S. National Weightlifting Champion (1993, 1994, 1996), an American Open winner (1992), a two-time U.S. Olympic Festival Champion (1993 and 1994) and a NACAC champion (1996). He holds all three Senior US American weightlifting records of 1993–1997. In 2002 he won the first annual Arnold Strongman Classic.
Since joining the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1996, he became a one-time WWF European Champion and a two-time world champion, having held the ECW Championship in 2008, and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship in 2011. In first winning the ECW Championship, Henry became only the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history (after The Rock, Booker T, and Bobby Lashley).
In April 2018, Henry was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018.
Early life
Henry was born in the small town of Silsbee in East Texas, 90 miles northeast of Houston. As a child, he was a big wrestling fan and André the Giant was his favorite wrestler. While attending a wrestling show in Beaumont, Texas, young Henry tried to touch André as he was walking down the aisle, but tripped over the barricade. André picked him up out of the crowd and put him back behind the barricade. When Henry was 12 years old, his father, Ernest, died of complications from diabetes. When he was 14 years old, Henry was diagnosed with dyslexia.
Henry comes from a family in which almost all of the men are larger than average, especially his great uncle Chudd, who was 6 ft 7 in, weighed approximately , never had a pair of manufactured shoes, and was known as the strongest man in the Piney Woods of East Texas.
Henry played football in high school until his senior year, when he strained ligaments in his wrist during the first game of the year and scored below 700 on the SAT.
Powerlifting career
By the time Mark Henry was in the fourth grade, he was and weighed . His mother bought a set of weights for him when he was ten years old. During Henry's freshman year at Silsbee High School, he was already able to squat , which was well over school record. As an 18-year-old high school senior, Henry was called "the world's strongest teenager" by the Los Angeles Times, and made it into the headlines in early 1990 for winning the National High School Powerlifting Championships and setting teenage lifting world records in the squat and total . By the time Henry finished high school, he was a three-time Texas state champion with state and national records in all four powerlifting categories—the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at as well as the total at .
At the Texas High School Powerlifting Championships in April 1990, Terry Todd, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin and former weightlifter, spotted Henry and persuaded him to go to Austin after he graduated to train in the Olympic style of weightlifting. In July 1990 at the USPF Senior National Powerlifting Championships, 19-year-old Henry came second only to the legendary six-time World Powerlifting Champion Kirk Karwoski. While powerlifting relies primarily on brute strength and power, which Henry obviously possessed, Olympic weightlifting is considered more sophisticated, involving more agility, timing, flexibility and technique. There have been few lifters in history who have been able to be successful in both lifting disciplines. Mastering the technique of weightlifting usually takes many years of practice, but Henry broke four national junior records in weightlifting after only eight months of training. In April 1991, he won the United States National Junior Championships; 20 days later he placed fourth at the U.S. Senior National Championships, and finished sixth at the Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Germany two months later. Only few weeks afterwards, he became 1991's International Junior Champion in Powerlifiting as well. In Henry's first year in competitive weightlifting, he broke all three junior (20 and under) American records 12 times, and became the United States' top Superheavyweight, surpassing Mario Martinez.
At the age of 19, Henry had already managed to qualify for the weightlifting competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he finished tenth in the Super- Heavyweight class. Ten months before the 1992 Olympics, Henry had begun training with Dragomir Cioroslan, a bronze medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics, who said that he had "never seen anyone with Mark's raw talent". After the Olympics, Henry became more determined to focus on weightlifting and began competing all over the world. In late 1992 he took the win at the USA Weightlifting American Open and further proved his dominance on the American soil by winning not only the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships, but also the U.S. Olympic Festival Championships in 1993 and 1994. At the 1995 Pan American Games Henry won a gold, silver and bronze medal.
Having reached the pinnacle of weightlifting on a National and continental level, he competed again in powerlifting and shocked the world by winning the ADFPA U.S. National Powerlifting Championships in 1995 with a raw Powerlifting Total. Despite competing without supportive equipment in contrast to the other competitors, Henry managed to outclass the lifter in second place by , defeating not only five-time IPF World Powerlifting Champion and 12 time USAPL National Powerlifting Champion Brad Gillingham, but also America's Strongest Man of 1997 Mark Philippi. In the process he set all-time world records in the raw deadlift at and the squat without a squat suit at as well as the all-time drug tested raw total at . Later that same year in October, he competed in the drug-free Powerlifting World Championships and won again, even though he trained on the powerlifts only sparingly—due his main focus still being on the two Olympic lifts. He not only become World Champion by winning the competition but also bettered his previous all-time squat world record to and his all-time drug tested world record total to .
In 1996 Henry became the North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Champion. He earned the right to compete at the Olympics by winning the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships in the Spring of 1996 for a third time. During his victory Henry became Senior US American record holder (1993–1997) in the Snatch at , Clean and jerk at , and Total at , improving all of his three previous personal bests. This total, in the opinion of many experts in track field of international lifting—including Dragomir Cioroslan, the '96s coach of the U.S. team—was the highest ever made by an athlete who had never used anabolic steroids—who was lifetime drugfree. By that time, at the age of 24, Henry was generally acknowledged as the strongest man in the world, even by many of the Eastern Bloc athletes who outrank him in weightlifting. No one in the history of the sports had ever lifted as much as him in the five competitive lifts—the snatch and the clean and jerk in weightlifting—the squat, bench press and deadlift in powerlifting. To this day, his five lift total is still the greatest in history by a fair amount—making him arguably one of the strongest men that ever lived and stamp him, according to lifting statistician Herb Glossbrenner, as history's greatest lifter.
In the months prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Henry received more attention and publicity than any lifter in recent United States history. He guested at Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and The Oprah Winfrey Show and was featured on HBO Inside Sports and The Today Show. He was also featured in dozens of magazines including U.S. News & World Report, People Vanity Fair, ESPN The Magazine and Life where he was photographed nude by famed artist Annie Lebowitz. During this period he connected with WWE owner Vince McMahon for the first time, which led to him signing a 10-year deal as professional wrestler.
Henry improved his lifts to in the snatch and in the clean-and-jerk during his final eight weeks of preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Henry at 6-foot-4-inches tall and bodyweight, became the largest athlete in Olympic history and was voted captain of the Olympic weightlifting team. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury during the competition and was unable to approach his normal performance level. Due to the injury he had to drop out after his first clean and jerk attempt and finished with a disappointing 14th place. His appearance at the Olympics proved to be his last official competition in Olympic weightlifting, as he retired from weightlifting, vowing never to return unless the sport is "cleaned up" of anabolic steroid use.
Since his career start as a professional wrestler shortly after the Olympics, he broke his leg in the fall of 1996. But by the summer of the following year he had rehabilitated it enough to be able to compete at the USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997, where he won the competition to become the U.S National Powerlifting Champion in the Super Heavyweight class again. He had planned to continue heavy training in powerlifting, although his travel schedule as a professional wrestler with the WWF (now WWE) has made sustained training difficult. Mark's WWF contract was unique in many ways, allowing him at least three months off each year from wrestling, so he can train for the national and world championships in weightlifting or powerlifting. Barring injury, Mark had originally hoped to return to the platform in late 1998, to lift for many more years, and to eventually squat at least without a “squat suit” and to deadlift .
Although in early 1998 he was still able to do five repetitions in the bench press with , three repetitions in the squat with (with no suit and no knee wraps), and three repetitions in the standing press with in training, while traveling with the World Wrestling Federation, he never returned to compete again in official championships in favor of his wrestling career. He weighed at that time, and his right upper arm was measured at 24” by Terry Todd. By basically ending his lifting career at the age of 26, it is probable that he never reached his full physical potential as a professional lifter. Henry remains the youngest man in history to squat more than 900 pounds without a squat suit as well as the youngest to total more than 2,300 pounds raw – he's the only person ever to have accomplished any of these feats at under 25 years of age.
Personal powerlifting records
Powerlifting Competition Records
done in official Powerlifting full meets
Squat – raw with knee wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ former all-time unequipped squat world record for over a decade in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2007)
→ current WDFPF world record squat in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record squat without a suit in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ currently heaviest walked-out raw squat of all time (without a monolift) regardless of weight class or federation since 1995
Deadlift – raw (done on July 16, 1995 ADFPA (USAPL))
→ former all-time raw world record deadlift in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2009)
→ current all-time highest raw deadlift ever pulled by an American in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ current Open Men American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current all-time US national championship record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current USAPL American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested raw world record deadlift (in SHW class only) since 1995
Powerlifting Total – ( / () raw with wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ current WDFPF world record in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record unequipped powerlifting total in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best official lifts) – ()
Powerlifting Gym Records (unofficial)
Squat –
Bench press –
Deadlift –
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best unofficial lifts) – ()
Front Squat –
Behind-the-neck-press – over
Weightlifting Competition Records
done in official competition
Snatch: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American snatch record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Clean and jerk: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American clean&jerk record 1993–1997 in SHW class
Weightlifting Total: – snatch: / clean&jerk: (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American weightlifting total record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Weightlifting Gym Records (unofficial)
all three done in training after the 1996's U.S. Nationals, but prior to the Olympics '96
Snatch:
Clean&jerk:
Weightlifting Total:
Combined lifting records
official weightlifting total + official powerlifting total = Combined Supertotal:
+ = raw with wraps
→ current all-time highest combined weightlifting/powerlifting total in history (since 1996*)
5 official weightlifting & powerlifting lifts combined – the snatch + the clean-and-jerk and the squat + bench press + deadlift = Five-Lift-Combined-Total:
+ + + + =
→ current all-time highest 5 lift total in history (since 1996*)
* both combined all-time records had previously been held by legendary powerlifter Jon Cole
Holding these all-time records in the lifting sports makes Mark Henry arguably one of the strongest men in history. Having achieved this at the very young age of 24 while being lifetime drug-free makes it even more impressive. Many experts in the field, including Bill Kazmaier, Jan and Terry Todd, Dr. Robert M. Goldman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Muscle & Fitness magazine and Flex magazine, consider him to be "one of the Strongest Men that ever lived" or even "the most naturally gifted strongman in history".
When asked in September 2003, who the strongest man in the world is today [2003], Bill Kazmaier, considered by many to be the greatest strongman of all time, stated: "It would have to be Mark Henry. [...] I think he's one of the strongest men in the history of the world, without a doubt."
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
Early career (1996–1997)
At the age of 24, Henry made his first appearance on World Wrestling Federation (WWF) programming on the March 11, 1996 episode of Monday Night Raw, where he press slammed Jerry Lawler, who was ridiculing Henry while interviewing him in the ring. After Henry competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics, the WWF signed him to a ten-year contract. Trained by professional wrestler Leo Burke, his first feud in the WWF was with Lawler. At the pay-per-view event, SummerSlam in August 1996, Henry came to the aid of Jake Roberts who was suffering indignity at the hands of Lawler. His debut wrestling match was at In Your House: Mind Games on September 22, 1996, where he defeated Lawler. The feud continued on the live circuit during subsequent weeks. On the November 4 episode of Raw, Henry served as a cornerman for Barry Windham in a match against Goldust. He was set to team with Windham, Marc Mero and Rocky Maivia to take on the team of Lawler, Goldust, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Crush at Survivor Series, but was replaced by Jake Roberts when he was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury. On the November 17 episode of Superstars, Henry defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Crush and Goldust in a tug of war contest. Henry's career was then stalled as, over the next year, he took time off to heal injuries and engage in further training. In November 1997, he returned to the ring, making his televised return the following month. By the end of the year, he was a regular fixture on WWF programming, defeating Steve Lombardi on the December 15 episode of Raw, and beating The Sultan on the December 27 episode of Shotgun.
Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998–2000)
Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After short feuds against Ken Shamrock and Vader, Henry participated in his faction's enmity against D-Generation X, which included a romantic storyline with DX member Chyna. When The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager.
During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname "Sexual Chocolate", adopting a ladies' man character. He first resumed his storyline with former enemy Chyna, but it ended with her betraying him in a controversial angle including a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view.
The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. He was part of a storyline about him overcoming sex addiction, which he accomplished thanks to The Godfather.
After this twist, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF veteran wrestler Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand.
Ohio Valley Wrestling and strongman competitions (2000–2002)
In 2000, Henry was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to improve his conditioning and wrestling skills. In OVW, he teamed with Nick Dinsmore to compete in a tournament for the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship in mid-2001. Later that year, Henry's mother died, causing him to go on hiatus from wrestling. He felt he had to compete in the "Super Bowl of weight lifting"—the Arnold Strongman Classic—in honor of his mother, who gave him his first weight set when he was a child.
Four months prior to the contest, Henry began lifting the heaviest of weights and trained for the first time since 1997 for a major lifting competition. He had never been a professional strongman before, but in the coming contest he was to face the very best of the best of professional strongmen, such as the #1 ranked strongman in the world, and defending World's Strongest Man competition winner of 2001 Svend Karlsen, World's Strongest Man winner of 2006 Phil Pfister, World Powerlifting Champion of 2001 and equipped deadlift world record holder Andy Bolton, World Muscle Power Champion, Olympic weightlifting Champion Raimonds Bergmanis, and reigning America's Strongest Man of 2001 Brian Schoonveld.
On February 22, 2002 in Columbus, Ohio the competition, consisting of four events, designed to determine the lifter with the greatest overall body power, began. Henry surprised everybody when he won the first event, setting a world record in the process by lifting the Apollon's Axle three times overhead. Only three men in history had ever been able to press it at all. By deadlifting for two repetitions in the second event and easily pushing a or more Hummer with nearly flat tires in the third event, Henry kept his lead continuously throughout the competition and never gave it up again. In the final "Farmer's Walk"-event Henry quickly carried the roughly of railroad ties up an incline, winning the whole competition convincingly to capture the winning prize — a US$75,000 Hummer, a vacation cruise and $10,000 cash.
Since Henry had only trained for four months and defeated the crème-de-là-crème of worldwide strongmen, who had been practicing for years, his win was a shock for strongman experts worldwide, but remained basically unnoticed by the wrestling audience. Henry proved to be worthy of the title "World's Strongest Man" not only by winning the contest, but also by achieving it in record time. By doing so he was again seen as the legit "strongest man in the world" by many lifting experts for a second time since 1996.
Various feuds (2002–2007)
Henry returned to the WWE the next month and was sent to the SmackDown! brand, where he developed an in-ring persona of performing "tests of strength" while other wrestlers took bets on the tests, but the gimmick met with little success. During this time he competed against such superstars as Chris Jericho and Christian. After being used sporadically on WWE (formerly WWF) television during 2002, as he was training for a weightlifting contest, and suffering a knee injury, Henry was sent back to OVW for more training.
In August 2003, Henry returned to WWE television on the Raw roster as a heel where he found some success as a member of "Thuggin' And Buggin' Enterprises", a group of African Americans led by Theodore Long who worked a race angle in which they felt they were victims of racism and were being held down by the "white man". During that time, Henry was involved in a brief program with World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg when former champion, Triple H, put a bounty on Goldberg. This was followed by a brief rivalry with Shawn Michaels, before he engaged in a rivalry with Booker T. After defeating Booker T twice, once in a street fight and once in a six-man tag team match, he lost to Booker T at the Armageddon pay-per-view in December 2003. At a practice session in OVW in February 2004, Henry tore his quadriceps muscle, and was out for over a year after undergoing surgery. Henry was then utilized by WWE as a public relations figure during his recovery, before returning to OVW to finish out 2005.
During the December 30 episode of SmackDown!, Henry made his return to television, as he interfered in a WWE Tag Team Championship match, joining with MNM (Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, and Melina), to help them defeat Rey Mysterio and Batista for the championship. A week later on SmackDown!, Henry got in a confrontation with the World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, and went on to interfere in a steel cage match between MNM and the team of Mysterio and Batista, helping MNM to retain their titles. Henry then had another match with Batista at a live event where Batista received a severely torn triceps that required surgery, forcing him to vacate his title. On the January 10, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, Henry was involved in a Battle Royal for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. He was finally eliminated by Kurt Angle, who won the title.
A week later, Henry received assistance from Daivari, who turned on Angle and announced that he was the manager of Henry. With Daivari at his side, Henry faced Angle for the World Heavyweight Championship at the 2006 Royal Rumble in January, losing when Angle hit him with a chair (without the referee seeing) and pinned him with a roll-up.
On the March 3 episode of SmackDown!, Henry interfered in a World Heavyweight Championship match between Angle and The Undertaker, attacking the latter when he was seconds from possibly winning the title. Henry then performed a diving splash on Undertaker, driving him through the announcer's table. Henry was then challenged to a casket match by Undertaker at WrestleMania 22. Henry vowed to defeat The Undertaker and end his undefeated streak at WrestleMania, but The Undertaker defeated him. Henry had a rematch against The Undertaker on the April 7 episode of SmackDown!. It ended in a no-contest when Daivari introduced his debuting client, The Great Khali. Khali went to the ring and attacked The Undertaker, starting a new feud and ending Henry's.
During the rest of April and May, Henry gained a pinfall victory over the World Heavyweight Champion, Rey Mysterio in a non-title match. Henry entered the King of the Ring Tournament, and lost to Bobby Lashley in the first round. He later cost Kurt Angle his World Heavyweight Championship opportunity against Mysterio, when he jumped off the top rope and crushed Angle through a table. Henry was then challenged by Angle to face off at Judgment Day, Henry then sent a "message" to Angle by defeating Paul Burchill. At Judgment Day, Henry defeated Angle by countout. Although winning, Angle got his revenge after the match by hitting Henry with a chair and putting him through a table.
Henry later went on what was referred to as a "path of destruction", causing injuries to numerous superstars. Henry "took out" Chris Benoit and Paul Burchill on this path of destruction, and attacked Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero. These events led up to a feud with the returning Batista, whom Henry had put out of action with a legitimate injury several months beforehand. When Batista returned he and Henry were scheduled to face one another at The Great American Bash in July. Weeks before that event, however, on the July 15, 2006 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIII, Henry was involved in a six-man tag team match with King Booker and Finlay against Batista, Rey Mysterio, and Bobby Lashley. During the match, Henry was injured, canceling the scheduled match at The Great American Bash, as Henry needed surgery. Doctors later found that Henry completely tore his patella tendon off the bone and split his patella completely in two.
Henry returned on the May 11, 2007 episode of SmackDown!, after weeks of vignettes hyping his return. He attacked The Undertaker after a World Heavyweight Championship steel cage match with Batista, allowing Edge to take advantage of the situation and use his Money in the Bank contract. Henry then began a short feud with Kane, defeating him in a Lumberjack Match at One Night Stand. Shortly after, Henry made an open challenge to the SmackDown! locker room, which nobody ever accepted. In the coming weeks he faced various jobbers—wrestlers who consistently lose to make their opponents look stronger—and quickly defeated them all. On the August 3 episode of SmackDown!, he claimed that nobody accepted the open challenge to step into the ring with him because of what he had done to The Undertaker, presenting footage of his assault on The Undertaker. The Undertaker responded over the following weeks, playing various mind games with Henry. Henry finally faced The Undertaker again at Unforgiven in September, losing to him after being given a Last Ride. Two weeks later, Henry lost a rematch to The Undertaker after The Undertaker performed a chokeslam on Henry.
ECW Champion (2007–2009)
After a short hiatus, Henry returned to WWE programming on the October 23 episode of ECW, attacking Kane, along with The Great Khali and Big Daddy V. Henry then began teaming with Big Daddy V against Kane and CM Punk, and was briefly managed by Big Daddy V's manager, Matt Striker. At Armageddon, Henry and Big Daddy V defeated Kane and Punk. Before WrestleMania XXIV aired, Henry participated in a 24-man battle royal to determine the number one contender for the ECW Championship, but failed to win.
As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Henry was drafted to the ECW brand. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Kane and Big Show in a triple threat match to capture the ECW Championship in his debut match as an ECW superstar. This was his first world championship in WWE, which also made him the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history. Upon winning the title, it was made exclusive to the ECW brand once again. Henry's title win came nearly a full decade after he was awarded the European Championship, which was back in 1999 and the only title he held in WWE. A few weeks later, Hall of Famer Tony Atlas returned to WWE to act as Henry's manager. Shortly after, ECW General Manager, Theodore Long, unveiled a new, entirely platinum ECW Championship belt design. In August, Henry defended the title against Matt Hardy at SummerSlam after getting himself disqualified; however championships cannot change hands via disqualification, meaning that Henry retained the title. Henry later lost the title to Hardy at September's Unforgiven in the Championship Scramble match.
Henry attempted to regain the championship throughout the end of 2008, and had a match against Hardy at No Mercy, but failed as he was unsuccessful. Henry and Atlas then engaged in a scripted rivalry against Finlay and Hornswoggle, which included Henry losing a Belfast Brawl to Finlay at Armageddon. At the start of 2009, Henry qualified for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 25, and was involved in a series of matches with the other competitors on Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. He was unsuccessful at WrestleMania, however, as CM Punk won the match. In May, Henry began a rivalry with Evan Bourne, which began after Bourne defeated Henry by countout on the May 26 episode of ECW.
Tag team championship pursuits (2009–2011)
On June 29, Henry was traded to the Raw brand and redebuted for the brand that night as the third opponent in a three-on-one gauntlet match against WWE Champion Randy Orton, which he won, turning Henry into a face in the process. In August 2009, Henry formed a tag team with Montel Vontavious Porter and the two challenged the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and The Big Show) for the title at Breaking Point, but were unsuccessful. They stopped teaming afterwards, becoming involved in separate storylines, until the February 15, 2010 episode of Raw in which they defeated the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Big Show and The Miz in a non-title match. The next week they challenged The Big Show and The Miz in a title match but were unsuccessful. At Extreme Rules, Henry and MVP fought for a chance to become number one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, but were the second team eliminated in a gauntlet match by The Big Show and The Miz. Ultimately, The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith) won the match.
Henry mentored Lucky Cannon in the second season of NXT. Cannon was eliminated on the August 10 episode of NXT. In September, Henry began teaming with Evan Bourne, starting at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, where they entered a Tag Team Turmoil for the WWE Tag Team Championship. They made it to the final two before being defeated by Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. The team came to an end in October when Bourne suffered an injury and was taken out of action. Henry then formed a team with Yoshi Tatsu on the November 29 episode of Raw, defeating WWE Tag Team Champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, after a distraction by John Cena. They received a shot at the championship the next week, in a fatal four-way elimination tag team match, which also included The Usos and Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov. Henry and Tatsu were the first team eliminated in the match.
World Heavyweight Champion (2011–2012)
On the April 25, 2011 episode of Raw, Henry was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 WWE draft. In the main event of the night, Henry attacked his teammates John Cena and Christian, turning heel in the process. On the May 27 episode of SmackDown, Henry participated in a Triple Threat match against Sheamus and Christian to decide the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by Sheamus. On the June 17 episode of SmackDown, Henry was scheduled to face an angry and emotionally unstable Big Show, who warned Henry not to get into the ring; Henry ignored the warning and Big Show assaulted him before the match could begin. This act ignited a feud between the two; Henry attacked Big Show both backstage and during matches while on the July 1 episode of SmackDown, Big Show's music played during Henry's match against Randy Orton, causing Henry to be counted out and costing him a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. Henry reacted by destroying the audio equipment and attacking a technician. Henry faced Big Show in a singles match at Money in the Bank and won. After the match, Henry crushed Big Show's leg with a chair, (kayfabe) injuring him, an act Henry later referenced as an induction into the "Hall of Pain". Henry did the same to Kane on the next episode of SmackDown, and in the months ahead, Vladimir Kozlov and The Great Khali suffered the same fate.
On the July 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry was informed that he could no longer compete as no one dared to fight him, but Sheamus interrupted, saying that he wasn't afraid of Henry before slapping him. At SummerSlam, Henry defeated Sheamus by count-out after slamming him through a ring barricade. On the August 19 episode of SmackDown, Henry won a 20-man Battle Royal to become the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship to face Randy Orton at Night of Champions, and throughout weeks on SmackDown and Raw, Henry regularly attacked Orton, getting an advantage over him. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Orton to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. Henry successfully defended the title against Orton at Hell in a Cell in a Hell in a Cell match.
On the October 7 episode of SmackDown, Big Show returned and chokeslammed Henry through the announce table, thus earning a title shot against Henry at Vengeance. During the match, Henry superplexed Big Show from the top rope, causing the ring to collapse from the impact and the match to be ruled a no contest. Henry began a feud with the Money in the Bank briefcase holder Daniel Bryan on the November 4 episode of SmackDown, challenging Bryan to a non-title match to prove that Bryan could not become champion. During the match, Big Show knocked out Henry, making him win by disqualification. Big Show then urged Bryan to cash in his contract, but Henry recovered and attacked both Bryan and Big Show before the match could start. At Survivor Series, Henry retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Big Show after a low blow that disqualified Henry. Angered by Henry's cowardice, Big Show crushed Henry's ankle with a steel chair. On the November 25 episode of SmackDown, Henry was knocked out again by Big Show, at which point Bryan cashed in his briefcase for a title match and quickly pinned Henry. However, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long revealed that Henry was not medically cleared to compete and voided the match, so Henry remained champion and the briefcase was returned to Bryan. Later that night, Bryan won a fatal-four-way match to face Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage. On the November 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry defeated Bryan in a steel cage match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
henAt TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Henry lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Big Show in a chairs match. After the match, Henry knocked Big Show out, resulting in Daniel Bryan cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. On the January 20 episode of SmackDown, Bryan retained the championship against Henry in a lumberjack match after Bryan provoked the lumberjacks to come in and attack them to cause a no contest. At the 2012 Royal Rumble event, Henry faced Bryan and Big Show in a triple threat steel cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship; Bryan escaped the cage to retain the title. On the February 3 episode of SmackDown, Henry was suspended indefinitely (in storyline) by SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long, after Henry physically accosted Long as he demanded a one-on-one rematch that night with Bryan. In reality, Henry had suffered a hyper-extended knee the previous week. Henry returned to in-ring action on the February 20 episode of Raw, losing to Sheamus. On the April 2 and 9 episodes of Raw, Henry faced CM Punk for the WWE Championship which he won by count-out and disqualification; as a result, Punk retained his title. On the April 16 episode of Raw, Punk defeated Henry in a no-disqualification, no count-out match to retain the WWE Championship. On May 14, Henry announced he was going under a career-threatening surgery for an injury.
Final feuds (2013–2017)
After a nine-month absence, Henry made his return on the February 4, 2013 episode of Raw, brutally attacking Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry defeated Randy Orton to earn a spot in the number one contenders' Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber. At the pay-per-view on February 17, Henry eliminated Daniel Bryan and Kane before being eliminated by Randy Orton. After his elimination, Henry attacked the three remaining participants before being escorted out by WWE officials. Henry then began a feud with Ryback after several non-verbal confrontations. On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, Henry was defeated by Ryback via disqualification, following interference from The Shield. Afterward, Henry delivered the World's Strongest Slam to Ryback three times in a row. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, Henry defeated Ryback in a singles match. Later that month, Henry reignited a feud with Sheamus by repeatedly attacking Sheamus backstage. Henry and Sheamus then challenged each other in tests of strength, but with Sheamus unable to best Henry, he resorted to attacking Henry with Brogue Kicks. After Sheamus (during his match) Brogue Kicked Henry (who was on commentary), Henry snapped and brutally whipped Sheamus with a belt. This led to a strap match on May 19 at Extreme Rules, where Sheamus emerged victorious. With the loss to Sheamus, Henry declared that he was "going home".
After being absent from television due to injuries, Henry used social media to tease his retirement. On the June 17 episode of Raw, Henry returned, interrupting WWE Champion John Cena and delivering an emotional retirement speech, which was revealed as a ruse when Henry gave Cena a World's Strongest Slam after concluding his speech. The segment was highly praised by fans and critics. With Henry stating his intent to challenge for the "only title he's never held", he was granted a WWE Championship match against Cena at Money in the Bank. On July 14 at the pay-per-view, Henry failed in his title challenge against Cena after submitting to the STF. The following night on Raw, Henry cut a promo to congratulate Cena on his win and asked for a rematch for SummerSlam, but was ultimately attacked by The Shield, turning face in the process for the first time since 2011. Henry continued his face turn the following week, by confronting The Shield and teaming together with The Usos to fend them off. Henry and the Usos went on to lose to The Shield in two six-man tag team matches, the first on the July 29 episode of Raw, and the second on the August 7 episode of Main Event. On the August 12 episode of Raw, Henry competed in a Battle Royal to determine the number one contender for the United States Championship, but was the last man eliminated by Rob Van Dam. After the match, Henry and Van Dam were confronted by The Shield, before the returning Big Show came to their aid. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry, Show, and Van Dam defeated The Shield in a six-man tag team match. After a suspected hamstring injury on August 31 at the TD Garden in Boston Massachusetts, Henry was cleared to compete. Henry, however, took time off and during his time off, he dropped down to and shaved his head bald.
Henry returned to in-ring action on November 24 at Survivor Series, answering Ryback's open challenge and defeating him. On the January 6, 2014 episode of Raw, Henry tried to confront Brock Lesnar during separate encounters after Lesnar's return, resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 the first time and then Lesnar injured Henry's arm after getting it in a kimura lock hold, causing Henry to wail in pain and be absent. He returned on February 10 episode of Raw, and answered Dean Ambrose's open challenge for the United States Championship, but was unable to win the title due to interference by the rest of The Shield. In March, Henry suffered another attack from Lesnar, this time resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 through the announcing table.
On the August 4 episode of Raw, Henry defeated Damien Sandow after a few months absence. That same week on SmackDown, Henry formed a tag team with Big Show to defeat RybAxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel). On the August 18 episode of Raw, Henry entered a feud with Rusev by attacking him. This set up a match between Henry and Rusev at Night of Champions, which he lost by submission. The following night on Raw, he lost to Rusev again by knockout via submission. On the October 27 episode of Raw, Henry attacked Big Show during their tag team match against Gold and Stardust, and turning heel in the process. On the November 3 episode of Raw, Henry lost to Big Show via disqualification and slammed Big Show onto the steel steps. On the November 10 Raw, he joined The Authority's team to face John Cena's team at Survivor Series. On November 23 at Survivor Series, Henry was the first to be eliminated from Team Authority 50 seconds into the match after being knocked out by Big Show. Henry then took another hiatus due to an unspecified injury.
Henry returned on the March 12, 2015 episode of SmackDown, confronting Roman Reigns for having a lack of identity and for not being respected, resulting in Reigns attacking Henry. The attack caused Henry to become a believer in Reigns, and turning face in the process. Henry was unsuccessful in the Elimination Chamber match for the vacant Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber, replacing Rusev who was injured, but was eliminated by Sheamus At Royal Rumble pre-show on January 24, 2016, Henry teamed with Jack Swagger to win a Fatal 4-Way tag team match to earn their spots in the Royal Rumble match. Despite this victory, Henry entered the Rumble match at #22 and lasted only 47 seconds when he was quickly eliminated by The Wyatt Family. At WrestleMania 32, Henry entered his third André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where he made it to the final six competitors until being eliminated by Kane and Darren Young.
On July 19, at the 2016 WWE draft, Henry was drafted to Raw. On the August 1 episode of Raw, Henry claimed he still "had a lot left in him" when he spoke of reviving the Hall of Pain and his participation in the Olympics. Raw General Manager Mick Foley gave Henry a United States Championship match, but Henry would lose by submission to Rusev. In October, Henry allied himself with R-Truth and Goldust in a feud against Titus O'Neil and The Shining Stars (Primo and Epico), in which Henry's team came out victorious. Henry returned at the Royal Rumble on January 29, 2017 as entrant number 6, only to be eliminated by Braun Strowman. He unsuccessfully competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33.
Retirement and WWE Hall of Famer (2017–2021)
Following WrestleMania 33, Henry retired and transitioned into a backstage producers role. He later made his return in a backstage cameo at the Raw 25 Years event in January 2018. On March 19, 2018, it was announced that Henry would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Big Show, who was one of his closest friends in WWE. On April 27, at the Greatest Royal Rumble, Henry participated in the event's Royal Rumble match, scoring 3 eliminations, but was himself eliminated by Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler. In early 2019, Henry took on a backstage mentoring role helping talent work on their off-air attitude, including cleanliness and respect in the locker room.
Henry appeared on the January 4, 2021 episode of Raw, on its Raw Legends Night special, where in he appeared riding on a scooter due to an injured leg. He was verbally confronted by Randy Orton in what was his final appearance in WWE.
All Elite Wrestling (2021–present)
Henry made his debut for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on May 30, 2021 at Double or Nothing where it was announced that he will be a part of the commentary team for its new show AEW Rampage, as well as a coach.
Personal life
Henry has an older brother named Pat. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Jana, son Jacob, and daughter Joanna. He also has a two-foot ferret named Pipe. He drives a Hummer that he won in the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic. On September 10, 2012, Henry served as one of the pallbearers for actor Michael Clarke Duncan's funeral.
In March 2019, Henry pledged to donate his brain to CTE research once he dies.
Filmography
Film
Video games
Henry appears in the following licensed wrestling video games:
Championships, records, and accomplishments
Powerlifting
Championships Participation – High School Level
Two times 1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting TEAM Championships (in Division I under Silsbee High School)
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1988 in SHW division
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1989 in SHW division
1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division
1st place in National High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 18
results: Powerlifting Total – (+
Championships Participation – Junior&Senior Level
1st place in International Junior (20–23) Powerlifting Championships 1991 in SHW division at age 20
2nd place in Men's USPF Senior National Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 19
results: Powerlifting Total – (
1st place in ADFPA (USAPL) National Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
1st place in WDFPF World Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
1st place in USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997 in SHW division at age 26
results: Powerlifting Total – ( raw with wraps
Records*
Teen III (18–19 years) Level
Teen-age World Records in the squat at and total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
Teen-age US American Records in the squat at , bench press , dead lift and total at set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in all four powerlifting categories – the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at as well as the total at at age 19.
Current Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in the squat at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991
Collegiate Level
Current Texas State Collegiate Record holder in the squat at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
Junior Level (20–23 years)
Current Texas State Junior Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
Senior Level (24+ years)
Current Texas State Record holder in the squat at , the deadlift at and the total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) from July 16, 1995 to October 29, 1995
Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from October 29, 1995 to June 7, 2010** (+regardless of weight class until November 4, 2007***)
Former All-time raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from July 16, 1995 to May 23, 2010**** (+regardless of weight class until July 4, 2009*****)
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at in SHW class only since July 16, 1995
Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total World Record holder at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
Current All-time American Record holder in the raw deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since July 16, 1995
Current American Record holder in the deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Current All-time US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Federation Records
World Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation (WDFPF) World Records
Current WDFPF World Record holder in the squat at , the deadlift at and the total at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since October 29, 1995 (categorized as "open equipped", despite performed in singlet&knee sleeves only/without suit)
U.S.A. Powerlifting (USAPL) US American Records
Current USAPL US American Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Current US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
Special Powerlifting Honors
"The World's Strongest Teen-ager" by the Los Angeles Times in April 1990.
Mark Henry was voted in the All-time Top 25 All-Mens US Powerlifting Nationals Team in 2007.
Mark Henry is the only human in history who has not only squatted more than without a squat suit, but also deadlifted more than raw.
Mark Henry is the only human in history to have squatted more than without a squat suit and deadlifted more than raw in one and the same powerlifting meet.
Mark Henry's raw squat and deadlift, done on July 16, 1995 is the highest raw "squat-pull-2-lift-total" (squat+deadlift=) ever lifted in a competition. (Andrei Malanichev's squat and deadlift = on October 22, 2011 being the 2nd highest ever; Mark Henry's squat and deadlift = being the 3rd highest, Benedikt Magnusson's squat and deadlift = being the 4th highest; Malanichev's squat and deadlift = being the 5th; Don Reinhoudt's squat and deadlift = being th 6th)
Mark Henry does not only hold the greatest all-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total in history at , but also the second greatest in history at .
* incomplete
** surpassed by Robert Wilkerson (SHW class) of the United States with a raw squat with knee wraps on June 7, 2010 at the Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) Nationals (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class*** surpassed by Sergiy Karnaukhov (308-pound-class) of Ukraine] with a raw squat with knee wraps on November 4, 2007 as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world record**** surpassed by Andy Bolton (SHW class) of the United Kingdom with a raw deadlift on May 23, 2010 (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class (+regardless of weight class)***** surpassed by Konstantin Konstantinovs (308-pound-class) of Latvia] with a raw deadlift without a belt on July 4, 2009 (drug-tested competition) as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world recordWeightlifting
Olympic Games
Olympic Games team member representing USA at the Olympics 1992 in Barcelona, Spain, finishing 10th place in SHW division at age 21
Team Captain of the Olympic Weightlifting team representing USA at the Olympics 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, finishing 14th in SHW division due to back injury at age 25
Pan American Games
Silver Medalist in the Olympic weightlifting Total in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: total – 804 pounds
Gold Medalist in the Snatch in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: snatch – 391 1/4 pounds, setting an American record
Bronze Medalist in Clean and jerk in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
result: clean and jerk – snatch 412 3/4 pounds
North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Championships
1st place in North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division
U.S. National Weightlifting Championships
1st place in U.S. National Junior Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
results: total: 326.0 kg – snatch: 156.0 kg / clean&jerk: 170.0 kg
4th place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
results: total: 325.0 kg – snatch: 150.0 kg / clean&jerk: 175.0 kg
3rd place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
results: total: 365.0 kg – snatch: 165.0 kg / clean&jerk: 200.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 21
results: total: 385.0 kg – snatch: 175.0 kg / clean&jerk: 210.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
results: total: 387.5 kg – snatch: 172.5 kg / clean&jerk: 215.0 kg
1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 24
results: total: 400.0 kg – snatch: 180.0 kg / clean&jerk: 220.0 kg
Mark Henry was voted as the #1 outstanding lifter of the championships
U.S. Olympic Festival Championships
1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 23
USA Weightlifting American Open Championships
2nd place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
1st place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 21
RECORDS
Junior US American record holder (+110 kg) in the Snatch at 162.5 kg, Clean and jerk at 202.5 kg, and Total at 362.5 kg (1986–1992)
Senior US American record holder (+108 kg) in the Snatch at 180.0 kg, Clean and jerk at 220.0 kg, and Total at 400.0 kg (1993–1997)
Strength athletics
Arnold Classic
Arnold Strongman Classic – Winner 2002
First man in history to one-hand clean and push press the "unliftable" Thomas Inch dumbbell (; diameter handle)
The Second Strongest Man That Ever Lived according to Flex Magazine
International Sports Hall of Fame
International Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2012)
Professional wrestling
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2019)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Frank Gotch Award (2021)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated''
Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2011)
Ranked No. 9 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2012
Ranked No. 472 of the top 500 greatest wrestlers in the "PWI Years" in 2003
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
ECW Championship (1 time)
World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF European Championship (1 time)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2018)
Slammy Award (3 times)
"Holy $#!+ Move of the Year" (2011)
Feat of Strength of the Year (2013)
Match of the Year (2014) –
See also
List of strongmen
List of powerlifters
References
External links
Mark Henry – The Strongest Man That Ever Lived (article by Ben Tatar)
Mark Henry's impressive achievements over the ropes by Katie Raymonds on WWE.com
International Sports Hall of Fame: Mark Henry featured in pictures and Acceptance Speech video clips
Powerliftingwatch of all-time powerlifting records, including Mark Henry's
Video: Mark Henry at the Arnold Strongman Classic 2002 (introduction+Apollon's Wheel+Inch dumbbell)
Video: Mark Henry lifting the "unliftable" Thomas Inch Dumbbell as the first man in history
Video: Mark Henry wins the 1995 USAPL (ADFPA) National Powerlifting Championships and deadlifts 903 lb
1971 births
All Elite Wrestling personnel
American male professional wrestlers
American male weightlifters
American powerlifters
American strength athletes
African-American male professional wrestlers
ECW champions
ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions
Living people
Olympic weightlifters of the United States
Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States
Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States
Pan American Games medalists in weightlifting
Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States
People with dyslexia
People from Silsbee, Texas
Professional wrestlers from Texas
The Nation of Domination members
Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Weightlifters at the 1995 Pan American Games
Weightlifters at the 1996 Summer Olympics
World Heavyweight Champions (WWE)
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF European Champions
Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American sportspeople | false | [
"\"Awesome God\" is a contemporary worship song written by Rich Mullins and first recorded on his 1988 album, Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth. It was the first single from the album and rose to the number one spot on Christian radio and subsequently became a popular congregational song. Its title is inspired by a biblical expression (Nehemiah 1:5, Nehemiah 9:32, Psalm 47, Daniel 9:4, etc.), variously translated as \"Awesome God\", (JPS, in the old-fashioned meaning \"awe-inspiring\"), \"great\" (KJV), among other alternatives. Due to the popularity of the song it became Mullins' signature song.\n\nCommentary \nMullins did not consider the song to be one of his best. In an interview with The Lighthouse Electronic Magazine in April 1996, he said:\nYou know, the thing I like about Awesome God is that it's one of the worst-written songs that I ever wrote; it's just poorly crafted. But the thing is that sometimes, I think, that when you become too conscientious about being a songwriter, the message becomes a vehicle for the medium. This is a temptation that I think all songwriters have. I think a great songwriter is someone who is able to take a very meaningful piece of wisdom - or of folly or whatever - and say it in a way that is most likely to make people respond. But, what you want them to respond to is not how cleverly you did that; what you want them to respond to is your message.\n\nCover versions \n\nOver a year after Mullins' death (in September 1997) the song was covered on a tribute album for Mullins entitled Awesome God: A Tribute to Rich Mullins by Contemporary Christian musician, Michael W. Smith. Numerous other Christian artists have performed versions in numerous styles, from ska to swing to rock and traditional worship style, even hardcore punk and heavy metal by the bands Unashamed and Pantokrator.\n\nCongregational and other use \nThe song may be used as a hymn and can be sung using only the chorus, alone or in medley.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Awesome God lyrics\n\nContemporary Christian songs\n1988 songs\nSongs written by Rich Mullins",
"Television criticism is the act of writing or speaking about television programming to evaluate its worth, meaning, and other aspects. Such criticism can be found in daily newspapers, on culture discussion shows (on TV and radio), and in specialist books and periodicals, all of which are in direct competition for audiences from television. There are many aspects to critiquing something, and those critiques can be found in a variety of places, such as newspapers or journals. While originally developed to critique content for children, it has been used to critique how various issues and topics are presented on television such as feminist and African American representation. Relations with the audience and networks are important to critics, but problems can arise with both.\n\nOverview\nTelevision criticism originally began as a way to analyze the shows children were watching, and to make sure they were getting quality educational content. Originally being defined as visual literacy, the term changed in the '90s to media literacy.\n\nThe purpose of television criticism is to evaluate the content of television to make sure the people watching them, whether it be students or citizens, are obtaining some level of reliable education. This education can be for political, ethical, social, or cultural topics and issues.\n\nThe act of criticizing has a variety of components to it. California State University, Sacramento professor Leah R. Vande Berg explained that, \"The act of criticism involves organizing, systematically and thoroughly describing, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating patterned relationships to share an informed perspective with others.\"\n\nThe three most important parts of criticism are a key interpretation that the rest of the criticism will follow, sound arguments to back up the interpretation, and solid evidence to support it.\n\nSince television is so accessible to so many people, most newspapers carry TV listings and these are often accompanied by criticism even just to the extent of recommending a particular program or programs from that day's selection of viewing. Television criticism is a way for us to share and gain information about television shows.\n\nTelevision will often provide a forum for criticizing itself. In the United Kingdom, The Review Show on BBC Four hosts a monthly discussion on the arts with a television series often featuring. Also in the UK is Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe which takes an incisive though humorous look at current television.\n\nTelevision can be criticized in a variety of ways, usually by watching what is on TV from a certain viewpoint.\n\nFeminist Viewpoint \nViewing television from a feminist viewpoint refers to watching television programs with the purpose of critiquing the feminine aspects of it.\n\nPeople who criticize from this viewpoint have three ways of going about it. The first way is to analyze how the female characters are portrayed. The second is to analyze how feminist messages are explored. The third way is to analyze the theme of feminism and how the television content depicts it.\n\nAfrican American Viewpoint \nViewing television from an African American viewpoint refers to watching television programs to critique how African Americans and their issues are portrayed.\n\nHow it could be done was turned into three categories by a television critic named Herman Gray. The first category was assimilation and the discourse of invisibility. This category that any issues related to African Americans should be treated as individual problems and any other political issues should be viewed through a racial lens. The second category is separate-but-equal discourses. This category brings up that the world black characters live in should be the same as the one the white characters live in. The third category is multiculturalism/diversity. This category states that the audience should see Black life and culture through a variety of viewpoints.\n\nIssues in Criticism \nWith how big television has gotten, with thousands of channels and countless shows, it has become harder for critics to do their jobs. This was originally seen back in the 1980s, where televisions grew to not only include the normal three networks but channels from nascent cable and three more broadcast networks. The increase in content made critics prioritize what they watched, leading to a wider and more diverse range of critics.\n\nDespite the issues caused by the increase in content, it made critics more important to networks, who relied on them to help them figure out what shows they should advertise. This arose when networks wanted to expand their advertising so it wasn't just on television. The work of critics allowed people to find and get excited about different shows and served as a form of advertisement for the network.\n\nSometimes issues can arise with the networks. In 1981, the executive producer of NBC, Bud Rukeyser, got into conflict with television critics. Critics were demanding that the sexuality of the main character of the TV show Love, Sydney be revealed. Rukeyser refused to provide an answer and pulled NBC from a press tour in an attempt to punish and assert his power over the critics. His attempt was in vain, as critics become more interested in the other networks at the press tour than with NBC.\n\nRelationship with Readers \nCritics recognize their audience as an important factor in their work and try not to use it to preach their opinions. They admit that they take in industrial factors, such as commercial viability, when reviewing a show, but they also must keep an open mind since they may not be the target audience of the show.\n\nCritics also have to take into consideration the audience's pleasures and evaluations and balance it with their knowledge of the television industry. This means that they have to put a lot of their knowledge of the workings and limitations of the industry to the side when making a review.\n\nExamples of Television Criticism \nThe rise of the internet has allowed television critics to publish their work in a cheaper manner that is easy to distribute. Multiple websites dedicated to critiquing television have sprung up over the years, though a lot of them have different ways of critiquing. Some examples of this are the website Television Without Pity providing that provide \"more creative and interactive commentary\" and FLOW displaying a \"more academic, yet still generally accessible discussion of television.\"\n\nSee also\n Did You See...?\n :Category:Television critics\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOur critics' advice - The Guardian, 8 July 2008.\nIn this article Nancy Banks-Smith gives advice to young, aspiring, would-be TV critics.\n\n \nTelevision studies"
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"Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)",
"Personality and appearance"
]
| C_98e2f2d1efdd41b7b2fe2be5a99d8eef_0 | What was Drusilla's personality like? | 1 | What was Drusilla's personality like? | Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) | Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting. Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? All the parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue. All of "white hats" (both Scoobies and Angel's Investigations) are doubtful about how to deal with her, originally an innocent victim. Mostly and obviously Angel. Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau. CANNOTANSWER | Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, | Drusilla, or Dru for short, is a fictional character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, portrayed by Juliet Landau. Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, she is introduced as a main antagonist alongside her lover Spike in the second season of Buffy. In addition to returning in subsequent seasons, the character is featured as a villain on the spin-off show Angel as well. Flashbacks in both series reveal Drusilla's past as a young psychic in Victorian London who was driven insane by Angel before he ultimately turned her into a vampire. Spike and Dru are notably more subversive compared to other "Big Bads" that have opposed Buffy Summers. The duo was conceived as a Sid and Nancy-inspired vampiric pair so Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent, while the character's physical appearance drew from sources such as supermodel Kate Moss and the 1990s heroin chic aesthetic.
Following the conclusion of both series, Drusilla continued to appear in Expanded Universe materials in other media. Landau went on to co-write a two-issue Drusilla story arc for IDW Publishing's Angel comic book series in 2009, which continued her character's storyline.
Character history
Drusilla's history unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; they are not presented in chronological order. In "Lie to Me", Angel explains that, in 1860 when he was still Angelus, he became obsessed with Drusilla, a beautiful young Catholic woman who lived with her parents and two sisters in London. Angelus's sire Darla first discovered Drusilla, and presented her to Angelus as a new possible victim to torment. Drusilla had psychic abilities, and was capable of occasionally foretelling the future, especially tragic situations. However, she believed this to be an evil affliction and wished to enter a nunnery to cleanse herself. Angelus sensed her purity and became obsessed with destroying her, as Drusilla had the potential for sainthood. Angelus first made contact with her by murdering Drusilla's priest, and impersonating him when she went to confession. When she confessed that she believed her abilities were evil, Angelus toyed with her by suggesting she embrace the evil instead of rejecting it. At some later point Angelus tortured and killed Drusilla's entire family, causing her to flee to a convent in Prague. On the day she was to take her holy vows, Angelus made her watch as he killed every person in the convent and engaged in sexual relations with Darla. The trauma of Angelus's atrocities drove Drusilla insane, and Angelus chose to turn her into a vampire, as he considered her a masterpiece, a testament to his talent. Believing death to be a mercy to her at this point, he chose to sire her to make her pain eternal as an immortal.
After being sired, Drusilla, now a predator, joined Angelus and Darla on their murderous travels. In 1880, Drusilla sired the young poet William, who joined the group. She and William, later known as "Spike", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.
Shortly after Angelus is cursed with a soul, Spike and Drusilla (unaware of the ensoulment) go their separate ways from Darla and Angel. At some point before their arrival in Sunnydale in late 1997, Drusilla is attacked and severely injured by an angry mob in Prague, leaving her in a weakened and frail condition. Spike cares for her, and the couple decide to travel to the Hellmouth in hopes that its energy will help to restore Drusilla's strength and health.
They arrive in Sunnydale in the episode "School Hard", and Spike plots the downfall of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When he discovers that Drusilla can be cured by the blood of her sire, Spike captures Angel and allows Drusilla to torture him until it is time to perform the ritual. Although Buffy and her friends save Angel, the ritual is successful. Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack. When Angel reverts to Angelus, he re-joins the couple. Drusilla soon kills Kendra, another Slayer, by hypnotizing her and cutting her throat with a fingernail (which impresses Spike when he learns of it).
Drusilla is delighted by Angelus's determination to destroy the world and encourages his ongoing sexual attention; both dynamics strongly disturb Spike, who wants Drusilla to himself again and does not particularly want the world to end. Spike decides to help Buffy save the world in exchange for his and Drusilla's safe passage from Sunnydale. Drusilla resists Spike's betrayal of Angelus, and he attacks her, ultimately carrying her unconscious body from the fray.
Drusilla and Spike flee to Brazil, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship. Spike's alliance with the Slayer, combined with Dru's skills of foresight and perception, prove to her that Spike is now tainted (not "demon enough" for her) and that he is developing feelings for Buffy. Drusilla breaks up with Spike, and he rejects her offer to remain friends.
Drusilla reappears on Angel in 2000, when Wolfram & Hart brings her to Los Angeles to re-sire Darla, who had been resurrected as a human dying of syphilis. Drusilla, who loves Darla like a "grandmum", and also more than that, over their 150-year-old complicated relationship, genuinely believes she is doing Darla a favor by siring her and is puzzled by Darla's brief rage before her renewed vampire nature kicks in. Reconciled, the two wreak havoc in the city until Angel sets them on fire. The two go underground to heal, but Drusilla leaves Darla, who is then protected by Lindsey McDonald.
Drusilla returns to Sunnydale in the episode "Crush" to persuade Spike to join Darla and herself in reforming their "family" unit, but instead, Spike seizes the opportunity to try to prove his love for Buffy by offering to stake Drusilla. Heartbroken by the actions of her former lover, Drusilla departs Sunnydale and remains at large. However, in Season Seven of Buffy, the First Evil impersonates Drusilla in an unsuccessful attempt to break Spike's spirit. Spike claims that the First Evil's impersonation is not crazy enough to be Drusilla.
In Angel comics by IDW Publishing set after the television series ended, Drusilla reappears, breaking out of a psychiatric institution, in the story arc Drusilla (2009). Still mentally ill, her whereabouts since her last appearance in Angel remain unexplained. After assault by a crowd, she awakens, still pallid-skinned, in what appears to be Georgian London, in broad daylight and enters what seems to be her parents’ home. She encounters a doll (which may or may not be "Miss Edith") and is called by a third party, possibly her parents. It is uncertain whether this is an elaborate hallucination, time travel to her personal past or an alternate universe where she was never turned by Angelus. It is strongly implied, however, that the story actually takes place before Drusilla is sired, and the parts of it set in the modern day are actually a premonition in the human, 19th-century Drusilla's mind. She later reappears in the Spike mini-series (2010–11) by IDW, where she encounters Spike in Las Vegas, having allied herself with a human who believes Spike stole his soul. Spike has Buffy's friend Willow magically transfer his soul to Drusilla to give her a shot at redemption, but they are forced to reverse the spell when it drives her even madder than she already is.
The character next appears in Angel & Faith by Dark Horse Comics in the story arc "Daddy Issues" (2012), in which Drusilla has become sane thanks to the Lorophage demon, popularly referred to as the Highgate vampire, which ate her trauma and pain. In her new role as "Mother Superior", she sought to perform similar treatments on the citizens of London, which Angel likened to lobotomies. When Angel killed the Lorophage, Drusilla becomes insane once more, and is free. Dark Horse intended to release the 5-issue miniseries Drusilla: Run and Catch, examining what happened next for her, but it was delayed until the conclusion of Season Nine. Later in the Angel & Faith series, it transpires she went on to kill one of the London Slayers affiliated with Faith. She returns in the second series, in which she helps the demon Archaeus (the Master's sire) build an army of vampires to take over Magic Town. However she flees in the finale when Angel, Faith and their allies defeat Archaeus and his army in a battle.
Powers and abilities
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.
Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".
Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there.
Personality and appearance
Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting.
Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue.
Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau.
Appearances
Drusilla had 49 canonical Buffyverse appearances.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Drusilla appeared in 17 episodes.
Season 2 (1997–98): "School Hard", "Halloween", "Lie to Me", "What's My Line, Part One", "What's My Line, Part Two", "Surprise", "Innocence", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Becoming, Part One", "Becoming, Part Two"
Season 5 (2000–01): "Fool for Love", "Crush"
Season 7 (2002–03): "Lessons", "Bring on the Night", "Lies My Parents Told Me"
Drusilla appeared in 3 canonical issues.
Tales (2003): "The Problem with Vampires"
Season Ten (2015): "Relationship Status: Complicated, Part 1"
Season Twelve (2018): "Finale"
Angel
Drusilla appeared in 7 episodes.
Season 2 (2000–01): "Dear Boy", "Darla", "The Trial", "Reunion", "Redefinition"
Season 5 (2003–04): "Destiny", "The Girl in Question"
Drusilla appeared in 22 canonical issues.
Spike (2010–11): "Alone Together Now", "Everybody Loves Spike", "You Haven't Changed a Bit", "Bedknobs and Boomsticks", "Something Borrowed", "Give and Take", "Stranger Things"
Angel & Faith (2012): "Daddy Issues, Parts 1–4", "A Dark Place, Part 3", "Death and Consequences, Part 1"
Angel & Faith: Season Ten (2015–16): "Those Who Can't Teach, Teach Gym, Parts 2 & 3", "A Little More than Kin, Parts 1 & 2", "A Tale of Two Families, Parts 1–5"
Drusilla appears in a number of non-canonical comics and novels, notably in her own mini-series: Spike & Dru.
References
External links
Drusilla on IMDb
Drusilla Comic at FEARnet
Angel (1999 TV series) characters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
Buffyverse vampires
Female characters in television
Female villains
Fictional characters with neurological or psychological disorders
Fictional characters with precognition
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional immigrants to the United States
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional people from London
Television characters introduced in 1997 | true | [
"USS Drusilla (SP-372) was a patrol vessel that served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1918.\n \nDrusilla was built as a private motorboat of the same name in 1914 by the New York Launch and Engine Company at Morris Heights in the Bronx, New York. On 22 May 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired her under a free lease from her owner, A. J. Drexel of Radnor, Pennsylvania, for use as a patrol boat during World War I. She was commissioned as USS Drusilla (SP-372) on 25 May 1917.\n\nAssigned to the 4th Naval District, Drusilla served on the section patrol in the Delaware Bay area, performing harbor entrance and submarine net patrol duties for the remainder of World War I.\n\nDrusilla was decommissioned on 10 December 1918. The Navy returned her to Drexel on 12 December 1918.\n\nReferences\n \n Department of the Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS Drusilla (SP-372), 1917–1918 Originally Drusilla (American Motor Boat, 1914)\n NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive: Drusilla (SP 372)\n\nPatrol vessels of the United States Navy\nWorld War I patrol vessels of the United States\nShips built in Morris Heights, Bronx\n1914 ships",
"Drusilla of Mauretania (Greek: Δρουσίλλη) may be the Drusilla mentioned by Tacitus as a granddaughter of Antonius and Cleopatra. If so, she would have been a princess of Mauretania, the youngest child of queen Cleopatra Selene II and king Juba II and a sister to king Ptolemy of Mauretania. Her birthdate is uncertain but is thought to be about 8 BCE.\n\nFamily\nShe is not known to have any siblings that reached the age of majority other than Ptolemy. Her father Juba II of Numidia, was a son of king Juba I of Numidia (a king of Numidia of Berber descent from North Africa, who was an ally of Roman General Pompey). Her mother Cleopatra Selene II was a daughter of Ptolemaic Greek queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt from her marriage to Roman Triumvir Mark Antony. Drusilla was of Berber, Greek and Roman ancestry.\n\nThrough her maternal grandfather, Drusilla was a distant relative of Dictator Julius Caesar and the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Drusilla was a first cousin of Roman General Germanicus and his brother, the Roman Emperor Claudius, and a second cousin of Roman Emperor Caligula, Roman Empress Agrippina the Younger, Roman Empress Valeria Messalina and Roman Emperor Nero.\n\nLife\nDrusilla was named in honor of the Roman Empress Livia Drusilla or her late son the Roman General Nero Claudius Drusus. Drusilla was most probably born in Caesaria, the capital of the Kingdom of Mauretania (modern Cherchell, Algeria) in the Roman Empire and she was most probably raised there. Her mother probably died in 6 CE. Drusilla received a Roman education and became Romanized. However, little is known of the life of Drusilla.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n Burstein, Stanley M. The Reign of Cleopatra University of Oklahoma Press 30 December 2007 \n Roller, Duane W. The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene Routledge (UK) 2003 \n\nPtolemaic dynasty\nYear of death missing\n1st-century women\nMauretania princesses\nPeople from Cherchell\n0s BC births"
]
|
[
"Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)",
"Personality and appearance",
"What was Drusilla's personality like?",
"Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue,"
]
| C_98e2f2d1efdd41b7b2fe2be5a99d8eef_0 | What strange dialogue would she use? | 2 | What strange dialogue would Drusilla use? | Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) | Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting. Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? All the parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue. All of "white hats" (both Scoobies and Angel's Investigations) are doubtful about how to deal with her, originally an innocent victim. Mostly and obviously Angel. Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau. CANNOTANSWER | peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, | Drusilla, or Dru for short, is a fictional character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, portrayed by Juliet Landau. Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, she is introduced as a main antagonist alongside her lover Spike in the second season of Buffy. In addition to returning in subsequent seasons, the character is featured as a villain on the spin-off show Angel as well. Flashbacks in both series reveal Drusilla's past as a young psychic in Victorian London who was driven insane by Angel before he ultimately turned her into a vampire. Spike and Dru are notably more subversive compared to other "Big Bads" that have opposed Buffy Summers. The duo was conceived as a Sid and Nancy-inspired vampiric pair so Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent, while the character's physical appearance drew from sources such as supermodel Kate Moss and the 1990s heroin chic aesthetic.
Following the conclusion of both series, Drusilla continued to appear in Expanded Universe materials in other media. Landau went on to co-write a two-issue Drusilla story arc for IDW Publishing's Angel comic book series in 2009, which continued her character's storyline.
Character history
Drusilla's history unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; they are not presented in chronological order. In "Lie to Me", Angel explains that, in 1860 when he was still Angelus, he became obsessed with Drusilla, a beautiful young Catholic woman who lived with her parents and two sisters in London. Angelus's sire Darla first discovered Drusilla, and presented her to Angelus as a new possible victim to torment. Drusilla had psychic abilities, and was capable of occasionally foretelling the future, especially tragic situations. However, she believed this to be an evil affliction and wished to enter a nunnery to cleanse herself. Angelus sensed her purity and became obsessed with destroying her, as Drusilla had the potential for sainthood. Angelus first made contact with her by murdering Drusilla's priest, and impersonating him when she went to confession. When she confessed that she believed her abilities were evil, Angelus toyed with her by suggesting she embrace the evil instead of rejecting it. At some later point Angelus tortured and killed Drusilla's entire family, causing her to flee to a convent in Prague. On the day she was to take her holy vows, Angelus made her watch as he killed every person in the convent and engaged in sexual relations with Darla. The trauma of Angelus's atrocities drove Drusilla insane, and Angelus chose to turn her into a vampire, as he considered her a masterpiece, a testament to his talent. Believing death to be a mercy to her at this point, he chose to sire her to make her pain eternal as an immortal.
After being sired, Drusilla, now a predator, joined Angelus and Darla on their murderous travels. In 1880, Drusilla sired the young poet William, who joined the group. She and William, later known as "Spike", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.
Shortly after Angelus is cursed with a soul, Spike and Drusilla (unaware of the ensoulment) go their separate ways from Darla and Angel. At some point before their arrival in Sunnydale in late 1997, Drusilla is attacked and severely injured by an angry mob in Prague, leaving her in a weakened and frail condition. Spike cares for her, and the couple decide to travel to the Hellmouth in hopes that its energy will help to restore Drusilla's strength and health.
They arrive in Sunnydale in the episode "School Hard", and Spike plots the downfall of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When he discovers that Drusilla can be cured by the blood of her sire, Spike captures Angel and allows Drusilla to torture him until it is time to perform the ritual. Although Buffy and her friends save Angel, the ritual is successful. Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack. When Angel reverts to Angelus, he re-joins the couple. Drusilla soon kills Kendra, another Slayer, by hypnotizing her and cutting her throat with a fingernail (which impresses Spike when he learns of it).
Drusilla is delighted by Angelus's determination to destroy the world and encourages his ongoing sexual attention; both dynamics strongly disturb Spike, who wants Drusilla to himself again and does not particularly want the world to end. Spike decides to help Buffy save the world in exchange for his and Drusilla's safe passage from Sunnydale. Drusilla resists Spike's betrayal of Angelus, and he attacks her, ultimately carrying her unconscious body from the fray.
Drusilla and Spike flee to Brazil, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship. Spike's alliance with the Slayer, combined with Dru's skills of foresight and perception, prove to her that Spike is now tainted (not "demon enough" for her) and that he is developing feelings for Buffy. Drusilla breaks up with Spike, and he rejects her offer to remain friends.
Drusilla reappears on Angel in 2000, when Wolfram & Hart brings her to Los Angeles to re-sire Darla, who had been resurrected as a human dying of syphilis. Drusilla, who loves Darla like a "grandmum", and also more than that, over their 150-year-old complicated relationship, genuinely believes she is doing Darla a favor by siring her and is puzzled by Darla's brief rage before her renewed vampire nature kicks in. Reconciled, the two wreak havoc in the city until Angel sets them on fire. The two go underground to heal, but Drusilla leaves Darla, who is then protected by Lindsey McDonald.
Drusilla returns to Sunnydale in the episode "Crush" to persuade Spike to join Darla and herself in reforming their "family" unit, but instead, Spike seizes the opportunity to try to prove his love for Buffy by offering to stake Drusilla. Heartbroken by the actions of her former lover, Drusilla departs Sunnydale and remains at large. However, in Season Seven of Buffy, the First Evil impersonates Drusilla in an unsuccessful attempt to break Spike's spirit. Spike claims that the First Evil's impersonation is not crazy enough to be Drusilla.
In Angel comics by IDW Publishing set after the television series ended, Drusilla reappears, breaking out of a psychiatric institution, in the story arc Drusilla (2009). Still mentally ill, her whereabouts since her last appearance in Angel remain unexplained. After assault by a crowd, she awakens, still pallid-skinned, in what appears to be Georgian London, in broad daylight and enters what seems to be her parents’ home. She encounters a doll (which may or may not be "Miss Edith") and is called by a third party, possibly her parents. It is uncertain whether this is an elaborate hallucination, time travel to her personal past or an alternate universe where she was never turned by Angelus. It is strongly implied, however, that the story actually takes place before Drusilla is sired, and the parts of it set in the modern day are actually a premonition in the human, 19th-century Drusilla's mind. She later reappears in the Spike mini-series (2010–11) by IDW, where she encounters Spike in Las Vegas, having allied herself with a human who believes Spike stole his soul. Spike has Buffy's friend Willow magically transfer his soul to Drusilla to give her a shot at redemption, but they are forced to reverse the spell when it drives her even madder than she already is.
The character next appears in Angel & Faith by Dark Horse Comics in the story arc "Daddy Issues" (2012), in which Drusilla has become sane thanks to the Lorophage demon, popularly referred to as the Highgate vampire, which ate her trauma and pain. In her new role as "Mother Superior", she sought to perform similar treatments on the citizens of London, which Angel likened to lobotomies. When Angel killed the Lorophage, Drusilla becomes insane once more, and is free. Dark Horse intended to release the 5-issue miniseries Drusilla: Run and Catch, examining what happened next for her, but it was delayed until the conclusion of Season Nine. Later in the Angel & Faith series, it transpires she went on to kill one of the London Slayers affiliated with Faith. She returns in the second series, in which she helps the demon Archaeus (the Master's sire) build an army of vampires to take over Magic Town. However she flees in the finale when Angel, Faith and their allies defeat Archaeus and his army in a battle.
Powers and abilities
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.
Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".
Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there.
Personality and appearance
Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting.
Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue.
Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau.
Appearances
Drusilla had 49 canonical Buffyverse appearances.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Drusilla appeared in 17 episodes.
Season 2 (1997–98): "School Hard", "Halloween", "Lie to Me", "What's My Line, Part One", "What's My Line, Part Two", "Surprise", "Innocence", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Becoming, Part One", "Becoming, Part Two"
Season 5 (2000–01): "Fool for Love", "Crush"
Season 7 (2002–03): "Lessons", "Bring on the Night", "Lies My Parents Told Me"
Drusilla appeared in 3 canonical issues.
Tales (2003): "The Problem with Vampires"
Season Ten (2015): "Relationship Status: Complicated, Part 1"
Season Twelve (2018): "Finale"
Angel
Drusilla appeared in 7 episodes.
Season 2 (2000–01): "Dear Boy", "Darla", "The Trial", "Reunion", "Redefinition"
Season 5 (2003–04): "Destiny", "The Girl in Question"
Drusilla appeared in 22 canonical issues.
Spike (2010–11): "Alone Together Now", "Everybody Loves Spike", "You Haven't Changed a Bit", "Bedknobs and Boomsticks", "Something Borrowed", "Give and Take", "Stranger Things"
Angel & Faith (2012): "Daddy Issues, Parts 1–4", "A Dark Place, Part 3", "Death and Consequences, Part 1"
Angel & Faith: Season Ten (2015–16): "Those Who Can't Teach, Teach Gym, Parts 2 & 3", "A Little More than Kin, Parts 1 & 2", "A Tale of Two Families, Parts 1–5"
Drusilla appears in a number of non-canonical comics and novels, notably in her own mini-series: Spike & Dru.
References
External links
Drusilla on IMDb
Drusilla Comic at FEARnet
Angel (1999 TV series) characters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
Buffyverse vampires
Female characters in television
Female villains
Fictional characters with neurological or psychological disorders
Fictional characters with precognition
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional immigrants to the United States
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional people from London
Television characters introduced in 1997 | true | [
"Omar El Akkad (born 1982) is an Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist, whose novel What Strange Paradise was the winner of the 2021 Giller Prize.\n\nEarly life and education \nOmar El Akkad was born in Cairo, Egypt, and grew up in Doha, Qatar. When he was 16 years old, he moved to Canada, completing high school in Montreal and university at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He has a computer science degree.\n\nCareer \nFor ten years he was a staff reporter for The Globe and Mail, where he covered the War in Afghanistan, military trials at Guantanamo Bay and the Arab Spring in Egypt. He was most recently a correspondent for the western United States, where he covered Black Lives Matter.\n\nHis first novel, American War, was published in 2017. It received positive reviews from critics; The New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani compared it favourably to Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Philip Roth's novel The Plot Against America. She wrote that \"melodramatic\" dialogue could be forgiven by the use of details that makes the fictional future \"seem alarmingly real\". The Globe and Mail called it \"a masterful debut.\" The novel was named a shortlisted finalist for the 2017 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and for the 2018 amazon.ca First Novel Award, and won a Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.\n\nIn November 2019 BBC News listed American War on a list of the 100 most influential novels.\n\nIn 2021, El-Akkad appeared on Storybound.\n\nOn November 8, 2021, El-Akkad won the Giller Prize for What Strange Paradise. The novel was selected for the 2022 edition of Canada Reads, where it will be defended by Tareq Hadhad.\n\nPersonal life \nHe lives with his wife and daughter in Portland, Oregon.\n\nBibliography \n American War - 2017 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf)\n What Strange Paradise - 2021 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart)\n\nReferences \n\n1982 births\nLiving people\n21st-century Canadian male writers\n21st-century Canadian novelists\nCanadian male journalists\nCanadian male novelists\nCanadian people of Egyptian descent\nJournalists from Portland, Oregon\nPeople from Doha",
"\"What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?\" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American animated television series What If...?, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. It explores what would happen if the events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Doctor Strange (2016) occurred differently, with Dr. Stephen Strange's girlfriend Christine Palmer dying rather than Strange losing the use of his hands. The episode was written by head writer A.C. Bradley and directed by Bryan Andrews.\n\nJeffrey Wright narrates the series as the Watcher, with this episode also starring the voices of Benedict Cumberbatch (Strange), Rachel McAdams (Palmer), Benedict Wong, Tilda Swinton, Ike Amadi, and Leslie Bibb. The series began development by September 2018, with Andrews and Bradley joining soon after, and many actors expected to reprise their roles from the MCU films. The episode tells a tragic love story in which Strange attempts to use magic to prevent Palmer's death. Animation for the episode was provided by Flying Bark Productions, with Stephan Franck serving as head of animation.\n\n\"What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?\" was released on Disney+ on September 1, 2021. Critics praised the episode's dark storyline and ending, but gave mixed reviews for the visuals and Palmer's fridging storyline.\n\nPlot \nAfter successfully completing a rare hemispherectomy, surgeon Dr. Stephen Strange and his girlfriend Dr. Christine Palmer drive to a celebration party in his honor. However, they get into a car crash that kills Palmer. A grieving Strange seeks out answers in Kamar-Taj, where he becomes a Master of the Mystic Arts. While studying the Eye of Agamotto, Strange learns that it can manipulate time, but is warned by the Ancient One and Wong not to do so as it could damage the fabric of reality.\n\nTwo years after Palmer's death, Strange returns to that night using the Eye, but is unable to save her no matter how he alters events. The Ancient One explains that averting Palmer's death would mean he never became a sorcerer, creating a universe-destroying paradox as the event is an \"absolute point\" in time. Strange refuses to listen and uses the Eye to escape to the Lost Library of Cagliostro, where he meets librarian O'Bengh and learns that he can amass enough power to break an absolute point by absorbing magical beings.\n\nAfter centuries of absorbing magical beings, Strange is told by a dying O'Bengh that he is still not powerful enough because he is only half of himself: when Strange escaped from the Ancient One, she used the power of the Dark Dimension to split him into two alternate versions, with one Strange studying the books of Cagliostro to become an evil version dubbed \"Strange Supreme\" and a good version accepting Palmer's death. The Ancient One believes the latter Strange can defeat Strange Supreme.\n\nAfter a battle between the two, Strange Supreme overpowers the good Strange and absorbs him. Strange Supreme uses his enhanced powers to reverse Palmer's death, but she is repulsed by his monstrous appearance. As the paradox begins tearing reality apart and his surroundings collapse, Strange Supreme begs the Watcher for help. The latter refuses to interfere and the universe is destroyed. While Strange preserves a small pocket of it, Palmer disintegrates, leaving a regretful Strange Supreme to grieve alone.\n\nProduction\n\nDevelopment \n\nBy September 2018, Marvel Studios was developing an animated anthology series based on the What If...? comic books, which would explore how the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films would be altered if certain events occurred differently. Head writer A.C. Bradley joined the project in October 2018, with director Bryan Andrews meeting Marvel Studios executive Brad Winderbaum about the project as early as 2018; Bradley and Andrews' involvement was announced in August 2019. They executive produce alongside Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso. Bradley wrote the fourth episode, titled \"What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?\", which features an alternate storyline of the film Doctor Strange (2016). \"What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?\" was released on Disney+ on September 1, 2021.\n\nWriting \nThe episode was written in February 2019. In the episode's alternate storyline, a car crash results in Dr. Stephen Strange's girlfriend Christine Palmer dying rather than Strange losing the use of his hands, creating a \"dark... tragic love story\". The creative team of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) were interested in What If...? take on Strange during that film's development. The episode adapts part of the H.G. Wells novel The Time Machine, with Strange making multiple attempts to go back in time and save Palmer only for her to always die. Bradley was scared to begin work on the episode because of its heavy themes, including tragedy and \"why does loss hurt so much\", but she ultimately found writing the episode to be a rewarding experience because it \"all comes down to love. Only the things we love can hurt us\". Bradley drew from a personal loss of her older cousin, using her desire to go back in time to save him as the basis for Strange wanting to save Palmer, as well as what it means to have grief. She also called it the \"most human\" episode of the season. Andrews felt the episode went in a different direction to others of the series that he believed animation should cover more often, and believed the audience would be shocked by the episode's ending.\n\nThe Watcher considers intervening to prevent Strange from endangering his whole reality, taking a more active role than in previous episodes, which actor Jeffrey Wright said was a \"shift in attitude ... purpose and intent\" for him, becoming \"less disembodied\". He added that the Watcher took particular interest in this story because he and Doctor Strange have a \"common perspective on certain things\". Wright also explained that the Watcher is \"not a voyeur for voyeurism's sake, he is in some ways made up of these characters. Without them, what does he watch? He's profoundly compelled by them, and maybe there's only so much he can take\". Wright was moved by the episode and believed its lessons were \"really riveting and relevant\", while calling the premise of the episode \"timeless\" since all people have had moments when they wish they could undo certain events. The episode refers to fixed points in time as \"absolute points\", which had previously been established as a \"nexus point\" in the first season of Loki. Bradley conceded that \"nexus point\" should have been used in the episode, however, the scripts for Loki were not yet created when the episode had completed its animatics.\n\nCasting \n\nJeffrey Wright narrates the episode as the Watcher, with Marvel planning to have other characters in the series voiced by the actors who portrayed them in the MCU films. The episode stars returning Doctor Strange actors Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange as well as his evil counterpart which is referred to as Doctor Strange Supreme, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, Benedict Wong as Wong, and Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One. Leslie Bibb reprises her role of Christine Everhart from previous MCU media and Ike Amadi also stars in the episode as O'Bengh, which is a pseudonym used by the sorcerer Cagliostro in Marvel Comics. Dormammu also appears in a non-speaking role.\n\nAnimation \nAnimation for the episode was provided by Flying Bark Productions, with Stephan Franck serving as head of animation. Andrews developed the series' cel-shaded animation style with Ryan Meinerding, the head of visual development at Marvel Studios. Though the series has a consistent art style, elements such as the camera and color palette differ between episodes. After an early screening of the episode before animation work began, Feige said \"It's amazing... I don't know how we're going to pull this off with the animation, but keep pushing it.\" Concept art for the episode is included during the end credits, and was released online by Marvel following the episode's premiere.\n\nWhen designing an evil version of Doctor Strange, Meinerding looked to the idea that he had been altered by the mystical creatures he was absorbing and designed a \"very odd-looking, malformed person\". The creatives decided that they still wanted the character to be recognizable as Strange, so Meinerding instead went with a more human version of the character that is gaunt, with a darker costume, paler skin, \"sharper and more dangerous\" hair and beard, and dark circles under his eyes. Meinerding described this as a \"classic\" evil character look. Another element that was adjusted is the character's cape and collar, which is bigger to give the two versions of Strange a distinctive silhouette. The more monstrous designs that Meinerding originally did were brought back for the episode's ending. This look incorporates the different creatures that appear in the episode, which were based on ideas from Andrews, Bradley, and storyboard artist Aram Sarkisian rather than any existing Marvel Comics characters. They designed around 20 different creatures for the episode, and wanted the looks to both be interesting on their own as well as in the ways that they could temporarily merge with Strange as he absorbs them. The design team went through more iterations of Doctor Strange than many other characters for the series as they worked out how evil he needed to be portrayed and how monstrous his final form should be, as well as the other variations such as the character wearing a tux, injured versions, and 10 to 15 variations of him absorbing different creatures.\n\nOne of the most complex environments to create for production designer Paul Lasaine and his team was the room where Strange absorbs the creatures. It is meant to be the same main library room that is seen earlier in the episode, and they initially planned to use the same space with the lighting turned down, but the way the shots were framed for the sequence meant they would have to create 60 or 70 different backgrounds for the scene. Instead, they created a new \"big black nothing\" location and painted six or seven columns that they could then move around the scene depending on the angle of the shot. Another difficult sequence was the abstract backgrounds required when Strange sees an illusion of Palmer near the end of the climactic fight, which was added on the suggestion of editors Joel and Graham Fisher. The fight itself was developed by Andrews and Sarkisian and was described by the editors as \"insane action\" and \"phenomenal stuff\", but they felt it would detract from the story if the characters just fought until one of them won. They felt that adding a \"final temptation moment\" for the good Strange where he considers joining Strange Supreme to save Palmer would \"reestablish the emotional reason for why this is happening, and what the stakes are\". In the episode's original script, the good Strange suffered a much more gruesome death at the hands of Strange Supreme by getting beaten to death with the Eye of Agamotto. During storyboarding, Andrews and Sarkisian decided to make the scene more fantastical and visual instead of \"horrifically violent\". When Strange Supreme wins and changes the past, the universe begins to collapse. Franck described this as an \"abstract environment where you don’t have anything that you can recognize to orient you, and it's purely relying on the aesthetic and shape language\". The animators used comic book artist Jack Kirby's distinct Kirby Krackle art style which is rarely seen in film and television to depict the negative space of the universe dissolving around him with a field of black.\n\nDiscussing the most challenging aspects of animating the series, Franck said nuanced facial expressions were at one end of that spectrum and gave this episode's conversations between Strange and Palmer in the car as an example. He said, \"There's stuff [Strange] wants to say, but he can't say, or stuff he's willing to say, but she can't understand. All those layers of subtlety between text, subtext, and how deep it's buried\" had to be conveyed. Bradley and Andrews wanted to push how cinematic the series could be with these facial expressions to match with the voice acting, and Andrews felt this episode in particular was a \"tour de force\". Bradley felt it had \"beautiful imagery, some amazing action and hopefully a few good twists\". Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson was shown an early cut of the episode and described it as \"terrific\".\n\nMusic \nComposer Laura Karpman combined elements of existing MCU scores with original music for the series, specifically referencing elements of Michael Giacchino's Doctor Strange score for this episode. Karpman mostly just copied Giacchino's use of the harpsichord because the majority of the episode's story is separate from the events of the film. She tried to use music to represent the repetitive story, which he called \"sad and strange and tragic\", by creating a four chord piano motif that is reprised with each repetition in the episode's story. It grows musically each time, with additional instrumentation, action music, and the Watcher's theme layered over it. A soundtrack for the episode was released digitally by Marvel Music and Hollywood Records on September 3, 2021, featuring Karpman's score.\n\nMarketing \nAfter the episode's release, Marvel released a poster for the episode, featuring Doctor Strange Supreme and a quote from the episode. Marvel also announced merchandise inspired by the episode as part of its weekly \"Marvel Must Haves\" promotion for each episode of the series, including apparel, accessories, Funko Pops, and Marvel Legends figures based on Strange Supreme.\n\nReception \nThe review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average score of 8.5/10 based on 5 reviews.\n\nTom Jorgensen gave the episode 8 out of 10 for IGN, calling it \"the most haunting episode\" of the series so far and an \"effective cautionary tale about what loss can do to a person\". He felt the darker direction of the episode best suited the series, and praised how the episode used Palmer's unpreventable death to represent \"the effects of tragedy, of loss so painful we'd unmake the world to reverse it\". Jorgensen also noted the Gothic horror elements in the episode, with Strange evoking both Dr. Jekyll and Victor Frankenstein. He criticized the decision to create two versions of Strange, feeling it was an unnecessary complication that existed just so the characters could fight at the end, and felt the fight itself did not feel fresh since it followed the common MCU trope of a hero fighting another version of themselves. Despite that, he praised the episode for \"sticking the landing\" and noted the ending as one of the darkest moments in the MCU. Sam Barsanti of The A.V. Club was also disappointed with the fight between Strange and Strange Supreme, calling it \"a little Dragon Ball-y in a dull way\" especially when compared to the visuals of Doctor Strange. Barsanti did praise the episode's \"what if\" scenario and dark ending, believing they were both executed more successfully than in the previous episode, and gave \"What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?\" a \"B\".\n \nDigital Spys David Opie said the episode was \"easily the best and most affecting\" of the series yet, with Marvel Studios' darkest ending since Avengers: Infinity War (2018). Amon Warmann at Yahoo! News thought the ending was even better than Infinity War, believing that film had been undermined by Marvel's plans for future MCU films while the episode was a self-contained story with an ending that does not need to be undone. He praised the \"relatable and heartbreaking\" montage of Palmer's deaths, including Karpman's score for the sequence, and was very positive about the episode's visuals: he described the sequence where Strange Supreme absorbs the creatures as \"appropriately nightmarish\", and his high point of the episode was the fight between Strange and Strange Supreme which he compared to the fight between Strange and Thanos in Infinity War and described as \"visually stunning, inventive, and fun to watch\". Warmann thought the episode needed more time to sell Strange Supreme's turn to evil, despite Cumberbatch's performance which he felt was the strongest of the series' returning MCU actors so far. Rosie Knight of Den of Geek gave the episode 3.5 out of 5 stars, calling it \"a ton of cosmic fun\" and highlighting the sequences where Strange Supreme absorbs the creatures and where Strange's Cloak of Levitation battles with Strange Supreme's cloak.\n\nDespite appreciating the way Palmer's death is used in the episode, Jorgensen did think McAdams had a \"thankless role as little more than the source of Strange's grief\". Warmann also felt the storyline worked for the episode despite Palmer being portrayed as \"little more than the object of Strange's affection\". After McAdams also had a small role in Doctor Strange, Warmann felt Marvel needed to make up for these by giving her a larger role in a future film or What If...? episode. Knight and Barsanti both said Palmer's storyline was an example of fridging, as did Rachel Leishman of The Mary Sue who criticized the continued use of the trope but did enjoy the way this episode used it as the catalyst for Strange Supreme becoming a villain and exposing the character's \"selfish tendencies\". She compared Strange Supreme's arc in the episode to Wilson Fisk / Kingpin's arc in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), and appreciated that the good version of Strange in the episode is depicted as accepting the past and focusing on the future.\n\nKris Naudus at Engadget discussed the return of the tentacled monster from the series premiere in this episode, calling it an example of an \"underlying sense of continuity [that] has started to develop\" within the series. She also compared the way that the episode played with the series' premise by having the Watcher talk with Strange Supreme to The Twilight Zone episode \"A World of His Own\". Jorgensen felt it was an interesting development for the series and the Watcher to have him actively ignore a \"character in need\" as he does with Strange Supreme. Naudus and Barsanti both also noted the expansion of the series' time travel logic to include absolute points in time, a concept that the time travel series Doctor Who is known for. Opie speculated that the events of the episode could have an impact on the upcoming films Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, either by having Strange Supreme appear in those films or by having a similar threat of the universe ending play into their stories.\n\nDoctor Strange writer C. Robert Cargill praised the episode and said it was a career highlight to see a What If...? episode based on a film he had written.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n2021 American television episodes\nGrief in fiction\nMarvel Cinematic Universe crossover episodes\nTelevision episodes about death\nTelevision episodes about magic\nTelevision episodes about the end of the universe\nTelevision episodes about time travel\nTelevision episodes set in Nepal\nTelevision episodes set in New York City\nTime loop television episodes\nWhat If...? (TV series) episodes\nWorks set in the 2010s\nDoctor Strange (film series)"
]
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[
"Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)",
"Personality and appearance",
"What was Drusilla's personality like?",
"Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue,",
"What strange dialogue would she use?",
"peppered with non sequiturs like \"Spike,"
]
| C_98e2f2d1efdd41b7b2fe2be5a99d8eef_0 | What did Drusilla look like? | 3 | What did Drusilla look like? | Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) | Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting. Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? All the parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue. All of "white hats" (both Scoobies and Angel's Investigations) are doubtful about how to deal with her, originally an innocent victim. Mostly and obviously Angel. Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau. CANNOTANSWER | cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look, | Drusilla, or Dru for short, is a fictional character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, portrayed by Juliet Landau. Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, she is introduced as a main antagonist alongside her lover Spike in the second season of Buffy. In addition to returning in subsequent seasons, the character is featured as a villain on the spin-off show Angel as well. Flashbacks in both series reveal Drusilla's past as a young psychic in Victorian London who was driven insane by Angel before he ultimately turned her into a vampire. Spike and Dru are notably more subversive compared to other "Big Bads" that have opposed Buffy Summers. The duo was conceived as a Sid and Nancy-inspired vampiric pair so Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent, while the character's physical appearance drew from sources such as supermodel Kate Moss and the 1990s heroin chic aesthetic.
Following the conclusion of both series, Drusilla continued to appear in Expanded Universe materials in other media. Landau went on to co-write a two-issue Drusilla story arc for IDW Publishing's Angel comic book series in 2009, which continued her character's storyline.
Character history
Drusilla's history unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; they are not presented in chronological order. In "Lie to Me", Angel explains that, in 1860 when he was still Angelus, he became obsessed with Drusilla, a beautiful young Catholic woman who lived with her parents and two sisters in London. Angelus's sire Darla first discovered Drusilla, and presented her to Angelus as a new possible victim to torment. Drusilla had psychic abilities, and was capable of occasionally foretelling the future, especially tragic situations. However, she believed this to be an evil affliction and wished to enter a nunnery to cleanse herself. Angelus sensed her purity and became obsessed with destroying her, as Drusilla had the potential for sainthood. Angelus first made contact with her by murdering Drusilla's priest, and impersonating him when she went to confession. When she confessed that she believed her abilities were evil, Angelus toyed with her by suggesting she embrace the evil instead of rejecting it. At some later point Angelus tortured and killed Drusilla's entire family, causing her to flee to a convent in Prague. On the day she was to take her holy vows, Angelus made her watch as he killed every person in the convent and engaged in sexual relations with Darla. The trauma of Angelus's atrocities drove Drusilla insane, and Angelus chose to turn her into a vampire, as he considered her a masterpiece, a testament to his talent. Believing death to be a mercy to her at this point, he chose to sire her to make her pain eternal as an immortal.
After being sired, Drusilla, now a predator, joined Angelus and Darla on their murderous travels. In 1880, Drusilla sired the young poet William, who joined the group. She and William, later known as "Spike", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.
Shortly after Angelus is cursed with a soul, Spike and Drusilla (unaware of the ensoulment) go their separate ways from Darla and Angel. At some point before their arrival in Sunnydale in late 1997, Drusilla is attacked and severely injured by an angry mob in Prague, leaving her in a weakened and frail condition. Spike cares for her, and the couple decide to travel to the Hellmouth in hopes that its energy will help to restore Drusilla's strength and health.
They arrive in Sunnydale in the episode "School Hard", and Spike plots the downfall of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When he discovers that Drusilla can be cured by the blood of her sire, Spike captures Angel and allows Drusilla to torture him until it is time to perform the ritual. Although Buffy and her friends save Angel, the ritual is successful. Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack. When Angel reverts to Angelus, he re-joins the couple. Drusilla soon kills Kendra, another Slayer, by hypnotizing her and cutting her throat with a fingernail (which impresses Spike when he learns of it).
Drusilla is delighted by Angelus's determination to destroy the world and encourages his ongoing sexual attention; both dynamics strongly disturb Spike, who wants Drusilla to himself again and does not particularly want the world to end. Spike decides to help Buffy save the world in exchange for his and Drusilla's safe passage from Sunnydale. Drusilla resists Spike's betrayal of Angelus, and he attacks her, ultimately carrying her unconscious body from the fray.
Drusilla and Spike flee to Brazil, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship. Spike's alliance with the Slayer, combined with Dru's skills of foresight and perception, prove to her that Spike is now tainted (not "demon enough" for her) and that he is developing feelings for Buffy. Drusilla breaks up with Spike, and he rejects her offer to remain friends.
Drusilla reappears on Angel in 2000, when Wolfram & Hart brings her to Los Angeles to re-sire Darla, who had been resurrected as a human dying of syphilis. Drusilla, who loves Darla like a "grandmum", and also more than that, over their 150-year-old complicated relationship, genuinely believes she is doing Darla a favor by siring her and is puzzled by Darla's brief rage before her renewed vampire nature kicks in. Reconciled, the two wreak havoc in the city until Angel sets them on fire. The two go underground to heal, but Drusilla leaves Darla, who is then protected by Lindsey McDonald.
Drusilla returns to Sunnydale in the episode "Crush" to persuade Spike to join Darla and herself in reforming their "family" unit, but instead, Spike seizes the opportunity to try to prove his love for Buffy by offering to stake Drusilla. Heartbroken by the actions of her former lover, Drusilla departs Sunnydale and remains at large. However, in Season Seven of Buffy, the First Evil impersonates Drusilla in an unsuccessful attempt to break Spike's spirit. Spike claims that the First Evil's impersonation is not crazy enough to be Drusilla.
In Angel comics by IDW Publishing set after the television series ended, Drusilla reappears, breaking out of a psychiatric institution, in the story arc Drusilla (2009). Still mentally ill, her whereabouts since her last appearance in Angel remain unexplained. After assault by a crowd, she awakens, still pallid-skinned, in what appears to be Georgian London, in broad daylight and enters what seems to be her parents’ home. She encounters a doll (which may or may not be "Miss Edith") and is called by a third party, possibly her parents. It is uncertain whether this is an elaborate hallucination, time travel to her personal past or an alternate universe where she was never turned by Angelus. It is strongly implied, however, that the story actually takes place before Drusilla is sired, and the parts of it set in the modern day are actually a premonition in the human, 19th-century Drusilla's mind. She later reappears in the Spike mini-series (2010–11) by IDW, where she encounters Spike in Las Vegas, having allied herself with a human who believes Spike stole his soul. Spike has Buffy's friend Willow magically transfer his soul to Drusilla to give her a shot at redemption, but they are forced to reverse the spell when it drives her even madder than she already is.
The character next appears in Angel & Faith by Dark Horse Comics in the story arc "Daddy Issues" (2012), in which Drusilla has become sane thanks to the Lorophage demon, popularly referred to as the Highgate vampire, which ate her trauma and pain. In her new role as "Mother Superior", she sought to perform similar treatments on the citizens of London, which Angel likened to lobotomies. When Angel killed the Lorophage, Drusilla becomes insane once more, and is free. Dark Horse intended to release the 5-issue miniseries Drusilla: Run and Catch, examining what happened next for her, but it was delayed until the conclusion of Season Nine. Later in the Angel & Faith series, it transpires she went on to kill one of the London Slayers affiliated with Faith. She returns in the second series, in which she helps the demon Archaeus (the Master's sire) build an army of vampires to take over Magic Town. However she flees in the finale when Angel, Faith and their allies defeat Archaeus and his army in a battle.
Powers and abilities
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.
Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".
Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there.
Personality and appearance
Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting.
Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue.
Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau.
Appearances
Drusilla had 49 canonical Buffyverse appearances.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Drusilla appeared in 17 episodes.
Season 2 (1997–98): "School Hard", "Halloween", "Lie to Me", "What's My Line, Part One", "What's My Line, Part Two", "Surprise", "Innocence", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Becoming, Part One", "Becoming, Part Two"
Season 5 (2000–01): "Fool for Love", "Crush"
Season 7 (2002–03): "Lessons", "Bring on the Night", "Lies My Parents Told Me"
Drusilla appeared in 3 canonical issues.
Tales (2003): "The Problem with Vampires"
Season Ten (2015): "Relationship Status: Complicated, Part 1"
Season Twelve (2018): "Finale"
Angel
Drusilla appeared in 7 episodes.
Season 2 (2000–01): "Dear Boy", "Darla", "The Trial", "Reunion", "Redefinition"
Season 5 (2003–04): "Destiny", "The Girl in Question"
Drusilla appeared in 22 canonical issues.
Spike (2010–11): "Alone Together Now", "Everybody Loves Spike", "You Haven't Changed a Bit", "Bedknobs and Boomsticks", "Something Borrowed", "Give and Take", "Stranger Things"
Angel & Faith (2012): "Daddy Issues, Parts 1–4", "A Dark Place, Part 3", "Death and Consequences, Part 1"
Angel & Faith: Season Ten (2015–16): "Those Who Can't Teach, Teach Gym, Parts 2 & 3", "A Little More than Kin, Parts 1 & 2", "A Tale of Two Families, Parts 1–5"
Drusilla appears in a number of non-canonical comics and novels, notably in her own mini-series: Spike & Dru.
References
External links
Drusilla on IMDb
Drusilla Comic at FEARnet
Angel (1999 TV series) characters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
Buffyverse vampires
Female characters in television
Female villains
Fictional characters with neurological or psychological disorders
Fictional characters with precognition
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional immigrants to the United States
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional people from London
Television characters introduced in 1997 | true | [
"Drusilla is an English female given name coming from the Roman Drusus which itself derived from the Greek drosos (dew). It has the meaning \"fruitful\" or \"dewy-eyed\". As a name appearing in the Bible it was adopted by English speakers in the 17th century. The name has never been very popular in the United States where, according to Social Security Administration records, from 1880 to 1914 its highest ranking of girls' names was 612 out of 1,000 in 1886.\n\nVariations are Drucilla and Druscilla.\nDiminutive forms are Dru and Cilla (also more usually the diminutive of Priscilla)\n\nPeople \nDrusilla (daughter of Herod Agrippa) (38-79)\nDrusilla of Mauretania the Elder (8BC?-?), possibly the granddaughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony\nDrusilla of Mauretania (born 38), possibly the great-granddaughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony\nDrusilla Modjeska (born 1946), Australian writer and editor\nDrusilla Wills (1884–1951), British stage and film actress\nDrusilla or Julia Drusilla, sister of Caligula\n\nFictional characters \n Drusilla (DC Comics), an Amazon who works with Wonder Woman\n Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), in the TV series and its spin-off Angel\n Drusilla Paddock, in The Worst Witch children's novel series\n Drusilla Blackthorn, from Cassandra Clare's trilogy The Dark Artifices\n Drusilla, a succubus in the webcomic Pibgorn\n Drusilla Clack, a hypocritical Evangelist in Wilkie Collins's novel The Moonstone\n Drusilla Sartoris, in William Faulkner's novel The Unvanquished\n Drusilla Arbuckle (The Garfield Show), Jon Arbuckle's cousin.\n\nSee also \n , a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1918\n Julia Drusilla, sister of Caligula\n Julia Drusilla (daughter of Caligula)\n Livia Drusilla (58BC-29AD), third wife of Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar\n \"Drusilla\", a 1935 story by William Faulkner, later merged into The Unvanquished\n Drizella Tremaine, a character in Disney's 1950 film Cinderella\n Drusilla (beetle), a genus of beetles\n\nNotes\n\nEnglish feminine given names",
"\"Reunion\" is episode 10 of season 2 in the television show Angel.\n\nPlot\nAngel tells his associates that Drusilla has returned and, working with Wolfram & Hart, has made Darla a vampire again. Wesley and Cordelia investigate the law firm's plans for Drusilla and Darla as Angel prepares to stake the two vampires. In an attempt to find Drusilla and Darla, Angel goes to Lindsey’s apartment, who has been sheltering Drusilla, however he has already moved. The property manager stops by and remarks that Lindsey's cousin - a \"sweet, but very odd English girl\" - is visiting him and is expecting a daughter, whom she wanted to be born near the stars. Gunn realizes that Drusilla has taken Darla, who is dead until she wakes as a newly made vampire, to a plant nursery. Angel locates Darla, who is wrapped in a shroud and shallowly buried in a raised box of dirt. He attempts to stake the unconscious Darla, but Drusilla attacks him. Darla revives as Angel and Drusilla struggle; she escapes and Drusilla disappears.\n\nAt Wolfram & Hart, Holland and Lindsey are discussing the evening's planned party when Drusilla arrives to update them on recent events. Darla appears and drags Drusilla off. As Angel races to the W&H offices, Cordelia has a vision which sends them elsewhere. Darla confronts Drusilla for making her a vampire; Drusilla admits she is feeling very lonely and she wanted to save Darla. After bloodsucking and killing a fresh victim, Darla has her old confidence restored and takes Drusilla shopping.\n\nWhile driving to find Drusilla and Darla, Cordelia has a vision which detours their mission. Angel brusquely completes the mission from Cordelia's vision, then heads back toward Wolfram & Hart. Holland unleashes Darla and Drusilla on Los Angeles; they begin by raiding a clothing store for new wardrobes, killing two salespeople. Angel forces his way into Wolfram & Hart, demanding information. Lindsey refuses; Angel is arrested and taken into custody by Kate. She releases him, hoping he can stop Darla and Drusilla's killing spree.\n\nHolland hosts a wine tasting party for his colleagues in his home's wine cellar. As he makes a speech, Darla and Drusilla appear, intent on slaughter. Holland attempts to convince the two that he and his associates are their allies, to little effect. Angel finds a survivor at the clothing store and learns where Darla and Drusilla have gone. When he arrives at Holland's home, however, he refuses to stop Darla and Drusilla, instead locking the wine cellar to prevent the lawyers from escaping the vampires.\n\nWhen Angel tells his associates what he has done, they object, fearing that Angel is descending into corruption and darkness. He fires them and leaves.\n\nWriting\n\nArc significance\nAngel snaps and goes to extreme measures, letting Darla and Drusilla kill Holland Manners and many other employees of Wolfram & Hart (and, possibly, their spouses/dates for the occasion)\nAngel fires Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia, furthering his descent into darkness and despair.\n\nContinuity\nDrusilla sings \"Run and Catch\" while standing over Darla's body, a song she says her mother used to sing to her in the Buffy episode \"Lie to Me\".\n\nErrors\nBefore Darla rises into a vampire, Angel removes a veil covering her face. During the fight with Drusilla the veil is back in place.\nWhile the veil is lifted, the veins in Darla's neck are visibly pulsing, despite the fact she is supposed to be dead.\nWhen Cordelia has a vision causing Angel to perform a U-turn, skid marks are visible on the road from previous takes.\nDuring the same U-turn sequence as the car swerves, all other characters can be seen as their stunt doubles excluding Cordelia who appears as a mannequin.\n\nReception\nThe Futon Critic named it the 20th best episode of 2000, saying the episode had several jaw-dropping moments and that he \"never wanted to see the next episode of a series more than this one.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n\nAngel (season 2) episodes\n2000 American television episodes\nTelevision episodes about mass murder"
]
|
[
"Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)",
"Personality and appearance",
"What was Drusilla's personality like?",
"Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue,",
"What strange dialogue would she use?",
"peppered with non sequiturs like \"Spike,",
"What did Drusilla look like?",
"cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look,"
]
| C_98e2f2d1efdd41b7b2fe2be5a99d8eef_0 | What was her best qualities? | 4 | What were Drusilla's best qualities? | Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) | Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting. Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? All the parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue. All of "white hats" (both Scoobies and Angel's Investigations) are doubtful about how to deal with her, originally an innocent victim. Mostly and obviously Angel. Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau. CANNOTANSWER | She speaks in a soft, mellow voice | Drusilla, or Dru for short, is a fictional character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, portrayed by Juliet Landau. Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, she is introduced as a main antagonist alongside her lover Spike in the second season of Buffy. In addition to returning in subsequent seasons, the character is featured as a villain on the spin-off show Angel as well. Flashbacks in both series reveal Drusilla's past as a young psychic in Victorian London who was driven insane by Angel before he ultimately turned her into a vampire. Spike and Dru are notably more subversive compared to other "Big Bads" that have opposed Buffy Summers. The duo was conceived as a Sid and Nancy-inspired vampiric pair so Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent, while the character's physical appearance drew from sources such as supermodel Kate Moss and the 1990s heroin chic aesthetic.
Following the conclusion of both series, Drusilla continued to appear in Expanded Universe materials in other media. Landau went on to co-write a two-issue Drusilla story arc for IDW Publishing's Angel comic book series in 2009, which continued her character's storyline.
Character history
Drusilla's history unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; they are not presented in chronological order. In "Lie to Me", Angel explains that, in 1860 when he was still Angelus, he became obsessed with Drusilla, a beautiful young Catholic woman who lived with her parents and two sisters in London. Angelus's sire Darla first discovered Drusilla, and presented her to Angelus as a new possible victim to torment. Drusilla had psychic abilities, and was capable of occasionally foretelling the future, especially tragic situations. However, she believed this to be an evil affliction and wished to enter a nunnery to cleanse herself. Angelus sensed her purity and became obsessed with destroying her, as Drusilla had the potential for sainthood. Angelus first made contact with her by murdering Drusilla's priest, and impersonating him when she went to confession. When she confessed that she believed her abilities were evil, Angelus toyed with her by suggesting she embrace the evil instead of rejecting it. At some later point Angelus tortured and killed Drusilla's entire family, causing her to flee to a convent in Prague. On the day she was to take her holy vows, Angelus made her watch as he killed every person in the convent and engaged in sexual relations with Darla. The trauma of Angelus's atrocities drove Drusilla insane, and Angelus chose to turn her into a vampire, as he considered her a masterpiece, a testament to his talent. Believing death to be a mercy to her at this point, he chose to sire her to make her pain eternal as an immortal.
After being sired, Drusilla, now a predator, joined Angelus and Darla on their murderous travels. In 1880, Drusilla sired the young poet William, who joined the group. She and William, later known as "Spike", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.
Shortly after Angelus is cursed with a soul, Spike and Drusilla (unaware of the ensoulment) go their separate ways from Darla and Angel. At some point before their arrival in Sunnydale in late 1997, Drusilla is attacked and severely injured by an angry mob in Prague, leaving her in a weakened and frail condition. Spike cares for her, and the couple decide to travel to the Hellmouth in hopes that its energy will help to restore Drusilla's strength and health.
They arrive in Sunnydale in the episode "School Hard", and Spike plots the downfall of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When he discovers that Drusilla can be cured by the blood of her sire, Spike captures Angel and allows Drusilla to torture him until it is time to perform the ritual. Although Buffy and her friends save Angel, the ritual is successful. Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack. When Angel reverts to Angelus, he re-joins the couple. Drusilla soon kills Kendra, another Slayer, by hypnotizing her and cutting her throat with a fingernail (which impresses Spike when he learns of it).
Drusilla is delighted by Angelus's determination to destroy the world and encourages his ongoing sexual attention; both dynamics strongly disturb Spike, who wants Drusilla to himself again and does not particularly want the world to end. Spike decides to help Buffy save the world in exchange for his and Drusilla's safe passage from Sunnydale. Drusilla resists Spike's betrayal of Angelus, and he attacks her, ultimately carrying her unconscious body from the fray.
Drusilla and Spike flee to Brazil, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship. Spike's alliance with the Slayer, combined with Dru's skills of foresight and perception, prove to her that Spike is now tainted (not "demon enough" for her) and that he is developing feelings for Buffy. Drusilla breaks up with Spike, and he rejects her offer to remain friends.
Drusilla reappears on Angel in 2000, when Wolfram & Hart brings her to Los Angeles to re-sire Darla, who had been resurrected as a human dying of syphilis. Drusilla, who loves Darla like a "grandmum", and also more than that, over their 150-year-old complicated relationship, genuinely believes she is doing Darla a favor by siring her and is puzzled by Darla's brief rage before her renewed vampire nature kicks in. Reconciled, the two wreak havoc in the city until Angel sets them on fire. The two go underground to heal, but Drusilla leaves Darla, who is then protected by Lindsey McDonald.
Drusilla returns to Sunnydale in the episode "Crush" to persuade Spike to join Darla and herself in reforming their "family" unit, but instead, Spike seizes the opportunity to try to prove his love for Buffy by offering to stake Drusilla. Heartbroken by the actions of her former lover, Drusilla departs Sunnydale and remains at large. However, in Season Seven of Buffy, the First Evil impersonates Drusilla in an unsuccessful attempt to break Spike's spirit. Spike claims that the First Evil's impersonation is not crazy enough to be Drusilla.
In Angel comics by IDW Publishing set after the television series ended, Drusilla reappears, breaking out of a psychiatric institution, in the story arc Drusilla (2009). Still mentally ill, her whereabouts since her last appearance in Angel remain unexplained. After assault by a crowd, she awakens, still pallid-skinned, in what appears to be Georgian London, in broad daylight and enters what seems to be her parents’ home. She encounters a doll (which may or may not be "Miss Edith") and is called by a third party, possibly her parents. It is uncertain whether this is an elaborate hallucination, time travel to her personal past or an alternate universe where she was never turned by Angelus. It is strongly implied, however, that the story actually takes place before Drusilla is sired, and the parts of it set in the modern day are actually a premonition in the human, 19th-century Drusilla's mind. She later reappears in the Spike mini-series (2010–11) by IDW, where she encounters Spike in Las Vegas, having allied herself with a human who believes Spike stole his soul. Spike has Buffy's friend Willow magically transfer his soul to Drusilla to give her a shot at redemption, but they are forced to reverse the spell when it drives her even madder than she already is.
The character next appears in Angel & Faith by Dark Horse Comics in the story arc "Daddy Issues" (2012), in which Drusilla has become sane thanks to the Lorophage demon, popularly referred to as the Highgate vampire, which ate her trauma and pain. In her new role as "Mother Superior", she sought to perform similar treatments on the citizens of London, which Angel likened to lobotomies. When Angel killed the Lorophage, Drusilla becomes insane once more, and is free. Dark Horse intended to release the 5-issue miniseries Drusilla: Run and Catch, examining what happened next for her, but it was delayed until the conclusion of Season Nine. Later in the Angel & Faith series, it transpires she went on to kill one of the London Slayers affiliated with Faith. She returns in the second series, in which she helps the demon Archaeus (the Master's sire) build an army of vampires to take over Magic Town. However she flees in the finale when Angel, Faith and their allies defeat Archaeus and his army in a battle.
Powers and abilities
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.
Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".
Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there.
Personality and appearance
Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting.
Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue.
Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau.
Appearances
Drusilla had 49 canonical Buffyverse appearances.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Drusilla appeared in 17 episodes.
Season 2 (1997–98): "School Hard", "Halloween", "Lie to Me", "What's My Line, Part One", "What's My Line, Part Two", "Surprise", "Innocence", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Becoming, Part One", "Becoming, Part Two"
Season 5 (2000–01): "Fool for Love", "Crush"
Season 7 (2002–03): "Lessons", "Bring on the Night", "Lies My Parents Told Me"
Drusilla appeared in 3 canonical issues.
Tales (2003): "The Problem with Vampires"
Season Ten (2015): "Relationship Status: Complicated, Part 1"
Season Twelve (2018): "Finale"
Angel
Drusilla appeared in 7 episodes.
Season 2 (2000–01): "Dear Boy", "Darla", "The Trial", "Reunion", "Redefinition"
Season 5 (2003–04): "Destiny", "The Girl in Question"
Drusilla appeared in 22 canonical issues.
Spike (2010–11): "Alone Together Now", "Everybody Loves Spike", "You Haven't Changed a Bit", "Bedknobs and Boomsticks", "Something Borrowed", "Give and Take", "Stranger Things"
Angel & Faith (2012): "Daddy Issues, Parts 1–4", "A Dark Place, Part 3", "Death and Consequences, Part 1"
Angel & Faith: Season Ten (2015–16): "Those Who Can't Teach, Teach Gym, Parts 2 & 3", "A Little More than Kin, Parts 1 & 2", "A Tale of Two Families, Parts 1–5"
Drusilla appears in a number of non-canonical comics and novels, notably in her own mini-series: Spike & Dru.
References
External links
Drusilla on IMDb
Drusilla Comic at FEARnet
Angel (1999 TV series) characters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
Buffyverse vampires
Female characters in television
Female villains
Fictional characters with neurological or psychological disorders
Fictional characters with precognition
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional immigrants to the United States
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional people from London
Television characters introduced in 1997 | true | [
"\"5-10-15 Hours\" is a rhythm-and-blues song written by Rudy Toombs in 1952 for Ruth Brown and was one of several number-one R&B hits he wrote for her. When Brown was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, her induction said that \"her best work was to be found on such red-hot mid-Fifties R&B sides as '5-10-15 Hours'\".\n\nSong Background\nHer recording is smooth, sophisticated blues shouting at its best, has a touch of suppliance more characteristic of the vocal qualities of popular singers than of the blues. The recording features a tenor sax solo by Willis Jackson.\n\nFootnotes\n\n1952 singles\nRuth Brown songs\nSongs written by Rudy Toombs\n1952 songs",
"The November Criminals is a novel by Sam Munson published in 2010.\n\nThe book is the author's first novel; by April 2010, it was found in over 300 WorldCat libraries. It was published by Doubleday in 2010, and reprinted as an Anchor paperback in 2011. It was reviewed in the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, and in the magazine Commentary, published by the American Jewish Committee. It was the subject of an essay in the New York Times education section, and was listed by them as an \"Editors Choice\".\n\nPlot summary\n\nThe hero of the book is 18-year-old Addison Schacht, a Jewish high-school senior in Washington D.C. He is in the process of applying to the University of Chicago, where he plans to study classics. The book is his response to the essay question, \"What are your best and worst qualities?\". He explains he has only \"worst qualities\", as illustrated by the events of his senior year. They include collecting offensive jokes; dealing drugs to his classmates; and insulting teachers, fellow students, and his girlfriend's mother. But when his classmate Kevin Broadus is killed in a senseless shooting, Addison develops a plan to investigate the death in hopes of finding the killer, and maybe finding some \"best qualities\" in himself.\n\nFilm adaptation\nA film based on the novel, titled November Criminals, was released in 2017. It stars Ansel Elgort and Chloë Grace Moretz in the lead roles.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Excerpt from the book published in the New York Times\n\n2010 American novels\nAmerican young adult novels\nNovels set in Washington, D.C.\nDoubleday (publisher) books\n2010 debut novels"
]
|
[
"Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)",
"Personality and appearance",
"What was Drusilla's personality like?",
"Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue,",
"What strange dialogue would she use?",
"peppered with non sequiturs like \"Spike,",
"What did Drusilla look like?",
"cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look,",
"What was her best qualities?",
"She speaks in a soft, mellow voice"
]
| C_98e2f2d1efdd41b7b2fe2be5a99d8eef_0 | What were her worst traits? | 5 | What were Drusilla's worst traits? | Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) | Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting. Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? All the parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue. All of "white hats" (both Scoobies and Angel's Investigations) are doubtful about how to deal with her, originally an innocent victim. Mostly and obviously Angel. Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau. CANNOTANSWER | she is happiest when committing torture, | Drusilla, or Dru for short, is a fictional character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, portrayed by Juliet Landau. Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, she is introduced as a main antagonist alongside her lover Spike in the second season of Buffy. In addition to returning in subsequent seasons, the character is featured as a villain on the spin-off show Angel as well. Flashbacks in both series reveal Drusilla's past as a young psychic in Victorian London who was driven insane by Angel before he ultimately turned her into a vampire. Spike and Dru are notably more subversive compared to other "Big Bads" that have opposed Buffy Summers. The duo was conceived as a Sid and Nancy-inspired vampiric pair so Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent, while the character's physical appearance drew from sources such as supermodel Kate Moss and the 1990s heroin chic aesthetic.
Following the conclusion of both series, Drusilla continued to appear in Expanded Universe materials in other media. Landau went on to co-write a two-issue Drusilla story arc for IDW Publishing's Angel comic book series in 2009, which continued her character's storyline.
Character history
Drusilla's history unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; they are not presented in chronological order. In "Lie to Me", Angel explains that, in 1860 when he was still Angelus, he became obsessed with Drusilla, a beautiful young Catholic woman who lived with her parents and two sisters in London. Angelus's sire Darla first discovered Drusilla, and presented her to Angelus as a new possible victim to torment. Drusilla had psychic abilities, and was capable of occasionally foretelling the future, especially tragic situations. However, she believed this to be an evil affliction and wished to enter a nunnery to cleanse herself. Angelus sensed her purity and became obsessed with destroying her, as Drusilla had the potential for sainthood. Angelus first made contact with her by murdering Drusilla's priest, and impersonating him when she went to confession. When she confessed that she believed her abilities were evil, Angelus toyed with her by suggesting she embrace the evil instead of rejecting it. At some later point Angelus tortured and killed Drusilla's entire family, causing her to flee to a convent in Prague. On the day she was to take her holy vows, Angelus made her watch as he killed every person in the convent and engaged in sexual relations with Darla. The trauma of Angelus's atrocities drove Drusilla insane, and Angelus chose to turn her into a vampire, as he considered her a masterpiece, a testament to his talent. Believing death to be a mercy to her at this point, he chose to sire her to make her pain eternal as an immortal.
After being sired, Drusilla, now a predator, joined Angelus and Darla on their murderous travels. In 1880, Drusilla sired the young poet William, who joined the group. She and William, later known as "Spike", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.
Shortly after Angelus is cursed with a soul, Spike and Drusilla (unaware of the ensoulment) go their separate ways from Darla and Angel. At some point before their arrival in Sunnydale in late 1997, Drusilla is attacked and severely injured by an angry mob in Prague, leaving her in a weakened and frail condition. Spike cares for her, and the couple decide to travel to the Hellmouth in hopes that its energy will help to restore Drusilla's strength and health.
They arrive in Sunnydale in the episode "School Hard", and Spike plots the downfall of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When he discovers that Drusilla can be cured by the blood of her sire, Spike captures Angel and allows Drusilla to torture him until it is time to perform the ritual. Although Buffy and her friends save Angel, the ritual is successful. Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack. When Angel reverts to Angelus, he re-joins the couple. Drusilla soon kills Kendra, another Slayer, by hypnotizing her and cutting her throat with a fingernail (which impresses Spike when he learns of it).
Drusilla is delighted by Angelus's determination to destroy the world and encourages his ongoing sexual attention; both dynamics strongly disturb Spike, who wants Drusilla to himself again and does not particularly want the world to end. Spike decides to help Buffy save the world in exchange for his and Drusilla's safe passage from Sunnydale. Drusilla resists Spike's betrayal of Angelus, and he attacks her, ultimately carrying her unconscious body from the fray.
Drusilla and Spike flee to Brazil, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship. Spike's alliance with the Slayer, combined with Dru's skills of foresight and perception, prove to her that Spike is now tainted (not "demon enough" for her) and that he is developing feelings for Buffy. Drusilla breaks up with Spike, and he rejects her offer to remain friends.
Drusilla reappears on Angel in 2000, when Wolfram & Hart brings her to Los Angeles to re-sire Darla, who had been resurrected as a human dying of syphilis. Drusilla, who loves Darla like a "grandmum", and also more than that, over their 150-year-old complicated relationship, genuinely believes she is doing Darla a favor by siring her and is puzzled by Darla's brief rage before her renewed vampire nature kicks in. Reconciled, the two wreak havoc in the city until Angel sets them on fire. The two go underground to heal, but Drusilla leaves Darla, who is then protected by Lindsey McDonald.
Drusilla returns to Sunnydale in the episode "Crush" to persuade Spike to join Darla and herself in reforming their "family" unit, but instead, Spike seizes the opportunity to try to prove his love for Buffy by offering to stake Drusilla. Heartbroken by the actions of her former lover, Drusilla departs Sunnydale and remains at large. However, in Season Seven of Buffy, the First Evil impersonates Drusilla in an unsuccessful attempt to break Spike's spirit. Spike claims that the First Evil's impersonation is not crazy enough to be Drusilla.
In Angel comics by IDW Publishing set after the television series ended, Drusilla reappears, breaking out of a psychiatric institution, in the story arc Drusilla (2009). Still mentally ill, her whereabouts since her last appearance in Angel remain unexplained. After assault by a crowd, she awakens, still pallid-skinned, in what appears to be Georgian London, in broad daylight and enters what seems to be her parents’ home. She encounters a doll (which may or may not be "Miss Edith") and is called by a third party, possibly her parents. It is uncertain whether this is an elaborate hallucination, time travel to her personal past or an alternate universe where she was never turned by Angelus. It is strongly implied, however, that the story actually takes place before Drusilla is sired, and the parts of it set in the modern day are actually a premonition in the human, 19th-century Drusilla's mind. She later reappears in the Spike mini-series (2010–11) by IDW, where she encounters Spike in Las Vegas, having allied herself with a human who believes Spike stole his soul. Spike has Buffy's friend Willow magically transfer his soul to Drusilla to give her a shot at redemption, but they are forced to reverse the spell when it drives her even madder than she already is.
The character next appears in Angel & Faith by Dark Horse Comics in the story arc "Daddy Issues" (2012), in which Drusilla has become sane thanks to the Lorophage demon, popularly referred to as the Highgate vampire, which ate her trauma and pain. In her new role as "Mother Superior", she sought to perform similar treatments on the citizens of London, which Angel likened to lobotomies. When Angel killed the Lorophage, Drusilla becomes insane once more, and is free. Dark Horse intended to release the 5-issue miniseries Drusilla: Run and Catch, examining what happened next for her, but it was delayed until the conclusion of Season Nine. Later in the Angel & Faith series, it transpires she went on to kill one of the London Slayers affiliated with Faith. She returns in the second series, in which she helps the demon Archaeus (the Master's sire) build an army of vampires to take over Magic Town. However she flees in the finale when Angel, Faith and their allies defeat Archaeus and his army in a battle.
Powers and abilities
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.
Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".
Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there.
Personality and appearance
Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting.
Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue.
Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau.
Appearances
Drusilla had 49 canonical Buffyverse appearances.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Drusilla appeared in 17 episodes.
Season 2 (1997–98): "School Hard", "Halloween", "Lie to Me", "What's My Line, Part One", "What's My Line, Part Two", "Surprise", "Innocence", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Becoming, Part One", "Becoming, Part Two"
Season 5 (2000–01): "Fool for Love", "Crush"
Season 7 (2002–03): "Lessons", "Bring on the Night", "Lies My Parents Told Me"
Drusilla appeared in 3 canonical issues.
Tales (2003): "The Problem with Vampires"
Season Ten (2015): "Relationship Status: Complicated, Part 1"
Season Twelve (2018): "Finale"
Angel
Drusilla appeared in 7 episodes.
Season 2 (2000–01): "Dear Boy", "Darla", "The Trial", "Reunion", "Redefinition"
Season 5 (2003–04): "Destiny", "The Girl in Question"
Drusilla appeared in 22 canonical issues.
Spike (2010–11): "Alone Together Now", "Everybody Loves Spike", "You Haven't Changed a Bit", "Bedknobs and Boomsticks", "Something Borrowed", "Give and Take", "Stranger Things"
Angel & Faith (2012): "Daddy Issues, Parts 1–4", "A Dark Place, Part 3", "Death and Consequences, Part 1"
Angel & Faith: Season Ten (2015–16): "Those Who Can't Teach, Teach Gym, Parts 2 & 3", "A Little More than Kin, Parts 1 & 2", "A Tale of Two Families, Parts 1–5"
Drusilla appears in a number of non-canonical comics and novels, notably in her own mini-series: Spike & Dru.
References
External links
Drusilla on IMDb
Drusilla Comic at FEARnet
Angel (1999 TV series) characters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
Buffyverse vampires
Female characters in television
Female villains
Fictional characters with neurological or psychological disorders
Fictional characters with precognition
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional immigrants to the United States
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional people from London
Television characters introduced in 1997 | true | [
"Roy Kent Head (January 9, 1941 – September 21, 2020) was an American singer, best known for his hit song \"Treat Her Right\".\n\nCareer \nRoy Kent Head was born in Three Rivers, Texas and achieved fame as a member of musical group The Traits from San Marcos. The group's sponsor landed their first recording contract in 1958 with TNT Music in San Antonio while they were still in high school. The Traits performed and recorded in the rockabilly, rock and roll and rhythm and blues musical styles from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. Though landing several regional hits between 1959 and 1963 on both the TNT and Renner Record labels, Head is best known for the 1965 blue-eyed soul international hit, \"Treat Her Right\", recorded by Roy Head and the Traits. After going solo, Head landed several hits on the country and western charts between 1975 and 1985. During his career of some 50 years, he has performed in several different musical genres and used a somewhat confusing array of record labels, some too small to provide for national marketing and distribution. Roy Head and the Traits held reunions in 2001 and 2007 and were inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2007.\n\nAfter moving to San Marcos in 1955, Head – along with San Marcos native Tommy Bolton – formed a musical group in 1957 known as The Traits (aka Roy Head and The Traits) who would record and perform for the next nine years. The original group consisted of fellow high school students Head (vocals), Bolton (rhythm guitar) (1941–2003), Gerry Gibson (drums), Dan Buie (piano), Clyde Causey (lead guitar), and Bill Pennington (bass). When Causey joined the military, he was replaced by George Frazier (1941–1996) just before the band started their recording career at Tanner N Texas (TNT) Recording Company, owned by Bob Tanner and located in San Antonio. The Traits had several regional hits at TNT, with songs such as \"One More Time\", \"Live It Up\", both released in 1959, and \"Summertime Love\" (1960), establishing themselves in the late 1950s and the early 1960s as one of the premier teenage Texas-based rock and roll bands while playing the concert, sock hop, college and university and dance hall circuits throughout Texas. During this period, the parents of The Traits turned down Dick Clark's invitation for the boys to appear on American Bandstand, which ABC had started broadcasting nationwide from Philadelphia in 1957. At the time, all members of The Traits were minors, and some were still in high school.\n\nIn 1961 and 1962, The Traits added saxophonists David McCumber and Danny Gomez to the line-up and produced additional Texas/regional hits from Renner Records, a label owned by Jessie Schneider of San Antonio. Renner label No. 221 and Ascot No. 2108, a subsidiary of United Artists Records, distributed The Traits' version of Ray Sharpe's 1959 \"Linda Lu\", with \"Little Mama\" by Dan Buie and Head on the B-side. Renner Records also released The Traits \"Got My Mojo Working\" and \"Wo Wo\" on label No. 229. By the time the 1962 recordings were taped and mastered at Jeff Smith's Texas Sound Studio in San Antonio for the Renner label, Johnny Clark and Frank Miller had replaced Frazier and Bolton at lead and rhythm guitars, respectively.\n\nAfter attending SWTSTC (TSU) for two years, Buie, who played guitar and harmonica as well as keyboards, taught for several years before settling into public health administration, after receiving his baccalaureate degree and doing post graduate studies at The University of Texas. Tommy Bolton organized and played with other Central Texas musical groups while both he and Clyde Causey launched careers with the Department of the Treasury. Danny Gomez graduated from SWTSTC (TSU) and later earned his doctorate at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. David McCumber pursued his love of music at Sound Master's studio in Houston and then opened a real estate company in Austin. He ran the company until his retirement where he enjoyed travel with his wife Sandra until her death from Melanoma cancer in 2005. George Frazier pursued real estate investment interests, and Bill Pennington followed in his mother's footsteps and become a successful owner of Pennington Funeral Home in San Marcos. Only Head and Gibson would continue with careers in performing music. The songwriting talents, and subsequent recording successes, of The (original) Traits during their first five years on a regional level were under the watchful eyes of Ms. Edra Pennington (1913–2005) and Dr. T.R. Buie (1909–2000), which would lay the groundwork for what would happen in the group's last four years.\n\nRoy Head and the Traits signed with Scepter Records in 1964. Scepter had developed a nationwide network of independent distributors while working with The Shirelles. By this time, Gene Kurtz had replaced Pennington at bass, Kenny Williams had replaced Clark at lead guitar, Ronnie Barton's trumpet was added to the mix, and backup singer Sarah Fulcher started performing with the group. Roy Head and the Traits released a vinyl 45 featuring the vocals of Head and Fulcher on the Lori label No. 9551: \"Get Back\" (later released on Scepter No. 12124) and \"Never Make Me Blue\".\n\n\"Treat Her Right\" \nIn 1965, the band signed with the record producer Huey Meaux of Houston, who maintained a stable of record labels. \"Treat Her Right\" was recorded at Gold Star Studios (later known as SugarHill Recording Studios) in Houston. Issued on Don Robey's Back Beat label, it reached No. 2 on both the U.S. Pop and R&B charts in 1965, behind The Beatles' \"Yesterday\". \"Treat Her Right\", with its blazing horns and punchy rhythm, credited to Head and bass man Gene Kurtz, established Head as a prime exponent of blue-eyed soul. By 1995, \"Treat Her Right\" had been covered by 20 nationally known recording artists including Jimmy Page, Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sawyer Brown, Bon Jovi and both Mae West and Barbara Mandrell under the title of \"Treat Him Right\". Bob Dylan, Sammy Davis Jr. and Tom Jones covered it \"live\". Roy Head and the Traits \"Just a Little Bit\" and the bluesy-rockabilly hybrid, \"Apple Of My Eye\" also cracked the Top 40 in 1965. Along with Wilson Pickett's \"Mustang Sally\" and Steve Cropper's \"In the Midnight Hour\", in the successful 1991 motion picture, The Commitments. \"Treat Her Right\" also appeared in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.\nIt was also was recorded in 1988 by George Thorogood and the Destroyers and released the same year as a music video in which Head had an acting cameo and danced in the final chorus.\n\"Come To Me\" and \"Now You See Em, Now You Don't\" both in 1977 and recorded on the ABC/Dot label reached No. 16 and No. 19, respectively.\n\nIn 1965 TNT Records released the group's first \"album\" consisting of their music recorded for TNT and Renner Records, TLP No. 101 entitled Roy Head and the Traits, which was also distributed by the New York-based Scepter Records. Goldmine Album Price Guide offers a 'counterfeit caution' when buying this album. The original from TNT did not include the song \"Treat Her Right\", although it is included in the more widely distributed Scepter pressing. The \"counterfeit\" album is also attributed to TNT, but with blue lettering on the label rather than the TNT red.\n\nVideo clips from this time period show Head to have been a dynamic and versatile eccentric dancer; there are at least three extant clips of him performing \"Treat Her Right\" and each one is different from the others in terms of choreography. His jumps and slides have compared to those of Nicholas Brothers. Because he was white, but his footwork included moves popular among African American gymnastic dancers, he was sometimes said to be a practitioner of \"blue-eyed soul\".\n\nThe chart-makers recorded and released on the Back Beat and Scepter labels spelled the end of Head's association with what has come to be thought of as the \"second group\" of Traits. See \"Doubled Edged Sword\" in The Story of Roy Head and The Traits.\n\n1970s and on \nIn 1970, Roy Head released album \"Same People\". Later releases by Head on Dunhill and Elektra contained elements of rockabilly and psychedelic rock, but by the mid-1970s his solo career had led him to country. He signed first with Mega Records and then with Shannon Records and later on with ABC Records and Elektra Records. After releasing the 1970 cult classic \"Same People That You Meet Going Up You Meet Coming Down\" on Dunhill Records, Head's music reached the U.S. country music Top 100 24 times by the mid-1980s, while landing three Top 20 hits: \"The Most Wanted Woman in Town\", (1975) \"Come To Me\" and \"Now You See Em, Now You Don't\" both in 1977 and recorded on the ABC/Dot label reaching No. 16 and No. 19, respectively.\n\nThe earliest blues-styled, and rockabilly-styled recordings of The Traits, primarily written in a collaboration between Bolton, Buie, Gibson, and Roy Head. Joe \"King\" Carrasco had a hit covering The Traits \"One More Time\" and released it on Hannibal Records and Stiff Records (UK) in 1981–1982. Two Tons of Steel covered \"One More Time\" again on both CD and DVD in 2000, on Palo Duro Records entitled Two Tons of Steel – Live at Gruene Hall. Discographies reveal that much of the music originally written, composed and recorded by the Traits at TNT and Renner Records between 1958 and 1962, has been re-released over the past four decades numerous times by as many as 20 different record labels both in the U.S. and abroad.\n\nDuring 1966 and 1967, when Head was working with the Roy Head Trio, The Traits independently recorded using Dean Scott on lead vocals. Scott had previously been the stand-in vocalist while Head had been away in the military. In 1967 The Traits recorded with pre-fame Johnny Winter featuring Winter's vocals and blistering guitar leads, producing a vinyl 45; \"Parchman Farm\" and \"Tramp\" on Universal 30496. No one knew that Johnny Winter was just months away from bursting upon the national scene with his appearance at Woodstock. Johnny Winter later re-released the track of \"Tramp\" he recorded with The Traits in his 1988 compilation album, Birds Can't Row Boats.\n\nAfter the 1967 disbanding of the Roy Head Trio consisting of Head, Gibson, Kurtz, and guitarist David \"Hawk\" Koon, Head started pursuing his solo career.\n\nHead is a member of the Gulf Coast Music Hall of Fame, the Texas Country and Western Music Hall of Fame and the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame. Roy Head and The Traits held reunions in 2001 and 2007. Both reunions involved performances at Kent Finlay's Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos an early musical hangout of George Strait. During their October 2007 sold-out Golden Anniversary Concert appropriately billed as \"Roy Head and The Traits – For The Last Time\" at Texas State University, Roy Head and The (original) Traits were inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame by the Hall's Curator, Bob Timmers. Tommy Bolton and George Frazier were inducted posthumously. Musicians for the performance were Head, The Traits, Gerry Gibson, Dan Buie, Clyde Causey, Bill Pennington, and Gene Kurtz, with special guests Bill York, Don Hutchko, Don Head (1933–2009), and Roy's son, Jason \"Sundance\" Head.\n\nIn 2008, Head performed in Cleveland, Ohio, for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Billboard has observed that Head's versatility actually worked against him since he did not fit into any specific marketing niche. His use of many small record labels also prevented his recordings from achieving national distribution.\n\nHead was still performing and playing festivals like the Ponderosa Stomp. He released one last album, Still Treatin' 'Em Right, in 2011.\n\nPersonal life and death \nHis son Sundance was a contestant on season 6 of American Idol. In 2007, Sundance signed a recording contract with Universal Motown Records. In 2016, he was the winner on season 11 of The Voice, mentored by Blake Shelton. Head died of a heart attack on September 21, 2020, at the age of 79.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n\nCompilation albums \n Roy Head: His All-Time Favorites (1977, Crazy Cajun)\n Roy Head and The Traits: Singin' Texas Rhythm & Blues (1988, Blues Interactions, Inc. [Japan])\n Slip Away: His Best Recordings (1993, Collectables)\n Treat Her Right: The Best of Roy Head (1995, Varese Sarabande)\n Don't Be Blue: The Traits (1995, Collectables; Roy C. Ames/Homecooking)\n The Texas Soul and Country Man: The Crazy Cajun Recordings (1999, Edsel [UK])\n Country Crooner: The Crazy Cajun Recordings (1999, Edsel [UK])\n White Texas Soul Shouter: The Crazy Cajun Recordings (1999, Edsel [UK])\n Roy Head and The Traits: Treat Her Right (1999, Dynamite 101)\n The Best of Roy Head and The Traits: Teeny Weeny Bit (2000, AIM [Australia])\n Head On! (2001, Music Club)\n An Introduction to Roy Head (2006, Fuel 2000)\n Treat Him Right! The Best of Roy Head (2007, Fuel 2000)\n Roy Head and The Traits: Golden Anniversary (1957–2007) – Rockabilly Hall of Fame Album (2007 Re-master, D & R Sales and Service, L.C., PVI)\n Voices of Americana: Roy Head (2009, Edsel [UK])\n Live It Up: Roy Head and The Traits (2010, Norton)\n\nSingles\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Rockabilly Hall of Fame\n \n Roy Head interviewed in 2007 by Craig Morrison Roy Head : Blue-Eyed Soul and Country part 1\n Roy Head Interview NAMM Oral History Library (2017)\n\n1941 births\n2020 deaths\n20th-century American singers\n20th-century American male singers\n21st-century American singers\n21st-century American male singers\nAmerican country singer-songwriters\nAmerican male singer-songwriters\nAmerican rhythm and blues singers\nCountry musicians from Texas\nDot Records artists\nDunhill Records artists\nElektra Records artists\nGold Star Records artists\nMercury Records artists\nPeople from Three Rivers, Texas\nScepter Records artists\nSinger-songwriters from Texas",
"Best of the Worst is a British panel game television programme, which was broadcast on Channel 4 in 2006. The show was created by Giles Pilbrow and Colin Swash.\n\nHosted by Alexander Armstrong, it featured two teams of two players, one captained by David Mitchell and the other by Johnny Vaughan. The other panellists were either comedians or well known television personalities.\n\nThe show looked at the worst things ever to happen in the world, such as the person with the worst luck, the worst diet, or the worst inventions.\n\nOnly 6 episodes were recorded.\n\nRounds\nBest of the Worst was made up of four rounds.\n\nPick the Worst: Both teams picked the worst out of four options, such as the worst diet out of fast food, fresh air, a car and human flesh. Then, from the two options chosen by each team, the audience voted for which they thought was the worst. The team whose option received the most votes won two points.\nBottom Five: The five worst things related to a subject were given in reverse order, from least bad to the worst. Each team had to try to guess what the thing was via a picture clue. One point was given for each correct answer.\nWhich ends the Worst?: Two video clips were shown, each one ending badly, but stopped before the event. Each team then had to guess which one ended the worst. Two points were given for the right answer.\nWall of Worst: A quick-fire buzzer round, where a subject was given, along with a picture clue related to the worst thing ever to happen related to that subject. Each team had to buzz in with what they thought had happened. One point was awarded for every right answer.\n\nEpisode list\n – indicates David's team won.\n – indicates Johnny's team won.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nlostintv.com Best of the Worst\n4dtv (production company) website: Information and clips\n\n2006 British television series debuts\n2006 British television series endings\nBritish panel games\n2000s British game shows\nChannel 4 comedy\nChannel 4 original programming"
]
|
[
"Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)",
"Personality and appearance",
"What was Drusilla's personality like?",
"Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue,",
"What strange dialogue would she use?",
"peppered with non sequiturs like \"Spike,",
"What did Drusilla look like?",
"cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look,",
"What was her best qualities?",
"She speaks in a soft, mellow voice",
"What were her worst traits?",
"she is happiest when committing torture,"
]
| C_98e2f2d1efdd41b7b2fe2be5a99d8eef_0 | When did she make her first appearance? | 6 | When did Drusilla make her first appearance on Buffy? | Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) | Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting. Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? All the parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue. All of "white hats" (both Scoobies and Angel's Investigations) are doubtful about how to deal with her, originally an innocent victim. Mostly and obviously Angel. Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Drusilla, or Dru for short, is a fictional character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, portrayed by Juliet Landau. Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, she is introduced as a main antagonist alongside her lover Spike in the second season of Buffy. In addition to returning in subsequent seasons, the character is featured as a villain on the spin-off show Angel as well. Flashbacks in both series reveal Drusilla's past as a young psychic in Victorian London who was driven insane by Angel before he ultimately turned her into a vampire. Spike and Dru are notably more subversive compared to other "Big Bads" that have opposed Buffy Summers. The duo was conceived as a Sid and Nancy-inspired vampiric pair so Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent, while the character's physical appearance drew from sources such as supermodel Kate Moss and the 1990s heroin chic aesthetic.
Following the conclusion of both series, Drusilla continued to appear in Expanded Universe materials in other media. Landau went on to co-write a two-issue Drusilla story arc for IDW Publishing's Angel comic book series in 2009, which continued her character's storyline.
Character history
Drusilla's history unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; they are not presented in chronological order. In "Lie to Me", Angel explains that, in 1860 when he was still Angelus, he became obsessed with Drusilla, a beautiful young Catholic woman who lived with her parents and two sisters in London. Angelus's sire Darla first discovered Drusilla, and presented her to Angelus as a new possible victim to torment. Drusilla had psychic abilities, and was capable of occasionally foretelling the future, especially tragic situations. However, she believed this to be an evil affliction and wished to enter a nunnery to cleanse herself. Angelus sensed her purity and became obsessed with destroying her, as Drusilla had the potential for sainthood. Angelus first made contact with her by murdering Drusilla's priest, and impersonating him when she went to confession. When she confessed that she believed her abilities were evil, Angelus toyed with her by suggesting she embrace the evil instead of rejecting it. At some later point Angelus tortured and killed Drusilla's entire family, causing her to flee to a convent in Prague. On the day she was to take her holy vows, Angelus made her watch as he killed every person in the convent and engaged in sexual relations with Darla. The trauma of Angelus's atrocities drove Drusilla insane, and Angelus chose to turn her into a vampire, as he considered her a masterpiece, a testament to his talent. Believing death to be a mercy to her at this point, he chose to sire her to make her pain eternal as an immortal.
After being sired, Drusilla, now a predator, joined Angelus and Darla on their murderous travels. In 1880, Drusilla sired the young poet William, who joined the group. She and William, later known as "Spike", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.
Shortly after Angelus is cursed with a soul, Spike and Drusilla (unaware of the ensoulment) go their separate ways from Darla and Angel. At some point before their arrival in Sunnydale in late 1997, Drusilla is attacked and severely injured by an angry mob in Prague, leaving her in a weakened and frail condition. Spike cares for her, and the couple decide to travel to the Hellmouth in hopes that its energy will help to restore Drusilla's strength and health.
They arrive in Sunnydale in the episode "School Hard", and Spike plots the downfall of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When he discovers that Drusilla can be cured by the blood of her sire, Spike captures Angel and allows Drusilla to torture him until it is time to perform the ritual. Although Buffy and her friends save Angel, the ritual is successful. Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack. When Angel reverts to Angelus, he re-joins the couple. Drusilla soon kills Kendra, another Slayer, by hypnotizing her and cutting her throat with a fingernail (which impresses Spike when he learns of it).
Drusilla is delighted by Angelus's determination to destroy the world and encourages his ongoing sexual attention; both dynamics strongly disturb Spike, who wants Drusilla to himself again and does not particularly want the world to end. Spike decides to help Buffy save the world in exchange for his and Drusilla's safe passage from Sunnydale. Drusilla resists Spike's betrayal of Angelus, and he attacks her, ultimately carrying her unconscious body from the fray.
Drusilla and Spike flee to Brazil, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship. Spike's alliance with the Slayer, combined with Dru's skills of foresight and perception, prove to her that Spike is now tainted (not "demon enough" for her) and that he is developing feelings for Buffy. Drusilla breaks up with Spike, and he rejects her offer to remain friends.
Drusilla reappears on Angel in 2000, when Wolfram & Hart brings her to Los Angeles to re-sire Darla, who had been resurrected as a human dying of syphilis. Drusilla, who loves Darla like a "grandmum", and also more than that, over their 150-year-old complicated relationship, genuinely believes she is doing Darla a favor by siring her and is puzzled by Darla's brief rage before her renewed vampire nature kicks in. Reconciled, the two wreak havoc in the city until Angel sets them on fire. The two go underground to heal, but Drusilla leaves Darla, who is then protected by Lindsey McDonald.
Drusilla returns to Sunnydale in the episode "Crush" to persuade Spike to join Darla and herself in reforming their "family" unit, but instead, Spike seizes the opportunity to try to prove his love for Buffy by offering to stake Drusilla. Heartbroken by the actions of her former lover, Drusilla departs Sunnydale and remains at large. However, in Season Seven of Buffy, the First Evil impersonates Drusilla in an unsuccessful attempt to break Spike's spirit. Spike claims that the First Evil's impersonation is not crazy enough to be Drusilla.
In Angel comics by IDW Publishing set after the television series ended, Drusilla reappears, breaking out of a psychiatric institution, in the story arc Drusilla (2009). Still mentally ill, her whereabouts since her last appearance in Angel remain unexplained. After assault by a crowd, she awakens, still pallid-skinned, in what appears to be Georgian London, in broad daylight and enters what seems to be her parents’ home. She encounters a doll (which may or may not be "Miss Edith") and is called by a third party, possibly her parents. It is uncertain whether this is an elaborate hallucination, time travel to her personal past or an alternate universe where she was never turned by Angelus. It is strongly implied, however, that the story actually takes place before Drusilla is sired, and the parts of it set in the modern day are actually a premonition in the human, 19th-century Drusilla's mind. She later reappears in the Spike mini-series (2010–11) by IDW, where she encounters Spike in Las Vegas, having allied herself with a human who believes Spike stole his soul. Spike has Buffy's friend Willow magically transfer his soul to Drusilla to give her a shot at redemption, but they are forced to reverse the spell when it drives her even madder than she already is.
The character next appears in Angel & Faith by Dark Horse Comics in the story arc "Daddy Issues" (2012), in which Drusilla has become sane thanks to the Lorophage demon, popularly referred to as the Highgate vampire, which ate her trauma and pain. In her new role as "Mother Superior", she sought to perform similar treatments on the citizens of London, which Angel likened to lobotomies. When Angel killed the Lorophage, Drusilla becomes insane once more, and is free. Dark Horse intended to release the 5-issue miniseries Drusilla: Run and Catch, examining what happened next for her, but it was delayed until the conclusion of Season Nine. Later in the Angel & Faith series, it transpires she went on to kill one of the London Slayers affiliated with Faith. She returns in the second series, in which she helps the demon Archaeus (the Master's sire) build an army of vampires to take over Magic Town. However she flees in the finale when Angel, Faith and their allies defeat Archaeus and his army in a battle.
Powers and abilities
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.
Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".
Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there.
Personality and appearance
Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting.
Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue.
Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau.
Appearances
Drusilla had 49 canonical Buffyverse appearances.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Drusilla appeared in 17 episodes.
Season 2 (1997–98): "School Hard", "Halloween", "Lie to Me", "What's My Line, Part One", "What's My Line, Part Two", "Surprise", "Innocence", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Becoming, Part One", "Becoming, Part Two"
Season 5 (2000–01): "Fool for Love", "Crush"
Season 7 (2002–03): "Lessons", "Bring on the Night", "Lies My Parents Told Me"
Drusilla appeared in 3 canonical issues.
Tales (2003): "The Problem with Vampires"
Season Ten (2015): "Relationship Status: Complicated, Part 1"
Season Twelve (2018): "Finale"
Angel
Drusilla appeared in 7 episodes.
Season 2 (2000–01): "Dear Boy", "Darla", "The Trial", "Reunion", "Redefinition"
Season 5 (2003–04): "Destiny", "The Girl in Question"
Drusilla appeared in 22 canonical issues.
Spike (2010–11): "Alone Together Now", "Everybody Loves Spike", "You Haven't Changed a Bit", "Bedknobs and Boomsticks", "Something Borrowed", "Give and Take", "Stranger Things"
Angel & Faith (2012): "Daddy Issues, Parts 1–4", "A Dark Place, Part 3", "Death and Consequences, Part 1"
Angel & Faith: Season Ten (2015–16): "Those Who Can't Teach, Teach Gym, Parts 2 & 3", "A Little More than Kin, Parts 1 & 2", "A Tale of Two Families, Parts 1–5"
Drusilla appears in a number of non-canonical comics and novels, notably in her own mini-series: Spike & Dru.
References
External links
Drusilla on IMDb
Drusilla Comic at FEARnet
Angel (1999 TV series) characters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
Buffyverse vampires
Female characters in television
Female villains
Fictional characters with neurological or psychological disorders
Fictional characters with precognition
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional immigrants to the United States
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional people from London
Television characters introduced in 1997 | false | [
"Liyanage Don Vasanthi Ratnayake (born 30 November 1973) is a Sri Lankan former cricketer who played primarily as a right-handed batter. She appeared in one Test match and 22 One Day Internationals for Sri Lanka between 1997 and 2003.\n\nRatnayake made her international debut in 1997, when she played in a ODI between Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, in Colombo. Opening the batting in that match, she scored just one run. She made her only Test match appearance in 1998, playing against Pakistan, scoring five and thirteen. She scored an international half-century for the first time in 2002, also against Pakistan, when she scored 88. This remained her highest score in international cricket. She scored two further half-centuries; 51 later in that same series against Pakistan, and 67 not out on her final appearance in international cricket, against the West Indies in 2003. In total, Ratnayake played 22 ODIs, scoring 558 runs at an average of 26.57. In her only Test appearance, she scored 18 runs at an average of 9.00. She bowled 90 balls in ODI cricket, but did not take a wicket.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\n1973 births\nLiving people\nCricketers from Colombo\nSri Lankan women cricketers\nSri Lanka women Test cricketers\nSri Lanka women One Day International cricketers",
"Linda Williams (born Henriëtte Willems, 11 June 1955, Valkenswaard) is a Dutch singer, best known for her participation in the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest.\n\nWilliams was unknown at the time she took part with two songs in the 1981 Dutch Eurovision selection, as a last-minute replacement for singer Oscar Harris, who had had to drop out at short notice. One of her songs, \"Het is een wonder\" (\"It's a Miracle\") emerged the winner, sending Williams forward to the 26th Eurovision Song Contest which took place in Dublin on 4 April. \"Het is een wonder\" finished the evening in ninth place of the 20 entries.\n\nFollowing her Eurovision appearance, Williams released a few singles which passed unnoticed, and soon returned to obscurity. She did however make another appearance on the Eurovision stage in 1999, when along with her daughter Eva-Jane, she was among the backing singers for that year's Belgian entrant, Vanessa Chinitor.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n 1981 at Dingadong.nl\n\n1955 births\nLiving people\nEurovision Song Contest entrants for the Netherlands\nDutch women singers\nEurovision Song Contest entrants of 1981\nPeople from Valkenswaard\nNationaal Songfestival contestants"
]
|
[
"Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)",
"Personality and appearance",
"What was Drusilla's personality like?",
"Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue,",
"What strange dialogue would she use?",
"peppered with non sequiturs like \"Spike,",
"What did Drusilla look like?",
"cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look,",
"What was her best qualities?",
"She speaks in a soft, mellow voice",
"What were her worst traits?",
"she is happiest when committing torture,",
"When did she make her first appearance?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_98e2f2d1efdd41b7b2fe2be5a99d8eef_0 | What are some other interesting aspects of this article? | 7 | What are some other interesting aspects of this article besides that Drusilla is happiest when committing torture?? | Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) | Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting. Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? All the parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue. All of "white hats" (both Scoobies and Angel's Investigations) are doubtful about how to deal with her, originally an innocent victim. Mostly and obviously Angel. Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau. CANNOTANSWER | when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. | Drusilla, or Dru for short, is a fictional character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, portrayed by Juliet Landau. Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, she is introduced as a main antagonist alongside her lover Spike in the second season of Buffy. In addition to returning in subsequent seasons, the character is featured as a villain on the spin-off show Angel as well. Flashbacks in both series reveal Drusilla's past as a young psychic in Victorian London who was driven insane by Angel before he ultimately turned her into a vampire. Spike and Dru are notably more subversive compared to other "Big Bads" that have opposed Buffy Summers. The duo was conceived as a Sid and Nancy-inspired vampiric pair so Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent, while the character's physical appearance drew from sources such as supermodel Kate Moss and the 1990s heroin chic aesthetic.
Following the conclusion of both series, Drusilla continued to appear in Expanded Universe materials in other media. Landau went on to co-write a two-issue Drusilla story arc for IDW Publishing's Angel comic book series in 2009, which continued her character's storyline.
Character history
Drusilla's history unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; they are not presented in chronological order. In "Lie to Me", Angel explains that, in 1860 when he was still Angelus, he became obsessed with Drusilla, a beautiful young Catholic woman who lived with her parents and two sisters in London. Angelus's sire Darla first discovered Drusilla, and presented her to Angelus as a new possible victim to torment. Drusilla had psychic abilities, and was capable of occasionally foretelling the future, especially tragic situations. However, she believed this to be an evil affliction and wished to enter a nunnery to cleanse herself. Angelus sensed her purity and became obsessed with destroying her, as Drusilla had the potential for sainthood. Angelus first made contact with her by murdering Drusilla's priest, and impersonating him when she went to confession. When she confessed that she believed her abilities were evil, Angelus toyed with her by suggesting she embrace the evil instead of rejecting it. At some later point Angelus tortured and killed Drusilla's entire family, causing her to flee to a convent in Prague. On the day she was to take her holy vows, Angelus made her watch as he killed every person in the convent and engaged in sexual relations with Darla. The trauma of Angelus's atrocities drove Drusilla insane, and Angelus chose to turn her into a vampire, as he considered her a masterpiece, a testament to his talent. Believing death to be a mercy to her at this point, he chose to sire her to make her pain eternal as an immortal.
After being sired, Drusilla, now a predator, joined Angelus and Darla on their murderous travels. In 1880, Drusilla sired the young poet William, who joined the group. She and William, later known as "Spike", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.
Shortly after Angelus is cursed with a soul, Spike and Drusilla (unaware of the ensoulment) go their separate ways from Darla and Angel. At some point before their arrival in Sunnydale in late 1997, Drusilla is attacked and severely injured by an angry mob in Prague, leaving her in a weakened and frail condition. Spike cares for her, and the couple decide to travel to the Hellmouth in hopes that its energy will help to restore Drusilla's strength and health.
They arrive in Sunnydale in the episode "School Hard", and Spike plots the downfall of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When he discovers that Drusilla can be cured by the blood of her sire, Spike captures Angel and allows Drusilla to torture him until it is time to perform the ritual. Although Buffy and her friends save Angel, the ritual is successful. Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack. When Angel reverts to Angelus, he re-joins the couple. Drusilla soon kills Kendra, another Slayer, by hypnotizing her and cutting her throat with a fingernail (which impresses Spike when he learns of it).
Drusilla is delighted by Angelus's determination to destroy the world and encourages his ongoing sexual attention; both dynamics strongly disturb Spike, who wants Drusilla to himself again and does not particularly want the world to end. Spike decides to help Buffy save the world in exchange for his and Drusilla's safe passage from Sunnydale. Drusilla resists Spike's betrayal of Angelus, and he attacks her, ultimately carrying her unconscious body from the fray.
Drusilla and Spike flee to Brazil, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship. Spike's alliance with the Slayer, combined with Dru's skills of foresight and perception, prove to her that Spike is now tainted (not "demon enough" for her) and that he is developing feelings for Buffy. Drusilla breaks up with Spike, and he rejects her offer to remain friends.
Drusilla reappears on Angel in 2000, when Wolfram & Hart brings her to Los Angeles to re-sire Darla, who had been resurrected as a human dying of syphilis. Drusilla, who loves Darla like a "grandmum", and also more than that, over their 150-year-old complicated relationship, genuinely believes she is doing Darla a favor by siring her and is puzzled by Darla's brief rage before her renewed vampire nature kicks in. Reconciled, the two wreak havoc in the city until Angel sets them on fire. The two go underground to heal, but Drusilla leaves Darla, who is then protected by Lindsey McDonald.
Drusilla returns to Sunnydale in the episode "Crush" to persuade Spike to join Darla and herself in reforming their "family" unit, but instead, Spike seizes the opportunity to try to prove his love for Buffy by offering to stake Drusilla. Heartbroken by the actions of her former lover, Drusilla departs Sunnydale and remains at large. However, in Season Seven of Buffy, the First Evil impersonates Drusilla in an unsuccessful attempt to break Spike's spirit. Spike claims that the First Evil's impersonation is not crazy enough to be Drusilla.
In Angel comics by IDW Publishing set after the television series ended, Drusilla reappears, breaking out of a psychiatric institution, in the story arc Drusilla (2009). Still mentally ill, her whereabouts since her last appearance in Angel remain unexplained. After assault by a crowd, she awakens, still pallid-skinned, in what appears to be Georgian London, in broad daylight and enters what seems to be her parents’ home. She encounters a doll (which may or may not be "Miss Edith") and is called by a third party, possibly her parents. It is uncertain whether this is an elaborate hallucination, time travel to her personal past or an alternate universe where she was never turned by Angelus. It is strongly implied, however, that the story actually takes place before Drusilla is sired, and the parts of it set in the modern day are actually a premonition in the human, 19th-century Drusilla's mind. She later reappears in the Spike mini-series (2010–11) by IDW, where she encounters Spike in Las Vegas, having allied herself with a human who believes Spike stole his soul. Spike has Buffy's friend Willow magically transfer his soul to Drusilla to give her a shot at redemption, but they are forced to reverse the spell when it drives her even madder than she already is.
The character next appears in Angel & Faith by Dark Horse Comics in the story arc "Daddy Issues" (2012), in which Drusilla has become sane thanks to the Lorophage demon, popularly referred to as the Highgate vampire, which ate her trauma and pain. In her new role as "Mother Superior", she sought to perform similar treatments on the citizens of London, which Angel likened to lobotomies. When Angel killed the Lorophage, Drusilla becomes insane once more, and is free. Dark Horse intended to release the 5-issue miniseries Drusilla: Run and Catch, examining what happened next for her, but it was delayed until the conclusion of Season Nine. Later in the Angel & Faith series, it transpires she went on to kill one of the London Slayers affiliated with Faith. She returns in the second series, in which she helps the demon Archaeus (the Master's sire) build an army of vampires to take over Magic Town. However she flees in the finale when Angel, Faith and their allies defeat Archaeus and his army in a battle.
Powers and abilities
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.
Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".
Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there.
Personality and appearance
Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting.
Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue.
Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau.
Appearances
Drusilla had 49 canonical Buffyverse appearances.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Drusilla appeared in 17 episodes.
Season 2 (1997–98): "School Hard", "Halloween", "Lie to Me", "What's My Line, Part One", "What's My Line, Part Two", "Surprise", "Innocence", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Becoming, Part One", "Becoming, Part Two"
Season 5 (2000–01): "Fool for Love", "Crush"
Season 7 (2002–03): "Lessons", "Bring on the Night", "Lies My Parents Told Me"
Drusilla appeared in 3 canonical issues.
Tales (2003): "The Problem with Vampires"
Season Ten (2015): "Relationship Status: Complicated, Part 1"
Season Twelve (2018): "Finale"
Angel
Drusilla appeared in 7 episodes.
Season 2 (2000–01): "Dear Boy", "Darla", "The Trial", "Reunion", "Redefinition"
Season 5 (2003–04): "Destiny", "The Girl in Question"
Drusilla appeared in 22 canonical issues.
Spike (2010–11): "Alone Together Now", "Everybody Loves Spike", "You Haven't Changed a Bit", "Bedknobs and Boomsticks", "Something Borrowed", "Give and Take", "Stranger Things"
Angel & Faith (2012): "Daddy Issues, Parts 1–4", "A Dark Place, Part 3", "Death and Consequences, Part 1"
Angel & Faith: Season Ten (2015–16): "Those Who Can't Teach, Teach Gym, Parts 2 & 3", "A Little More than Kin, Parts 1 & 2", "A Tale of Two Families, Parts 1–5"
Drusilla appears in a number of non-canonical comics and novels, notably in her own mini-series: Spike & Dru.
References
External links
Drusilla on IMDb
Drusilla Comic at FEARnet
Angel (1999 TV series) characters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
Buffyverse vampires
Female characters in television
Female villains
Fictional characters with neurological or psychological disorders
Fictional characters with precognition
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional immigrants to the United States
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional people from London
Television characters introduced in 1997 | 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",
"Towards Artsakh () is an Armenian Entertainment television program. The series premiered on Armenia 1 on September 21, 2014.\nEach series of the TV program presents some area of life of today's hospitable Artsakh and reveals its most interesting aspects. What is Artsakh famous for? What has remained in the shadow up today? The program covers these questions as well as refers to the interests of young people and concerns of the older generation. \nArtsakh's legends and true stories are presented through the eyes of eyewitnesses.\n\nExternal links\n\n \n Towards Artsakh on Armenia 1\n\nArmenian-language television shows\nNonlinear narrative television series\nArmenia 1 television shows\nNagorno-Karabakh\n2010s Armenian television series"
]
|
[
"Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)",
"Personality and appearance",
"What was Drusilla's personality like?",
"Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue,",
"What strange dialogue would she use?",
"peppered with non sequiturs like \"Spike,",
"What did Drusilla look like?",
"cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look,",
"What was her best qualities?",
"She speaks in a soft, mellow voice",
"What were her worst traits?",
"she is happiest when committing torture,",
"When did she make her first appearance?",
"I don't know.",
"What are some other interesting aspects of this article?",
"when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American."
]
| C_98e2f2d1efdd41b7b2fe2be5a99d8eef_0 | Which accent did she use? | 8 | Which accent did Drusilla use? | Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) | Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting. Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? All the parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue. All of "white hats" (both Scoobies and Angel's Investigations) are doubtful about how to deal with her, originally an innocent victim. Mostly and obviously Angel. Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau. CANNOTANSWER | Southern American accent, | Drusilla, or Dru for short, is a fictional character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, portrayed by Juliet Landau. Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, she is introduced as a main antagonist alongside her lover Spike in the second season of Buffy. In addition to returning in subsequent seasons, the character is featured as a villain on the spin-off show Angel as well. Flashbacks in both series reveal Drusilla's past as a young psychic in Victorian London who was driven insane by Angel before he ultimately turned her into a vampire. Spike and Dru are notably more subversive compared to other "Big Bads" that have opposed Buffy Summers. The duo was conceived as a Sid and Nancy-inspired vampiric pair so Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent, while the character's physical appearance drew from sources such as supermodel Kate Moss and the 1990s heroin chic aesthetic.
Following the conclusion of both series, Drusilla continued to appear in Expanded Universe materials in other media. Landau went on to co-write a two-issue Drusilla story arc for IDW Publishing's Angel comic book series in 2009, which continued her character's storyline.
Character history
Drusilla's history unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; they are not presented in chronological order. In "Lie to Me", Angel explains that, in 1860 when he was still Angelus, he became obsessed with Drusilla, a beautiful young Catholic woman who lived with her parents and two sisters in London. Angelus's sire Darla first discovered Drusilla, and presented her to Angelus as a new possible victim to torment. Drusilla had psychic abilities, and was capable of occasionally foretelling the future, especially tragic situations. However, she believed this to be an evil affliction and wished to enter a nunnery to cleanse herself. Angelus sensed her purity and became obsessed with destroying her, as Drusilla had the potential for sainthood. Angelus first made contact with her by murdering Drusilla's priest, and impersonating him when she went to confession. When she confessed that she believed her abilities were evil, Angelus toyed with her by suggesting she embrace the evil instead of rejecting it. At some later point Angelus tortured and killed Drusilla's entire family, causing her to flee to a convent in Prague. On the day she was to take her holy vows, Angelus made her watch as he killed every person in the convent and engaged in sexual relations with Darla. The trauma of Angelus's atrocities drove Drusilla insane, and Angelus chose to turn her into a vampire, as he considered her a masterpiece, a testament to his talent. Believing death to be a mercy to her at this point, he chose to sire her to make her pain eternal as an immortal.
After being sired, Drusilla, now a predator, joined Angelus and Darla on their murderous travels. In 1880, Drusilla sired the young poet William, who joined the group. She and William, later known as "Spike", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.
Shortly after Angelus is cursed with a soul, Spike and Drusilla (unaware of the ensoulment) go their separate ways from Darla and Angel. At some point before their arrival in Sunnydale in late 1997, Drusilla is attacked and severely injured by an angry mob in Prague, leaving her in a weakened and frail condition. Spike cares for her, and the couple decide to travel to the Hellmouth in hopes that its energy will help to restore Drusilla's strength and health.
They arrive in Sunnydale in the episode "School Hard", and Spike plots the downfall of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When he discovers that Drusilla can be cured by the blood of her sire, Spike captures Angel and allows Drusilla to torture him until it is time to perform the ritual. Although Buffy and her friends save Angel, the ritual is successful. Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack. When Angel reverts to Angelus, he re-joins the couple. Drusilla soon kills Kendra, another Slayer, by hypnotizing her and cutting her throat with a fingernail (which impresses Spike when he learns of it).
Drusilla is delighted by Angelus's determination to destroy the world and encourages his ongoing sexual attention; both dynamics strongly disturb Spike, who wants Drusilla to himself again and does not particularly want the world to end. Spike decides to help Buffy save the world in exchange for his and Drusilla's safe passage from Sunnydale. Drusilla resists Spike's betrayal of Angelus, and he attacks her, ultimately carrying her unconscious body from the fray.
Drusilla and Spike flee to Brazil, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship. Spike's alliance with the Slayer, combined with Dru's skills of foresight and perception, prove to her that Spike is now tainted (not "demon enough" for her) and that he is developing feelings for Buffy. Drusilla breaks up with Spike, and he rejects her offer to remain friends.
Drusilla reappears on Angel in 2000, when Wolfram & Hart brings her to Los Angeles to re-sire Darla, who had been resurrected as a human dying of syphilis. Drusilla, who loves Darla like a "grandmum", and also more than that, over their 150-year-old complicated relationship, genuinely believes she is doing Darla a favor by siring her and is puzzled by Darla's brief rage before her renewed vampire nature kicks in. Reconciled, the two wreak havoc in the city until Angel sets them on fire. The two go underground to heal, but Drusilla leaves Darla, who is then protected by Lindsey McDonald.
Drusilla returns to Sunnydale in the episode "Crush" to persuade Spike to join Darla and herself in reforming their "family" unit, but instead, Spike seizes the opportunity to try to prove his love for Buffy by offering to stake Drusilla. Heartbroken by the actions of her former lover, Drusilla departs Sunnydale and remains at large. However, in Season Seven of Buffy, the First Evil impersonates Drusilla in an unsuccessful attempt to break Spike's spirit. Spike claims that the First Evil's impersonation is not crazy enough to be Drusilla.
In Angel comics by IDW Publishing set after the television series ended, Drusilla reappears, breaking out of a psychiatric institution, in the story arc Drusilla (2009). Still mentally ill, her whereabouts since her last appearance in Angel remain unexplained. After assault by a crowd, she awakens, still pallid-skinned, in what appears to be Georgian London, in broad daylight and enters what seems to be her parents’ home. She encounters a doll (which may or may not be "Miss Edith") and is called by a third party, possibly her parents. It is uncertain whether this is an elaborate hallucination, time travel to her personal past or an alternate universe where she was never turned by Angelus. It is strongly implied, however, that the story actually takes place before Drusilla is sired, and the parts of it set in the modern day are actually a premonition in the human, 19th-century Drusilla's mind. She later reappears in the Spike mini-series (2010–11) by IDW, where she encounters Spike in Las Vegas, having allied herself with a human who believes Spike stole his soul. Spike has Buffy's friend Willow magically transfer his soul to Drusilla to give her a shot at redemption, but they are forced to reverse the spell when it drives her even madder than she already is.
The character next appears in Angel & Faith by Dark Horse Comics in the story arc "Daddy Issues" (2012), in which Drusilla has become sane thanks to the Lorophage demon, popularly referred to as the Highgate vampire, which ate her trauma and pain. In her new role as "Mother Superior", she sought to perform similar treatments on the citizens of London, which Angel likened to lobotomies. When Angel killed the Lorophage, Drusilla becomes insane once more, and is free. Dark Horse intended to release the 5-issue miniseries Drusilla: Run and Catch, examining what happened next for her, but it was delayed until the conclusion of Season Nine. Later in the Angel & Faith series, it transpires she went on to kill one of the London Slayers affiliated with Faith. She returns in the second series, in which she helps the demon Archaeus (the Master's sire) build an army of vampires to take over Magic Town. However she flees in the finale when Angel, Faith and their allies defeat Archaeus and his army in a battle.
Powers and abilities
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.
Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".
Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there.
Personality and appearance
Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting.
Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue.
Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau.
Appearances
Drusilla had 49 canonical Buffyverse appearances.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Drusilla appeared in 17 episodes.
Season 2 (1997–98): "School Hard", "Halloween", "Lie to Me", "What's My Line, Part One", "What's My Line, Part Two", "Surprise", "Innocence", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Becoming, Part One", "Becoming, Part Two"
Season 5 (2000–01): "Fool for Love", "Crush"
Season 7 (2002–03): "Lessons", "Bring on the Night", "Lies My Parents Told Me"
Drusilla appeared in 3 canonical issues.
Tales (2003): "The Problem with Vampires"
Season Ten (2015): "Relationship Status: Complicated, Part 1"
Season Twelve (2018): "Finale"
Angel
Drusilla appeared in 7 episodes.
Season 2 (2000–01): "Dear Boy", "Darla", "The Trial", "Reunion", "Redefinition"
Season 5 (2003–04): "Destiny", "The Girl in Question"
Drusilla appeared in 22 canonical issues.
Spike (2010–11): "Alone Together Now", "Everybody Loves Spike", "You Haven't Changed a Bit", "Bedknobs and Boomsticks", "Something Borrowed", "Give and Take", "Stranger Things"
Angel & Faith (2012): "Daddy Issues, Parts 1–4", "A Dark Place, Part 3", "Death and Consequences, Part 1"
Angel & Faith: Season Ten (2015–16): "Those Who Can't Teach, Teach Gym, Parts 2 & 3", "A Little More than Kin, Parts 1 & 2", "A Tale of Two Families, Parts 1–5"
Drusilla appears in a number of non-canonical comics and novels, notably in her own mini-series: Spike & Dru.
References
External links
Drusilla on IMDb
Drusilla Comic at FEARnet
Angel (1999 TV series) characters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
Buffyverse vampires
Female characters in television
Female villains
Fictional characters with neurological or psychological disorders
Fictional characters with precognition
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional immigrants to the United States
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional people from London
Television characters introduced in 1997 | true | [
"Sope Aluko ( ; born July 5, 1975) is a Nigerian-born British American actress.\n\nLife and career\nAluko was born in Nigeria. She was raised in the United Kingdom, as her father was in the diplomatic service, which resulted in her traveling many places. Ultimately, she began attending boarding school at ten and studied in the U.K. where she grew up and earned her master's degree in Marketing. Sope had previously tried theater, but her parents did not approve of it. She traveled to America while she was on holiday and ran into her future husband \"by accident\". She stayed and worked in Corporate America for fifteen years. After her parents died, she decided to pursue acting again. On her background, Sope said, \"When I started off in this industry...they would say, “I love your accent but…” I just didn't trust myself enough. I started going to classes to try to get rid of my accent. One day, I just said, NO because this is me. If that doesn't work then maybe I'm just not cut out for this. The minute I did that, things just changed.\"like it was magic\n\nSince then, Sope has made numerous appearances on television since then including Bloodline, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Parks and Recreation, Burn Notice, Graceland and Army Wives. She has also acted in feature films including Identity Thief and Pitch Perfect 2.\n\nIn early 2018, Sope began gaining attention for nabbing a role in the Marvel Studios film Black Panther as a Shaman. Her casting was met with praise in her home town in Nigeria. On being in the movie Sope stated, \"I had to make sure I was fit for the role because one of my scenes that was going to involve some physical activity...And then for my role, I had to speak in a different accent. I made sure I did my research about the accent...I wanted to make sure I was prepared prior to coming on set.\" She expressed that being in the movie was a dream come true and hoped that she could expand her acting to Nollywood. Sope later appeared in Venom, her character was given the name Dr. Rosie Collins.\n\nPersonal life\nSope Aluko is married and has two sons. She is a practicing Christian.\n\nDue to her role in Black Panther, Miami-Dade County, Florida Mayor Carlos A. Giménez has labeled April 10 as \"Sope Aluko Day\".\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLiving people\n1975 births\nNigerian emigrants to the United Kingdom\nBlack British actresses",
"The grave accent ( ` ) ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian and\nmany other western European languages. It is also used in other languages using the Latin alphabet, such as Mohawk and Yoruba, and with non-Latin writing systems such as the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets and the Bopomofo or Zhuyin Fuhao semi-syllabary. It has no single meaning, but can indicate pitch, stress, or other features.\n\nUses\n\nPitch\n\nThe grave accent first appeared in the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek to mark a lower pitch than the high pitch of the acute accent. In modern practice, it replaces an acute accent in the last syllable of a word when that word is followed immediately by another word. The grave and circumflex have been replaced with an acute accent in the modern monotonic orthography.\n\nThe accent mark was called , the feminine form of the adjective (), meaning \"heavy\" or \"low in pitch.\" This was calqued (loan-translated) into Latin as , which then became the English word grave.\n\nStress\nThe grave accent marks the stressed vowels of words in Maltese, Catalan, and Italian.\n\nA general rule in Italian is that words that end with stressed , , or must be marked with a grave accent. Words that end with stressed or may bear either an acute accent or a grave accent, depending on whether the final e or o sound is closed or open, respectively. Some examples of words with a final grave accent are (\"city\"), (\"so/then/thus\"), (\"more\"/\"plus\"), (\"Moses\"), and (\"[he/she/it] brought/carried\"). Typists who use a keyboard without accented characters and are unfamiliar with input methods for typing accented letters sometimes use a separate grave accent or even an apostrophe instead of the proper accent character. This is nonstandard but is especially common when typing capital letters: * or * instead of (\"[he/she/it] is\"). Other mistakes arise from the misunderstanding of truncated and elided words: the phrase (\"a little\"), which is the truncated version of , may be mistakenly spelled as *. Italian has word pairs where one has an accent marked and the other not, with different pronunciation and meaning—such as (\"pear tree\") and (\"but\"), and (\"Pope\") and (\"dad\"); the latter example is also valid for Catalan.\n\nIn Bulgarian, the grave accent sometimes appears on the vowels , , , , , and to mark stress. It most commonly appears in books for children or foreigners, and dictionaries—or to distinguish between near-homophones: (, \"steam/vapour\") and (, \"cent/penny, money\"), (, \"wool\") and (, \"wave\").\n\nIn Macedonian the stress mark is orthographically required to distinguish homographs (see Disambiguation) and is put mostly on the vowels е and и. Then, it forces the stress on the accented word-syllable instead of having a different syllable in the stress group getting accented. In turn, it changes the pronunciation and the whole meaning of the group.\n\nUkrainian, Rusyn, Belarusian, and Russian used a similar system until the first half of the 20th century. Now the main stress is preferably marked with an acute, and the role of the grave is limited to marking secondary stress in compound words (in dictionaries and linguistic literature).\n\nIn Croatian, Serbian, and Slovene, the stressed syllable can be short or long and have a rising or falling tone. They use (in dictionaries, orthography, and grammar books, for example) four different stress marks (grave, acute, double grave, and inverted breve) on the letters a, e, i, o, r, and u: à è ì ò r̀ ù. The system is identical both in Latin and Cyrillic scripts. Unicode forgot to encode R-grave when encoding the letters with stress marks.\n\nIn modern Church Slavonic, there are three stress marks (acute, grave, and circumflex), which formerly represented different types of pitch accent. There is no longer any phonetic distinction between them, only an orthographical one. The grave is typically used when the stressed vowel is the last letter of a multiletter word.\n\nIn Ligurian, the grave accent marks the accented short vowel of a word in (sound ), (sound ), (sound ) and (sound ). For , it indicates the short sound of , but may not be the stressed vowel of the word.\n\nHeight\nThe grave accent marks the height or openness of the vowels e and o, indicating that they are pronounced open: è (as opposed to é ); ò (as opposed to ó ), in several Romance languages:\n Catalan uses the accent on three letters (, , and ).\n French orthography uses the accent on three letters (, , and ).\n The is used in only one word, (\"where\"), to distinguish it from its homophone (\"or\").\n The is used in only a small closed class of words, including , , and (homophones of , , and , respectively), and .\n The is used more broadly to represent the vowel , in positions where a plain would be pronounced as (schwa). Many verb conjugations contain regular alternations between and ; for example, the accent mark in the present tense verb distinguishes the vowel's pronunciation from the schwa in the infinitive, .\n Italian\n Occitan\n Ligurian also uses the grave accent to distinguish the sound , written , from the sound , written or .\n\nDisambiguation \nIn several languages, the grave accent distinguishes both homophones and words that otherwise would be homographs:\n In Bulgarian and Macedonian, it distinguishes the conjunction (\"and\") from the short-form feminine possessive pronoun .\n In Catalan, it distinguishes homophone words such as (\"my (f)\") and (\"hand\").\n In French the grave accent on the letters and has no effect on pronunciation and just distinguishes homonyms otherwise spelled the same, for example the preposition (\"to/belonging to/towards\") from the verb (\"[he/she/it] has\") as well as the adverb (\"there\") and the feminine definite article ; it is also used in the words (\"already\"), (preceded by or , and meaning \"closer than\" or \"inferior to (a given value)\"), the phrase (\"hither and thither\"; without the accents, it would literally mean \"it and the\") and its functional synonym . It is used on the letter only to distinguish (\"where\") and (\"or\"). is rarely used to distinguish homonyms except in / (\"since/some\"), / (\"in/(thou) art\"), and / (\"near/the\").\n In Italian, it distinguishes, for example, the feminine article from the adverb (\"there\").\n In Norwegian (both Bokmål and Nynorsk), the grave accent separates words that would otherwise be identical: (and) and (too). Popular usage, possibly because Norwegian rarely uses diacritics, often leads to a grave accent in place of an acute accent.\n In Romansh, it distinguishes (in the standard) (\"and\") from the verb form (\"he/she/it is\") and (\"in\") from (\"they are\"). It also marks distinctions of stress ( \"already\" vs. \"violin\") and of vowel quality ( \"bed\" vs. \"marriage\").\n\nLength\nIn Welsh, the accent denotes a short vowel sound in a word that would otherwise be pronounced with a long vowel sound: \"mug\" versus \"smoke\".\n\nIn Scottish Gaelic, it denotes a long vowel, such as (\"subject\"), compared with (\"put\"). The use of acute accents to denote the rarer close long vowels, leaving the grave accents for the open long ones, is seen in older texts, but it is no longer allowed according to the new orthographical conventions.\n\nTone\nIn some tonal languages such as Vietnamese, and Mandarin Chinese (when it is written in Hanyu Pinyin or Zhuyin Fuhao), the grave accent indicates a falling tone. The alternative to the grave accent in Mandarin is the numeral 4 after the syllable: pà = pa4.\n\nIn African languages and in International Phonetic Alphabet, the grave accent often indicates a low tone: Nobiin jàkkàr (\"fish-hook\"), Yoruba àgbọ̀n (\"chin\"), Hausa màcè (\"woman\").\n\nThe grave accent represents the low tone in Kanien'kéha or Mohawk.\n\nOther uses\nIn Emilian-Romagnol, a grave accent placed over e or o denotes both length and openness. In Emilian è and ò represent and , while in Romagnol they represent and .\n\nIn Portuguese, the grave accent indicates the contraction of two consecutive vowels in adjacent words (crasis). For example, instead of a aquela hora (\"at that hour\"), one says and writes àquela hora.\n\nIn Hawaiian, the grave accent is not placed over another character but is sometimes encountered as a typographically easier substitute for the ʻokina: Hawai`i instead of Hawaiʻi.\n\nEnglish\nThe grave accent, though rare in English words, sometimes appears in poetry and song lyrics to indicate that a usually-silent vowel is pronounced to fit the rhythm or meter. Most often, it is applied to a word that ends with -ed. For instance, the word looked is usually pronounced as a single syllable, with the e silent; when written as lookèd, the e is pronounced: look-ed). In this capacity, it can also distinguish certain pairs of identically spelled words like the past tense of learn, learned , from the adjective learnèd (for example, \"a very learnèd man\").\n\nA grave accent can also occur in a foreign (usually French) term which has not been anglicised: for example, vis-à-vis, pièce de résistance or crème brûlée. It also may occur in an English name, often as an affectation, as for example in the case of Albert Ketèlbey.\n\nAs surrogate of apostrophe or (opening) single quote\nThe layout of some European PC keyboards combined with problematic keyboard driver semantics causes many users to use a grave accent or an acute accent instead of an apostrophe when typing in English (e.g. typing instead of Brian's Theater).\n\nAdditionally ASCII grave accent character () was often used as surrogate of opening single quote, together with ASCII typewriter apostrophe () used as closing single quote; double quotes were sometimes substituted by two consecutive grave accents and two consecutive typewriter apostrophes (``…''). Although Unicode now provides separate characters for single and double quotes, such style is sometimes used even nowadays; examples are: output generated by some UNIX console programs, rendering of man pages within some environments, technical documentation written long ago or written in old-school manner. However, as time goes on, such style is used less and less, and even institutions that traditionally were using that style are now abandoning it.\n\nLetters with grave\n\nTechnical notes\n\nThe Unicode standard makes dozens of letters with a grave accent available as precomposed characters. The older ISO-8859-1 character encoding only includes the letters à, è, ì, ò, ù, and their respective capital forms. In the much older, limited 7-bit ASCII character set, the grave accent is encoded as character 96 (hex 60). Outside the US, character 96 is often replaced by accented letters. In the French ISO 646 standard, the character at this position is µ. Many older UK computers, such as the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro, have the £ symbol as character 96, though the British ISO 646 variant ultimately placed this symbol at position 35 instead.\n\nOn British and American keyboards, the grave accent is a key by itself. Due to the character's presence in ASCII, this is primarily used to actually type that character, though some layouts (such as US International or UK extended) may use it as a dead key to modify the following letter. (With these layouts, to get a character such as à, the user can type and then the vowel. For example, to make à, the user can type and then ). In territories where the diacritic is used routinely, the precomposed characters are provided as standard on national keyboards.\n\nOn a Mac, to get a character such as à, the user can type and then the vowel. For example, to make à, the user can type and then , and to make À, the user can type and then . In iOS and most Android keyboards, combined characters with the grave accent are accessed by holding a finger on the vowel, which opens a menu for accents. For example, to make à, the user can tap and hold and then tap or slide to . Mac versions of OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) or newer share similar functionality to iOS; by pressing and holding a vowel key to open an accent menu, the user may click on the grave accented character or type the corresponding number key displayed.\n\nOn a system running the X Window System, to get a character such as à, the user should press followed by , then the vowel. The compose key on modern keyboards is usually mapped to a key or .\n\nGames \nIn many PC-based computer games in the US and UK, the key (on US English and UK keyboards) is used to open the console so the user can execute script commands via its CLI. This is true for games such as Factorio, Battlefield 3, Half-Life, Halo CE, Quake, Half-Life 2, Blockland, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, Unreal, Counter-Strike, Crysis, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, RuneScape, and games based on the Quake engine or Source engine. \nWhile not necessarily the original progenitor of the console key concept, Quake is still widely associated with any usage of the key as a toggle for a drop-down console, often being referred to as the \"Quake Key\". In 2021, Microsoft Powershell introduced a \"Quake Mode\" which enables a global shortcut of Meta+ (with a predictable result). This sign is located on the left-top of a U.S layout keyboard\n\nUse in programming\nProgrammers use the grave accent symbol as a separate character (i.e., not combined with any letter) for a number of tasks. In this role, it is known as a backquote, or backtick.\n\nMany of the Unix shells and the programming languages Perl, PHP, and Ruby use pairs of this character to indicate command substitution, that is, substitution of the standard output from one command into a line of text defining another command. For example, using $ as the symbol representing a terminal prompt, the code line:\n\n$ echo It is now `date`\n\nis equivalent, after command substitution, to the command:\n\n $ echo It is now \n\nwhich then, on execution, produces the output:\n\n It is now \n\nIt is sometimes used in source code comments to indicate code, e.g.,\n\n/* Use the `printf()` function. */\n\nThis is also the format the Markdown formatter uses to indicate code. Some variations of Markdown support \"fenced code blocks\" that span multiple lines of code, starting (and ending) with three backticks in a row (```).\n\nVarious programming and scripting languages use the backquote character:\n\n Bash shell and Z shell The `...` syntax is referred to as command substitution. It replaces a command with its output.\nThe use of backticks for command substitution is now largely deprecated in favor of the notation $(...), so that one of the examples above would be re-written:\n\n$ echo It is now $(date)\n\nThe latter syntax allows easier multiple nesting than with backquotes such as, for example:\n\n$ cd $(dirname $(type -P touch))\n\n BBC BASIC The backquote character is valid at the beginning of or within a variable, structure, procedure or function name.\n\n D and Go The backquote surrounds a raw string literal.\n\n F# Surrounding an identifier with double backquotes allows the use of identifiers that would not otherwise be allowed, such as keywords, or identifiers containing punctuation or spaces.\n\n Haskell Surrounding a function name by backquotes makes it an infix operator.\n\nJavaScript ECMAScript 6 standard introduced a \"backtick\" character which indicated a string or template literal. Its application include (but are not limited to): string interpolation (substitution), embedded expressions, and multi-line strings. In the following example name and pet variable's values get substituted into the string enclosed by grave accent characters:\nconst name = \"Mary\", pet = \"lamb\"; //\nlet temp = `${name} has a little ${pet}!`;\n console.log(temp);\n // => \"Mary has a little lamb!\";\n\n Lisp macro systems The backquote character (called quasiquote in Scheme) introduces a quoted expression in which comma-substitution may occur. It is identical to the plain quote, except that a nested expression prefixed with a comma is replaced with the value of that nested expression. If the nested expression happens to be a symbol (that is, a variable name in Lisp), the symbols' value is used. If the expression happens to be programm code, the first value returned by that code is inserted at the respective location instead of the comma-prefixed code. This is roughly analogous to the Bourne shell's variable interpolation with $ inside double quotes.\n\n m4 A backquote together with an apostrophe quotes strings (to suppress or defer macro expansion).\n\n MySQL A backquote in queries is a delimiter for column, table, and database identifiers.\n\n OCaml The backquote indicates polymorphic variants.\n\n Pico The backquote indicates comments in the programming language.\n\n PowerShell The backquote is used as the escape character. For example, a newline character is denoted `n. Most common programming languages use a backslash as the escape character (e.g., \\n), but because Windows allows the backslash as a path separator, it is impractical for PowerShell to use backslash for a different purpose. Two backticks produce the ` character itself. For example, the nullable boolean of .NET is specified in PowerShell as [Nullable``1[System.Boolean]].\n\n Python Prior to version 3.0, backticks were a synonym for the repr() function, which converts its argument to a string suitable for a programmer to view. However, this feature was removed in Python 3.0. Backticks also appear extensively in the reStructuredText plain text markup language (implemented in the Python docutils package).\n\n R The backquote is used to surround non-syntactic variable names. This includes variable names containing special characters or reserved words, among others.\n\n Scala An identifier may also be formed by an arbitrary string between backquotes. The identifier then is composed of all characters excluding the backquotes themselves.\n\n TeX The backtick character represents curly opening quotes. For example, ` is rendered as single opening curly quote () and `` is a double curly opening quote (). It also supplies the numeric ASCII value of an ASCII character wherever a number is expected.\n\n Tom The backquote creates a new term or to calls an existing term.\n\n Unlambda The backquote character denotes function application.\n\n Verilog HDL The backquote is used at the beginning of compiler's directives.\n\nSee also\nAcute accent\nCircumflex\nDiacritic\nDouble grave accent\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nDiacritics Project – All you need to design a font with correct accents\nASCII and Unicode quotation marks – \"Please do not use the ASCII grave accent as a left quotation mark\"\nKeyboard Help – Learn how to create world language accent marks and other diacriticals on a computer\n\nLatin-script diacritics\nGreek-script diacritics\nCyrillic-script diacritics"
]
|
[
"Tom Cousineau",
"College football career"
]
| C_a4366f97d89441218ed9f1fea265a416_1 | Where did he attend college? | 1 | Where did Tom Cousineau attend college? | Tom Cousineau | Cousineau attended Ohio State University, where he played for legendary coach Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. During that span, Ohio State had an overall record of 36-10-2 and 28-4 in the Big Ten, were three-time Big Ten champs. The Buckeyes played four bowl games after each of the seasons he played: in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl. They were a Top 5 team for 36 weeks over these four years and the No. 1 team in the nation for eight weeks in 1975, and ultimately finished fourth, sixth and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively. Cousineau majored in marketing. It is rumored that he frequently ate Ken Boock's lunch while attending Ohio State. He was a consensus first-team All-American, breaking the school record with 211 tackles in a single season in 1978, an average of 17.5 a game. He also broke the school record for most tackles in a game with 29 against Penn State in 1978, and was the MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl. Cousineau's last game for the Buckeyes was the infamous 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, during which Coach Hayes punched Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the final minutes of the game. Hayes was fired the following day for the incident. Cousineau still holds many of Ohio State's tackling records. As of 2016, he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles (since tied by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Chris Spielman), most solo tackles in a single game, (16 against SMU in 1978). He also ranks second on both the all-time OSU tackle list with 569 (three behind Marcus Marek) and on the career solo tackles list with 259. He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. The Chicago Tribune named him the MVP of the Big Ten in 1978. He graduated from OSU in 1979. In 2016, he became the 25th Ohio State player, along with seven Buckeye coaches, to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame. CANNOTANSWER | Ohio State University, | Thomas Michael Cousineau (born May 6, 1957) is an American former college and professional football player who was a linebacker in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. He played college football for Ohio State University, and twice earned All-American honors. He was the first overall pick of the 1979 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the CFL's Montreal Alouettes and the NFL's Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers.
Cousineau is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, elected in the class of 2016. He is also a member of the Ohio State Varsity "O" Hall of Fame, inducted in 1995, and St. Edward High School Hall of Fame. Cousineau was the recipient of the Silver Anniversary Butkus Award in 2003.
Early years
Cousineau was born in Fairview Park, Ohio, to Carol and Tom Cousineau Sr, who was the head football and a wrestling coach at Lakewood (Ohio) High School. Consequently, his mother did not want him to play football under the shadow of his father. Thus, Cousineau played high school football for nearby St. Edward High School, which is several blocks away in Lakewood. He excelled and was one of the most highly recruited football players in the country in his senior year. He graduated in 1975.
Cousineau was also an accomplished wrestler. In 1975, under legendary coach Howard Ferguson, he lost to future NFL player Bob Golic from cross-town all-boys school rival St. Joseph High School in the Ohio state wrestling tournament semifinals in the heavyweight weight class. The match has been called "one of the most memorable," Golic would go on to win the state title and Cousineau would finish in third place. Golic would go to be two-time All-American at heavyweight at Notre Dame. Cousineau and Golic would eventually become teammates in the NFL with the Browns.
College football career
Cousineau attended Ohio State University, where he played for legendary coach Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. During that span, Ohio State had an overall record of 36-10-2 and 28–4 in the Big Ten, were three-time Big Ten champs. The Buckeyes played four bowl games after each of the seasons he played: in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl. They were a Top 5 team for 36 weeks over these four years and the No. 1 team in the nation for eight weeks in 1975, and ultimately finished fourth, sixth and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively.
Cousineau majored in marketing. He was a consensus first-team All-American, breaking the school record with 211 tackles in a single season in 1978, an average of 17.5 a game. He also broke the school record for most tackles in a game with 29 against Penn State in 1978, and was the MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl.
Cousineau's last game for the Buckeyes was the infamous 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, during which Coach Hayes punched Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the final minutes of the game. Hayes was fired the following day for the incident.
Cousineau still holds many of Ohio State's tackling records. As of 2016, he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles (since tied by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Chris Spielman), most solo tackles in a single game, (16 against SMU in 1978). He also ranks second on both the all-time OSU tackle list with 569 (three behind Marcus Marek) and on the career solo tackles list with 259.
He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. The Chicago Tribune named him the MVP of the Big Ten in 1978. He graduated from OSU in 1979. In 2016, he became the 25th Ohio State player, along with seven Buckeye coaches, to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Professional football career
Cousineau was drafted first overall in the 1979 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, who acquired the pick as a part of a package of five draft picks from the San Francisco 49ers in a 1978 trade for O. J. Simpson. However, he never played a game for the Bills. He instead signed with the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes, who signed him for double the money originally offered by the Bills. Cousineau became a star for the Alouettes, becoming the Grey Cup Most Valuable Player in the 1979 season. He only played in four games in his third season because of an elbow injury while the Alouettes collapsed.
In 1982, Cousineau wanted to return to the NFL, choosing to forego two optional years with the Alouettes. The Houston Oilers attempted to sign him, but the Bills (who still held Cousineau's NFL rights) matched the offer.
Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell had long been interested in signing him. Cousineau was then traded from the Bills to the Cleveland Browns for a first-round draft choice (14th overall) in the 1983 NFL Draft, plus a second and a third draft choice in subsequent years. That first-round pick was used on future Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly. Cousineau signed a five-year contract for $2.5 million, the highest contract ever at the time by the Browns.
In 1983, Cousineau was arrested in connection with minor collision with a police car on Saint Patrick's Day He was charged with drunk driving, improperly using traffic lanes, and not having his driver's license. He was subsequently found not guilty of the drunk driving charge, but guilty of the moving violation (the driver's license charge was dropped).
During Cousineau's four seasons with the Browns, he led the team in tackles for three seasons. In the 1983 season, he intercepted 4 passes and was named a 2nd-team All-NFL by the NEA. He was also named 2nd-team all NFL by the AP in 1984, but never made the Pro Bowl in his career. He was considered an overpaid disappointment in Cleveland, while Bills fans fondly remember the fact that the man who once snubbed them for the CFL was traded for Jim Kelly. Cousineau signed with the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent after the 1985 season where he played two years as a reserve before retiring in 1987. Cousineau finished his NFL career with ten interceptions and 6.5 career sacks.
After retiring as a player
St. Edward inducted Cousineau to the school's Athletic Hall of Fame.
He married Lisa June 16, 1990, and has 2 daughters Kyle and Kacey.
On February 8, 2006, Cousineau announced plans to run for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives as a Republican in the Akron, Ohio area. He won the May primary but lost the November election to Democrat Brian Williams by a margin of 58% to 42%.
On April 20, 2009, Cousineau joined the St. Vincent – St. Mary High School football coaching staff as a linebackers coach.
Cousineau later went on to be the linebackers coach at St. Edward High School (Ohio)
References
External links
Ohio State bio
NFL bio
1957 births
Living people
All-American college football players
American football linebackers
Canadian football linebackers
Cleveland Browns players
National Football League first overall draft picks
Montreal Alouettes players
Ohio State Buckeyes football players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Players of Canadian football from Cleveland
San Francisco 49ers players
St. Edward High School (Lakewood, Ohio) alumni
National Football League replacement players
Players of American football from Cleveland | true | [
"Walter Drumstead (born Dremstadt; September 4, 1898 – May 18, 1946) was an American football guard who played one game in the National Football League (NFL) for the Hammond Pros. He did not attend college, and also played independent ball with the Hammond Scatenas, Boosters, and Colonials.\n\nHe was born Walter Dremstadt on September 4, 1898, in Hammond, Indiana. He did not attend college, and a 1923 article called him, \"from the college of hard knocks.\"\n\nIn 1921, Drumstead started a football career with the independent Hammond Scatenas. He joined the Hammond Boosters in 1924 after three seasons played with the Scatenas, and scored a touchdown in one of his first appearances with the team.\n\nAfter playing most of the 1925 season with the Boosters, Drumstead left the team for one game to play in the National Football League (NFL) with the Hammond Pros. He was a starter in their 0–13 loss against the Chicago Cardinals, and returned to the Boosters afterwards. The Times reported him as a \"fan favorite\". He played for the Boosters again in 1926.\n\nDrumstead played the left guard position for the Hammond Colonials in 1929.\n\nHe died in on May 18, 1946, at the age of 47.\n\nReferences\n\n1898 births\n1946 deaths\nPlayers of American football from Indiana\nPeople from Hammond, Indiana\nAmerican football guards\nHammond Pros players",
"Ruben Chebon Mwei (born 4 December 1985 in Kapsabet, Kenya) is a Kenyan half marathoner and marathoner.\n\nBiography\nMwei attended Kemeloi high school and Kamwenja Teacher's College in his native Kenya before moving to the United States to attend Adams State College in 2006, where he majored in psychology.\n\nCareer\n\nMwei redshirted his freshman year at Adams State. His sophomore year, he competed in several cross-country races, including 4- and 5-mile, and 8- and 10-K. He placed second at the NCAA Division II National Championships, with a 30:09 in the 10-K, and earned an All-American award. His junior year, he did not compete in the national championship due to a chest injury.\n\nAfter college, Mwei has continued to run professionally, winning events such as the 2012 Naples Half Marathon and the 2012 Atlanta Marathon (his debut marathon)\n\nReferences\n\n1985 births\nLiving people\nKenyan male long-distance runners\nKenyan male middle-distance runners"
]
|
[
"Tom Cousineau",
"College football career",
"Where did he attend college?",
"Ohio State University,"
]
| C_a4366f97d89441218ed9f1fea265a416_1 | What were his stats there? | 2 | What were Tom Cousineau stats at Ohio State University? | Tom Cousineau | Cousineau attended Ohio State University, where he played for legendary coach Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. During that span, Ohio State had an overall record of 36-10-2 and 28-4 in the Big Ten, were three-time Big Ten champs. The Buckeyes played four bowl games after each of the seasons he played: in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl. They were a Top 5 team for 36 weeks over these four years and the No. 1 team in the nation for eight weeks in 1975, and ultimately finished fourth, sixth and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively. Cousineau majored in marketing. It is rumored that he frequently ate Ken Boock's lunch while attending Ohio State. He was a consensus first-team All-American, breaking the school record with 211 tackles in a single season in 1978, an average of 17.5 a game. He also broke the school record for most tackles in a game with 29 against Penn State in 1978, and was the MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl. Cousineau's last game for the Buckeyes was the infamous 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, during which Coach Hayes punched Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the final minutes of the game. Hayes was fired the following day for the incident. Cousineau still holds many of Ohio State's tackling records. As of 2016, he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles (since tied by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Chris Spielman), most solo tackles in a single game, (16 against SMU in 1978). He also ranks second on both the all-time OSU tackle list with 569 (three behind Marcus Marek) and on the career solo tackles list with 259. He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. The Chicago Tribune named him the MVP of the Big Ten in 1978. He graduated from OSU in 1979. In 2016, he became the 25th Ohio State player, along with seven Buckeye coaches, to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame. CANNOTANSWER | he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles | Thomas Michael Cousineau (born May 6, 1957) is an American former college and professional football player who was a linebacker in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. He played college football for Ohio State University, and twice earned All-American honors. He was the first overall pick of the 1979 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the CFL's Montreal Alouettes and the NFL's Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers.
Cousineau is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, elected in the class of 2016. He is also a member of the Ohio State Varsity "O" Hall of Fame, inducted in 1995, and St. Edward High School Hall of Fame. Cousineau was the recipient of the Silver Anniversary Butkus Award in 2003.
Early years
Cousineau was born in Fairview Park, Ohio, to Carol and Tom Cousineau Sr, who was the head football and a wrestling coach at Lakewood (Ohio) High School. Consequently, his mother did not want him to play football under the shadow of his father. Thus, Cousineau played high school football for nearby St. Edward High School, which is several blocks away in Lakewood. He excelled and was one of the most highly recruited football players in the country in his senior year. He graduated in 1975.
Cousineau was also an accomplished wrestler. In 1975, under legendary coach Howard Ferguson, he lost to future NFL player Bob Golic from cross-town all-boys school rival St. Joseph High School in the Ohio state wrestling tournament semifinals in the heavyweight weight class. The match has been called "one of the most memorable," Golic would go on to win the state title and Cousineau would finish in third place. Golic would go to be two-time All-American at heavyweight at Notre Dame. Cousineau and Golic would eventually become teammates in the NFL with the Browns.
College football career
Cousineau attended Ohio State University, where he played for legendary coach Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. During that span, Ohio State had an overall record of 36-10-2 and 28–4 in the Big Ten, were three-time Big Ten champs. The Buckeyes played four bowl games after each of the seasons he played: in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl. They were a Top 5 team for 36 weeks over these four years and the No. 1 team in the nation for eight weeks in 1975, and ultimately finished fourth, sixth and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively.
Cousineau majored in marketing. He was a consensus first-team All-American, breaking the school record with 211 tackles in a single season in 1978, an average of 17.5 a game. He also broke the school record for most tackles in a game with 29 against Penn State in 1978, and was the MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl.
Cousineau's last game for the Buckeyes was the infamous 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, during which Coach Hayes punched Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the final minutes of the game. Hayes was fired the following day for the incident.
Cousineau still holds many of Ohio State's tackling records. As of 2016, he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles (since tied by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Chris Spielman), most solo tackles in a single game, (16 against SMU in 1978). He also ranks second on both the all-time OSU tackle list with 569 (three behind Marcus Marek) and on the career solo tackles list with 259.
He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. The Chicago Tribune named him the MVP of the Big Ten in 1978. He graduated from OSU in 1979. In 2016, he became the 25th Ohio State player, along with seven Buckeye coaches, to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Professional football career
Cousineau was drafted first overall in the 1979 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, who acquired the pick as a part of a package of five draft picks from the San Francisco 49ers in a 1978 trade for O. J. Simpson. However, he never played a game for the Bills. He instead signed with the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes, who signed him for double the money originally offered by the Bills. Cousineau became a star for the Alouettes, becoming the Grey Cup Most Valuable Player in the 1979 season. He only played in four games in his third season because of an elbow injury while the Alouettes collapsed.
In 1982, Cousineau wanted to return to the NFL, choosing to forego two optional years with the Alouettes. The Houston Oilers attempted to sign him, but the Bills (who still held Cousineau's NFL rights) matched the offer.
Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell had long been interested in signing him. Cousineau was then traded from the Bills to the Cleveland Browns for a first-round draft choice (14th overall) in the 1983 NFL Draft, plus a second and a third draft choice in subsequent years. That first-round pick was used on future Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly. Cousineau signed a five-year contract for $2.5 million, the highest contract ever at the time by the Browns.
In 1983, Cousineau was arrested in connection with minor collision with a police car on Saint Patrick's Day He was charged with drunk driving, improperly using traffic lanes, and not having his driver's license. He was subsequently found not guilty of the drunk driving charge, but guilty of the moving violation (the driver's license charge was dropped).
During Cousineau's four seasons with the Browns, he led the team in tackles for three seasons. In the 1983 season, he intercepted 4 passes and was named a 2nd-team All-NFL by the NEA. He was also named 2nd-team all NFL by the AP in 1984, but never made the Pro Bowl in his career. He was considered an overpaid disappointment in Cleveland, while Bills fans fondly remember the fact that the man who once snubbed them for the CFL was traded for Jim Kelly. Cousineau signed with the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent after the 1985 season where he played two years as a reserve before retiring in 1987. Cousineau finished his NFL career with ten interceptions and 6.5 career sacks.
After retiring as a player
St. Edward inducted Cousineau to the school's Athletic Hall of Fame.
He married Lisa June 16, 1990, and has 2 daughters Kyle and Kacey.
On February 8, 2006, Cousineau announced plans to run for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives as a Republican in the Akron, Ohio area. He won the May primary but lost the November election to Democrat Brian Williams by a margin of 58% to 42%.
On April 20, 2009, Cousineau joined the St. Vincent – St. Mary High School football coaching staff as a linebackers coach.
Cousineau later went on to be the linebackers coach at St. Edward High School (Ohio)
References
External links
Ohio State bio
NFL bio
1957 births
Living people
All-American college football players
American football linebackers
Canadian football linebackers
Cleveland Browns players
National Football League first overall draft picks
Montreal Alouettes players
Ohio State Buckeyes football players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Players of Canadian football from Cleveland
San Francisco 49ers players
St. Edward High School (Lakewood, Ohio) alumni
National Football League replacement players
Players of American football from Cleveland | true | [
"The Louisiana Swashbucklers were a professional indoor football team based in Lake Charles, Louisiana. They were formed in 2005 as an expansion member of the National Indoor Football League (NIFL) and were originally known as the Southwest Louisiana Swashbucklers. They replaced another NIFL franchise, the Lake Charles Land Sharks. In 2006, they moved to the Intense Football League (IFL) and shortened their name to Louisiana Swashbucklers. They were originally set to play in the Indoor Football League due to the IFL's merger with United Indoor Football, but later had to bow out over financial concerns. For their next three seasons, they were a member of the new Southern Indoor Football League. Later a member of the Professional Indoor Football League, they played their home games at Sudduth Coliseum in Lake Charles, Louisiana. On May 24, 2013, the team announced that they would be ceasing operations due to low turnout and cancelled the team's final home game.\n\nFinal roster\n\nFinal roster\n\nThe last reported roster was on July 16, 2013.\n\nAll-league players\nFB Kendrick Perry (2)\nWR Jordan Rideaux (2)\nOL Roman Pritt\nDL John Paul Jones\nDB Damian Huren (2)\n\nSeason-by-season results\n\nExternal links\n Official website\n Southwest Louisiana Swashbucklers' 2005 stats\n Louisiana Swashbucklers' 2006 stats\n Louisiana Swashbucklers' 2007 stats\n Louisiana Swashbucklers' 2008 stats\n Louisiana Swashbucklers' 2009 stats\n Louisiana Swashbucklers' 2010 stats\n Louisiana Swashbucklers' 2011 stats\n\n \nAmerican football teams in Louisiana\n2005 establishments in Louisiana\n2013 disestablishments in Louisiana",
"The Lake Charles Land Sharks were an indoor football team. They were a charter member of the National Indoor Football League (NIFL). They played their home games at the Sudduth Coliseum in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Despite having pretty good success throughout their existence, the team folded after the 2004 season and were replaced by the Louisiana Swashbucklers.\n\nSeason-by-Season \n\n|-\n|2001 || 7 || 3 || 0 || 2nd South || Lost Round 1 (Ohio Valley) \n|-\n|2002 || 13 || 2 || 0 || 1st Atlantic South || Lost Round 1 (T. ThunderCats)\n|-\n|2003 || 13 || 3 || 0 || 1st Atlantic South || Won Round 1 (Houma Bayou Bucks)Lost AC Championship (Ohio Valley)\n|-\n|2004 || 7 || 7 || 0 || 4th Atlantic South || --\n|-\n!Totals || 41 || 18 || 0\n|colspan=\"2\"| (including playoffs)\n\nExternal links\n L.C. Land Sharks' 2001 Stats\n L.C. Land Sharks' 2002 Stats\n L.C. Land Sharks' 2003 Stats\n L.C. Land Sharks' 2004 Stats\n\nAmerican football teams in Louisiana\nNational Indoor Football League teams\nLand Sharks\nAmerican football teams established in 2000\nAmerican football teams disestablished in 2004\n2000 establishments in Louisiana\n2004 disestablishments in Louisiana"
]
|
[
"Tom Cousineau",
"College football career",
"Where did he attend college?",
"Ohio State University,",
"What were his stats there?",
"he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles"
]
| C_a4366f97d89441218ed9f1fea265a416_1 | How many years did he play there? | 3 | How many years did Tom Cousineau play at Ohio State University? | Tom Cousineau | Cousineau attended Ohio State University, where he played for legendary coach Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. During that span, Ohio State had an overall record of 36-10-2 and 28-4 in the Big Ten, were three-time Big Ten champs. The Buckeyes played four bowl games after each of the seasons he played: in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl. They were a Top 5 team for 36 weeks over these four years and the No. 1 team in the nation for eight weeks in 1975, and ultimately finished fourth, sixth and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively. Cousineau majored in marketing. It is rumored that he frequently ate Ken Boock's lunch while attending Ohio State. He was a consensus first-team All-American, breaking the school record with 211 tackles in a single season in 1978, an average of 17.5 a game. He also broke the school record for most tackles in a game with 29 against Penn State in 1978, and was the MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl. Cousineau's last game for the Buckeyes was the infamous 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, during which Coach Hayes punched Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the final minutes of the game. Hayes was fired the following day for the incident. Cousineau still holds many of Ohio State's tackling records. As of 2016, he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles (since tied by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Chris Spielman), most solo tackles in a single game, (16 against SMU in 1978). He also ranks second on both the all-time OSU tackle list with 569 (three behind Marcus Marek) and on the career solo tackles list with 259. He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. The Chicago Tribune named him the MVP of the Big Ten in 1978. He graduated from OSU in 1979. In 2016, he became the 25th Ohio State player, along with seven Buckeye coaches, to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame. CANNOTANSWER | Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. | Thomas Michael Cousineau (born May 6, 1957) is an American former college and professional football player who was a linebacker in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. He played college football for Ohio State University, and twice earned All-American honors. He was the first overall pick of the 1979 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the CFL's Montreal Alouettes and the NFL's Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers.
Cousineau is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, elected in the class of 2016. He is also a member of the Ohio State Varsity "O" Hall of Fame, inducted in 1995, and St. Edward High School Hall of Fame. Cousineau was the recipient of the Silver Anniversary Butkus Award in 2003.
Early years
Cousineau was born in Fairview Park, Ohio, to Carol and Tom Cousineau Sr, who was the head football and a wrestling coach at Lakewood (Ohio) High School. Consequently, his mother did not want him to play football under the shadow of his father. Thus, Cousineau played high school football for nearby St. Edward High School, which is several blocks away in Lakewood. He excelled and was one of the most highly recruited football players in the country in his senior year. He graduated in 1975.
Cousineau was also an accomplished wrestler. In 1975, under legendary coach Howard Ferguson, he lost to future NFL player Bob Golic from cross-town all-boys school rival St. Joseph High School in the Ohio state wrestling tournament semifinals in the heavyweight weight class. The match has been called "one of the most memorable," Golic would go on to win the state title and Cousineau would finish in third place. Golic would go to be two-time All-American at heavyweight at Notre Dame. Cousineau and Golic would eventually become teammates in the NFL with the Browns.
College football career
Cousineau attended Ohio State University, where he played for legendary coach Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. During that span, Ohio State had an overall record of 36-10-2 and 28–4 in the Big Ten, were three-time Big Ten champs. The Buckeyes played four bowl games after each of the seasons he played: in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl. They were a Top 5 team for 36 weeks over these four years and the No. 1 team in the nation for eight weeks in 1975, and ultimately finished fourth, sixth and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively.
Cousineau majored in marketing. He was a consensus first-team All-American, breaking the school record with 211 tackles in a single season in 1978, an average of 17.5 a game. He also broke the school record for most tackles in a game with 29 against Penn State in 1978, and was the MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl.
Cousineau's last game for the Buckeyes was the infamous 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, during which Coach Hayes punched Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the final minutes of the game. Hayes was fired the following day for the incident.
Cousineau still holds many of Ohio State's tackling records. As of 2016, he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles (since tied by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Chris Spielman), most solo tackles in a single game, (16 against SMU in 1978). He also ranks second on both the all-time OSU tackle list with 569 (three behind Marcus Marek) and on the career solo tackles list with 259.
He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. The Chicago Tribune named him the MVP of the Big Ten in 1978. He graduated from OSU in 1979. In 2016, he became the 25th Ohio State player, along with seven Buckeye coaches, to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Professional football career
Cousineau was drafted first overall in the 1979 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, who acquired the pick as a part of a package of five draft picks from the San Francisco 49ers in a 1978 trade for O. J. Simpson. However, he never played a game for the Bills. He instead signed with the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes, who signed him for double the money originally offered by the Bills. Cousineau became a star for the Alouettes, becoming the Grey Cup Most Valuable Player in the 1979 season. He only played in four games in his third season because of an elbow injury while the Alouettes collapsed.
In 1982, Cousineau wanted to return to the NFL, choosing to forego two optional years with the Alouettes. The Houston Oilers attempted to sign him, but the Bills (who still held Cousineau's NFL rights) matched the offer.
Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell had long been interested in signing him. Cousineau was then traded from the Bills to the Cleveland Browns for a first-round draft choice (14th overall) in the 1983 NFL Draft, plus a second and a third draft choice in subsequent years. That first-round pick was used on future Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly. Cousineau signed a five-year contract for $2.5 million, the highest contract ever at the time by the Browns.
In 1983, Cousineau was arrested in connection with minor collision with a police car on Saint Patrick's Day He was charged with drunk driving, improperly using traffic lanes, and not having his driver's license. He was subsequently found not guilty of the drunk driving charge, but guilty of the moving violation (the driver's license charge was dropped).
During Cousineau's four seasons with the Browns, he led the team in tackles for three seasons. In the 1983 season, he intercepted 4 passes and was named a 2nd-team All-NFL by the NEA. He was also named 2nd-team all NFL by the AP in 1984, but never made the Pro Bowl in his career. He was considered an overpaid disappointment in Cleveland, while Bills fans fondly remember the fact that the man who once snubbed them for the CFL was traded for Jim Kelly. Cousineau signed with the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent after the 1985 season where he played two years as a reserve before retiring in 1987. Cousineau finished his NFL career with ten interceptions and 6.5 career sacks.
After retiring as a player
St. Edward inducted Cousineau to the school's Athletic Hall of Fame.
He married Lisa June 16, 1990, and has 2 daughters Kyle and Kacey.
On February 8, 2006, Cousineau announced plans to run for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives as a Republican in the Akron, Ohio area. He won the May primary but lost the November election to Democrat Brian Williams by a margin of 58% to 42%.
On April 20, 2009, Cousineau joined the St. Vincent – St. Mary High School football coaching staff as a linebackers coach.
Cousineau later went on to be the linebackers coach at St. Edward High School (Ohio)
References
External links
Ohio State bio
NFL bio
1957 births
Living people
All-American college football players
American football linebackers
Canadian football linebackers
Cleveland Browns players
National Football League first overall draft picks
Montreal Alouettes players
Ohio State Buckeyes football players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Players of Canadian football from Cleveland
San Francisco 49ers players
St. Edward High School (Lakewood, Ohio) alumni
National Football League replacement players
Players of American football from Cleveland | true | [
"Pasi Hyvärinen (born 22 November 1987) is a volleyball player from Finland. He has played for Muuramen Lentopallo and Keski-Savon Pateri in the Finnish Championship league. For Season 2010–2011 he joined the GFCO Ajaccio team in French Ligue A. Hyvärinen is a member of Finland men's national volleyball team.\n\nCareer \n\nHyvärinen started his career in Varkaus. When he was Sixteen years old, he moved to Kuortane and attended to a high school specialised to sports. That year he also started to train with Finnish national juniors. He only lived and played in Kuortane for one year, before moving back to Varkaus where he started to play in Keski-Savon Pateri. Hyvärinen played two seasons for Pateri. After these two seasons he signed a contract with Muuramen Lentopallo. He play for Muurle in seasons 2008–2010.\n\nAfter season 2010 Hyvärinen said that he does not want anymore play in Muurle, because he did not like the clubs acting. Many fans were afraid of that Hyvärinen ends his career and it was close. Hyvärinen started play badminton and he joined in the few tournaments. Likely he got contract from France and played great season in France league.\n\nSeason 2011–12 Hyvärinen did not get a contract to foreign team. He did not play in open season but after many months he made contract in 1. division team Kyyjärven Kyky which is playing the second highest level in Finnish league. Hyvärinen plays as wing spiker in KyKy.\n\nNational team \n\nHyvärinen plays also for Finland national team. His rise to the national team was a sum of many things. Team Finlands coach Mauro Berruto did not invite him to the camp of the National team in Kuortane. When national team was training in Kuortane, Hyvärinen was also in there because he was in search for sport director school in Kuortane. Hyvärinen heard that the national team was training there, so he decide to call coach Berruto and asked from him is it was possible to start training with the team. Berruto accepted the proposition and Hyvärinen came to trainings. After the first time he attended in the team training, Berruto was really excited about his natural talent. He wanted him to the team full-time, and that was how his National career started.\n\nHyvärinen's first appearance in a Finnish national team was against Bulgaria World League 2008. He was the best player of the game. After that media was highly excited about him and praised Hyvärinen to be a sensation. Pasi played for the team last six World League games, and Finland won four from those. He had the best reception in the whole World League.\n\nBeach volley \n\nPasi Hyvärinen has also played actively beach volley for many years. His best result in beach volley is U-19 European Championships 5th place. His other achievements are 9th place in U-21 European Championships and 9th place in U-23 European Championships. In those competitions Hyvärinen was a few years younger than most other players. He has also won silver and bronze in Finnish Championships respectively in 2007 and 2006.\n\nAchievements\n\nPersonal \n Best reception in World League 2008\n Finland national team\n Finland juniors Champion 2007, 2008\n\nBeach volley \n U-19 European Championships 5. place\n U-21 European Championships 9. place\n U-23 European Championships 9. place\n Finland Pro-Tour silver 2006\n Finland Pro-Tour bronze 2007\n\nTeams \n 2005–2007 Keski-Savon Pateri\n 2007–2010 Muuramen Lentopallo\n 2010–2011 GFCO Ajaccio\n\nReferences\n\n1987 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Varkaus\nFinnish men's volleyball players",
"\"How Many\" is the lead single from the motion picture soundtrack for the film Circuit. It was released on December 3, 2002, and was Taylor Dayne's last single for five years, until the 2007 release of \"Beautiful\".\n\nCharts\nThe song peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.\n\nCD maxi single track listing\nDisc 1\n \"How Many\" (original version)\n \"How Many\" (Big Bang Radio Edit)\n \"How Many\" (Guido Osorio Club Mix)\n \"How Many\" (Lifestylus Deep and Heavy)\n \"How Many\" (Fiburn and Urik Club Mix)\n \"How Many\" (Menergy's Sound Factory Vox Dub)\n \"How Many\" (Guido Osorio Dub)\n \"How Many\" (Friburn and Urik Dub)\n \"How Many\" (Lifestylus Dub)\n \"How Many\" (K-Pable Mix)\n\nDisc 2\n \"How Many\" (Vibelicious Radio Edit)\n \"How Many\" (DJ Manolo and Gene Therapy Mix)\n \"How Many\" (Big Bang Mix)\n \"How Many\" (Bet Boyz Vocal Dub)\n \"How Many\" (Dj's Inc. Mix)\n \"How Many\" (Nocturnal Minds Mix)\n \"How Many\" (Vibelicious Anthem Mix)\n \"How Many\" (Wes Wallace Dub)\n \"How Many\" (Eddie X and Spiritual Being Mix)\n \"How Many\" (the Larry K Classic Club Mix)\n\nReferences \n\n2002 singles\nTaylor Dayne songs\nSongs written by Tony Moran\nSongs written by Harriet (singer)"
]
|
[
"Tom Cousineau",
"College football career",
"Where did he attend college?",
"Ohio State University,",
"What were his stats there?",
"he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles",
"How many years did he play there?",
"Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978."
]
| C_a4366f97d89441218ed9f1fea265a416_1 | What awards did he win? | 4 | What awards did Tom Cousineau win? | Tom Cousineau | Cousineau attended Ohio State University, where he played for legendary coach Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. During that span, Ohio State had an overall record of 36-10-2 and 28-4 in the Big Ten, were three-time Big Ten champs. The Buckeyes played four bowl games after each of the seasons he played: in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl. They were a Top 5 team for 36 weeks over these four years and the No. 1 team in the nation for eight weeks in 1975, and ultimately finished fourth, sixth and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively. Cousineau majored in marketing. It is rumored that he frequently ate Ken Boock's lunch while attending Ohio State. He was a consensus first-team All-American, breaking the school record with 211 tackles in a single season in 1978, an average of 17.5 a game. He also broke the school record for most tackles in a game with 29 against Penn State in 1978, and was the MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl. Cousineau's last game for the Buckeyes was the infamous 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, during which Coach Hayes punched Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the final minutes of the game. Hayes was fired the following day for the incident. Cousineau still holds many of Ohio State's tackling records. As of 2016, he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles (since tied by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Chris Spielman), most solo tackles in a single game, (16 against SMU in 1978). He also ranks second on both the all-time OSU tackle list with 569 (three behind Marcus Marek) and on the career solo tackles list with 259. He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. The Chicago Tribune named him the MVP of the Big Ten in 1978. He graduated from OSU in 1979. In 2016, he became the 25th Ohio State player, along with seven Buckeye coaches, to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame. CANNOTANSWER | He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. | Thomas Michael Cousineau (born May 6, 1957) is an American former college and professional football player who was a linebacker in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. He played college football for Ohio State University, and twice earned All-American honors. He was the first overall pick of the 1979 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the CFL's Montreal Alouettes and the NFL's Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers.
Cousineau is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, elected in the class of 2016. He is also a member of the Ohio State Varsity "O" Hall of Fame, inducted in 1995, and St. Edward High School Hall of Fame. Cousineau was the recipient of the Silver Anniversary Butkus Award in 2003.
Early years
Cousineau was born in Fairview Park, Ohio, to Carol and Tom Cousineau Sr, who was the head football and a wrestling coach at Lakewood (Ohio) High School. Consequently, his mother did not want him to play football under the shadow of his father. Thus, Cousineau played high school football for nearby St. Edward High School, which is several blocks away in Lakewood. He excelled and was one of the most highly recruited football players in the country in his senior year. He graduated in 1975.
Cousineau was also an accomplished wrestler. In 1975, under legendary coach Howard Ferguson, he lost to future NFL player Bob Golic from cross-town all-boys school rival St. Joseph High School in the Ohio state wrestling tournament semifinals in the heavyweight weight class. The match has been called "one of the most memorable," Golic would go on to win the state title and Cousineau would finish in third place. Golic would go to be two-time All-American at heavyweight at Notre Dame. Cousineau and Golic would eventually become teammates in the NFL with the Browns.
College football career
Cousineau attended Ohio State University, where he played for legendary coach Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. During that span, Ohio State had an overall record of 36-10-2 and 28–4 in the Big Ten, were three-time Big Ten champs. The Buckeyes played four bowl games after each of the seasons he played: in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl. They were a Top 5 team for 36 weeks over these four years and the No. 1 team in the nation for eight weeks in 1975, and ultimately finished fourth, sixth and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively.
Cousineau majored in marketing. He was a consensus first-team All-American, breaking the school record with 211 tackles in a single season in 1978, an average of 17.5 a game. He also broke the school record for most tackles in a game with 29 against Penn State in 1978, and was the MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl.
Cousineau's last game for the Buckeyes was the infamous 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, during which Coach Hayes punched Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the final minutes of the game. Hayes was fired the following day for the incident.
Cousineau still holds many of Ohio State's tackling records. As of 2016, he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles (since tied by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Chris Spielman), most solo tackles in a single game, (16 against SMU in 1978). He also ranks second on both the all-time OSU tackle list with 569 (three behind Marcus Marek) and on the career solo tackles list with 259.
He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. The Chicago Tribune named him the MVP of the Big Ten in 1978. He graduated from OSU in 1979. In 2016, he became the 25th Ohio State player, along with seven Buckeye coaches, to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Professional football career
Cousineau was drafted first overall in the 1979 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, who acquired the pick as a part of a package of five draft picks from the San Francisco 49ers in a 1978 trade for O. J. Simpson. However, he never played a game for the Bills. He instead signed with the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes, who signed him for double the money originally offered by the Bills. Cousineau became a star for the Alouettes, becoming the Grey Cup Most Valuable Player in the 1979 season. He only played in four games in his third season because of an elbow injury while the Alouettes collapsed.
In 1982, Cousineau wanted to return to the NFL, choosing to forego two optional years with the Alouettes. The Houston Oilers attempted to sign him, but the Bills (who still held Cousineau's NFL rights) matched the offer.
Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell had long been interested in signing him. Cousineau was then traded from the Bills to the Cleveland Browns for a first-round draft choice (14th overall) in the 1983 NFL Draft, plus a second and a third draft choice in subsequent years. That first-round pick was used on future Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly. Cousineau signed a five-year contract for $2.5 million, the highest contract ever at the time by the Browns.
In 1983, Cousineau was arrested in connection with minor collision with a police car on Saint Patrick's Day He was charged with drunk driving, improperly using traffic lanes, and not having his driver's license. He was subsequently found not guilty of the drunk driving charge, but guilty of the moving violation (the driver's license charge was dropped).
During Cousineau's four seasons with the Browns, he led the team in tackles for three seasons. In the 1983 season, he intercepted 4 passes and was named a 2nd-team All-NFL by the NEA. He was also named 2nd-team all NFL by the AP in 1984, but never made the Pro Bowl in his career. He was considered an overpaid disappointment in Cleveland, while Bills fans fondly remember the fact that the man who once snubbed them for the CFL was traded for Jim Kelly. Cousineau signed with the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent after the 1985 season where he played two years as a reserve before retiring in 1987. Cousineau finished his NFL career with ten interceptions and 6.5 career sacks.
After retiring as a player
St. Edward inducted Cousineau to the school's Athletic Hall of Fame.
He married Lisa June 16, 1990, and has 2 daughters Kyle and Kacey.
On February 8, 2006, Cousineau announced plans to run for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives as a Republican in the Akron, Ohio area. He won the May primary but lost the November election to Democrat Brian Williams by a margin of 58% to 42%.
On April 20, 2009, Cousineau joined the St. Vincent – St. Mary High School football coaching staff as a linebackers coach.
Cousineau later went on to be the linebackers coach at St. Edward High School (Ohio)
References
External links
Ohio State bio
NFL bio
1957 births
Living people
All-American college football players
American football linebackers
Canadian football linebackers
Cleveland Browns players
National Football League first overall draft picks
Montreal Alouettes players
Ohio State Buckeyes football players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Players of Canadian football from Cleveland
San Francisco 49ers players
St. Edward High School (Lakewood, Ohio) alumni
National Football League replacement players
Players of American football from Cleveland | true | [
"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",
"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"
]
|
[
"Tom Cousineau",
"College football career",
"Where did he attend college?",
"Ohio State University,",
"What were his stats there?",
"he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles",
"How many years did he play there?",
"Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978.",
"What awards did he win?",
"He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978."
]
| C_a4366f97d89441218ed9f1fea265a416_1 | What was his major? | 5 | What was Tom Cousineau major? | Tom Cousineau | Cousineau attended Ohio State University, where he played for legendary coach Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. During that span, Ohio State had an overall record of 36-10-2 and 28-4 in the Big Ten, were three-time Big Ten champs. The Buckeyes played four bowl games after each of the seasons he played: in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl. They were a Top 5 team for 36 weeks over these four years and the No. 1 team in the nation for eight weeks in 1975, and ultimately finished fourth, sixth and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively. Cousineau majored in marketing. It is rumored that he frequently ate Ken Boock's lunch while attending Ohio State. He was a consensus first-team All-American, breaking the school record with 211 tackles in a single season in 1978, an average of 17.5 a game. He also broke the school record for most tackles in a game with 29 against Penn State in 1978, and was the MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl. Cousineau's last game for the Buckeyes was the infamous 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, during which Coach Hayes punched Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the final minutes of the game. Hayes was fired the following day for the incident. Cousineau still holds many of Ohio State's tackling records. As of 2016, he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles (since tied by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Chris Spielman), most solo tackles in a single game, (16 against SMU in 1978). He also ranks second on both the all-time OSU tackle list with 569 (three behind Marcus Marek) and on the career solo tackles list with 259. He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. The Chicago Tribune named him the MVP of the Big Ten in 1978. He graduated from OSU in 1979. In 2016, he became the 25th Ohio State player, along with seven Buckeye coaches, to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame. CANNOTANSWER | Cousineau majored in marketing. | Thomas Michael Cousineau (born May 6, 1957) is an American former college and professional football player who was a linebacker in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. He played college football for Ohio State University, and twice earned All-American honors. He was the first overall pick of the 1979 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the CFL's Montreal Alouettes and the NFL's Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers.
Cousineau is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, elected in the class of 2016. He is also a member of the Ohio State Varsity "O" Hall of Fame, inducted in 1995, and St. Edward High School Hall of Fame. Cousineau was the recipient of the Silver Anniversary Butkus Award in 2003.
Early years
Cousineau was born in Fairview Park, Ohio, to Carol and Tom Cousineau Sr, who was the head football and a wrestling coach at Lakewood (Ohio) High School. Consequently, his mother did not want him to play football under the shadow of his father. Thus, Cousineau played high school football for nearby St. Edward High School, which is several blocks away in Lakewood. He excelled and was one of the most highly recruited football players in the country in his senior year. He graduated in 1975.
Cousineau was also an accomplished wrestler. In 1975, under legendary coach Howard Ferguson, he lost to future NFL player Bob Golic from cross-town all-boys school rival St. Joseph High School in the Ohio state wrestling tournament semifinals in the heavyweight weight class. The match has been called "one of the most memorable," Golic would go on to win the state title and Cousineau would finish in third place. Golic would go to be two-time All-American at heavyweight at Notre Dame. Cousineau and Golic would eventually become teammates in the NFL with the Browns.
College football career
Cousineau attended Ohio State University, where he played for legendary coach Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes football team from 1975 to 1978. During that span, Ohio State had an overall record of 36-10-2 and 28–4 in the Big Ten, were three-time Big Ten champs. The Buckeyes played four bowl games after each of the seasons he played: in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl. They were a Top 5 team for 36 weeks over these four years and the No. 1 team in the nation for eight weeks in 1975, and ultimately finished fourth, sixth and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively.
Cousineau majored in marketing. He was a consensus first-team All-American, breaking the school record with 211 tackles in a single season in 1978, an average of 17.5 a game. He also broke the school record for most tackles in a game with 29 against Penn State in 1978, and was the MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl.
Cousineau's last game for the Buckeyes was the infamous 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, during which Coach Hayes punched Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the final minutes of the game. Hayes was fired the following day for the incident.
Cousineau still holds many of Ohio State's tackling records. As of 2016, he holds six of the top 10 single-game tackling records, 29 single-game tackles (since tied by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Chris Spielman), most solo tackles in a single game, (16 against SMU in 1978). He also ranks second on both the all-time OSU tackle list with 569 (three behind Marcus Marek) and on the career solo tackles list with 259.
He was named an All-American in 1977 and 1978. The Chicago Tribune named him the MVP of the Big Ten in 1978. He graduated from OSU in 1979. In 2016, he became the 25th Ohio State player, along with seven Buckeye coaches, to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Professional football career
Cousineau was drafted first overall in the 1979 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, who acquired the pick as a part of a package of five draft picks from the San Francisco 49ers in a 1978 trade for O. J. Simpson. However, he never played a game for the Bills. He instead signed with the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes, who signed him for double the money originally offered by the Bills. Cousineau became a star for the Alouettes, becoming the Grey Cup Most Valuable Player in the 1979 season. He only played in four games in his third season because of an elbow injury while the Alouettes collapsed.
In 1982, Cousineau wanted to return to the NFL, choosing to forego two optional years with the Alouettes. The Houston Oilers attempted to sign him, but the Bills (who still held Cousineau's NFL rights) matched the offer.
Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell had long been interested in signing him. Cousineau was then traded from the Bills to the Cleveland Browns for a first-round draft choice (14th overall) in the 1983 NFL Draft, plus a second and a third draft choice in subsequent years. That first-round pick was used on future Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly. Cousineau signed a five-year contract for $2.5 million, the highest contract ever at the time by the Browns.
In 1983, Cousineau was arrested in connection with minor collision with a police car on Saint Patrick's Day He was charged with drunk driving, improperly using traffic lanes, and not having his driver's license. He was subsequently found not guilty of the drunk driving charge, but guilty of the moving violation (the driver's license charge was dropped).
During Cousineau's four seasons with the Browns, he led the team in tackles for three seasons. In the 1983 season, he intercepted 4 passes and was named a 2nd-team All-NFL by the NEA. He was also named 2nd-team all NFL by the AP in 1984, but never made the Pro Bowl in his career. He was considered an overpaid disappointment in Cleveland, while Bills fans fondly remember the fact that the man who once snubbed them for the CFL was traded for Jim Kelly. Cousineau signed with the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent after the 1985 season where he played two years as a reserve before retiring in 1987. Cousineau finished his NFL career with ten interceptions and 6.5 career sacks.
After retiring as a player
St. Edward inducted Cousineau to the school's Athletic Hall of Fame.
He married Lisa June 16, 1990, and has 2 daughters Kyle and Kacey.
On February 8, 2006, Cousineau announced plans to run for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives as a Republican in the Akron, Ohio area. He won the May primary but lost the November election to Democrat Brian Williams by a margin of 58% to 42%.
On April 20, 2009, Cousineau joined the St. Vincent – St. Mary High School football coaching staff as a linebackers coach.
Cousineau later went on to be the linebackers coach at St. Edward High School (Ohio)
References
External links
Ohio State bio
NFL bio
1957 births
Living people
All-American college football players
American football linebackers
Canadian football linebackers
Cleveland Browns players
National Football League first overall draft picks
Montreal Alouettes players
Ohio State Buckeyes football players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Players of Canadian football from Cleveland
San Francisco 49ers players
St. Edward High School (Lakewood, Ohio) alumni
National Football League replacement players
Players of American football from Cleveland | true | [
"Michael Joseph Estabrook (born July 28, 1976) is an American Major League Baseball umpire. He made his first umpiring appearance at the Major League level on May 7, 2006. Estabrook wears uniform number 83. It was announced on January 14, 2014, that Estabrook was added to the full-time MLB Umpire staff.\n\nUmpiring career \nIn , Estabrook ejected Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost from a game after Estabrook had confronted Royals catcher Jason Kendall. Later, Yost was quoted as saying, \"I'll never let an umpire show up one of my players, and that's exactly what he was doing.\" Kendall stated, \"He got in my face, and it was unprofessional what he did.\"\n\nEstabrook was officially hired to the full-time MLB staff prior to the 2014 season.\n\nEstabrook worked his first career MLB Playoff game in left field on October 7, 2015, between the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates.\n\nSee also \n\n List of Major League Baseball umpires\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nRetrosheet\nClose Call Sports\n\n1976 births\nLiving people\nMajor League Baseball umpires\nSportspeople from Daytona Beach, Florida",
"What's New?\" is a 1939 popular song composed by Bob Haggart, with lyrics by Johnny Burke.\nIt was originally an instrumental tune titled \"I'm Free\" by Haggart in 1938, when Haggart was a member of Bob Crosby and His Orchestra. The tune was written with a trumpet solo, meant to showcase the talents of band-mate Billy Butterfield. Crosby's orchestra recorded \"I'm Free\" the same day it was written.\n\nThe following year, the music publishers hired Johnny Burke to write lyrics for the tune. Burke's telling of the torch song is unique, using one side of a casual conversation between former lovers. Thus the song was retitled using the song's first line, \"What's New?\". The song was recorded with the new title in 1939 by Bob Crosby and His Orchestra with vocalist Teddy Grace. The song reached a peak chart position of #10.\n\nBing Crosby recorded the song on June 30, 1939 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and this was the biggest hit recording of the song, peaking at #2 during a 10-week stay in the charts. Other popular 1939 recordings of \"What's New\" include Hal Kemp and His Orchestra with vocalist Nan Wynn, which peaked at #11, Benny Goodman and His Orchestra with vocalist Louise Tobin, which peaked at #7. Dexter Gordon regularly performed the song in the 1950s and 1960s.\n\n\"I'm Free\" was \"lyricized\" again in the 1990s, this time by Catherine O'Brien, who also provided lyrics to the Haggart tune \"My Inspiration.\" O'Brien's version, published in 1996, retains the original title, \"I'm Free.\"\n\nComposition and structure\nThe song is in the form A1 – A1– A2 - A1. It was originally written in the key of C major and modulates to A flat major and then F major to D-flat major for the bridge section before modulating back to C major. It begins on the tonic major, C major 7 before moving to a flat VII (B flat minor 7) in a II-V-I cadence in the key of A-flat major. That is replicated in the bridge section, going from F major 7 to E-flat minor 7 as part of a II-V-I cadence in the key of D-flat major.\n\nLinda Ronstadt recording\n\"What's New\" was the title track of a Triple Platinum 1983 album by Linda Ronstadt, one of three recordings she released backed by The Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Linda's earnest version of the song, released as the album's first single, reached the Top 40 of the Cash Box Top 100 chart and peaked at #53 on the Billboard Hot 100. It achieved far greater success at Adult Contemporary radio, where it spent several weeks in the Top Five.\n\nChart performance\n\nOther notable recordings\n Louis Armstrong – Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson (1957)\n John Coltrane – Ballads (1963)\n Larry Coryell – Cedars of Avalon (2002)\n Bob Crosby – \"I'm Free\" – 1938\n Ella Fitzgerald – Like Someone In Love (1957) \n Dexter Gordon – Our Man in Amsterdam (1969)\n Billie Holiday – Velvet Mood (1956)\n Helen Merrill – Helen Merrill (1954) \nFrank Sinatra – Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958)\nGolden Gate Quartet (1939)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\"What's New?\" at Jazz Standards\n\n1938 songs\n1939 songs\n1930s jazz standards\nSongs with music by Bob Haggart\nSongs with lyrics by Johnny Burke (lyricist)\nBenny Goodman songs\nAl Hirt songs\nGrammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)\nJazz compositions in C major\nSongs composed in C major"
]
|
[
"Slipknot (band)",
"Image and identities"
]
| C_f31f0e7d00714137ad76b19336e378be_0 | what was their image? | 1 | what was the Slipknot (band) image? | Slipknot (band) | The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits--while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray. The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'". During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George. The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask", which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are. CANNOTANSWER | attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits | Slipknot is an American heavy metal band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Gray died on May 24, 2010, and was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison was dismissed from the band on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Fehn was also dismissed from the band in March 2019 prior to the writing of We Are Not Your Kind.
Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows. The band rapidly rose to fame following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album, Iowa, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. Their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, was released on August 9, 2019. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, and five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
History
Background (1991-1995)
In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera. Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, and Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni later took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan often went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth, writing and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot"; another was titled "Painface", which Colsefni later used to name his band Painface.
In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed occasionally with this group. Brainard eventually left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of '93 and early in '94. During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed a death metal band called Body Pit, soon becoming popular in the local scene. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up.
In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started a band named the Pale Ones. The lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer, moving Crahan to percussion. Furthermore, Colsefni also took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist. The band then decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut; playing a benefit show using the name Meld.
Demo recording and beginnings (1995–1998)
Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray, Crahan and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights. It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at SR Audio, a studio in the band's hometown. As they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: "(he) was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons...I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist. After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996.
Distribution for the demo was initially left to the band and their producer Sean McMahon, before it was handed over to the distribution company -ismist Recordings in early 1997. Slipknot received a small amount of airplay on local radio stations off the back of the demo. However, it did not lead to any kind of interest from record labels, so the band returned to the studio to develop new material. It was at this time that the band sought more melodic vocals for their music. As a result, Corey Taylor was recruited from fellow Des Moines band Stone Sour; this moved Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion. While working in the studio, Slipknot continued to do local shows, during one of which in September 1997, Colsefni announced on stage that he was leaving the band. The gap on percussion was filled by Greg Welts, who was affectionately known as "Cuddles". In early 1998, Slipknot produced a second demo featuring five tracks exclusively for record labels. The band began to receive a lot of attention from record labels, and in February 1998, producer Ross Robinson offered to produce their debut album after attending rehearsals in Des Moines. Soon after, DJ Sid Wilson was recruited as the band's ninth member after showing great interest and impressing band members. In late June, Slipknot received a $500,000, seven-album deal, from Roadrunner Records; the band signed the deal publicly on July 8, 1998. Two days prior to this, Welts was fired from the band, something which Slipknot refuse to comment on. Welts was replaced by Brandon Darner, who departed from the band shortly after joining.
Self-titled album and emergence (1998–2000)
Chris Fehn was brought in to replace Darner on percussion before Slipknot traveled to Malibu, California, to work on their debut album in September 1998. Partway through the recording process of the album, Slipknot returned to Des Moines for the Christmas period. During that period, guitarist Brainard decided to leave the band. Brainard said, "some decisions were made that I wasn't particularly happy with". Slipknot later recruited Jim Root to complete their lineup and the band returned to Malibu to continue work on the album. Work on the album concluded in early 1999, allowing the band to go on their first tour as part of the Ozzfest lineup in 1999. Ozzfest greatly increased Slipknot's audience, furthering the band's success with their self-titled album that was released on June 29, 1999. Slipknot released its first home video Welcome to Our Neighborhood, which was directed by Thomas Mignone, and the singles "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out", which were also directed by Mignone. The singles received some airplay, but Slipknot quickly developed a large following, mainly from touring and word of mouth. The band toured several countries throughout 1999 and 2000 in support of the album. In early 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; a first for an album released by Roadrunner Records.
Iowa (2001–2003)
Anticipation for Slipknot's second album was intense. In early 2001, the band began recording the second album at Sound City and Sound Image studios in Los Angeles. Around this time, conflicts arose between band members due to extensive touring and recording schedules. Recording of their second album ended in February 2001 and the band embarked on their Iowa World Tour. Entitled Iowa, Slipknot's second album—released on August 28, 2001—peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and at number one in the UK. The album produced three singles; "The Heretic Anthem" (promotional single), "Left Behind" and "My Plague", which appeared on the soundtrack for the film Resident Evil. In 2002, Slipknot appeared in Rollerball (2002), performing "I Am Hated". The release and intense promotion of the album resulted in sold-out shows in large arenas in several countries.
In mid-2002, Slipknot went on hiatus because of internal conflicts, and band members focused on side projects. Vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Jordison created Murderdolls with vocalist Wednesday 13, percussionist Crahan founded To My Surprise and DJ Wilson went solo as DJ Starscream. For a while, the future of Slipknot was uncertain and there was much speculation about whether there would be a third album, or if the split would become permanent. "I don't have a problem with anyone in Slipknot," Jordison protested. "I've seen comments from Corey saying there are things to be resolved, but I have no fucking idea what he's talking about."
Nonetheless, on November 22, 2002, Slipknot released their second DVD, Disasterpieces.
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2003–2007)
After several delays, Slipknot moved into The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, in mid-2003 to work on their third album alongside producer Rick Rubin. By early 2004, work on the album had finished and the band began The Subliminal Verses World Tour with their appearance on the Jägermeister Music Tour in March 2004. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released on May 24, 2004; it peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts. The album produced six singles; "Duality", "Vermilion", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "Before I Forget", "The Nameless", and The Blister Exists. Slipknot recorded its first live album, 9.0: Live, while touring in support of the band's third album. Released on November 1, 2005 9.0: Live peaked at number 17 on the Billboard album charts. Touring in support of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) continued through 2004 and up to the end of 2005 before Slipknot went on hiatus for the second time.
In 2005, several members of Slipknot were involved in Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions, a collaborative album recorded by artists signed to Roadrunner Records for the label's 25th anniversary. 2006 saw Slipknot win their first Grammy Award, picking up the Best Metal Performance award for the single "Before I Forget". The single went on to be featured on the set list of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On December 5, 2006, Slipknot released its third DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine. While Slipknot was on hiatus, several band members again focused their attentions on side projects; vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root returned to Stone Sour, drummer Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches of Blood's third album Fire Up the Blades, Crahan founded Dirty Little Rabbits and Wilson returned as DJ Starscream once again.
All Hope Is Gone and Gray's death (2008–2010)
Preparation for Slipknot's fourth album began towards the end of 2007; work began at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman in February 2008. The album was finished in June, and the band went on the All Hope Is Gone World Tour on July 9, 2008. Slipknot's fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released on August 20, 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard albums chart. The album produced five singles; "All Hope Is Gone", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Sulfur" and "Snuff". 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of Slipknot's debut album; to commemorate the event, the band released a special-edition version of Slipknot on September 9, 2009. The band toured in support of the album throughout 2008 and continued until October 31, 2009, resulting in Slipknot's third hiatus.
During the hiatus, several band members focused on respective side projects; Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band and returned to Stone Sour with guitarist Root; Crahan continued working with his band Dirty Little Rabbits; and drummer Jordison returned with his band Murderdolls and became the new permanent drummer of Rob Zombie. Meanwhile, percussionist Fehn became a full-time bassist with metalcore band Will Haven and Sid Wilson founded the eponymous band Sid.
In 2010, Gray was planning to tour with the supergroup, Hail!, but on May 24, 2010, he was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room. Circumstances surrounding his death at the time were not immediately known; an autopsy suspected his death was not intentional but did not reveal the cause. The day after his death, the remaining eight members of the band held a live, unmasked, press conference alongside Gray's widow and brother. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl.
The band was hesitant to comment on the future of Slipknot. The members made conflicting statements in interviews; drummer Jordison told The Pulse of Radio "there is another Slipknot record already kinda in the making". Vocalist Taylor told FMQB Productions he was "very conflicted about whether or not [he wants] to do anything with Slipknot". The band released their fourth video album (sic)nesses on September 28, 2010; it debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD features Slipknot's entire live performance at the 2009 Download Festival and a 45-minute film documenting their tour in support of All Hope Is Gone, and served as a tribute to Paul Gray.
Return to the stage, Antennas to Hell and Knotfest (2011–2012)
Regarding the continuation of Slipknot, Taylor told NME Gray would want them to continue and he felt they should but he was ambivalent about returning to the band. Slipknot returned to touring in 2011, performing a small number of shows in Europe. They headlined the Sonisphere Festival and Rock in Rio alongside Iron Maiden and Metallica, and performed at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting. Donnie Steele substituted for Gray in the concerts; he was positioned behind Jordison and obscured from the audience's view.
Slipknot also said the band would complete and release the band's fifth studio album, and that there were no plans to replace Gray. Jordison said the writing process for the album had already begun and that he had written 17 songs.
Slipknot performed at the Mayhem Festival tour of 2012.
On May 29, 2012, Roadrunner Records posted a teaser video titled Antennas to Hell on its website. Later that day, on Twitter, Corey Taylor said Slipknot will release a greatest hits album on June 17, 2012. He also said the band was not yet recording new material but was putting together demos for a new album.
Slipknot's first annual music festival, called Knotfest, was held on August 17, 2012, at Mid-America Motorplex near Pacific Junction, Iowa, and on August 18, 2012, in Somerset, Wisconsin. Deftones, Lamb of God, and Serj Tankian also performed at the festival. The festival shows also debuted a Slipknot museum. On 14, June 2013, Slipknot headlined the Download Festival for a second time. The band performed to roughly 90,000 people and was twice forced to stop the set—once in the middle of a song—to allow the front barricade, which had split open under crowd pressure, to be repaired.
Jordison's departure, .5: The Gray Chapter, and new members (2013–2016)
Production of the band's fifth album began in late 2013. Taylor described the album as "very dark" and a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Guitarist Jim Root did not participate in Stone Sour's January tour so he could write material for Slipknot.
On December 12, 2013, the band announced through its official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after 18 years, citing personal reasons. On his official Facebook page, Jordison later said he "did not quit Slipknot" and that he was "shocked" and "blindsided" by the news. Both Jordison and Slipknot independently promised to release further details about the split. Taylor said Jordison would not be appearing on the new album because he did not participate in any songwriting sessions before his departure. After years of both sides being silent and evasive as to the reasons for his leaving the band, Jordison revealed in June 2016 that he suffered from Transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that cost him the ability to play the drums toward the end of his time with Slipknot. However, Jordison played drums in the blackened death metal act Sinsaenum, which he joined in 2016.
In July 2014, Slipknot began releasing teasers for the new album on the band's website and social media using cryptic messages and gory imagery. "The Negative One", the band's first song in six years, was released on August 1; it was accompanied by a music video directed by Crahan that was released four days later. The video did not feature any band members. On August 24, Slipknot released an official radio single titled "The Devil In I", and the name of the upcoming album was announced as .5: The Gray Chapter on iTunes, with an expected release date of October 28. The release was later preponed to October 17 for the Netherlands and Australia, October 20 for the UK and October 21 worldwide. "The Negative One" was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support. The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia. A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively; Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.
Taylor later said he was upset at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band. On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.
On March 11, 2015, while the band was not touring, guitarist Mick Thomson was hospitalized after a drunken knife fight with his brother at Thomson's home in Iowa. The pair sustained serious, but non life-threatening, injuries. On August 2, 2015, during a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, the band was forced to stop performing after Venturella was suddenly rushed to hospital, after undergoing a medical emergency. After 20 minutes, singer Taylor told the audience the band would continue the concert, performing without Venturella. It was later discovered that Venturella had collapsed because of extreme dehydration.
On September 25, 2016, the band performed at their annual festival Knotfest, which was altered to include Ozzfest this year. They performed the Iowa album in its entirety. In the meanwhile, Crahan made his directorial debut with the feature film Officer Downe, based on a graphic novel of the same name and starring actor Kim Coates. In November 2016, Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that he and fellow guitarist Jim Root would be teaming up in February 2017 to begin writing new material for a new Slipknot album because "we want to write."
We Are Not Your Kind (2017–2020)
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor regrouped with his other band Stone Sour in 2017, and they released their album Hydrograd on June 30. Talking about his first work in cinema and the other Slipknot members' plans, in an interview with WRIF's Meltdown, Crahan revealed that "we're beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. We have songs that we've written that are amazing." In December 2017, Crahan appeared on The Jasta Show podcast, where he stated that the next Slipknot album could be his last with the band.
Corey Taylor revealed in October 2018 that the band would enter the studio in early 2019, with a targeted release for their sixth album that same year, followed by a world tour. On October 31, the single "All Out Life" was released, as was an accompanying music video. On March 4, 2019, the band announced that the release date for the next album would be August 9, 2019 and that they would be embarking on the Knotfest Roadshow along with support by Gojira, Volbeat, and Behemoth to support the album. On March 7, Slipknot were revealed to be the opening act for Metallica's six WorldWired Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand from October 17 through October 31.
On March 14, 2019, Chris Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band citing withheld payments. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of setting up several band-related business entities, in different states, that collect money from the band. Fehn called for full forensic accounting to be done on all of the band's companies and assets in order to collect any profits and damages he may be owed. On that same day, Taylor responded via Twitter with a tweet stating, "You're gonna read a lot of bullshit today. This is all I'll say. JUST YOU WAIT TIL THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Long Live The Knot". On March 18, 2019, the band officially announced, via their website, that Chris Fehn was no longer a member of the band, stating, "Slipknot's focus is on making album #6, and our upcoming shows around the world, our best ever. Chris knows why he is no longer a part of Slipknot. We are disappointed that he chose to point fingers and manufacture claims, rather than doing what was necessary to continue to be a part of Slipknot. We would have preferred he not take the path that he has, but evolution in all things is a necessary part of this life. Long Live The Knot". However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing. By May 2019, Fehn's employment status with the band had apparently changed, as evident by his missing name on the band's Instagram posts for their new masks. He was replaced by a percussionist, whose identity is concealed, who the fans have dubbed "Tortilla Man". Loudwire has reported that fans have linked his identity as Michael Pfaff, a former member of Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits. The band themselves have not confirmed this claim.
On May 13, 2019, the band teased something was coming on May 16, ahead of their performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as screenshots of their new masks. On that day, the album's title was revealed to be We Are Not Your Kind, along with its tracklist and a music video for "Unsainted", where the new masks and outfits for the nine band members were shown for the first time, including an as-yet-unknown new percussionist. on July 22, they released the second single, from their upcoming album, titled "Solway Firth". This was accompanied by a music video which featured live footage from their 2019 shows as well as clips and audio from The Boys . On August 5, "Birth of the Cruel" was released as the album's third single, accompanied by a music video. On August 9, four days after they had released “Birth of the Cruel” they released their sixth album We Are Not Your Kind.
In August 2019, Crahan announced the band will release an experimental album of outtakes from the 2008 All Hope Is Gone sessions, titled Look Outside Your Window. The album was recorded with just 4 members (Crahan, Taylor, Root, and Wilson), in a different studio away from the other members, is expected to have 11 tracks that Taylor described as having a "Radiohead vibe", and Crahan saying in 2018 "it is not a Slipknot album". The band also released a twenty-minute experimental short film directed by Crahan and titled Pollution. One of the segments of the film is the music video for the song, "Nero Forte".
Seventh studio album and Jordison's death (2021−present)
On May 19, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that the band had been currently making "god music". In an article published by Loudwire on June 9, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that a new Slipknot album would ‘hopefully’ be released in 2021. He also added that the band would be parting ways with Roadrunner Records following the release of the album.
On July 26, 2021, the band's former drummer, Joey Jordison, died in his sleep at the age of 46.
In November 2021, the band started teasing new material on a new domain thechapeltownrag.com. Several snippets of a song were shown on the website leading to speculation of a new single that the band would later confirm on November 4, with the single titled "The Chapeltown Rag" slated for release the following day alongside its live debut at the Knotfest Roadshow in Los Angeles, California on November 5, 2021. In December 2021, Taylor revealed that the band were planning on mixing their seventh studio album in January, and are planning on releasing it by April 2022. He also stated that he preferred the material on their forthcoming seventh studio album to that on We Are Not Your Kind.
Artistry
Musical style
Slipknot is considered a nu metal band. The band's members prefer to distance themselves musically from other nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Slipknot describes its sound as "metal metal" and regards the link to nu metal as coincidental and a result of nu metal's emergence being concurrent with that of Slipknot. The band's sound typically features a heavily down-tuned guitar setup, a large percussive section, sampling, keyboards and DJing/turntablism. Using a variety of vocal styles, the music typically features growled vocals, screaming, backing vocals, as well as melodic singing. The band has continually experimented with its sound, most notably developing tracks led by acoustic guitars and melodic singing that first appeared on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses).
The album All Hope Is Gone is considered a groove metal album with elements of death metal and thrash metal. The band has also been described as heavy metal, alternative metal groove metal, death metal, hard rock, grindcore, thrash metal, and rap metal.
Lyrics
Slipknot's lyrics are generally very aggressive; they sometimes include profanity while exploring themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy, and psychosis. They often draw upon topics including the music industry, politics, personal strife, and reflection, among others. Rick Anderson of Allmusic said, "those lyrics that are discernible are not generally quotable on a family website". On Vol. 3, Taylor deliberately avoided using profanity in response to claims he relied on it.
Influences
Slipknot cited both Korn's self-titled album of 1994 and Limp Bizkit's album Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ of 1997 as major influences. However, the band's biggest influence, both on their image and music, has been singer Mike Patton and his bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Faith No More. Corey Taylor even stated that watching Faith No More perform on the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards saved his life. In an interview in 2000 Patton called the Slipknot members "really nice guys".
The band Kiss has been a big influence for Slipknot, both musically and image-wise. Several band members have in numerous interviews stated the impact Kiss had on them when growing up. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Joey Jordison said that "I saw Kiss on The Dick Clark Show in like, 1980 or something, and Kiss Alive! was the first record of theirs I had. This was back when you bought cassettes or records, and I still have my original cassette copy of it. And I tell you what, it just blew my mind! The cover tells you everything you need to know; it just makes you want to listen to the whole fucking record. And these guys look like fucking demons — you don't know when you're a kid and you're watching them on TV that it's just guys in makeup. So yeah, it was inspiring back then. They were a huge influence on me when I was a kid. And that record came out in 1975, so I was always like, "That's fucking badass — one of my favorite records of all time came out the year I was born!". In another interview with Loudwire, he also added that after listening to Kiss Alive! for the first, he was "changed forever, and then [he] just became completely engulfed in metal." Guitarist Mick Thomson revealed in Metal Hammer that Kiss' Destroyer was the first album he ever bought, and when talking about Kiss' Alive II; he stated that "...the artwork on Alive II with Gene's sweat running, the blood coming from his face and the make-up running had a profound influence on me. You only have to look at my own band to see how much so." Vocalist Corey Taylor has stated that Kiss were a huge influence on both him and the rest of the band and he has also covered multiple Kiss songs over the years; both as a solo artist as well as with Stone Sour, in which Slipknot guitarist Jim Root also played at the time.
Many authors single out the massive influence that experimental band Mr. Bungle has had on Slipknot; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members of Mr. Bungle donned strange masks (often clown and gimp ones), costumes (including jumpsuits) and hid their identities behind obscure pseudonyms. All of these were major features on their 1991 self-titled album cycle. Their creepy music videos from that record, such as "Travolta" which was banned on MTV, also pointed out at what would be the future image of Slipknot. In the same way, the musical influence of Mr. Bungle is evident in the eclecticism and adventurousness throughout Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Slipknot's first release of 1996, although the band added more metallic elements. A few songs on that album also hint at the eccentric catchiness of Faith No More and other funk metal bands.
While Slipknot was making its debut studio release, the entire band attended one of the first shows by avant-garde grindcore supergroup Fantômas-composed of Patton, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn-which greatly influenced them at the time. From that
album on, Slipknot has displayed a much more straightforward, extreme metal sound, largely because of producer Ross Robinson, and some writers have identified the influence of Faith No More on some tracks'
structures and alternating melodies from Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). On the other hand, the experimental imprint of Bungle has become rare, but it made a sudden reappearance on 2019's We Are Not Your Kind.
The members of Slipknot are also influenced by Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Deicide, Pantera, Anthrax, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sepultura, White Zombie, Alice in Chains, Malevolent Creation, Danny Heifetz, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Melvins, N.W.A, Skinny Puppy, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Emperor, Beastie Boys, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Misfits, Gorefest, Run-DMC, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica. Taylor has spoken of his admiration for vocalists Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield. In 1999, Chris Fehn said Sid Wilson is influenced by jungle music and rave music.
Stage performances
Slipknot is known for its chaotic, energetic live shows that contributed to the band's success. During performances, most of the band's members headbang heavily. The band's early performances included extreme acts such as stage dives from high balconies and band members setting each other on fire. Clown was known to go into the crowd and tie people up with the microphone cord. In later years, they tended to refrain from acts this extreme. Former bassist Paul Gray said this was due to receiving lawsuits and to avoid harming other people, and that it was a "better move" for the longevity of the band. Along with the energetic and unpredictable performances, Slipknot often use elaborate stage setups that use pyrotechnics, elevated stage areas, hydraulic drum risers, and computer screens. Reviewing a Slipknot performance, Alistair Lawrence of Kerrang! said, "the choreographed chaos is too multi-faceted to fully describe". and NME described one Slipknot show as "a scene of chaos".
Image and identities
The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms—typically jumpsuits—while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray.
The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'".
During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George.
The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public.
In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called Slipknot: Wear the Mask, which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are.
Logo and nonagram
An essential element for the band's image is the Slipknot logo. The nonagram was created by the band's members around the same time the band was founded. The nonagram is arguably the best-known sigil of Slipknot and it represents a 9-point star—a symbol of unity, loyalty, friendship and remembrance. The logo is composed of three equilateral triangles each rotated at 0, 40, and 80 degrees. Each star point was meant to stand for each of the nine members of the original band, with at least one member, Chris Fehn, possessing a nonagram tattoo. Despite popular belief, the nonagram is not a Satanist symbol and instead represents Slipknot's "battle with the fake world."
The pre-release of the 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter also witnessed a major change in the band's logo and branding strategy. A new nonagram drew the public's attention towards the band, announcing the beginning of a new era. The black and red color scheme and the minimalist, elegant design received public appreciation and it is still used today.
Clothing brand
In 2008, Slipknot launched their clothing line Tattered and Torn. Named after a song on their 1999 self-titled debut, the line runs as an imprint of Bravado, a company that runs the band's merchandising. While the band recognize that their merchandise is their biggest revenue income, they insist Tattered and Torn is more than just band merchandising. Vocalist Corey Taylor said, "It's a way for [the fans] to get cool clothing at affordable prices." The first items from the clothing line went on sale in late July 2008 through Hot Topic stores across North America and the Hot Topic website. Currently, the line is limited to shirts and hoodies but was expected to develop into a full-range clothing line.
Controversies
Slipknot's music and image have been the subject of many controversies throughout its career. The lyrical content of some of Slipknot's songs has been linked to several violent and criminal incidents. In 2003, two young killers blamed the lyrics of "Disasterpiece" for their crime. In 2006, the lyrics of "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbery.
In 2008, Corey Taylor commented on a slashing incident at a South African school to which Slipknot was linked; he said: ... obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died, as far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive ... there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost.
Slipknot had a longstanding feud with the band Mushroomhead which—along with their fans—said Slipknot "stole their image". While Slipknot acknowledged their images had similarities, its members were not actively involved in the feud, saying the similarities were coincidental. Taylor said, "we both started at the same time—neither one of us knowing anything about each other". Taylor also said that at a live show in Cleveland, Ohio, several Mushroomhead fans threw objects including a fistsized padlock at Slipknot and that when Slipknot's set was finished, Machine Head and Amen went into the crowd and "handled it right there". In 2009, former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis said his band's members were no longer interested in feuding with Slipknot, saying, "they're not the first masked band, we're not, no one was". During an interview with Rock Rage Radio, Reavis praised Slipknot as he criticized his former bandmates after a dispute with the band's founding members which led to his dismissal. He stated that Slipknot was better and he admitted that his thoughts were personal, since he was not involved with Mushroomhead when the feud started.
Slipknot's 2005 lawsuit against Burger King said the company created the advertising-based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. Burger King responded with a countersuit, saying many other bands, such as Mr. Bungle, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne, Kiss, Insane Clown Posse, and Gwar have used masks as part of their images. After negotiations, the advertising campaign and lawsuit were withdrawn.
Members
Current members
(#6) Shawn "Clown" Crahan – percussion, backing vocals ; samples, media
(#5) Craig "133" Jones – samples, media, keyboards ; guitars
(#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
(#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
(#0) Sid Wilson – turntables ; keyboards
(#4) Jim Root – guitars
Alessandro Venturella – bass ; keyboards
Jay Weinberg – drums
"Tortilla Man" – percussion, backing vocals
Former members
(#1) Joey Jordison – drums
Donnie Steele – guitars ; bass
(#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
(#4) Josh "Gnar" Brainard – guitars, backing vocals
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals, percussion ; backing vocals ; samples, media
(#3) Greg "Cuddles" Welts – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Brandon Darner – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
Timeline
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards and nominations
Slipknot have been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and have won one.
|-
| || "Wait and Bleed" ||rowspan="3"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Left Behind" ||
|-
| || "My Plague" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| || "Duality" || Best Hard Rock Performance ||
|-
| "Vermilion" ||rowspan="5"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Before I Forget" ||
|-
| || "Psychosocial" ||
|-
| || "The Negative One" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2016 || "Custer" ||
|-
| .5: The Gray Chapter || Best Rock Album ||
Discography
Studio albums
Slipknot (1999)
Iowa (2001)
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
All Hope Is Gone (2008)
.5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
We Are Not Your Kind (2019)
Notable tours
World Domination Tour (1999–2000)
Tattoo the Earth (2000)
Iowa World Tour (2001–2002)
The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005)
All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009)
Memorial World Tour (2011–2013)
As a support act
Livin la Vida Loco Tour (1999)
Festivals
Ozzfest (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013)
Knotfest (2012, 2014–present)
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
American alternative metal musical groups
American groove metal musical groups
American nu metal musical groups
Grammy Award winners
Heavy metal musical groups from Iowa
Kerrang! Awards winners
Bands with fictional stage personas
Musical groups established in 1995
Roadrunner Records artists
1995 establishments in Iowa
Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa
Masked musicians | false | [
"\"Public Image\" is the debut single by Public Image Ltd. It reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart. The lyrics were written when band co-founder John Lydon was a member of the Sex Pistols. The song addresses Lydon's feelings of being exploited in the Sex Pistols by Malcolm McLaren and the press. Along with being released as a single, it appeared on PiL's 1978 debut album Public Image: First Issue.\n\nOn the song, PiL leader John Lydon has said:\n\n'Public Image', despite what most of the press seemed to misinterpret it to be, is not about the fans at all, it's a slagging of the group I used to be in. It's what I went through from my own group. They never bothered to listen to what I was fucking singing, they don't even know the words to my songs. They never bothered to listen, it was like, 'Here's a tune, write some words to it.' So I did. They never questioned it. I found that offensive, it meant I was literally wasting my time, 'cause if you ain't working with people that are on the same level then you ain't doing anything. The rest of the band and Malcolm never bothered to find out if I could sing, they just took me as an image. It was as basic as that, they really were as dull as that. After a year of it they were going 'Why don't you have your hair this colour this year?' And I was going 'Oh God, a brick wall, I'm fighting a brick wall!' They don't understand even now.\n\nIt entered the UK Singles chart on 21 October 1978 at number 21. The single then peaked at number 9 on 4 November 1978.\n\nSingle \nThe single was originally packaged in a fake newspaper that makes outrageous statements such as \"Refused To Play Russian Roulette\", \"No Ones Innocent, Except Us\", \"Donut's Laugh saves life\" (Donut being a nickname for Jim Walker) and \"The Girl Who Drove Me To Tea\" among others. The B-side, \"The Cowboy Song\", was designed to mock people buying the record (the tracks only sensical rhythm is a bassline played over nonsensical yelling), much to the dismay of drummer Jim Walker.\n\nNME named it the 242nd greatest song of all time in 2014. The song's bass line was named as the 18th best bassline of all time by Stylus Magazine in 2005.\n\nTrack Listing\n\"Public Image\" - 2:58\n\"The Cowboy Song\" - 2:17\n\nLive performances \nWhile \"Public Image\" has been performed live for much of the band's existence, \"The Cowboy Song\" was only performed live twice, in a row, at their debut performance in Brussels, Belgium.\n\nCover versions \nThe song has been covered by, among others: The Germs, Pearl Jam, Revolting Cocks, Long Ryders and Feeder, Menswear and Scrawl.\n\nPersonnel\n John Lydon - vocals\n Keith Levene - guitar\n Jah Wobble - bass\n Jim Walker - drums\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n1978 debut singles\nPublic Image Ltd songs\nSongs written by John Lydon\nSongs about the media\n1978 songs\nVirgin Records singles\nSongs written by Keith Levene",
"Burning Image are an American deathrock band formed in Bakersfield, California in 1982. Burning Image first released a 7\" single with the songs \"The Final Conflict\" and \"Burning Image, Burning\" in the summer of 1984. The compilation 1983-1987 in 2004 and album Fantasma (2009) were both released on Alternative Tentacles, record label owned by former Dead Kennedys singer, Jello Biafra, with album Oleander (2011) being self-published. Burning Image celebrates 39 years as a band, in 2021, with a new album.\n\nBurning Image is one of the original bands of the early 1980s California Deathrock scene, along with 45 Grave and Christian Death, playing shows with bands including Specimen, Dead Kennedys, Butthole Surfers, and Timothy Leary.\n\n1980s\n\nThe first incarnation of what became Burning Image was The Pictures, which played their first shows in Bakersfield in early 1982, and featured Moe Adame (guitar,vocals) Tony Bonanno (guitar,vocals) Brad Higgins (bass) and a host of drummers. After the departure of Higgins, Adame and Bonanno decided to look for a bassist and a drummer. Joe Sparks and Paul Burch were playing in the band Public Art at a backyard party, when Adame and Bonanno, who were at the party, decided that night that both Burch and Sparks needed to be in The Pictures. Burch and Sparks joined shortly thereafter with Bonanno switching to bass. The band immediately started writing songs and playing shows, with \"Time Is Running Out\", \"The Lower Walks\" and \"You've Changed\" being the first batch of songs written as a new band. After playing a few shows, the band decided that The Pictures was no longer fitting as a band name, as the direction of the band began to be more inspired by darker themes in the music of Bauhaus, The Cure, Christian Death and the California hardcore punk scene.\n\nIn 1983, Burning Image recorded a 7\" single with the songs \"The Final Conflict\" and \"Burning Image, Burning\" which was recorded at Casbah Recording Studio in Fullerton, California, by Chaz Ramirez, producer and engineer of Mommy's Little Monster by Social Distortion. The artwork for the 7\" single was done by Art Morales, creator of the artwork for Mommy's Little Monster. After the release of the single, Burch and Sparks went to Berkeley, California to promote the record on the local college radio station. Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys was in the radio station doing his own show when he heard the song \"The Final Conflict\" and asked who the band was playing the song and liked the song so much that he invited Burning Image to open a show for them in San Francisco.\n\nBurning Image returned to the studio to record the songs \"Love Mask\" and \"Hives\". After one more recording session which produced the songs \"Prey\", \"Shadows\", and \"The Image\", the band ceased to exist in the summer of 1987. Both Burch and Sparks moved to San Francisco and Bonanno left the music scene.\n\n1990s-2010s\n\nAdame continued to play in Bakersfield with several bands while starting up a new band called I Viscera in 1996, with Burch back on drums and newest member Anthony Leyva on bass. I Viscera played a show in Los Angeles with Penis Flytrap in the summer of 2000, as well as some Bakersfield shows. I Viscera disbanded in 2002.\n\nReturn \n\nAdame went to Los Angeles to see Jello Biafra perform a spoken word show at the Echo Lounge. After the show, Biafra invited Adame and his wife backstage to talk and to get reacquainted. Biafra asked Adame if he had any more Burning Image music and Adame told him that he had masters for every recording they had done. Biafra asked Adame if he would allow him to release a collection of Burning Image music on Alternative Tentacles . The collection, titled 1983-1987, was released in 2004. Burning Image played a reunion show in Bakersfield at the Maestri Gallery on June 19, 2004.\n\nAfter the show, the band once again went their separate ways. Strobelight Records contacted Adame about including a Burning Image song on a compilation that they were releasing in 2006 titled Kaliffornian Deathrock. A new song, \"Haunted\" was submitted for the compilation. Burning Image featuring original members Adame, Bonanno and Burch with returning bass player Leyva, played the Wake the Dead festival in spring 2007, along with Ausgang, Cinema Strange, Tragic Black, Scarlet's Remains and Pins and Needles. On November 12, 2007, Burning Image opened a show for Christian Death 1334 featuring original members James McGearty and Rikk Agnew as well as former Shadow Project founder, Eva O.\n\nAfter those shows, Burning Image began writing material for their next album Fantasma, released on Alternative Tentacles in 2009. Fantasma was later described by Allmusic reviewer Tim DiGravina as \"must-listen material for fans of death or goth rock\" and nominated for Album of the Year 2009 on Deathrock.com. Burning Image played shows in California soon after, culminating with the Alternative Tentacles 30th anniversary show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, in which they opened for Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, Alice Donut and Victims Family.\n\n2011 release Oleander'''s source of inspiration was the Lords of Bakersfield cases, Adame stated in an interview: \"It's like a local thing I’ve known about since I was a teenager. What it is apparently, allegedly, higher-ups in Bakersfield, we’re talking like, judges and cops and business owners, apparently they used to, allegedly, have this secret society, called the Lords of Bakersfield, and before that it was called the White Orchid Society. Basically what they would do is have parties and have young guys come to the parties and have them “service” these higher-ups, you know what I mean? To me it was always this local folklore kind of deal, so what happened was that Sean Penn had narrated a documentary called Witch Hunt based on the early ‘80s molestation charges upon dozens of people in town and that was led by the local prosecutor of the time. Sean Penn apparently asked Jello if he knew about what was happening in Bakersfield, so that's why Jello asked my wife, “Hey, do you know anything about the Lords of Bakersfield?”... So after we told Jello, his jaw dropped to the floor... he asked me again, “Moe, so are you guys going to write a new album?”... He says, “That sounds like some intense subject matter, maybe you should write about that.” I really didn't give it a second thought that night, but the more I thought about it, I thought wow... the possibilities.\"\n\nThe latest album, Arrival, was released in October 2021.\n\nBurning Image is working on a full-length album for a 2022 release.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n Fantasma (Alternative Tentacles 2009)\n Oleander (2011)\n The Grand Guignol (2014)\n Oleander Revisited (2017)\n Songs of Reproach and Redemption (2018)\n Burning Image (2018)\n The King Is Dead (2019)\n Arrival (2021)\n\nSingles\n \"The Final Conflict\" (1984)\n \"The Final Conflict / Reissue (Going Underground Records 2021)\n\nRetrospectives\n 1983-1987 (Alternative Tentacles 2004)\n\nCompilation appearances\n Let's Die (Mystic Records 1985)\n Cultivation 91 (Independent 1991)\n Kaliffornian Deathrock (Strobelight Records 2006)\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n Mercer, Mick (2009). Music to Die For. Cherry Red Books. \n Le Boucanier, Thierry F. (2015). The Batcave: 1982-1985''. Camion Blanc. \n Bean, Mikey (2019) Phantoms: The Rise of Deathrock from the LA Punk Scene. Lulu Books\n\nExternal links\n \n\nAlternative Tentacles artists\nAmerican death rock groups\nAmerican gothic rock groups\nMusical groups established in 1982\nMusical groups from California\n1982 establishments in California"
]
|
[
"Slipknot (band)",
"Image and identities",
"what was their image?",
"attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits"
]
| C_f31f0e7d00714137ad76b19336e378be_0 | what other things played a part in their image? | 2 | Besides attention-grabbing, what other things played a part in Slipknot (band) image? | Slipknot (band) | The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits--while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray. The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'". During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George. The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask", which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are. CANNOTANSWER | The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. | Slipknot is an American heavy metal band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Gray died on May 24, 2010, and was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison was dismissed from the band on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Fehn was also dismissed from the band in March 2019 prior to the writing of We Are Not Your Kind.
Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows. The band rapidly rose to fame following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album, Iowa, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. Their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, was released on August 9, 2019. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, and five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
History
Background (1991-1995)
In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera. Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, and Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni later took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan often went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth, writing and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot"; another was titled "Painface", which Colsefni later used to name his band Painface.
In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed occasionally with this group. Brainard eventually left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of '93 and early in '94. During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed a death metal band called Body Pit, soon becoming popular in the local scene. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up.
In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started a band named the Pale Ones. The lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer, moving Crahan to percussion. Furthermore, Colsefni also took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist. The band then decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut; playing a benefit show using the name Meld.
Demo recording and beginnings (1995–1998)
Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray, Crahan and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights. It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at SR Audio, a studio in the band's hometown. As they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: "(he) was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons...I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist. After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996.
Distribution for the demo was initially left to the band and their producer Sean McMahon, before it was handed over to the distribution company -ismist Recordings in early 1997. Slipknot received a small amount of airplay on local radio stations off the back of the demo. However, it did not lead to any kind of interest from record labels, so the band returned to the studio to develop new material. It was at this time that the band sought more melodic vocals for their music. As a result, Corey Taylor was recruited from fellow Des Moines band Stone Sour; this moved Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion. While working in the studio, Slipknot continued to do local shows, during one of which in September 1997, Colsefni announced on stage that he was leaving the band. The gap on percussion was filled by Greg Welts, who was affectionately known as "Cuddles". In early 1998, Slipknot produced a second demo featuring five tracks exclusively for record labels. The band began to receive a lot of attention from record labels, and in February 1998, producer Ross Robinson offered to produce their debut album after attending rehearsals in Des Moines. Soon after, DJ Sid Wilson was recruited as the band's ninth member after showing great interest and impressing band members. In late June, Slipknot received a $500,000, seven-album deal, from Roadrunner Records; the band signed the deal publicly on July 8, 1998. Two days prior to this, Welts was fired from the band, something which Slipknot refuse to comment on. Welts was replaced by Brandon Darner, who departed from the band shortly after joining.
Self-titled album and emergence (1998–2000)
Chris Fehn was brought in to replace Darner on percussion before Slipknot traveled to Malibu, California, to work on their debut album in September 1998. Partway through the recording process of the album, Slipknot returned to Des Moines for the Christmas period. During that period, guitarist Brainard decided to leave the band. Brainard said, "some decisions were made that I wasn't particularly happy with". Slipknot later recruited Jim Root to complete their lineup and the band returned to Malibu to continue work on the album. Work on the album concluded in early 1999, allowing the band to go on their first tour as part of the Ozzfest lineup in 1999. Ozzfest greatly increased Slipknot's audience, furthering the band's success with their self-titled album that was released on June 29, 1999. Slipknot released its first home video Welcome to Our Neighborhood, which was directed by Thomas Mignone, and the singles "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out", which were also directed by Mignone. The singles received some airplay, but Slipknot quickly developed a large following, mainly from touring and word of mouth. The band toured several countries throughout 1999 and 2000 in support of the album. In early 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; a first for an album released by Roadrunner Records.
Iowa (2001–2003)
Anticipation for Slipknot's second album was intense. In early 2001, the band began recording the second album at Sound City and Sound Image studios in Los Angeles. Around this time, conflicts arose between band members due to extensive touring and recording schedules. Recording of their second album ended in February 2001 and the band embarked on their Iowa World Tour. Entitled Iowa, Slipknot's second album—released on August 28, 2001—peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and at number one in the UK. The album produced three singles; "The Heretic Anthem" (promotional single), "Left Behind" and "My Plague", which appeared on the soundtrack for the film Resident Evil. In 2002, Slipknot appeared in Rollerball (2002), performing "I Am Hated". The release and intense promotion of the album resulted in sold-out shows in large arenas in several countries.
In mid-2002, Slipknot went on hiatus because of internal conflicts, and band members focused on side projects. Vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Jordison created Murderdolls with vocalist Wednesday 13, percussionist Crahan founded To My Surprise and DJ Wilson went solo as DJ Starscream. For a while, the future of Slipknot was uncertain and there was much speculation about whether there would be a third album, or if the split would become permanent. "I don't have a problem with anyone in Slipknot," Jordison protested. "I've seen comments from Corey saying there are things to be resolved, but I have no fucking idea what he's talking about."
Nonetheless, on November 22, 2002, Slipknot released their second DVD, Disasterpieces.
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2003–2007)
After several delays, Slipknot moved into The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, in mid-2003 to work on their third album alongside producer Rick Rubin. By early 2004, work on the album had finished and the band began The Subliminal Verses World Tour with their appearance on the Jägermeister Music Tour in March 2004. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released on May 24, 2004; it peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts. The album produced six singles; "Duality", "Vermilion", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "Before I Forget", "The Nameless", and The Blister Exists. Slipknot recorded its first live album, 9.0: Live, while touring in support of the band's third album. Released on November 1, 2005 9.0: Live peaked at number 17 on the Billboard album charts. Touring in support of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) continued through 2004 and up to the end of 2005 before Slipknot went on hiatus for the second time.
In 2005, several members of Slipknot were involved in Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions, a collaborative album recorded by artists signed to Roadrunner Records for the label's 25th anniversary. 2006 saw Slipknot win their first Grammy Award, picking up the Best Metal Performance award for the single "Before I Forget". The single went on to be featured on the set list of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On December 5, 2006, Slipknot released its third DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine. While Slipknot was on hiatus, several band members again focused their attentions on side projects; vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root returned to Stone Sour, drummer Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches of Blood's third album Fire Up the Blades, Crahan founded Dirty Little Rabbits and Wilson returned as DJ Starscream once again.
All Hope Is Gone and Gray's death (2008–2010)
Preparation for Slipknot's fourth album began towards the end of 2007; work began at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman in February 2008. The album was finished in June, and the band went on the All Hope Is Gone World Tour on July 9, 2008. Slipknot's fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released on August 20, 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard albums chart. The album produced five singles; "All Hope Is Gone", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Sulfur" and "Snuff". 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of Slipknot's debut album; to commemorate the event, the band released a special-edition version of Slipknot on September 9, 2009. The band toured in support of the album throughout 2008 and continued until October 31, 2009, resulting in Slipknot's third hiatus.
During the hiatus, several band members focused on respective side projects; Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band and returned to Stone Sour with guitarist Root; Crahan continued working with his band Dirty Little Rabbits; and drummer Jordison returned with his band Murderdolls and became the new permanent drummer of Rob Zombie. Meanwhile, percussionist Fehn became a full-time bassist with metalcore band Will Haven and Sid Wilson founded the eponymous band Sid.
In 2010, Gray was planning to tour with the supergroup, Hail!, but on May 24, 2010, he was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room. Circumstances surrounding his death at the time were not immediately known; an autopsy suspected his death was not intentional but did not reveal the cause. The day after his death, the remaining eight members of the band held a live, unmasked, press conference alongside Gray's widow and brother. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl.
The band was hesitant to comment on the future of Slipknot. The members made conflicting statements in interviews; drummer Jordison told The Pulse of Radio "there is another Slipknot record already kinda in the making". Vocalist Taylor told FMQB Productions he was "very conflicted about whether or not [he wants] to do anything with Slipknot". The band released their fourth video album (sic)nesses on September 28, 2010; it debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD features Slipknot's entire live performance at the 2009 Download Festival and a 45-minute film documenting their tour in support of All Hope Is Gone, and served as a tribute to Paul Gray.
Return to the stage, Antennas to Hell and Knotfest (2011–2012)
Regarding the continuation of Slipknot, Taylor told NME Gray would want them to continue and he felt they should but he was ambivalent about returning to the band. Slipknot returned to touring in 2011, performing a small number of shows in Europe. They headlined the Sonisphere Festival and Rock in Rio alongside Iron Maiden and Metallica, and performed at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting. Donnie Steele substituted for Gray in the concerts; he was positioned behind Jordison and obscured from the audience's view.
Slipknot also said the band would complete and release the band's fifth studio album, and that there were no plans to replace Gray. Jordison said the writing process for the album had already begun and that he had written 17 songs.
Slipknot performed at the Mayhem Festival tour of 2012.
On May 29, 2012, Roadrunner Records posted a teaser video titled Antennas to Hell on its website. Later that day, on Twitter, Corey Taylor said Slipknot will release a greatest hits album on June 17, 2012. He also said the band was not yet recording new material but was putting together demos for a new album.
Slipknot's first annual music festival, called Knotfest, was held on August 17, 2012, at Mid-America Motorplex near Pacific Junction, Iowa, and on August 18, 2012, in Somerset, Wisconsin. Deftones, Lamb of God, and Serj Tankian also performed at the festival. The festival shows also debuted a Slipknot museum. On 14, June 2013, Slipknot headlined the Download Festival for a second time. The band performed to roughly 90,000 people and was twice forced to stop the set—once in the middle of a song—to allow the front barricade, which had split open under crowd pressure, to be repaired.
Jordison's departure, .5: The Gray Chapter, and new members (2013–2016)
Production of the band's fifth album began in late 2013. Taylor described the album as "very dark" and a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Guitarist Jim Root did not participate in Stone Sour's January tour so he could write material for Slipknot.
On December 12, 2013, the band announced through its official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after 18 years, citing personal reasons. On his official Facebook page, Jordison later said he "did not quit Slipknot" and that he was "shocked" and "blindsided" by the news. Both Jordison and Slipknot independently promised to release further details about the split. Taylor said Jordison would not be appearing on the new album because he did not participate in any songwriting sessions before his departure. After years of both sides being silent and evasive as to the reasons for his leaving the band, Jordison revealed in June 2016 that he suffered from Transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that cost him the ability to play the drums toward the end of his time with Slipknot. However, Jordison played drums in the blackened death metal act Sinsaenum, which he joined in 2016.
In July 2014, Slipknot began releasing teasers for the new album on the band's website and social media using cryptic messages and gory imagery. "The Negative One", the band's first song in six years, was released on August 1; it was accompanied by a music video directed by Crahan that was released four days later. The video did not feature any band members. On August 24, Slipknot released an official radio single titled "The Devil In I", and the name of the upcoming album was announced as .5: The Gray Chapter on iTunes, with an expected release date of October 28. The release was later preponed to October 17 for the Netherlands and Australia, October 20 for the UK and October 21 worldwide. "The Negative One" was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support. The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia. A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively; Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.
Taylor later said he was upset at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band. On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.
On March 11, 2015, while the band was not touring, guitarist Mick Thomson was hospitalized after a drunken knife fight with his brother at Thomson's home in Iowa. The pair sustained serious, but non life-threatening, injuries. On August 2, 2015, during a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, the band was forced to stop performing after Venturella was suddenly rushed to hospital, after undergoing a medical emergency. After 20 minutes, singer Taylor told the audience the band would continue the concert, performing without Venturella. It was later discovered that Venturella had collapsed because of extreme dehydration.
On September 25, 2016, the band performed at their annual festival Knotfest, which was altered to include Ozzfest this year. They performed the Iowa album in its entirety. In the meanwhile, Crahan made his directorial debut with the feature film Officer Downe, based on a graphic novel of the same name and starring actor Kim Coates. In November 2016, Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that he and fellow guitarist Jim Root would be teaming up in February 2017 to begin writing new material for a new Slipknot album because "we want to write."
We Are Not Your Kind (2017–2020)
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor regrouped with his other band Stone Sour in 2017, and they released their album Hydrograd on June 30. Talking about his first work in cinema and the other Slipknot members' plans, in an interview with WRIF's Meltdown, Crahan revealed that "we're beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. We have songs that we've written that are amazing." In December 2017, Crahan appeared on The Jasta Show podcast, where he stated that the next Slipknot album could be his last with the band.
Corey Taylor revealed in October 2018 that the band would enter the studio in early 2019, with a targeted release for their sixth album that same year, followed by a world tour. On October 31, the single "All Out Life" was released, as was an accompanying music video. On March 4, 2019, the band announced that the release date for the next album would be August 9, 2019 and that they would be embarking on the Knotfest Roadshow along with support by Gojira, Volbeat, and Behemoth to support the album. On March 7, Slipknot were revealed to be the opening act for Metallica's six WorldWired Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand from October 17 through October 31.
On March 14, 2019, Chris Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band citing withheld payments. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of setting up several band-related business entities, in different states, that collect money from the band. Fehn called for full forensic accounting to be done on all of the band's companies and assets in order to collect any profits and damages he may be owed. On that same day, Taylor responded via Twitter with a tweet stating, "You're gonna read a lot of bullshit today. This is all I'll say. JUST YOU WAIT TIL THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Long Live The Knot". On March 18, 2019, the band officially announced, via their website, that Chris Fehn was no longer a member of the band, stating, "Slipknot's focus is on making album #6, and our upcoming shows around the world, our best ever. Chris knows why he is no longer a part of Slipknot. We are disappointed that he chose to point fingers and manufacture claims, rather than doing what was necessary to continue to be a part of Slipknot. We would have preferred he not take the path that he has, but evolution in all things is a necessary part of this life. Long Live The Knot". However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing. By May 2019, Fehn's employment status with the band had apparently changed, as evident by his missing name on the band's Instagram posts for their new masks. He was replaced by a percussionist, whose identity is concealed, who the fans have dubbed "Tortilla Man". Loudwire has reported that fans have linked his identity as Michael Pfaff, a former member of Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits. The band themselves have not confirmed this claim.
On May 13, 2019, the band teased something was coming on May 16, ahead of their performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as screenshots of their new masks. On that day, the album's title was revealed to be We Are Not Your Kind, along with its tracklist and a music video for "Unsainted", where the new masks and outfits for the nine band members were shown for the first time, including an as-yet-unknown new percussionist. on July 22, they released the second single, from their upcoming album, titled "Solway Firth". This was accompanied by a music video which featured live footage from their 2019 shows as well as clips and audio from The Boys . On August 5, "Birth of the Cruel" was released as the album's third single, accompanied by a music video. On August 9, four days after they had released “Birth of the Cruel” they released their sixth album We Are Not Your Kind.
In August 2019, Crahan announced the band will release an experimental album of outtakes from the 2008 All Hope Is Gone sessions, titled Look Outside Your Window. The album was recorded with just 4 members (Crahan, Taylor, Root, and Wilson), in a different studio away from the other members, is expected to have 11 tracks that Taylor described as having a "Radiohead vibe", and Crahan saying in 2018 "it is not a Slipknot album". The band also released a twenty-minute experimental short film directed by Crahan and titled Pollution. One of the segments of the film is the music video for the song, "Nero Forte".
Seventh studio album and Jordison's death (2021−present)
On May 19, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that the band had been currently making "god music". In an article published by Loudwire on June 9, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that a new Slipknot album would ‘hopefully’ be released in 2021. He also added that the band would be parting ways with Roadrunner Records following the release of the album.
On July 26, 2021, the band's former drummer, Joey Jordison, died in his sleep at the age of 46.
In November 2021, the band started teasing new material on a new domain thechapeltownrag.com. Several snippets of a song were shown on the website leading to speculation of a new single that the band would later confirm on November 4, with the single titled "The Chapeltown Rag" slated for release the following day alongside its live debut at the Knotfest Roadshow in Los Angeles, California on November 5, 2021. In December 2021, Taylor revealed that the band were planning on mixing their seventh studio album in January, and are planning on releasing it by April 2022. He also stated that he preferred the material on their forthcoming seventh studio album to that on We Are Not Your Kind.
Artistry
Musical style
Slipknot is considered a nu metal band. The band's members prefer to distance themselves musically from other nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Slipknot describes its sound as "metal metal" and regards the link to nu metal as coincidental and a result of nu metal's emergence being concurrent with that of Slipknot. The band's sound typically features a heavily down-tuned guitar setup, a large percussive section, sampling, keyboards and DJing/turntablism. Using a variety of vocal styles, the music typically features growled vocals, screaming, backing vocals, as well as melodic singing. The band has continually experimented with its sound, most notably developing tracks led by acoustic guitars and melodic singing that first appeared on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses).
The album All Hope Is Gone is considered a groove metal album with elements of death metal and thrash metal. The band has also been described as heavy metal, alternative metal groove metal, death metal, hard rock, grindcore, thrash metal, and rap metal.
Lyrics
Slipknot's lyrics are generally very aggressive; they sometimes include profanity while exploring themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy, and psychosis. They often draw upon topics including the music industry, politics, personal strife, and reflection, among others. Rick Anderson of Allmusic said, "those lyrics that are discernible are not generally quotable on a family website". On Vol. 3, Taylor deliberately avoided using profanity in response to claims he relied on it.
Influences
Slipknot cited both Korn's self-titled album of 1994 and Limp Bizkit's album Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ of 1997 as major influences. However, the band's biggest influence, both on their image and music, has been singer Mike Patton and his bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Faith No More. Corey Taylor even stated that watching Faith No More perform on the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards saved his life. In an interview in 2000 Patton called the Slipknot members "really nice guys".
The band Kiss has been a big influence for Slipknot, both musically and image-wise. Several band members have in numerous interviews stated the impact Kiss had on them when growing up. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Joey Jordison said that "I saw Kiss on The Dick Clark Show in like, 1980 or something, and Kiss Alive! was the first record of theirs I had. This was back when you bought cassettes or records, and I still have my original cassette copy of it. And I tell you what, it just blew my mind! The cover tells you everything you need to know; it just makes you want to listen to the whole fucking record. And these guys look like fucking demons — you don't know when you're a kid and you're watching them on TV that it's just guys in makeup. So yeah, it was inspiring back then. They were a huge influence on me when I was a kid. And that record came out in 1975, so I was always like, "That's fucking badass — one of my favorite records of all time came out the year I was born!". In another interview with Loudwire, he also added that after listening to Kiss Alive! for the first, he was "changed forever, and then [he] just became completely engulfed in metal." Guitarist Mick Thomson revealed in Metal Hammer that Kiss' Destroyer was the first album he ever bought, and when talking about Kiss' Alive II; he stated that "...the artwork on Alive II with Gene's sweat running, the blood coming from his face and the make-up running had a profound influence on me. You only have to look at my own band to see how much so." Vocalist Corey Taylor has stated that Kiss were a huge influence on both him and the rest of the band and he has also covered multiple Kiss songs over the years; both as a solo artist as well as with Stone Sour, in which Slipknot guitarist Jim Root also played at the time.
Many authors single out the massive influence that experimental band Mr. Bungle has had on Slipknot; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members of Mr. Bungle donned strange masks (often clown and gimp ones), costumes (including jumpsuits) and hid their identities behind obscure pseudonyms. All of these were major features on their 1991 self-titled album cycle. Their creepy music videos from that record, such as "Travolta" which was banned on MTV, also pointed out at what would be the future image of Slipknot. In the same way, the musical influence of Mr. Bungle is evident in the eclecticism and adventurousness throughout Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Slipknot's first release of 1996, although the band added more metallic elements. A few songs on that album also hint at the eccentric catchiness of Faith No More and other funk metal bands.
While Slipknot was making its debut studio release, the entire band attended one of the first shows by avant-garde grindcore supergroup Fantômas-composed of Patton, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn-which greatly influenced them at the time. From that
album on, Slipknot has displayed a much more straightforward, extreme metal sound, largely because of producer Ross Robinson, and some writers have identified the influence of Faith No More on some tracks'
structures and alternating melodies from Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). On the other hand, the experimental imprint of Bungle has become rare, but it made a sudden reappearance on 2019's We Are Not Your Kind.
The members of Slipknot are also influenced by Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Deicide, Pantera, Anthrax, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sepultura, White Zombie, Alice in Chains, Malevolent Creation, Danny Heifetz, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Melvins, N.W.A, Skinny Puppy, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Emperor, Beastie Boys, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Misfits, Gorefest, Run-DMC, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica. Taylor has spoken of his admiration for vocalists Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield. In 1999, Chris Fehn said Sid Wilson is influenced by jungle music and rave music.
Stage performances
Slipknot is known for its chaotic, energetic live shows that contributed to the band's success. During performances, most of the band's members headbang heavily. The band's early performances included extreme acts such as stage dives from high balconies and band members setting each other on fire. Clown was known to go into the crowd and tie people up with the microphone cord. In later years, they tended to refrain from acts this extreme. Former bassist Paul Gray said this was due to receiving lawsuits and to avoid harming other people, and that it was a "better move" for the longevity of the band. Along with the energetic and unpredictable performances, Slipknot often use elaborate stage setups that use pyrotechnics, elevated stage areas, hydraulic drum risers, and computer screens. Reviewing a Slipknot performance, Alistair Lawrence of Kerrang! said, "the choreographed chaos is too multi-faceted to fully describe". and NME described one Slipknot show as "a scene of chaos".
Image and identities
The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms—typically jumpsuits—while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray.
The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'".
During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George.
The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public.
In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called Slipknot: Wear the Mask, which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are.
Logo and nonagram
An essential element for the band's image is the Slipknot logo. The nonagram was created by the band's members around the same time the band was founded. The nonagram is arguably the best-known sigil of Slipknot and it represents a 9-point star—a symbol of unity, loyalty, friendship and remembrance. The logo is composed of three equilateral triangles each rotated at 0, 40, and 80 degrees. Each star point was meant to stand for each of the nine members of the original band, with at least one member, Chris Fehn, possessing a nonagram tattoo. Despite popular belief, the nonagram is not a Satanist symbol and instead represents Slipknot's "battle with the fake world."
The pre-release of the 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter also witnessed a major change in the band's logo and branding strategy. A new nonagram drew the public's attention towards the band, announcing the beginning of a new era. The black and red color scheme and the minimalist, elegant design received public appreciation and it is still used today.
Clothing brand
In 2008, Slipknot launched their clothing line Tattered and Torn. Named after a song on their 1999 self-titled debut, the line runs as an imprint of Bravado, a company that runs the band's merchandising. While the band recognize that their merchandise is their biggest revenue income, they insist Tattered and Torn is more than just band merchandising. Vocalist Corey Taylor said, "It's a way for [the fans] to get cool clothing at affordable prices." The first items from the clothing line went on sale in late July 2008 through Hot Topic stores across North America and the Hot Topic website. Currently, the line is limited to shirts and hoodies but was expected to develop into a full-range clothing line.
Controversies
Slipknot's music and image have been the subject of many controversies throughout its career. The lyrical content of some of Slipknot's songs has been linked to several violent and criminal incidents. In 2003, two young killers blamed the lyrics of "Disasterpiece" for their crime. In 2006, the lyrics of "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbery.
In 2008, Corey Taylor commented on a slashing incident at a South African school to which Slipknot was linked; he said: ... obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died, as far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive ... there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost.
Slipknot had a longstanding feud with the band Mushroomhead which—along with their fans—said Slipknot "stole their image". While Slipknot acknowledged their images had similarities, its members were not actively involved in the feud, saying the similarities were coincidental. Taylor said, "we both started at the same time—neither one of us knowing anything about each other". Taylor also said that at a live show in Cleveland, Ohio, several Mushroomhead fans threw objects including a fistsized padlock at Slipknot and that when Slipknot's set was finished, Machine Head and Amen went into the crowd and "handled it right there". In 2009, former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis said his band's members were no longer interested in feuding with Slipknot, saying, "they're not the first masked band, we're not, no one was". During an interview with Rock Rage Radio, Reavis praised Slipknot as he criticized his former bandmates after a dispute with the band's founding members which led to his dismissal. He stated that Slipknot was better and he admitted that his thoughts were personal, since he was not involved with Mushroomhead when the feud started.
Slipknot's 2005 lawsuit against Burger King said the company created the advertising-based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. Burger King responded with a countersuit, saying many other bands, such as Mr. Bungle, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne, Kiss, Insane Clown Posse, and Gwar have used masks as part of their images. After negotiations, the advertising campaign and lawsuit were withdrawn.
Members
Current members
(#6) Shawn "Clown" Crahan – percussion, backing vocals ; samples, media
(#5) Craig "133" Jones – samples, media, keyboards ; guitars
(#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
(#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
(#0) Sid Wilson – turntables ; keyboards
(#4) Jim Root – guitars
Alessandro Venturella – bass ; keyboards
Jay Weinberg – drums
"Tortilla Man" – percussion, backing vocals
Former members
(#1) Joey Jordison – drums
Donnie Steele – guitars ; bass
(#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
(#4) Josh "Gnar" Brainard – guitars, backing vocals
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals, percussion ; backing vocals ; samples, media
(#3) Greg "Cuddles" Welts – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Brandon Darner – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
Timeline
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards and nominations
Slipknot have been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and have won one.
|-
| || "Wait and Bleed" ||rowspan="3"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Left Behind" ||
|-
| || "My Plague" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| || "Duality" || Best Hard Rock Performance ||
|-
| "Vermilion" ||rowspan="5"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Before I Forget" ||
|-
| || "Psychosocial" ||
|-
| || "The Negative One" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2016 || "Custer" ||
|-
| .5: The Gray Chapter || Best Rock Album ||
Discography
Studio albums
Slipknot (1999)
Iowa (2001)
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
All Hope Is Gone (2008)
.5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
We Are Not Your Kind (2019)
Notable tours
World Domination Tour (1999–2000)
Tattoo the Earth (2000)
Iowa World Tour (2001–2002)
The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005)
All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009)
Memorial World Tour (2011–2013)
As a support act
Livin la Vida Loco Tour (1999)
Festivals
Ozzfest (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013)
Knotfest (2012, 2014–present)
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
American alternative metal musical groups
American groove metal musical groups
American nu metal musical groups
Grammy Award winners
Heavy metal musical groups from Iowa
Kerrang! Awards winners
Bands with fictional stage personas
Musical groups established in 1995
Roadrunner Records artists
1995 establishments in Iowa
Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa
Masked musicians | true | [
"Marian Churchland (born June 15, 1982) is a Canadian comic book artist and graduate of the University of British Columbia. They first came to prominence in 2009 with their debut graphic novel Beast for Image. In 2015, they launched two projects as part of the 8HOUSE shared universe — \"Arclight\", the first story in the eponymous series, as the artist, and From Under Mountains as the co-writer with Claire Gibson.\n\nAwards\n2010: Won Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award for Beast\n\nBibliography\nInterior comic work includes:\nMeathaus S.O.S.: \"Untitled\" (script and art, anthology graphic novel, Nerdcore, 2008)\nMySpace Dark Horse Presents #11: \"Trophy\" (with Timothy Truman, anthology, Dark Horse, 2008)\nElephantmen (with Richard Starkings, Image):\n \"Dangerous Liaisons, Parts 3-5\" (in #18-20, 2009)\n \"Questionable Things, Part 3\" (among other artists, in #26, 2010)\n \"Agathe\" (co-writer, art by Marley Zarcone, in #57, 2014)\nBeast (script and art, graphic novel, Image, 2009)\nMadame Xanadu #28: \"Extra-Sensory, Chapter Five\" (with Matt Wagner, Vertigo, 2010)\nNorthlanders #41: \"Thor's Daughter\" (with Brian Wood, Vertigo, 2011)\n8HOUSE #1-2: \"Arclight\" (with Brandon Graham, Image, 2015)\n Arclight #3-4 (with Brandon Graham, Image, 2016)\nFrom Under Mountains #1-6 (co-writer with Claire Gibson, art by Sloane Leong, Image, 2015–2016)\nMine!: \"We Cannot Make Our Sun Stand Still\" (with Aria Baci, anthology graphic novel, ComicMix, 2017)\n\nCovers only\nElephantmen War Toys: Yvette #1 (Image, 2009)\nTokyopop Presents: King City #3 (Image, 2009)\nProphet #21 (Image, 2012)\nIsland #12 (Image, 2016)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1982 births\nArtists from Vancouver\nCanadian comics artists\nLiving people",
"Semiotics is the study of meaning-making on the basis of signs. Semiotics of photography is the observation of symbolism used within photography or \"reading\" the picture. This article refers to realistic, unedited photographs not those that have been manipulated in any way.\nRoland Barthes was one of the first people to study the semiotics of images. He developed a way to understand the meaning of images. Most of Barthes' studies related to advertising, but his concepts can apply to photography as well.\n\nDenotation\n\nDenotation refers to the meaning hidden in symbols or images. A denotation is \"what we see\" in the picture or what is \"there\" in the picture. According to author Clive Scott, this is another way of saying that a photograph has both a signified and a referent, is both coded and encoded. This is to re-emphasize the co-existence of the iconic and idexical. In photography the photo itself is the signifier, the signified is what the image is or represents. The literal meaning of the image.\n\nConnotation\n\nConnotation (Semiotics) is arbitrary in that the meanings brought to the image are based on rules or conventions that the reader has learnt. Connotation attaches additional meaning to the first signifier, which is why the first signifier is often described in multiple words that include things like camera angle, color, lighting, etc. It is the immediate cultural meaning from what is seen in the picture, but not what is actually there. Connotation is what is implied by the image.\n\nCoded iconic\n\nAccording to Roland Barthes the coded iconic message is the story that the image portrays. This message is easily understood and the images represent a clear relationship. The \"reader\" of the image applies their knowledge to the encoding of the photo. An image of a bowl of fruit for example might imply still life, freshness or market stalls.\n\nNoncoded iconic\n\nNoncoded iconic is another part of Barthes' theory of understanding images. Noncoded has nothing to do with the emotions from the image as a whole. It is the \"literal\" denotation, the recognition of identifiable object in the photograph, irrespective of the larger societal code. Using the bowl of fruit example, this photograph is just that, a bowl of fruit. A non-coded iconic has no deeper meaning, the image is exactly what it shows.\n\nSee also\nAdvertising\nArt history\nVisual communication\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n Burgin, V. Thinking Photography\n Chandler, D. Semiotics: The Basics\n Innis, Robert E., Semiotics: An Introductory Anthology\n Semiotics of Photography\n\nPhotography\nSemiotics"
]
|
[
"Slipknot (band)",
"Image and identities",
"what was their image?",
"attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits",
"what other things played a part in their image?",
"The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases."
]
| C_f31f0e7d00714137ad76b19336e378be_0 | What else were they known for? | 3 | Besides attention-grabbing image & members performance wearing unique jumpsuits, what else were the Slipknot (band) members known for? | Slipknot (band) | The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits--while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray. The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'". During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George. The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask", which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are. CANNOTANSWER | Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. | Slipknot is an American heavy metal band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Gray died on May 24, 2010, and was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison was dismissed from the band on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Fehn was also dismissed from the band in March 2019 prior to the writing of We Are Not Your Kind.
Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows. The band rapidly rose to fame following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album, Iowa, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. Their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, was released on August 9, 2019. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, and five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
History
Background (1991-1995)
In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera. Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, and Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni later took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan often went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth, writing and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot"; another was titled "Painface", which Colsefni later used to name his band Painface.
In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed occasionally with this group. Brainard eventually left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of '93 and early in '94. During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed a death metal band called Body Pit, soon becoming popular in the local scene. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up.
In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started a band named the Pale Ones. The lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer, moving Crahan to percussion. Furthermore, Colsefni also took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist. The band then decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut; playing a benefit show using the name Meld.
Demo recording and beginnings (1995–1998)
Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray, Crahan and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights. It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at SR Audio, a studio in the band's hometown. As they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: "(he) was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons...I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist. After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996.
Distribution for the demo was initially left to the band and their producer Sean McMahon, before it was handed over to the distribution company -ismist Recordings in early 1997. Slipknot received a small amount of airplay on local radio stations off the back of the demo. However, it did not lead to any kind of interest from record labels, so the band returned to the studio to develop new material. It was at this time that the band sought more melodic vocals for their music. As a result, Corey Taylor was recruited from fellow Des Moines band Stone Sour; this moved Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion. While working in the studio, Slipknot continued to do local shows, during one of which in September 1997, Colsefni announced on stage that he was leaving the band. The gap on percussion was filled by Greg Welts, who was affectionately known as "Cuddles". In early 1998, Slipknot produced a second demo featuring five tracks exclusively for record labels. The band began to receive a lot of attention from record labels, and in February 1998, producer Ross Robinson offered to produce their debut album after attending rehearsals in Des Moines. Soon after, DJ Sid Wilson was recruited as the band's ninth member after showing great interest and impressing band members. In late June, Slipknot received a $500,000, seven-album deal, from Roadrunner Records; the band signed the deal publicly on July 8, 1998. Two days prior to this, Welts was fired from the band, something which Slipknot refuse to comment on. Welts was replaced by Brandon Darner, who departed from the band shortly after joining.
Self-titled album and emergence (1998–2000)
Chris Fehn was brought in to replace Darner on percussion before Slipknot traveled to Malibu, California, to work on their debut album in September 1998. Partway through the recording process of the album, Slipknot returned to Des Moines for the Christmas period. During that period, guitarist Brainard decided to leave the band. Brainard said, "some decisions were made that I wasn't particularly happy with". Slipknot later recruited Jim Root to complete their lineup and the band returned to Malibu to continue work on the album. Work on the album concluded in early 1999, allowing the band to go on their first tour as part of the Ozzfest lineup in 1999. Ozzfest greatly increased Slipknot's audience, furthering the band's success with their self-titled album that was released on June 29, 1999. Slipknot released its first home video Welcome to Our Neighborhood, which was directed by Thomas Mignone, and the singles "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out", which were also directed by Mignone. The singles received some airplay, but Slipknot quickly developed a large following, mainly from touring and word of mouth. The band toured several countries throughout 1999 and 2000 in support of the album. In early 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; a first for an album released by Roadrunner Records.
Iowa (2001–2003)
Anticipation for Slipknot's second album was intense. In early 2001, the band began recording the second album at Sound City and Sound Image studios in Los Angeles. Around this time, conflicts arose between band members due to extensive touring and recording schedules. Recording of their second album ended in February 2001 and the band embarked on their Iowa World Tour. Entitled Iowa, Slipknot's second album—released on August 28, 2001—peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and at number one in the UK. The album produced three singles; "The Heretic Anthem" (promotional single), "Left Behind" and "My Plague", which appeared on the soundtrack for the film Resident Evil. In 2002, Slipknot appeared in Rollerball (2002), performing "I Am Hated". The release and intense promotion of the album resulted in sold-out shows in large arenas in several countries.
In mid-2002, Slipknot went on hiatus because of internal conflicts, and band members focused on side projects. Vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Jordison created Murderdolls with vocalist Wednesday 13, percussionist Crahan founded To My Surprise and DJ Wilson went solo as DJ Starscream. For a while, the future of Slipknot was uncertain and there was much speculation about whether there would be a third album, or if the split would become permanent. "I don't have a problem with anyone in Slipknot," Jordison protested. "I've seen comments from Corey saying there are things to be resolved, but I have no fucking idea what he's talking about."
Nonetheless, on November 22, 2002, Slipknot released their second DVD, Disasterpieces.
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2003–2007)
After several delays, Slipknot moved into The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, in mid-2003 to work on their third album alongside producer Rick Rubin. By early 2004, work on the album had finished and the band began The Subliminal Verses World Tour with their appearance on the Jägermeister Music Tour in March 2004. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released on May 24, 2004; it peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts. The album produced six singles; "Duality", "Vermilion", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "Before I Forget", "The Nameless", and The Blister Exists. Slipknot recorded its first live album, 9.0: Live, while touring in support of the band's third album. Released on November 1, 2005 9.0: Live peaked at number 17 on the Billboard album charts. Touring in support of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) continued through 2004 and up to the end of 2005 before Slipknot went on hiatus for the second time.
In 2005, several members of Slipknot were involved in Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions, a collaborative album recorded by artists signed to Roadrunner Records for the label's 25th anniversary. 2006 saw Slipknot win their first Grammy Award, picking up the Best Metal Performance award for the single "Before I Forget". The single went on to be featured on the set list of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On December 5, 2006, Slipknot released its third DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine. While Slipknot was on hiatus, several band members again focused their attentions on side projects; vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root returned to Stone Sour, drummer Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches of Blood's third album Fire Up the Blades, Crahan founded Dirty Little Rabbits and Wilson returned as DJ Starscream once again.
All Hope Is Gone and Gray's death (2008–2010)
Preparation for Slipknot's fourth album began towards the end of 2007; work began at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman in February 2008. The album was finished in June, and the band went on the All Hope Is Gone World Tour on July 9, 2008. Slipknot's fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released on August 20, 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard albums chart. The album produced five singles; "All Hope Is Gone", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Sulfur" and "Snuff". 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of Slipknot's debut album; to commemorate the event, the band released a special-edition version of Slipknot on September 9, 2009. The band toured in support of the album throughout 2008 and continued until October 31, 2009, resulting in Slipknot's third hiatus.
During the hiatus, several band members focused on respective side projects; Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band and returned to Stone Sour with guitarist Root; Crahan continued working with his band Dirty Little Rabbits; and drummer Jordison returned with his band Murderdolls and became the new permanent drummer of Rob Zombie. Meanwhile, percussionist Fehn became a full-time bassist with metalcore band Will Haven and Sid Wilson founded the eponymous band Sid.
In 2010, Gray was planning to tour with the supergroup, Hail!, but on May 24, 2010, he was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room. Circumstances surrounding his death at the time were not immediately known; an autopsy suspected his death was not intentional but did not reveal the cause. The day after his death, the remaining eight members of the band held a live, unmasked, press conference alongside Gray's widow and brother. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl.
The band was hesitant to comment on the future of Slipknot. The members made conflicting statements in interviews; drummer Jordison told The Pulse of Radio "there is another Slipknot record already kinda in the making". Vocalist Taylor told FMQB Productions he was "very conflicted about whether or not [he wants] to do anything with Slipknot". The band released their fourth video album (sic)nesses on September 28, 2010; it debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD features Slipknot's entire live performance at the 2009 Download Festival and a 45-minute film documenting their tour in support of All Hope Is Gone, and served as a tribute to Paul Gray.
Return to the stage, Antennas to Hell and Knotfest (2011–2012)
Regarding the continuation of Slipknot, Taylor told NME Gray would want them to continue and he felt they should but he was ambivalent about returning to the band. Slipknot returned to touring in 2011, performing a small number of shows in Europe. They headlined the Sonisphere Festival and Rock in Rio alongside Iron Maiden and Metallica, and performed at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting. Donnie Steele substituted for Gray in the concerts; he was positioned behind Jordison and obscured from the audience's view.
Slipknot also said the band would complete and release the band's fifth studio album, and that there were no plans to replace Gray. Jordison said the writing process for the album had already begun and that he had written 17 songs.
Slipknot performed at the Mayhem Festival tour of 2012.
On May 29, 2012, Roadrunner Records posted a teaser video titled Antennas to Hell on its website. Later that day, on Twitter, Corey Taylor said Slipknot will release a greatest hits album on June 17, 2012. He also said the band was not yet recording new material but was putting together demos for a new album.
Slipknot's first annual music festival, called Knotfest, was held on August 17, 2012, at Mid-America Motorplex near Pacific Junction, Iowa, and on August 18, 2012, in Somerset, Wisconsin. Deftones, Lamb of God, and Serj Tankian also performed at the festival. The festival shows also debuted a Slipknot museum. On 14, June 2013, Slipknot headlined the Download Festival for a second time. The band performed to roughly 90,000 people and was twice forced to stop the set—once in the middle of a song—to allow the front barricade, which had split open under crowd pressure, to be repaired.
Jordison's departure, .5: The Gray Chapter, and new members (2013–2016)
Production of the band's fifth album began in late 2013. Taylor described the album as "very dark" and a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Guitarist Jim Root did not participate in Stone Sour's January tour so he could write material for Slipknot.
On December 12, 2013, the band announced through its official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after 18 years, citing personal reasons. On his official Facebook page, Jordison later said he "did not quit Slipknot" and that he was "shocked" and "blindsided" by the news. Both Jordison and Slipknot independently promised to release further details about the split. Taylor said Jordison would not be appearing on the new album because he did not participate in any songwriting sessions before his departure. After years of both sides being silent and evasive as to the reasons for his leaving the band, Jordison revealed in June 2016 that he suffered from Transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that cost him the ability to play the drums toward the end of his time with Slipknot. However, Jordison played drums in the blackened death metal act Sinsaenum, which he joined in 2016.
In July 2014, Slipknot began releasing teasers for the new album on the band's website and social media using cryptic messages and gory imagery. "The Negative One", the band's first song in six years, was released on August 1; it was accompanied by a music video directed by Crahan that was released four days later. The video did not feature any band members. On August 24, Slipknot released an official radio single titled "The Devil In I", and the name of the upcoming album was announced as .5: The Gray Chapter on iTunes, with an expected release date of October 28. The release was later preponed to October 17 for the Netherlands and Australia, October 20 for the UK and October 21 worldwide. "The Negative One" was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support. The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia. A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively; Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.
Taylor later said he was upset at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band. On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.
On March 11, 2015, while the band was not touring, guitarist Mick Thomson was hospitalized after a drunken knife fight with his brother at Thomson's home in Iowa. The pair sustained serious, but non life-threatening, injuries. On August 2, 2015, during a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, the band was forced to stop performing after Venturella was suddenly rushed to hospital, after undergoing a medical emergency. After 20 minutes, singer Taylor told the audience the band would continue the concert, performing without Venturella. It was later discovered that Venturella had collapsed because of extreme dehydration.
On September 25, 2016, the band performed at their annual festival Knotfest, which was altered to include Ozzfest this year. They performed the Iowa album in its entirety. In the meanwhile, Crahan made his directorial debut with the feature film Officer Downe, based on a graphic novel of the same name and starring actor Kim Coates. In November 2016, Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that he and fellow guitarist Jim Root would be teaming up in February 2017 to begin writing new material for a new Slipknot album because "we want to write."
We Are Not Your Kind (2017–2020)
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor regrouped with his other band Stone Sour in 2017, and they released their album Hydrograd on June 30. Talking about his first work in cinema and the other Slipknot members' plans, in an interview with WRIF's Meltdown, Crahan revealed that "we're beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. We have songs that we've written that are amazing." In December 2017, Crahan appeared on The Jasta Show podcast, where he stated that the next Slipknot album could be his last with the band.
Corey Taylor revealed in October 2018 that the band would enter the studio in early 2019, with a targeted release for their sixth album that same year, followed by a world tour. On October 31, the single "All Out Life" was released, as was an accompanying music video. On March 4, 2019, the band announced that the release date for the next album would be August 9, 2019 and that they would be embarking on the Knotfest Roadshow along with support by Gojira, Volbeat, and Behemoth to support the album. On March 7, Slipknot were revealed to be the opening act for Metallica's six WorldWired Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand from October 17 through October 31.
On March 14, 2019, Chris Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band citing withheld payments. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of setting up several band-related business entities, in different states, that collect money from the band. Fehn called for full forensic accounting to be done on all of the band's companies and assets in order to collect any profits and damages he may be owed. On that same day, Taylor responded via Twitter with a tweet stating, "You're gonna read a lot of bullshit today. This is all I'll say. JUST YOU WAIT TIL THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Long Live The Knot". On March 18, 2019, the band officially announced, via their website, that Chris Fehn was no longer a member of the band, stating, "Slipknot's focus is on making album #6, and our upcoming shows around the world, our best ever. Chris knows why he is no longer a part of Slipknot. We are disappointed that he chose to point fingers and manufacture claims, rather than doing what was necessary to continue to be a part of Slipknot. We would have preferred he not take the path that he has, but evolution in all things is a necessary part of this life. Long Live The Knot". However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing. By May 2019, Fehn's employment status with the band had apparently changed, as evident by his missing name on the band's Instagram posts for their new masks. He was replaced by a percussionist, whose identity is concealed, who the fans have dubbed "Tortilla Man". Loudwire has reported that fans have linked his identity as Michael Pfaff, a former member of Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits. The band themselves have not confirmed this claim.
On May 13, 2019, the band teased something was coming on May 16, ahead of their performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as screenshots of their new masks. On that day, the album's title was revealed to be We Are Not Your Kind, along with its tracklist and a music video for "Unsainted", where the new masks and outfits for the nine band members were shown for the first time, including an as-yet-unknown new percussionist. on July 22, they released the second single, from their upcoming album, titled "Solway Firth". This was accompanied by a music video which featured live footage from their 2019 shows as well as clips and audio from The Boys . On August 5, "Birth of the Cruel" was released as the album's third single, accompanied by a music video. On August 9, four days after they had released “Birth of the Cruel” they released their sixth album We Are Not Your Kind.
In August 2019, Crahan announced the band will release an experimental album of outtakes from the 2008 All Hope Is Gone sessions, titled Look Outside Your Window. The album was recorded with just 4 members (Crahan, Taylor, Root, and Wilson), in a different studio away from the other members, is expected to have 11 tracks that Taylor described as having a "Radiohead vibe", and Crahan saying in 2018 "it is not a Slipknot album". The band also released a twenty-minute experimental short film directed by Crahan and titled Pollution. One of the segments of the film is the music video for the song, "Nero Forte".
Seventh studio album and Jordison's death (2021−present)
On May 19, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that the band had been currently making "god music". In an article published by Loudwire on June 9, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that a new Slipknot album would ‘hopefully’ be released in 2021. He also added that the band would be parting ways with Roadrunner Records following the release of the album.
On July 26, 2021, the band's former drummer, Joey Jordison, died in his sleep at the age of 46.
In November 2021, the band started teasing new material on a new domain thechapeltownrag.com. Several snippets of a song were shown on the website leading to speculation of a new single that the band would later confirm on November 4, with the single titled "The Chapeltown Rag" slated for release the following day alongside its live debut at the Knotfest Roadshow in Los Angeles, California on November 5, 2021. In December 2021, Taylor revealed that the band were planning on mixing their seventh studio album in January, and are planning on releasing it by April 2022. He also stated that he preferred the material on their forthcoming seventh studio album to that on We Are Not Your Kind.
Artistry
Musical style
Slipknot is considered a nu metal band. The band's members prefer to distance themselves musically from other nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Slipknot describes its sound as "metal metal" and regards the link to nu metal as coincidental and a result of nu metal's emergence being concurrent with that of Slipknot. The band's sound typically features a heavily down-tuned guitar setup, a large percussive section, sampling, keyboards and DJing/turntablism. Using a variety of vocal styles, the music typically features growled vocals, screaming, backing vocals, as well as melodic singing. The band has continually experimented with its sound, most notably developing tracks led by acoustic guitars and melodic singing that first appeared on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses).
The album All Hope Is Gone is considered a groove metal album with elements of death metal and thrash metal. The band has also been described as heavy metal, alternative metal groove metal, death metal, hard rock, grindcore, thrash metal, and rap metal.
Lyrics
Slipknot's lyrics are generally very aggressive; they sometimes include profanity while exploring themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy, and psychosis. They often draw upon topics including the music industry, politics, personal strife, and reflection, among others. Rick Anderson of Allmusic said, "those lyrics that are discernible are not generally quotable on a family website". On Vol. 3, Taylor deliberately avoided using profanity in response to claims he relied on it.
Influences
Slipknot cited both Korn's self-titled album of 1994 and Limp Bizkit's album Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ of 1997 as major influences. However, the band's biggest influence, both on their image and music, has been singer Mike Patton and his bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Faith No More. Corey Taylor even stated that watching Faith No More perform on the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards saved his life. In an interview in 2000 Patton called the Slipknot members "really nice guys".
The band Kiss has been a big influence for Slipknot, both musically and image-wise. Several band members have in numerous interviews stated the impact Kiss had on them when growing up. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Joey Jordison said that "I saw Kiss on The Dick Clark Show in like, 1980 or something, and Kiss Alive! was the first record of theirs I had. This was back when you bought cassettes or records, and I still have my original cassette copy of it. And I tell you what, it just blew my mind! The cover tells you everything you need to know; it just makes you want to listen to the whole fucking record. And these guys look like fucking demons — you don't know when you're a kid and you're watching them on TV that it's just guys in makeup. So yeah, it was inspiring back then. They were a huge influence on me when I was a kid. And that record came out in 1975, so I was always like, "That's fucking badass — one of my favorite records of all time came out the year I was born!". In another interview with Loudwire, he also added that after listening to Kiss Alive! for the first, he was "changed forever, and then [he] just became completely engulfed in metal." Guitarist Mick Thomson revealed in Metal Hammer that Kiss' Destroyer was the first album he ever bought, and when talking about Kiss' Alive II; he stated that "...the artwork on Alive II with Gene's sweat running, the blood coming from his face and the make-up running had a profound influence on me. You only have to look at my own band to see how much so." Vocalist Corey Taylor has stated that Kiss were a huge influence on both him and the rest of the band and he has also covered multiple Kiss songs over the years; both as a solo artist as well as with Stone Sour, in which Slipknot guitarist Jim Root also played at the time.
Many authors single out the massive influence that experimental band Mr. Bungle has had on Slipknot; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members of Mr. Bungle donned strange masks (often clown and gimp ones), costumes (including jumpsuits) and hid their identities behind obscure pseudonyms. All of these were major features on their 1991 self-titled album cycle. Their creepy music videos from that record, such as "Travolta" which was banned on MTV, also pointed out at what would be the future image of Slipknot. In the same way, the musical influence of Mr. Bungle is evident in the eclecticism and adventurousness throughout Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Slipknot's first release of 1996, although the band added more metallic elements. A few songs on that album also hint at the eccentric catchiness of Faith No More and other funk metal bands.
While Slipknot was making its debut studio release, the entire band attended one of the first shows by avant-garde grindcore supergroup Fantômas-composed of Patton, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn-which greatly influenced them at the time. From that
album on, Slipknot has displayed a much more straightforward, extreme metal sound, largely because of producer Ross Robinson, and some writers have identified the influence of Faith No More on some tracks'
structures and alternating melodies from Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). On the other hand, the experimental imprint of Bungle has become rare, but it made a sudden reappearance on 2019's We Are Not Your Kind.
The members of Slipknot are also influenced by Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Deicide, Pantera, Anthrax, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sepultura, White Zombie, Alice in Chains, Malevolent Creation, Danny Heifetz, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Melvins, N.W.A, Skinny Puppy, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Emperor, Beastie Boys, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Misfits, Gorefest, Run-DMC, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica. Taylor has spoken of his admiration for vocalists Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield. In 1999, Chris Fehn said Sid Wilson is influenced by jungle music and rave music.
Stage performances
Slipknot is known for its chaotic, energetic live shows that contributed to the band's success. During performances, most of the band's members headbang heavily. The band's early performances included extreme acts such as stage dives from high balconies and band members setting each other on fire. Clown was known to go into the crowd and tie people up with the microphone cord. In later years, they tended to refrain from acts this extreme. Former bassist Paul Gray said this was due to receiving lawsuits and to avoid harming other people, and that it was a "better move" for the longevity of the band. Along with the energetic and unpredictable performances, Slipknot often use elaborate stage setups that use pyrotechnics, elevated stage areas, hydraulic drum risers, and computer screens. Reviewing a Slipknot performance, Alistair Lawrence of Kerrang! said, "the choreographed chaos is too multi-faceted to fully describe". and NME described one Slipknot show as "a scene of chaos".
Image and identities
The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms—typically jumpsuits—while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray.
The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'".
During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George.
The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public.
In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called Slipknot: Wear the Mask, which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are.
Logo and nonagram
An essential element for the band's image is the Slipknot logo. The nonagram was created by the band's members around the same time the band was founded. The nonagram is arguably the best-known sigil of Slipknot and it represents a 9-point star—a symbol of unity, loyalty, friendship and remembrance. The logo is composed of three equilateral triangles each rotated at 0, 40, and 80 degrees. Each star point was meant to stand for each of the nine members of the original band, with at least one member, Chris Fehn, possessing a nonagram tattoo. Despite popular belief, the nonagram is not a Satanist symbol and instead represents Slipknot's "battle with the fake world."
The pre-release of the 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter also witnessed a major change in the band's logo and branding strategy. A new nonagram drew the public's attention towards the band, announcing the beginning of a new era. The black and red color scheme and the minimalist, elegant design received public appreciation and it is still used today.
Clothing brand
In 2008, Slipknot launched their clothing line Tattered and Torn. Named after a song on their 1999 self-titled debut, the line runs as an imprint of Bravado, a company that runs the band's merchandising. While the band recognize that their merchandise is their biggest revenue income, they insist Tattered and Torn is more than just band merchandising. Vocalist Corey Taylor said, "It's a way for [the fans] to get cool clothing at affordable prices." The first items from the clothing line went on sale in late July 2008 through Hot Topic stores across North America and the Hot Topic website. Currently, the line is limited to shirts and hoodies but was expected to develop into a full-range clothing line.
Controversies
Slipknot's music and image have been the subject of many controversies throughout its career. The lyrical content of some of Slipknot's songs has been linked to several violent and criminal incidents. In 2003, two young killers blamed the lyrics of "Disasterpiece" for their crime. In 2006, the lyrics of "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbery.
In 2008, Corey Taylor commented on a slashing incident at a South African school to which Slipknot was linked; he said: ... obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died, as far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive ... there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost.
Slipknot had a longstanding feud with the band Mushroomhead which—along with their fans—said Slipknot "stole their image". While Slipknot acknowledged their images had similarities, its members were not actively involved in the feud, saying the similarities were coincidental. Taylor said, "we both started at the same time—neither one of us knowing anything about each other". Taylor also said that at a live show in Cleveland, Ohio, several Mushroomhead fans threw objects including a fistsized padlock at Slipknot and that when Slipknot's set was finished, Machine Head and Amen went into the crowd and "handled it right there". In 2009, former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis said his band's members were no longer interested in feuding with Slipknot, saying, "they're not the first masked band, we're not, no one was". During an interview with Rock Rage Radio, Reavis praised Slipknot as he criticized his former bandmates after a dispute with the band's founding members which led to his dismissal. He stated that Slipknot was better and he admitted that his thoughts were personal, since he was not involved with Mushroomhead when the feud started.
Slipknot's 2005 lawsuit against Burger King said the company created the advertising-based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. Burger King responded with a countersuit, saying many other bands, such as Mr. Bungle, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne, Kiss, Insane Clown Posse, and Gwar have used masks as part of their images. After negotiations, the advertising campaign and lawsuit were withdrawn.
Members
Current members
(#6) Shawn "Clown" Crahan – percussion, backing vocals ; samples, media
(#5) Craig "133" Jones – samples, media, keyboards ; guitars
(#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
(#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
(#0) Sid Wilson – turntables ; keyboards
(#4) Jim Root – guitars
Alessandro Venturella – bass ; keyboards
Jay Weinberg – drums
"Tortilla Man" – percussion, backing vocals
Former members
(#1) Joey Jordison – drums
Donnie Steele – guitars ; bass
(#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
(#4) Josh "Gnar" Brainard – guitars, backing vocals
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals, percussion ; backing vocals ; samples, media
(#3) Greg "Cuddles" Welts – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Brandon Darner – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
Timeline
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards and nominations
Slipknot have been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and have won one.
|-
| || "Wait and Bleed" ||rowspan="3"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Left Behind" ||
|-
| || "My Plague" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| || "Duality" || Best Hard Rock Performance ||
|-
| "Vermilion" ||rowspan="5"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Before I Forget" ||
|-
| || "Psychosocial" ||
|-
| || "The Negative One" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2016 || "Custer" ||
|-
| .5: The Gray Chapter || Best Rock Album ||
Discography
Studio albums
Slipknot (1999)
Iowa (2001)
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
All Hope Is Gone (2008)
.5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
We Are Not Your Kind (2019)
Notable tours
World Domination Tour (1999–2000)
Tattoo the Earth (2000)
Iowa World Tour (2001–2002)
The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005)
All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009)
Memorial World Tour (2011–2013)
As a support act
Livin la Vida Loco Tour (1999)
Festivals
Ozzfest (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013)
Knotfest (2012, 2014–present)
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
American alternative metal musical groups
American groove metal musical groups
American nu metal musical groups
Grammy Award winners
Heavy metal musical groups from Iowa
Kerrang! Awards winners
Bands with fictional stage personas
Musical groups established in 1995
Roadrunner Records artists
1995 establishments in Iowa
Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa
Masked musicians | true | [
"Kathryn Cave (born 1948 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England) is a British children's book author. She was awarded the very first international UNESCO prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance for Something Else. The book was later made into a TV comic series by TV Loonland. A theatre company, Tall Stories, has adapted Something Else as a children's production, and they ran a UK tour in Autumn 2009.\n\nShe has three children, Eleanor, Joseph, and Alice, and six grandchildren. Kathryn has previously worked as an editor for Penguin and Basil Blackwell, and she currently works under contract for Frances Lincoln, an independent publishing house in North London.\n\nShe lives in Hampstead, North London.\n\nBooks\n Dragonrise (1984)\n Just My Luck (1987)\n Poor Little Mary (1989)\nHenry Hobbs, Alien (1990)\n Running Battles (1992)\nAndrew Takes the Plunge (1994)\n Best Friends for Ever (1994)\nJumble (1995)\nThe Emperor's Gruckle Hound (1996)\nWilliam and the Wolves (1999)\nSeptimus Similon, Practising Wizard (2000)\nHenry Hobbs, Space Voyager (2001)\nHenry Hobbs and the Lost Planet (2002)\n\nPicture books\nOut for the Count (1991) illustrated by Chris Riddell\nSomething Else (1994) illustrated by Chris Riddell\n Horatio Happened (1998) illustrated by Chris Riddell\n W is for World (1998) illustrated by Oxfam\n Henry's Song (2000) illustrated by Sue Hendra\n The Boy Who Became an Eagle (2000) illustrated by Nick Maland\n The Brave Little Grork (2002) illustrated by Nick Maland\n One Child, One Seed (2002) illustrated by Oxfam\n You've Got Dragons (2003) illustrated by Nick Maland\n That's What Friends Do (2004) illustrated by Nick Maland\n Friends (2005) illustrated by Nick Maland\n\nAwards\n 1997 Die Kinder- und Jugendbuchliste (RB/SR) in Germany for Something Else\n 1997 UNESCO prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance for Something Else\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nBritish children's writers\n1948 births\nPeople from Aldershot",
"Fredrick Else (31 March 193320 July 2015) was an English footballer, who played as a goalkeeper. Else gained over 600 professional appearances in his career playing for three clubs, Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers and Barrow.\n\nClub career\nElse was born in Golborne near Wigan on 31 March 1933. Whilst on national service in the north-east he played for amateur club Axwell Park Colliery Welfare in the Derwent Valley League. He attracted the attention of Football League teams and signed as a junior for Preston North End in 1951, and as a professional in 1953. He made his debut for Preston against Manchester City in 1954, but was restricted to 14 appearances over his first three seasons. He eventually became first choice, displacing George Thompson, and played 238 times for North End. During this time Preston's most successful season came in 1957–58, when the club finished as runners up in Division One.\n\nThe 1960–61 season ended in relegation for Preston and Else was sold to neighbours Blackburn Rovers for £20,000. Else became a first choice for Blackburn straight away and played 221 times for the club. A collarbone injury in 1964–65 resulted in a period out of the game, though Else returned to regain the goalkeeper's jersey at Blackburn. Nonetheless the team were relegated the following season and Else was released. During the summer of 1966 Else signed with Barrow of the Fourth Division. Else became part of Barrow's most successful team, with the side winning promotion to the Third Division in his first season there. Else was Barrow's first choice keeper for the entire period that they were in the third division, and played 148 league matches for the club. He retired from football after Barrow's relegation in 1970 following a leg infection. His final season included a brief stint as caretaker manager at Barrow.\n\nHonours\n Football League Division One Runner-up 1957–1958\n Football League Division Four Promotion 1966–1967\n\nInternational career\nElse has been described by fans of the clubs that he played for as one of the best English goalkeepers never to win a full international cap. He did, however, make one appearance for the England B team in 1957 against Scotland B, as well as participating in a Football Association touring side of 1961.\n\nPersonal life and death\nElse met his wife Marjorie in 1949 in Douglas on the Isle of Man. They married when Else was 22 and Marjorie 20, on 29 October 1955, a Saturday morning. The wedding was held in Marjorie's home town of Blackpool and the date was chosen so that the couple could marry in the morning and Else could then travel either to Deepdale, to play for Preston North End's reserve team, or to Bloomfield Road where Preston's first team was due to be playing Blackpool F.C. In the event Else was selected for the reserves and the couple had to travel by bus to Preston.\n\nAfter retiring from football, Else remained in Barrow-in-Furness, becoming a geography and maths teacher at a local secondary school. He retired from teaching in 1999 and moved to Cyprus, though still attended some Barrow matches. Else died in Barrow-in-Furness on 20 July 2015, aged 82.\n\nReferences\n\n2015 deaths\n1933 births\nBarrow A.F.C. managers\nBarrow A.F.C. players\nBlackburn Rovers F.C. players\nPreston North End F.C. players\nPeople from Golborne\nEnglish footballers\nAssociation football goalkeepers\nSchoolteachers from Cumbria\nEnglish Football League players\nEngland B international footballers\nEnglish football managers"
]
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[
"Slipknot (band)",
"Image and identities",
"what was their image?",
"attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits",
"what other things played a part in their image?",
"The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases.",
"What else were they known for?",
"Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives."
]
| C_f31f0e7d00714137ad76b19336e378be_0 | Were they successful? | 4 | Were Slipknot (band) members successful? | Slipknot (band) | The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits--while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray. The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'". During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George. The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask", which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are. CANNOTANSWER | The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. | Slipknot is an American heavy metal band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Gray died on May 24, 2010, and was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison was dismissed from the band on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Fehn was also dismissed from the band in March 2019 prior to the writing of We Are Not Your Kind.
Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows. The band rapidly rose to fame following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album, Iowa, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. Their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, was released on August 9, 2019. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, and five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
History
Background (1991-1995)
In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera. Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, and Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni later took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan often went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth, writing and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot"; another was titled "Painface", which Colsefni later used to name his band Painface.
In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed occasionally with this group. Brainard eventually left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of '93 and early in '94. During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed a death metal band called Body Pit, soon becoming popular in the local scene. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up.
In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started a band named the Pale Ones. The lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer, moving Crahan to percussion. Furthermore, Colsefni also took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist. The band then decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut; playing a benefit show using the name Meld.
Demo recording and beginnings (1995–1998)
Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray, Crahan and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights. It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at SR Audio, a studio in the band's hometown. As they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: "(he) was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons...I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist. After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996.
Distribution for the demo was initially left to the band and their producer Sean McMahon, before it was handed over to the distribution company -ismist Recordings in early 1997. Slipknot received a small amount of airplay on local radio stations off the back of the demo. However, it did not lead to any kind of interest from record labels, so the band returned to the studio to develop new material. It was at this time that the band sought more melodic vocals for their music. As a result, Corey Taylor was recruited from fellow Des Moines band Stone Sour; this moved Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion. While working in the studio, Slipknot continued to do local shows, during one of which in September 1997, Colsefni announced on stage that he was leaving the band. The gap on percussion was filled by Greg Welts, who was affectionately known as "Cuddles". In early 1998, Slipknot produced a second demo featuring five tracks exclusively for record labels. The band began to receive a lot of attention from record labels, and in February 1998, producer Ross Robinson offered to produce their debut album after attending rehearsals in Des Moines. Soon after, DJ Sid Wilson was recruited as the band's ninth member after showing great interest and impressing band members. In late June, Slipknot received a $500,000, seven-album deal, from Roadrunner Records; the band signed the deal publicly on July 8, 1998. Two days prior to this, Welts was fired from the band, something which Slipknot refuse to comment on. Welts was replaced by Brandon Darner, who departed from the band shortly after joining.
Self-titled album and emergence (1998–2000)
Chris Fehn was brought in to replace Darner on percussion before Slipknot traveled to Malibu, California, to work on their debut album in September 1998. Partway through the recording process of the album, Slipknot returned to Des Moines for the Christmas period. During that period, guitarist Brainard decided to leave the band. Brainard said, "some decisions were made that I wasn't particularly happy with". Slipknot later recruited Jim Root to complete their lineup and the band returned to Malibu to continue work on the album. Work on the album concluded in early 1999, allowing the band to go on their first tour as part of the Ozzfest lineup in 1999. Ozzfest greatly increased Slipknot's audience, furthering the band's success with their self-titled album that was released on June 29, 1999. Slipknot released its first home video Welcome to Our Neighborhood, which was directed by Thomas Mignone, and the singles "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out", which were also directed by Mignone. The singles received some airplay, but Slipknot quickly developed a large following, mainly from touring and word of mouth. The band toured several countries throughout 1999 and 2000 in support of the album. In early 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; a first for an album released by Roadrunner Records.
Iowa (2001–2003)
Anticipation for Slipknot's second album was intense. In early 2001, the band began recording the second album at Sound City and Sound Image studios in Los Angeles. Around this time, conflicts arose between band members due to extensive touring and recording schedules. Recording of their second album ended in February 2001 and the band embarked on their Iowa World Tour. Entitled Iowa, Slipknot's second album—released on August 28, 2001—peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and at number one in the UK. The album produced three singles; "The Heretic Anthem" (promotional single), "Left Behind" and "My Plague", which appeared on the soundtrack for the film Resident Evil. In 2002, Slipknot appeared in Rollerball (2002), performing "I Am Hated". The release and intense promotion of the album resulted in sold-out shows in large arenas in several countries.
In mid-2002, Slipknot went on hiatus because of internal conflicts, and band members focused on side projects. Vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Jordison created Murderdolls with vocalist Wednesday 13, percussionist Crahan founded To My Surprise and DJ Wilson went solo as DJ Starscream. For a while, the future of Slipknot was uncertain and there was much speculation about whether there would be a third album, or if the split would become permanent. "I don't have a problem with anyone in Slipknot," Jordison protested. "I've seen comments from Corey saying there are things to be resolved, but I have no fucking idea what he's talking about."
Nonetheless, on November 22, 2002, Slipknot released their second DVD, Disasterpieces.
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2003–2007)
After several delays, Slipknot moved into The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, in mid-2003 to work on their third album alongside producer Rick Rubin. By early 2004, work on the album had finished and the band began The Subliminal Verses World Tour with their appearance on the Jägermeister Music Tour in March 2004. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released on May 24, 2004; it peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts. The album produced six singles; "Duality", "Vermilion", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "Before I Forget", "The Nameless", and The Blister Exists. Slipknot recorded its first live album, 9.0: Live, while touring in support of the band's third album. Released on November 1, 2005 9.0: Live peaked at number 17 on the Billboard album charts. Touring in support of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) continued through 2004 and up to the end of 2005 before Slipknot went on hiatus for the second time.
In 2005, several members of Slipknot were involved in Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions, a collaborative album recorded by artists signed to Roadrunner Records for the label's 25th anniversary. 2006 saw Slipknot win their first Grammy Award, picking up the Best Metal Performance award for the single "Before I Forget". The single went on to be featured on the set list of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On December 5, 2006, Slipknot released its third DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine. While Slipknot was on hiatus, several band members again focused their attentions on side projects; vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root returned to Stone Sour, drummer Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches of Blood's third album Fire Up the Blades, Crahan founded Dirty Little Rabbits and Wilson returned as DJ Starscream once again.
All Hope Is Gone and Gray's death (2008–2010)
Preparation for Slipknot's fourth album began towards the end of 2007; work began at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman in February 2008. The album was finished in June, and the band went on the All Hope Is Gone World Tour on July 9, 2008. Slipknot's fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released on August 20, 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard albums chart. The album produced five singles; "All Hope Is Gone", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Sulfur" and "Snuff". 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of Slipknot's debut album; to commemorate the event, the band released a special-edition version of Slipknot on September 9, 2009. The band toured in support of the album throughout 2008 and continued until October 31, 2009, resulting in Slipknot's third hiatus.
During the hiatus, several band members focused on respective side projects; Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band and returned to Stone Sour with guitarist Root; Crahan continued working with his band Dirty Little Rabbits; and drummer Jordison returned with his band Murderdolls and became the new permanent drummer of Rob Zombie. Meanwhile, percussionist Fehn became a full-time bassist with metalcore band Will Haven and Sid Wilson founded the eponymous band Sid.
In 2010, Gray was planning to tour with the supergroup, Hail!, but on May 24, 2010, he was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room. Circumstances surrounding his death at the time were not immediately known; an autopsy suspected his death was not intentional but did not reveal the cause. The day after his death, the remaining eight members of the band held a live, unmasked, press conference alongside Gray's widow and brother. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl.
The band was hesitant to comment on the future of Slipknot. The members made conflicting statements in interviews; drummer Jordison told The Pulse of Radio "there is another Slipknot record already kinda in the making". Vocalist Taylor told FMQB Productions he was "very conflicted about whether or not [he wants] to do anything with Slipknot". The band released their fourth video album (sic)nesses on September 28, 2010; it debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD features Slipknot's entire live performance at the 2009 Download Festival and a 45-minute film documenting their tour in support of All Hope Is Gone, and served as a tribute to Paul Gray.
Return to the stage, Antennas to Hell and Knotfest (2011–2012)
Regarding the continuation of Slipknot, Taylor told NME Gray would want them to continue and he felt they should but he was ambivalent about returning to the band. Slipknot returned to touring in 2011, performing a small number of shows in Europe. They headlined the Sonisphere Festival and Rock in Rio alongside Iron Maiden and Metallica, and performed at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting. Donnie Steele substituted for Gray in the concerts; he was positioned behind Jordison and obscured from the audience's view.
Slipknot also said the band would complete and release the band's fifth studio album, and that there were no plans to replace Gray. Jordison said the writing process for the album had already begun and that he had written 17 songs.
Slipknot performed at the Mayhem Festival tour of 2012.
On May 29, 2012, Roadrunner Records posted a teaser video titled Antennas to Hell on its website. Later that day, on Twitter, Corey Taylor said Slipknot will release a greatest hits album on June 17, 2012. He also said the band was not yet recording new material but was putting together demos for a new album.
Slipknot's first annual music festival, called Knotfest, was held on August 17, 2012, at Mid-America Motorplex near Pacific Junction, Iowa, and on August 18, 2012, in Somerset, Wisconsin. Deftones, Lamb of God, and Serj Tankian also performed at the festival. The festival shows also debuted a Slipknot museum. On 14, June 2013, Slipknot headlined the Download Festival for a second time. The band performed to roughly 90,000 people and was twice forced to stop the set—once in the middle of a song—to allow the front barricade, which had split open under crowd pressure, to be repaired.
Jordison's departure, .5: The Gray Chapter, and new members (2013–2016)
Production of the band's fifth album began in late 2013. Taylor described the album as "very dark" and a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Guitarist Jim Root did not participate in Stone Sour's January tour so he could write material for Slipknot.
On December 12, 2013, the band announced through its official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after 18 years, citing personal reasons. On his official Facebook page, Jordison later said he "did not quit Slipknot" and that he was "shocked" and "blindsided" by the news. Both Jordison and Slipknot independently promised to release further details about the split. Taylor said Jordison would not be appearing on the new album because he did not participate in any songwriting sessions before his departure. After years of both sides being silent and evasive as to the reasons for his leaving the band, Jordison revealed in June 2016 that he suffered from Transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that cost him the ability to play the drums toward the end of his time with Slipknot. However, Jordison played drums in the blackened death metal act Sinsaenum, which he joined in 2016.
In July 2014, Slipknot began releasing teasers for the new album on the band's website and social media using cryptic messages and gory imagery. "The Negative One", the band's first song in six years, was released on August 1; it was accompanied by a music video directed by Crahan that was released four days later. The video did not feature any band members. On August 24, Slipknot released an official radio single titled "The Devil In I", and the name of the upcoming album was announced as .5: The Gray Chapter on iTunes, with an expected release date of October 28. The release was later preponed to October 17 for the Netherlands and Australia, October 20 for the UK and October 21 worldwide. "The Negative One" was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support. The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia. A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively; Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.
Taylor later said he was upset at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band. On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.
On March 11, 2015, while the band was not touring, guitarist Mick Thomson was hospitalized after a drunken knife fight with his brother at Thomson's home in Iowa. The pair sustained serious, but non life-threatening, injuries. On August 2, 2015, during a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, the band was forced to stop performing after Venturella was suddenly rushed to hospital, after undergoing a medical emergency. After 20 minutes, singer Taylor told the audience the band would continue the concert, performing without Venturella. It was later discovered that Venturella had collapsed because of extreme dehydration.
On September 25, 2016, the band performed at their annual festival Knotfest, which was altered to include Ozzfest this year. They performed the Iowa album in its entirety. In the meanwhile, Crahan made his directorial debut with the feature film Officer Downe, based on a graphic novel of the same name and starring actor Kim Coates. In November 2016, Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that he and fellow guitarist Jim Root would be teaming up in February 2017 to begin writing new material for a new Slipknot album because "we want to write."
We Are Not Your Kind (2017–2020)
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor regrouped with his other band Stone Sour in 2017, and they released their album Hydrograd on June 30. Talking about his first work in cinema and the other Slipknot members' plans, in an interview with WRIF's Meltdown, Crahan revealed that "we're beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. We have songs that we've written that are amazing." In December 2017, Crahan appeared on The Jasta Show podcast, where he stated that the next Slipknot album could be his last with the band.
Corey Taylor revealed in October 2018 that the band would enter the studio in early 2019, with a targeted release for their sixth album that same year, followed by a world tour. On October 31, the single "All Out Life" was released, as was an accompanying music video. On March 4, 2019, the band announced that the release date for the next album would be August 9, 2019 and that they would be embarking on the Knotfest Roadshow along with support by Gojira, Volbeat, and Behemoth to support the album. On March 7, Slipknot were revealed to be the opening act for Metallica's six WorldWired Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand from October 17 through October 31.
On March 14, 2019, Chris Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band citing withheld payments. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of setting up several band-related business entities, in different states, that collect money from the band. Fehn called for full forensic accounting to be done on all of the band's companies and assets in order to collect any profits and damages he may be owed. On that same day, Taylor responded via Twitter with a tweet stating, "You're gonna read a lot of bullshit today. This is all I'll say. JUST YOU WAIT TIL THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Long Live The Knot". On March 18, 2019, the band officially announced, via their website, that Chris Fehn was no longer a member of the band, stating, "Slipknot's focus is on making album #6, and our upcoming shows around the world, our best ever. Chris knows why he is no longer a part of Slipknot. We are disappointed that he chose to point fingers and manufacture claims, rather than doing what was necessary to continue to be a part of Slipknot. We would have preferred he not take the path that he has, but evolution in all things is a necessary part of this life. Long Live The Knot". However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing. By May 2019, Fehn's employment status with the band had apparently changed, as evident by his missing name on the band's Instagram posts for their new masks. He was replaced by a percussionist, whose identity is concealed, who the fans have dubbed "Tortilla Man". Loudwire has reported that fans have linked his identity as Michael Pfaff, a former member of Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits. The band themselves have not confirmed this claim.
On May 13, 2019, the band teased something was coming on May 16, ahead of their performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as screenshots of their new masks. On that day, the album's title was revealed to be We Are Not Your Kind, along with its tracklist and a music video for "Unsainted", where the new masks and outfits for the nine band members were shown for the first time, including an as-yet-unknown new percussionist. on July 22, they released the second single, from their upcoming album, titled "Solway Firth". This was accompanied by a music video which featured live footage from their 2019 shows as well as clips and audio from The Boys . On August 5, "Birth of the Cruel" was released as the album's third single, accompanied by a music video. On August 9, four days after they had released “Birth of the Cruel” they released their sixth album We Are Not Your Kind.
In August 2019, Crahan announced the band will release an experimental album of outtakes from the 2008 All Hope Is Gone sessions, titled Look Outside Your Window. The album was recorded with just 4 members (Crahan, Taylor, Root, and Wilson), in a different studio away from the other members, is expected to have 11 tracks that Taylor described as having a "Radiohead vibe", and Crahan saying in 2018 "it is not a Slipknot album". The band also released a twenty-minute experimental short film directed by Crahan and titled Pollution. One of the segments of the film is the music video for the song, "Nero Forte".
Seventh studio album and Jordison's death (2021−present)
On May 19, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that the band had been currently making "god music". In an article published by Loudwire on June 9, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that a new Slipknot album would ‘hopefully’ be released in 2021. He also added that the band would be parting ways with Roadrunner Records following the release of the album.
On July 26, 2021, the band's former drummer, Joey Jordison, died in his sleep at the age of 46.
In November 2021, the band started teasing new material on a new domain thechapeltownrag.com. Several snippets of a song were shown on the website leading to speculation of a new single that the band would later confirm on November 4, with the single titled "The Chapeltown Rag" slated for release the following day alongside its live debut at the Knotfest Roadshow in Los Angeles, California on November 5, 2021. In December 2021, Taylor revealed that the band were planning on mixing their seventh studio album in January, and are planning on releasing it by April 2022. He also stated that he preferred the material on their forthcoming seventh studio album to that on We Are Not Your Kind.
Artistry
Musical style
Slipknot is considered a nu metal band. The band's members prefer to distance themselves musically from other nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Slipknot describes its sound as "metal metal" and regards the link to nu metal as coincidental and a result of nu metal's emergence being concurrent with that of Slipknot. The band's sound typically features a heavily down-tuned guitar setup, a large percussive section, sampling, keyboards and DJing/turntablism. Using a variety of vocal styles, the music typically features growled vocals, screaming, backing vocals, as well as melodic singing. The band has continually experimented with its sound, most notably developing tracks led by acoustic guitars and melodic singing that first appeared on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses).
The album All Hope Is Gone is considered a groove metal album with elements of death metal and thrash metal. The band has also been described as heavy metal, alternative metal groove metal, death metal, hard rock, grindcore, thrash metal, and rap metal.
Lyrics
Slipknot's lyrics are generally very aggressive; they sometimes include profanity while exploring themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy, and psychosis. They often draw upon topics including the music industry, politics, personal strife, and reflection, among others. Rick Anderson of Allmusic said, "those lyrics that are discernible are not generally quotable on a family website". On Vol. 3, Taylor deliberately avoided using profanity in response to claims he relied on it.
Influences
Slipknot cited both Korn's self-titled album of 1994 and Limp Bizkit's album Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ of 1997 as major influences. However, the band's biggest influence, both on their image and music, has been singer Mike Patton and his bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Faith No More. Corey Taylor even stated that watching Faith No More perform on the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards saved his life. In an interview in 2000 Patton called the Slipknot members "really nice guys".
The band Kiss has been a big influence for Slipknot, both musically and image-wise. Several band members have in numerous interviews stated the impact Kiss had on them when growing up. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Joey Jordison said that "I saw Kiss on The Dick Clark Show in like, 1980 or something, and Kiss Alive! was the first record of theirs I had. This was back when you bought cassettes or records, and I still have my original cassette copy of it. And I tell you what, it just blew my mind! The cover tells you everything you need to know; it just makes you want to listen to the whole fucking record. And these guys look like fucking demons — you don't know when you're a kid and you're watching them on TV that it's just guys in makeup. So yeah, it was inspiring back then. They were a huge influence on me when I was a kid. And that record came out in 1975, so I was always like, "That's fucking badass — one of my favorite records of all time came out the year I was born!". In another interview with Loudwire, he also added that after listening to Kiss Alive! for the first, he was "changed forever, and then [he] just became completely engulfed in metal." Guitarist Mick Thomson revealed in Metal Hammer that Kiss' Destroyer was the first album he ever bought, and when talking about Kiss' Alive II; he stated that "...the artwork on Alive II with Gene's sweat running, the blood coming from his face and the make-up running had a profound influence on me. You only have to look at my own band to see how much so." Vocalist Corey Taylor has stated that Kiss were a huge influence on both him and the rest of the band and he has also covered multiple Kiss songs over the years; both as a solo artist as well as with Stone Sour, in which Slipknot guitarist Jim Root also played at the time.
Many authors single out the massive influence that experimental band Mr. Bungle has had on Slipknot; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members of Mr. Bungle donned strange masks (often clown and gimp ones), costumes (including jumpsuits) and hid their identities behind obscure pseudonyms. All of these were major features on their 1991 self-titled album cycle. Their creepy music videos from that record, such as "Travolta" which was banned on MTV, also pointed out at what would be the future image of Slipknot. In the same way, the musical influence of Mr. Bungle is evident in the eclecticism and adventurousness throughout Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Slipknot's first release of 1996, although the band added more metallic elements. A few songs on that album also hint at the eccentric catchiness of Faith No More and other funk metal bands.
While Slipknot was making its debut studio release, the entire band attended one of the first shows by avant-garde grindcore supergroup Fantômas-composed of Patton, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn-which greatly influenced them at the time. From that
album on, Slipknot has displayed a much more straightforward, extreme metal sound, largely because of producer Ross Robinson, and some writers have identified the influence of Faith No More on some tracks'
structures and alternating melodies from Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). On the other hand, the experimental imprint of Bungle has become rare, but it made a sudden reappearance on 2019's We Are Not Your Kind.
The members of Slipknot are also influenced by Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Deicide, Pantera, Anthrax, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sepultura, White Zombie, Alice in Chains, Malevolent Creation, Danny Heifetz, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Melvins, N.W.A, Skinny Puppy, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Emperor, Beastie Boys, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Misfits, Gorefest, Run-DMC, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica. Taylor has spoken of his admiration for vocalists Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield. In 1999, Chris Fehn said Sid Wilson is influenced by jungle music and rave music.
Stage performances
Slipknot is known for its chaotic, energetic live shows that contributed to the band's success. During performances, most of the band's members headbang heavily. The band's early performances included extreme acts such as stage dives from high balconies and band members setting each other on fire. Clown was known to go into the crowd and tie people up with the microphone cord. In later years, they tended to refrain from acts this extreme. Former bassist Paul Gray said this was due to receiving lawsuits and to avoid harming other people, and that it was a "better move" for the longevity of the band. Along with the energetic and unpredictable performances, Slipknot often use elaborate stage setups that use pyrotechnics, elevated stage areas, hydraulic drum risers, and computer screens. Reviewing a Slipknot performance, Alistair Lawrence of Kerrang! said, "the choreographed chaos is too multi-faceted to fully describe". and NME described one Slipknot show as "a scene of chaos".
Image and identities
The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms—typically jumpsuits—while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray.
The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'".
During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George.
The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public.
In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called Slipknot: Wear the Mask, which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are.
Logo and nonagram
An essential element for the band's image is the Slipknot logo. The nonagram was created by the band's members around the same time the band was founded. The nonagram is arguably the best-known sigil of Slipknot and it represents a 9-point star—a symbol of unity, loyalty, friendship and remembrance. The logo is composed of three equilateral triangles each rotated at 0, 40, and 80 degrees. Each star point was meant to stand for each of the nine members of the original band, with at least one member, Chris Fehn, possessing a nonagram tattoo. Despite popular belief, the nonagram is not a Satanist symbol and instead represents Slipknot's "battle with the fake world."
The pre-release of the 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter also witnessed a major change in the band's logo and branding strategy. A new nonagram drew the public's attention towards the band, announcing the beginning of a new era. The black and red color scheme and the minimalist, elegant design received public appreciation and it is still used today.
Clothing brand
In 2008, Slipknot launched their clothing line Tattered and Torn. Named after a song on their 1999 self-titled debut, the line runs as an imprint of Bravado, a company that runs the band's merchandising. While the band recognize that their merchandise is their biggest revenue income, they insist Tattered and Torn is more than just band merchandising. Vocalist Corey Taylor said, "It's a way for [the fans] to get cool clothing at affordable prices." The first items from the clothing line went on sale in late July 2008 through Hot Topic stores across North America and the Hot Topic website. Currently, the line is limited to shirts and hoodies but was expected to develop into a full-range clothing line.
Controversies
Slipknot's music and image have been the subject of many controversies throughout its career. The lyrical content of some of Slipknot's songs has been linked to several violent and criminal incidents. In 2003, two young killers blamed the lyrics of "Disasterpiece" for their crime. In 2006, the lyrics of "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbery.
In 2008, Corey Taylor commented on a slashing incident at a South African school to which Slipknot was linked; he said: ... obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died, as far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive ... there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost.
Slipknot had a longstanding feud with the band Mushroomhead which—along with their fans—said Slipknot "stole their image". While Slipknot acknowledged their images had similarities, its members were not actively involved in the feud, saying the similarities were coincidental. Taylor said, "we both started at the same time—neither one of us knowing anything about each other". Taylor also said that at a live show in Cleveland, Ohio, several Mushroomhead fans threw objects including a fistsized padlock at Slipknot and that when Slipknot's set was finished, Machine Head and Amen went into the crowd and "handled it right there". In 2009, former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis said his band's members were no longer interested in feuding with Slipknot, saying, "they're not the first masked band, we're not, no one was". During an interview with Rock Rage Radio, Reavis praised Slipknot as he criticized his former bandmates after a dispute with the band's founding members which led to his dismissal. He stated that Slipknot was better and he admitted that his thoughts were personal, since he was not involved with Mushroomhead when the feud started.
Slipknot's 2005 lawsuit against Burger King said the company created the advertising-based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. Burger King responded with a countersuit, saying many other bands, such as Mr. Bungle, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne, Kiss, Insane Clown Posse, and Gwar have used masks as part of their images. After negotiations, the advertising campaign and lawsuit were withdrawn.
Members
Current members
(#6) Shawn "Clown" Crahan – percussion, backing vocals ; samples, media
(#5) Craig "133" Jones – samples, media, keyboards ; guitars
(#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
(#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
(#0) Sid Wilson – turntables ; keyboards
(#4) Jim Root – guitars
Alessandro Venturella – bass ; keyboards
Jay Weinberg – drums
"Tortilla Man" – percussion, backing vocals
Former members
(#1) Joey Jordison – drums
Donnie Steele – guitars ; bass
(#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
(#4) Josh "Gnar" Brainard – guitars, backing vocals
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals, percussion ; backing vocals ; samples, media
(#3) Greg "Cuddles" Welts – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Brandon Darner – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
Timeline
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards and nominations
Slipknot have been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and have won one.
|-
| || "Wait and Bleed" ||rowspan="3"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Left Behind" ||
|-
| || "My Plague" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| || "Duality" || Best Hard Rock Performance ||
|-
| "Vermilion" ||rowspan="5"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Before I Forget" ||
|-
| || "Psychosocial" ||
|-
| || "The Negative One" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2016 || "Custer" ||
|-
| .5: The Gray Chapter || Best Rock Album ||
Discography
Studio albums
Slipknot (1999)
Iowa (2001)
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
All Hope Is Gone (2008)
.5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
We Are Not Your Kind (2019)
Notable tours
World Domination Tour (1999–2000)
Tattoo the Earth (2000)
Iowa World Tour (2001–2002)
The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005)
All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009)
Memorial World Tour (2011–2013)
As a support act
Livin la Vida Loco Tour (1999)
Festivals
Ozzfest (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013)
Knotfest (2012, 2014–present)
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
American alternative metal musical groups
American groove metal musical groups
American nu metal musical groups
Grammy Award winners
Heavy metal musical groups from Iowa
Kerrang! Awards winners
Bands with fictional stage personas
Musical groups established in 1995
Roadrunner Records artists
1995 establishments in Iowa
Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa
Masked musicians | true | [
"The Bengal Nagpur Railway class HSG was a class of two 2-8-0+0-8-2 Garratt locomotives.\n\nAfter NWR's GAS class, BNR conducted similar experiments for pulling heavier trains up the ghats with successful results. Its parts were similar to BESA heavy goods 2-8-0s. They worked on the Chakradharpur-Jharsuguda section coupled to each other. After electrification they became obsolete. In the end, they were stationed at Kharagpur workshops. They were the first successful class of Garratts.\n\nTechnical specifications\n\nSee also\nIndian Railways\nHistory of rail transport in India\nLocomotives of India\nRail transport in India\n\nReferences\n\n5 ft 6 in gauge locomotives\nBeyer, Peacock locomotives\nSteam locomotives of India\nGarratt locomotives\n2-8-0+0-8-2 locomotives\nScrapped locomotives",
"Between 1980 and 1989, there were 58 Thor missiles launched, of which 56 were successful, giving a 96.6% success rate.\n\nLaunch statistics\n\nRocket configurations\n\nLaunch sites\n\nLaunch outcomes\n\n1980\nThere were 5 Thor missiles launched in 1980. 4 of the 5 launches were successful, giving an 80% success rate.\n\n1981\nThere were 7 Thor missiles launched in 1981. All 7 launches were successful.\n\n1982\nThere were 8 Thor missiles launched in 1982. All 8 launches were successful.\n\n1983\nThere were 10 Thor missiles launched in 1983. All 10 launches were successful.\n\n1984\nThere were 6 Thor missiles launched in 1984. All 6 launches were successful.\n\n1986\nThere were 4 Thor missiles launched in 1986. 3 of the 4 launches were successful, giving a 75% success rate.\n\n1987\nThere were 4 Thor missiles launched in 1987. All 4 launches were successful.\n\n1988\nThere were 3 Thor missiles launched in 1988. All 3 launches were successful.\n\n1989\nThere were 9 Thor missiles launched in 1989. All 9 launches were successful.\n\nReferences \n\n \n \n\nLists of Thor and Delta launches\nLists of Thor launches\nLists of Delta launches"
]
|
[
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"Image and identities",
"what was their image?",
"attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits",
"what other things played a part in their image?",
"The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases.",
"What else were they known for?",
"Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives.",
"Were they successful?",
"The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick."
]
| C_f31f0e7d00714137ad76b19336e378be_0 | How did they respond to that accusation? | 5 | How did Slipknot (band) members respond to the accusation of their act being a sales gimmick? | Slipknot (band) | The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits--while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray. The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'". During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George. The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask", which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are. CANNOTANSWER | The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. | Slipknot is an American heavy metal band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Gray died on May 24, 2010, and was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison was dismissed from the band on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Fehn was also dismissed from the band in March 2019 prior to the writing of We Are Not Your Kind.
Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows. The band rapidly rose to fame following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album, Iowa, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. Their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, was released on August 9, 2019. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, and five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
History
Background (1991-1995)
In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera. Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, and Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni later took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan often went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth, writing and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot"; another was titled "Painface", which Colsefni later used to name his band Painface.
In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed occasionally with this group. Brainard eventually left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of '93 and early in '94. During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed a death metal band called Body Pit, soon becoming popular in the local scene. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up.
In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started a band named the Pale Ones. The lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer, moving Crahan to percussion. Furthermore, Colsefni also took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist. The band then decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut; playing a benefit show using the name Meld.
Demo recording and beginnings (1995–1998)
Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray, Crahan and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights. It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at SR Audio, a studio in the band's hometown. As they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: "(he) was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons...I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist. After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996.
Distribution for the demo was initially left to the band and their producer Sean McMahon, before it was handed over to the distribution company -ismist Recordings in early 1997. Slipknot received a small amount of airplay on local radio stations off the back of the demo. However, it did not lead to any kind of interest from record labels, so the band returned to the studio to develop new material. It was at this time that the band sought more melodic vocals for their music. As a result, Corey Taylor was recruited from fellow Des Moines band Stone Sour; this moved Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion. While working in the studio, Slipknot continued to do local shows, during one of which in September 1997, Colsefni announced on stage that he was leaving the band. The gap on percussion was filled by Greg Welts, who was affectionately known as "Cuddles". In early 1998, Slipknot produced a second demo featuring five tracks exclusively for record labels. The band began to receive a lot of attention from record labels, and in February 1998, producer Ross Robinson offered to produce their debut album after attending rehearsals in Des Moines. Soon after, DJ Sid Wilson was recruited as the band's ninth member after showing great interest and impressing band members. In late June, Slipknot received a $500,000, seven-album deal, from Roadrunner Records; the band signed the deal publicly on July 8, 1998. Two days prior to this, Welts was fired from the band, something which Slipknot refuse to comment on. Welts was replaced by Brandon Darner, who departed from the band shortly after joining.
Self-titled album and emergence (1998–2000)
Chris Fehn was brought in to replace Darner on percussion before Slipknot traveled to Malibu, California, to work on their debut album in September 1998. Partway through the recording process of the album, Slipknot returned to Des Moines for the Christmas period. During that period, guitarist Brainard decided to leave the band. Brainard said, "some decisions were made that I wasn't particularly happy with". Slipknot later recruited Jim Root to complete their lineup and the band returned to Malibu to continue work on the album. Work on the album concluded in early 1999, allowing the band to go on their first tour as part of the Ozzfest lineup in 1999. Ozzfest greatly increased Slipknot's audience, furthering the band's success with their self-titled album that was released on June 29, 1999. Slipknot released its first home video Welcome to Our Neighborhood, which was directed by Thomas Mignone, and the singles "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out", which were also directed by Mignone. The singles received some airplay, but Slipknot quickly developed a large following, mainly from touring and word of mouth. The band toured several countries throughout 1999 and 2000 in support of the album. In early 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; a first for an album released by Roadrunner Records.
Iowa (2001–2003)
Anticipation for Slipknot's second album was intense. In early 2001, the band began recording the second album at Sound City and Sound Image studios in Los Angeles. Around this time, conflicts arose between band members due to extensive touring and recording schedules. Recording of their second album ended in February 2001 and the band embarked on their Iowa World Tour. Entitled Iowa, Slipknot's second album—released on August 28, 2001—peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and at number one in the UK. The album produced three singles; "The Heretic Anthem" (promotional single), "Left Behind" and "My Plague", which appeared on the soundtrack for the film Resident Evil. In 2002, Slipknot appeared in Rollerball (2002), performing "I Am Hated". The release and intense promotion of the album resulted in sold-out shows in large arenas in several countries.
In mid-2002, Slipknot went on hiatus because of internal conflicts, and band members focused on side projects. Vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Jordison created Murderdolls with vocalist Wednesday 13, percussionist Crahan founded To My Surprise and DJ Wilson went solo as DJ Starscream. For a while, the future of Slipknot was uncertain and there was much speculation about whether there would be a third album, or if the split would become permanent. "I don't have a problem with anyone in Slipknot," Jordison protested. "I've seen comments from Corey saying there are things to be resolved, but I have no fucking idea what he's talking about."
Nonetheless, on November 22, 2002, Slipknot released their second DVD, Disasterpieces.
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2003–2007)
After several delays, Slipknot moved into The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, in mid-2003 to work on their third album alongside producer Rick Rubin. By early 2004, work on the album had finished and the band began The Subliminal Verses World Tour with their appearance on the Jägermeister Music Tour in March 2004. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released on May 24, 2004; it peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts. The album produced six singles; "Duality", "Vermilion", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "Before I Forget", "The Nameless", and The Blister Exists. Slipknot recorded its first live album, 9.0: Live, while touring in support of the band's third album. Released on November 1, 2005 9.0: Live peaked at number 17 on the Billboard album charts. Touring in support of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) continued through 2004 and up to the end of 2005 before Slipknot went on hiatus for the second time.
In 2005, several members of Slipknot were involved in Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions, a collaborative album recorded by artists signed to Roadrunner Records for the label's 25th anniversary. 2006 saw Slipknot win their first Grammy Award, picking up the Best Metal Performance award for the single "Before I Forget". The single went on to be featured on the set list of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On December 5, 2006, Slipknot released its third DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine. While Slipknot was on hiatus, several band members again focused their attentions on side projects; vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root returned to Stone Sour, drummer Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches of Blood's third album Fire Up the Blades, Crahan founded Dirty Little Rabbits and Wilson returned as DJ Starscream once again.
All Hope Is Gone and Gray's death (2008–2010)
Preparation for Slipknot's fourth album began towards the end of 2007; work began at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman in February 2008. The album was finished in June, and the band went on the All Hope Is Gone World Tour on July 9, 2008. Slipknot's fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released on August 20, 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard albums chart. The album produced five singles; "All Hope Is Gone", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Sulfur" and "Snuff". 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of Slipknot's debut album; to commemorate the event, the band released a special-edition version of Slipknot on September 9, 2009. The band toured in support of the album throughout 2008 and continued until October 31, 2009, resulting in Slipknot's third hiatus.
During the hiatus, several band members focused on respective side projects; Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band and returned to Stone Sour with guitarist Root; Crahan continued working with his band Dirty Little Rabbits; and drummer Jordison returned with his band Murderdolls and became the new permanent drummer of Rob Zombie. Meanwhile, percussionist Fehn became a full-time bassist with metalcore band Will Haven and Sid Wilson founded the eponymous band Sid.
In 2010, Gray was planning to tour with the supergroup, Hail!, but on May 24, 2010, he was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room. Circumstances surrounding his death at the time were not immediately known; an autopsy suspected his death was not intentional but did not reveal the cause. The day after his death, the remaining eight members of the band held a live, unmasked, press conference alongside Gray's widow and brother. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl.
The band was hesitant to comment on the future of Slipknot. The members made conflicting statements in interviews; drummer Jordison told The Pulse of Radio "there is another Slipknot record already kinda in the making". Vocalist Taylor told FMQB Productions he was "very conflicted about whether or not [he wants] to do anything with Slipknot". The band released their fourth video album (sic)nesses on September 28, 2010; it debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD features Slipknot's entire live performance at the 2009 Download Festival and a 45-minute film documenting their tour in support of All Hope Is Gone, and served as a tribute to Paul Gray.
Return to the stage, Antennas to Hell and Knotfest (2011–2012)
Regarding the continuation of Slipknot, Taylor told NME Gray would want them to continue and he felt they should but he was ambivalent about returning to the band. Slipknot returned to touring in 2011, performing a small number of shows in Europe. They headlined the Sonisphere Festival and Rock in Rio alongside Iron Maiden and Metallica, and performed at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting. Donnie Steele substituted for Gray in the concerts; he was positioned behind Jordison and obscured from the audience's view.
Slipknot also said the band would complete and release the band's fifth studio album, and that there were no plans to replace Gray. Jordison said the writing process for the album had already begun and that he had written 17 songs.
Slipknot performed at the Mayhem Festival tour of 2012.
On May 29, 2012, Roadrunner Records posted a teaser video titled Antennas to Hell on its website. Later that day, on Twitter, Corey Taylor said Slipknot will release a greatest hits album on June 17, 2012. He also said the band was not yet recording new material but was putting together demos for a new album.
Slipknot's first annual music festival, called Knotfest, was held on August 17, 2012, at Mid-America Motorplex near Pacific Junction, Iowa, and on August 18, 2012, in Somerset, Wisconsin. Deftones, Lamb of God, and Serj Tankian also performed at the festival. The festival shows also debuted a Slipknot museum. On 14, June 2013, Slipknot headlined the Download Festival for a second time. The band performed to roughly 90,000 people and was twice forced to stop the set—once in the middle of a song—to allow the front barricade, which had split open under crowd pressure, to be repaired.
Jordison's departure, .5: The Gray Chapter, and new members (2013–2016)
Production of the band's fifth album began in late 2013. Taylor described the album as "very dark" and a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Guitarist Jim Root did not participate in Stone Sour's January tour so he could write material for Slipknot.
On December 12, 2013, the band announced through its official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after 18 years, citing personal reasons. On his official Facebook page, Jordison later said he "did not quit Slipknot" and that he was "shocked" and "blindsided" by the news. Both Jordison and Slipknot independently promised to release further details about the split. Taylor said Jordison would not be appearing on the new album because he did not participate in any songwriting sessions before his departure. After years of both sides being silent and evasive as to the reasons for his leaving the band, Jordison revealed in June 2016 that he suffered from Transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that cost him the ability to play the drums toward the end of his time with Slipknot. However, Jordison played drums in the blackened death metal act Sinsaenum, which he joined in 2016.
In July 2014, Slipknot began releasing teasers for the new album on the band's website and social media using cryptic messages and gory imagery. "The Negative One", the band's first song in six years, was released on August 1; it was accompanied by a music video directed by Crahan that was released four days later. The video did not feature any band members. On August 24, Slipknot released an official radio single titled "The Devil In I", and the name of the upcoming album was announced as .5: The Gray Chapter on iTunes, with an expected release date of October 28. The release was later preponed to October 17 for the Netherlands and Australia, October 20 for the UK and October 21 worldwide. "The Negative One" was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support. The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia. A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively; Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.
Taylor later said he was upset at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band. On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.
On March 11, 2015, while the band was not touring, guitarist Mick Thomson was hospitalized after a drunken knife fight with his brother at Thomson's home in Iowa. The pair sustained serious, but non life-threatening, injuries. On August 2, 2015, during a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, the band was forced to stop performing after Venturella was suddenly rushed to hospital, after undergoing a medical emergency. After 20 minutes, singer Taylor told the audience the band would continue the concert, performing without Venturella. It was later discovered that Venturella had collapsed because of extreme dehydration.
On September 25, 2016, the band performed at their annual festival Knotfest, which was altered to include Ozzfest this year. They performed the Iowa album in its entirety. In the meanwhile, Crahan made his directorial debut with the feature film Officer Downe, based on a graphic novel of the same name and starring actor Kim Coates. In November 2016, Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that he and fellow guitarist Jim Root would be teaming up in February 2017 to begin writing new material for a new Slipknot album because "we want to write."
We Are Not Your Kind (2017–2020)
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor regrouped with his other band Stone Sour in 2017, and they released their album Hydrograd on June 30. Talking about his first work in cinema and the other Slipknot members' plans, in an interview with WRIF's Meltdown, Crahan revealed that "we're beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. We have songs that we've written that are amazing." In December 2017, Crahan appeared on The Jasta Show podcast, where he stated that the next Slipknot album could be his last with the band.
Corey Taylor revealed in October 2018 that the band would enter the studio in early 2019, with a targeted release for their sixth album that same year, followed by a world tour. On October 31, the single "All Out Life" was released, as was an accompanying music video. On March 4, 2019, the band announced that the release date for the next album would be August 9, 2019 and that they would be embarking on the Knotfest Roadshow along with support by Gojira, Volbeat, and Behemoth to support the album. On March 7, Slipknot were revealed to be the opening act for Metallica's six WorldWired Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand from October 17 through October 31.
On March 14, 2019, Chris Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band citing withheld payments. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of setting up several band-related business entities, in different states, that collect money from the band. Fehn called for full forensic accounting to be done on all of the band's companies and assets in order to collect any profits and damages he may be owed. On that same day, Taylor responded via Twitter with a tweet stating, "You're gonna read a lot of bullshit today. This is all I'll say. JUST YOU WAIT TIL THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Long Live The Knot". On March 18, 2019, the band officially announced, via their website, that Chris Fehn was no longer a member of the band, stating, "Slipknot's focus is on making album #6, and our upcoming shows around the world, our best ever. Chris knows why he is no longer a part of Slipknot. We are disappointed that he chose to point fingers and manufacture claims, rather than doing what was necessary to continue to be a part of Slipknot. We would have preferred he not take the path that he has, but evolution in all things is a necessary part of this life. Long Live The Knot". However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing. By May 2019, Fehn's employment status with the band had apparently changed, as evident by his missing name on the band's Instagram posts for their new masks. He was replaced by a percussionist, whose identity is concealed, who the fans have dubbed "Tortilla Man". Loudwire has reported that fans have linked his identity as Michael Pfaff, a former member of Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits. The band themselves have not confirmed this claim.
On May 13, 2019, the band teased something was coming on May 16, ahead of their performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as screenshots of their new masks. On that day, the album's title was revealed to be We Are Not Your Kind, along with its tracklist and a music video for "Unsainted", where the new masks and outfits for the nine band members were shown for the first time, including an as-yet-unknown new percussionist. on July 22, they released the second single, from their upcoming album, titled "Solway Firth". This was accompanied by a music video which featured live footage from their 2019 shows as well as clips and audio from The Boys . On August 5, "Birth of the Cruel" was released as the album's third single, accompanied by a music video. On August 9, four days after they had released “Birth of the Cruel” they released their sixth album We Are Not Your Kind.
In August 2019, Crahan announced the band will release an experimental album of outtakes from the 2008 All Hope Is Gone sessions, titled Look Outside Your Window. The album was recorded with just 4 members (Crahan, Taylor, Root, and Wilson), in a different studio away from the other members, is expected to have 11 tracks that Taylor described as having a "Radiohead vibe", and Crahan saying in 2018 "it is not a Slipknot album". The band also released a twenty-minute experimental short film directed by Crahan and titled Pollution. One of the segments of the film is the music video for the song, "Nero Forte".
Seventh studio album and Jordison's death (2021−present)
On May 19, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that the band had been currently making "god music". In an article published by Loudwire on June 9, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that a new Slipknot album would ‘hopefully’ be released in 2021. He also added that the band would be parting ways with Roadrunner Records following the release of the album.
On July 26, 2021, the band's former drummer, Joey Jordison, died in his sleep at the age of 46.
In November 2021, the band started teasing new material on a new domain thechapeltownrag.com. Several snippets of a song were shown on the website leading to speculation of a new single that the band would later confirm on November 4, with the single titled "The Chapeltown Rag" slated for release the following day alongside its live debut at the Knotfest Roadshow in Los Angeles, California on November 5, 2021. In December 2021, Taylor revealed that the band were planning on mixing their seventh studio album in January, and are planning on releasing it by April 2022. He also stated that he preferred the material on their forthcoming seventh studio album to that on We Are Not Your Kind.
Artistry
Musical style
Slipknot is considered a nu metal band. The band's members prefer to distance themselves musically from other nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Slipknot describes its sound as "metal metal" and regards the link to nu metal as coincidental and a result of nu metal's emergence being concurrent with that of Slipknot. The band's sound typically features a heavily down-tuned guitar setup, a large percussive section, sampling, keyboards and DJing/turntablism. Using a variety of vocal styles, the music typically features growled vocals, screaming, backing vocals, as well as melodic singing. The band has continually experimented with its sound, most notably developing tracks led by acoustic guitars and melodic singing that first appeared on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses).
The album All Hope Is Gone is considered a groove metal album with elements of death metal and thrash metal. The band has also been described as heavy metal, alternative metal groove metal, death metal, hard rock, grindcore, thrash metal, and rap metal.
Lyrics
Slipknot's lyrics are generally very aggressive; they sometimes include profanity while exploring themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy, and psychosis. They often draw upon topics including the music industry, politics, personal strife, and reflection, among others. Rick Anderson of Allmusic said, "those lyrics that are discernible are not generally quotable on a family website". On Vol. 3, Taylor deliberately avoided using profanity in response to claims he relied on it.
Influences
Slipknot cited both Korn's self-titled album of 1994 and Limp Bizkit's album Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ of 1997 as major influences. However, the band's biggest influence, both on their image and music, has been singer Mike Patton and his bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Faith No More. Corey Taylor even stated that watching Faith No More perform on the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards saved his life. In an interview in 2000 Patton called the Slipknot members "really nice guys".
The band Kiss has been a big influence for Slipknot, both musically and image-wise. Several band members have in numerous interviews stated the impact Kiss had on them when growing up. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Joey Jordison said that "I saw Kiss on The Dick Clark Show in like, 1980 or something, and Kiss Alive! was the first record of theirs I had. This was back when you bought cassettes or records, and I still have my original cassette copy of it. And I tell you what, it just blew my mind! The cover tells you everything you need to know; it just makes you want to listen to the whole fucking record. And these guys look like fucking demons — you don't know when you're a kid and you're watching them on TV that it's just guys in makeup. So yeah, it was inspiring back then. They were a huge influence on me when I was a kid. And that record came out in 1975, so I was always like, "That's fucking badass — one of my favorite records of all time came out the year I was born!". In another interview with Loudwire, he also added that after listening to Kiss Alive! for the first, he was "changed forever, and then [he] just became completely engulfed in metal." Guitarist Mick Thomson revealed in Metal Hammer that Kiss' Destroyer was the first album he ever bought, and when talking about Kiss' Alive II; he stated that "...the artwork on Alive II with Gene's sweat running, the blood coming from his face and the make-up running had a profound influence on me. You only have to look at my own band to see how much so." Vocalist Corey Taylor has stated that Kiss were a huge influence on both him and the rest of the band and he has also covered multiple Kiss songs over the years; both as a solo artist as well as with Stone Sour, in which Slipknot guitarist Jim Root also played at the time.
Many authors single out the massive influence that experimental band Mr. Bungle has had on Slipknot; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members of Mr. Bungle donned strange masks (often clown and gimp ones), costumes (including jumpsuits) and hid their identities behind obscure pseudonyms. All of these were major features on their 1991 self-titled album cycle. Their creepy music videos from that record, such as "Travolta" which was banned on MTV, also pointed out at what would be the future image of Slipknot. In the same way, the musical influence of Mr. Bungle is evident in the eclecticism and adventurousness throughout Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Slipknot's first release of 1996, although the band added more metallic elements. A few songs on that album also hint at the eccentric catchiness of Faith No More and other funk metal bands.
While Slipknot was making its debut studio release, the entire band attended one of the first shows by avant-garde grindcore supergroup Fantômas-composed of Patton, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn-which greatly influenced them at the time. From that
album on, Slipknot has displayed a much more straightforward, extreme metal sound, largely because of producer Ross Robinson, and some writers have identified the influence of Faith No More on some tracks'
structures and alternating melodies from Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). On the other hand, the experimental imprint of Bungle has become rare, but it made a sudden reappearance on 2019's We Are Not Your Kind.
The members of Slipknot are also influenced by Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Deicide, Pantera, Anthrax, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sepultura, White Zombie, Alice in Chains, Malevolent Creation, Danny Heifetz, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Melvins, N.W.A, Skinny Puppy, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Emperor, Beastie Boys, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Misfits, Gorefest, Run-DMC, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica. Taylor has spoken of his admiration for vocalists Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield. In 1999, Chris Fehn said Sid Wilson is influenced by jungle music and rave music.
Stage performances
Slipknot is known for its chaotic, energetic live shows that contributed to the band's success. During performances, most of the band's members headbang heavily. The band's early performances included extreme acts such as stage dives from high balconies and band members setting each other on fire. Clown was known to go into the crowd and tie people up with the microphone cord. In later years, they tended to refrain from acts this extreme. Former bassist Paul Gray said this was due to receiving lawsuits and to avoid harming other people, and that it was a "better move" for the longevity of the band. Along with the energetic and unpredictable performances, Slipknot often use elaborate stage setups that use pyrotechnics, elevated stage areas, hydraulic drum risers, and computer screens. Reviewing a Slipknot performance, Alistair Lawrence of Kerrang! said, "the choreographed chaos is too multi-faceted to fully describe". and NME described one Slipknot show as "a scene of chaos".
Image and identities
The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms—typically jumpsuits—while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray.
The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'".
During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George.
The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public.
In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called Slipknot: Wear the Mask, which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are.
Logo and nonagram
An essential element for the band's image is the Slipknot logo. The nonagram was created by the band's members around the same time the band was founded. The nonagram is arguably the best-known sigil of Slipknot and it represents a 9-point star—a symbol of unity, loyalty, friendship and remembrance. The logo is composed of three equilateral triangles each rotated at 0, 40, and 80 degrees. Each star point was meant to stand for each of the nine members of the original band, with at least one member, Chris Fehn, possessing a nonagram tattoo. Despite popular belief, the nonagram is not a Satanist symbol and instead represents Slipknot's "battle with the fake world."
The pre-release of the 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter also witnessed a major change in the band's logo and branding strategy. A new nonagram drew the public's attention towards the band, announcing the beginning of a new era. The black and red color scheme and the minimalist, elegant design received public appreciation and it is still used today.
Clothing brand
In 2008, Slipknot launched their clothing line Tattered and Torn. Named after a song on their 1999 self-titled debut, the line runs as an imprint of Bravado, a company that runs the band's merchandising. While the band recognize that their merchandise is their biggest revenue income, they insist Tattered and Torn is more than just band merchandising. Vocalist Corey Taylor said, "It's a way for [the fans] to get cool clothing at affordable prices." The first items from the clothing line went on sale in late July 2008 through Hot Topic stores across North America and the Hot Topic website. Currently, the line is limited to shirts and hoodies but was expected to develop into a full-range clothing line.
Controversies
Slipknot's music and image have been the subject of many controversies throughout its career. The lyrical content of some of Slipknot's songs has been linked to several violent and criminal incidents. In 2003, two young killers blamed the lyrics of "Disasterpiece" for their crime. In 2006, the lyrics of "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbery.
In 2008, Corey Taylor commented on a slashing incident at a South African school to which Slipknot was linked; he said: ... obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died, as far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive ... there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost.
Slipknot had a longstanding feud with the band Mushroomhead which—along with their fans—said Slipknot "stole their image". While Slipknot acknowledged their images had similarities, its members were not actively involved in the feud, saying the similarities were coincidental. Taylor said, "we both started at the same time—neither one of us knowing anything about each other". Taylor also said that at a live show in Cleveland, Ohio, several Mushroomhead fans threw objects including a fistsized padlock at Slipknot and that when Slipknot's set was finished, Machine Head and Amen went into the crowd and "handled it right there". In 2009, former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis said his band's members were no longer interested in feuding with Slipknot, saying, "they're not the first masked band, we're not, no one was". During an interview with Rock Rage Radio, Reavis praised Slipknot as he criticized his former bandmates after a dispute with the band's founding members which led to his dismissal. He stated that Slipknot was better and he admitted that his thoughts were personal, since he was not involved with Mushroomhead when the feud started.
Slipknot's 2005 lawsuit against Burger King said the company created the advertising-based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. Burger King responded with a countersuit, saying many other bands, such as Mr. Bungle, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne, Kiss, Insane Clown Posse, and Gwar have used masks as part of their images. After negotiations, the advertising campaign and lawsuit were withdrawn.
Members
Current members
(#6) Shawn "Clown" Crahan – percussion, backing vocals ; samples, media
(#5) Craig "133" Jones – samples, media, keyboards ; guitars
(#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
(#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
(#0) Sid Wilson – turntables ; keyboards
(#4) Jim Root – guitars
Alessandro Venturella – bass ; keyboards
Jay Weinberg – drums
"Tortilla Man" – percussion, backing vocals
Former members
(#1) Joey Jordison – drums
Donnie Steele – guitars ; bass
(#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
(#4) Josh "Gnar" Brainard – guitars, backing vocals
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals, percussion ; backing vocals ; samples, media
(#3) Greg "Cuddles" Welts – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Brandon Darner – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
Timeline
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards and nominations
Slipknot have been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and have won one.
|-
| || "Wait and Bleed" ||rowspan="3"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Left Behind" ||
|-
| || "My Plague" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| || "Duality" || Best Hard Rock Performance ||
|-
| "Vermilion" ||rowspan="5"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Before I Forget" ||
|-
| || "Psychosocial" ||
|-
| || "The Negative One" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2016 || "Custer" ||
|-
| .5: The Gray Chapter || Best Rock Album ||
Discography
Studio albums
Slipknot (1999)
Iowa (2001)
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
All Hope Is Gone (2008)
.5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
We Are Not Your Kind (2019)
Notable tours
World Domination Tour (1999–2000)
Tattoo the Earth (2000)
Iowa World Tour (2001–2002)
The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005)
All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009)
Memorial World Tour (2011–2013)
As a support act
Livin la Vida Loco Tour (1999)
Festivals
Ozzfest (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013)
Knotfest (2012, 2014–present)
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
American alternative metal musical groups
American groove metal musical groups
American nu metal musical groups
Grammy Award winners
Heavy metal musical groups from Iowa
Kerrang! Awards winners
Bands with fictional stage personas
Musical groups established in 1995
Roadrunner Records artists
1995 establishments in Iowa
Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa
Masked musicians | true | [
"An accusation is a statement by one person asserting that another person or entity has done something improper. The person who makes the accusation is an accuser, while the subject against whom it is made is the accused. Whether a statement is interpreted as an accusation relies on the social environment in which it is made:\n\nAn accusation can be made in private or in public, to the accused person alone, or to other people with or without the knowledge of the accused person. An accuser can make an accusation with or without evidence; the accusation can be entirely speculative, and can even be a false accusation, made out of malice, for the purpose of harming the reputation of the accused.\n\nPerceptions\nThe perceived strength of an accusation is affected by the trustworthiness of the accuser. For example, in investigative journalism:\n\nAccusations and public relations\nIn journalism, the reporting of an accusation is commonly balanced with an effort to obtain a response to the accusation by the accused person or entity:\n\nThere is therefore usually an opportunity for the subject of an accusation to respond to it. An accusation made against a corporation is often treated as a public relations event, in which a business is accused of wrongdoing in order to influence its behavior.\n\nCriminal accusations\nA criminal accusation is a formal accusation made by the state against an individual or enterprise. In addition to the normal elements of an accusation, a criminal accusation specifies that the wrongdoing on the part of the accused constitutes a violation of the law.\n\nSee also\n Allegation\n False accusation\n Indictment\n Information (formal criminal charge)\n\nReferences\n\nBroad-concept articles\nCommunication design\nCriminal law\nPersonal life\nPublic relations\nSocial concepts",
"A false accusation is a claim or allegation of wrongdoing that is untrue and/or otherwise unsupported by facts. False accusations are also known as groundless accusations or unfounded accusations or false allegations or false claims. They can occur in any of the following contexts:\n Informally in everyday life\n Quasi-judicially\n Judicially\n\nTypes\nWhen there is insufficient supporting evidence to determine whether it is true or false, an accusation is described as \"unsubstantiated\" or \"unfounded\". Accusations that are determined to be false based on corroborating evidence can be divided into three categories:\n A completely false allegation, in that the alleged events did not occur.\n An allegation that describes events that did occur, but were perpetrated by an individual who is not accused, and in which the accused person is innocent.\n An allegation that is false, in that it mixes descriptions of events that actually happened with other events that did not occur.\n\nA false allegation can occur as the result of intentional lying on the part of the accuser; or unintentionally, due to a confabulation, either arising spontaneously due to mental illness or resulting from deliberate or accidental suggestive questioning, or faulty interviewing techniques. In 1997, researchers Poole and Lindsay suggested that separate labels should be applied to the two concepts, proposing that the term \"false allegations\" be used specifically when the accuser is aware that they are lying, and \"false suspicions\" for the wider range of false accusations in which suggestive questioning may have been involved.\n\nWhen a person is suspected of a wrongdoing for which they are in fact responsible, \"false accusation may be used to divert attention from one's own guilt\". False accusation may also arise in part from the conduct of the accused, particularly where the accused engages in behaviors consistent with having committed the suspected wrongdoing, either unconsciously or for purposes of appearing guilty.\n\nAdditionally, once a false accusation has been made – particularly an emotionally laden one – normal human emotional responses to being falsely accused (such as fear, anger, or denial of the accusation) may be misinterpreted as evidence of guilt.\n\nRape\n\nA false accusation of rape is the intentional reporting of a rape where no rape has occurred. It is difficult to assess the prevalence of false accusations because they are often conflated with non-prosecuted cases under the designation \"unfounded\". However, in the United States, the FBI Uniform Crime Report in 1996 and the United States Department of Justice in 1997 stated 8% of rape accusations in the United States were regarded as unfounded or false. Studies in other countries have reported their own rates at anywhere from 1.5% (Denmark) to 10% (Canada). Due to varying definitions of a \"false accusation\", the true percentage remains unknown.\n\nChild abuse\n\nA false allegation of child sexual abuse is an accusation that a person committed one or more acts of child sexual abuse when in reality there was no perpetration of abuse by the accused person as alleged. Such accusations can be brought by the victim, or by another person on the alleged victim's behalf. Studies of child abuse allegations suggest that the overall rate of false accusation is under 10%, as approximated based on multiple studies. Of the allegations determined to be false, only a small portion originated with the child, the studies showed; most false allegations originated with an adult bringing the accusations on behalf of a child, and of those, a large majority occurred in the context of divorce and child-custody battles.\n\nWorkplace bullying\n\nAccording to a 2003 survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute, the most common bullying tactics included false attribution of \"errors\" to an employee, glaring or other hostile body language, dismissive comments, the \"silent treatment\", and/or making up arbitrary \"rules\" to ensure that a victim breaks them.\n\nWorkplace mobbing\n\nWorkplace mobbing can be considered as a \"virus\" or a \"cancer\" that spreads throughout the workplace via gossip, rumour and unfounded accusations.\n\nMünchausen syndrome by proxy\n\nThe case has been made that diagnoses of Münchausen syndrome by proxy, that is harming someone else in order to gain attention for oneself, are often false or highly questionable.\n\nStalking\n\nIn 1999, Pathe, Mullen, and Purcell wrote that popular interest in stalking was promoting false claims. In 2004, Sheridan and Blaauw said that they estimated that 11.5% of claims in a sample of 357 reported claims of stalking were false.\n\nPsychological projection\n\nPsychological projection can be utilized as a means of obtaining or justifying certain actions that would normally be found atrocious or heinous. This often means projecting false accusations, information, etc., onto an individual for the sole purpose of maintaining a self-created illusion.\n\nSee also\n\nReferences \n\nAbuse\nBullying\nWorkplace bullying\nAbuse of the legal system\nStalking\nLying"
]
|
[
"Slipknot (band)",
"Image and identities",
"what was their image?",
"attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits",
"what other things played a part in their image?",
"The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases.",
"What else were they known for?",
"Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives.",
"Were they successful?",
"The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick.",
"How did they respond to that accusation?",
"The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music."
]
| C_f31f0e7d00714137ad76b19336e378be_0 | Have they won any awards? | 6 | Have Slipknot (band) won any awards? | Slipknot (band) | The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits--while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray. The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'". During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George. The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask", which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Slipknot is an American heavy metal band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Gray died on May 24, 2010, and was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison was dismissed from the band on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Fehn was also dismissed from the band in March 2019 prior to the writing of We Are Not Your Kind.
Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows. The band rapidly rose to fame following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album, Iowa, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. Their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, was released on August 9, 2019. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, and five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
History
Background (1991-1995)
In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera. Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, and Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni later took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan often went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth, writing and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot"; another was titled "Painface", which Colsefni later used to name his band Painface.
In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed occasionally with this group. Brainard eventually left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of '93 and early in '94. During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed a death metal band called Body Pit, soon becoming popular in the local scene. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up.
In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started a band named the Pale Ones. The lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer, moving Crahan to percussion. Furthermore, Colsefni also took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist. The band then decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut; playing a benefit show using the name Meld.
Demo recording and beginnings (1995–1998)
Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray, Crahan and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights. It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at SR Audio, a studio in the band's hometown. As they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: "(he) was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons...I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist. After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996.
Distribution for the demo was initially left to the band and their producer Sean McMahon, before it was handed over to the distribution company -ismist Recordings in early 1997. Slipknot received a small amount of airplay on local radio stations off the back of the demo. However, it did not lead to any kind of interest from record labels, so the band returned to the studio to develop new material. It was at this time that the band sought more melodic vocals for their music. As a result, Corey Taylor was recruited from fellow Des Moines band Stone Sour; this moved Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion. While working in the studio, Slipknot continued to do local shows, during one of which in September 1997, Colsefni announced on stage that he was leaving the band. The gap on percussion was filled by Greg Welts, who was affectionately known as "Cuddles". In early 1998, Slipknot produced a second demo featuring five tracks exclusively for record labels. The band began to receive a lot of attention from record labels, and in February 1998, producer Ross Robinson offered to produce their debut album after attending rehearsals in Des Moines. Soon after, DJ Sid Wilson was recruited as the band's ninth member after showing great interest and impressing band members. In late June, Slipknot received a $500,000, seven-album deal, from Roadrunner Records; the band signed the deal publicly on July 8, 1998. Two days prior to this, Welts was fired from the band, something which Slipknot refuse to comment on. Welts was replaced by Brandon Darner, who departed from the band shortly after joining.
Self-titled album and emergence (1998–2000)
Chris Fehn was brought in to replace Darner on percussion before Slipknot traveled to Malibu, California, to work on their debut album in September 1998. Partway through the recording process of the album, Slipknot returned to Des Moines for the Christmas period. During that period, guitarist Brainard decided to leave the band. Brainard said, "some decisions were made that I wasn't particularly happy with". Slipknot later recruited Jim Root to complete their lineup and the band returned to Malibu to continue work on the album. Work on the album concluded in early 1999, allowing the band to go on their first tour as part of the Ozzfest lineup in 1999. Ozzfest greatly increased Slipknot's audience, furthering the band's success with their self-titled album that was released on June 29, 1999. Slipknot released its first home video Welcome to Our Neighborhood, which was directed by Thomas Mignone, and the singles "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out", which were also directed by Mignone. The singles received some airplay, but Slipknot quickly developed a large following, mainly from touring and word of mouth. The band toured several countries throughout 1999 and 2000 in support of the album. In early 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; a first for an album released by Roadrunner Records.
Iowa (2001–2003)
Anticipation for Slipknot's second album was intense. In early 2001, the band began recording the second album at Sound City and Sound Image studios in Los Angeles. Around this time, conflicts arose between band members due to extensive touring and recording schedules. Recording of their second album ended in February 2001 and the band embarked on their Iowa World Tour. Entitled Iowa, Slipknot's second album—released on August 28, 2001—peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and at number one in the UK. The album produced three singles; "The Heretic Anthem" (promotional single), "Left Behind" and "My Plague", which appeared on the soundtrack for the film Resident Evil. In 2002, Slipknot appeared in Rollerball (2002), performing "I Am Hated". The release and intense promotion of the album resulted in sold-out shows in large arenas in several countries.
In mid-2002, Slipknot went on hiatus because of internal conflicts, and band members focused on side projects. Vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Jordison created Murderdolls with vocalist Wednesday 13, percussionist Crahan founded To My Surprise and DJ Wilson went solo as DJ Starscream. For a while, the future of Slipknot was uncertain and there was much speculation about whether there would be a third album, or if the split would become permanent. "I don't have a problem with anyone in Slipknot," Jordison protested. "I've seen comments from Corey saying there are things to be resolved, but I have no fucking idea what he's talking about."
Nonetheless, on November 22, 2002, Slipknot released their second DVD, Disasterpieces.
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2003–2007)
After several delays, Slipknot moved into The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, in mid-2003 to work on their third album alongside producer Rick Rubin. By early 2004, work on the album had finished and the band began The Subliminal Verses World Tour with their appearance on the Jägermeister Music Tour in March 2004. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released on May 24, 2004; it peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts. The album produced six singles; "Duality", "Vermilion", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "Before I Forget", "The Nameless", and The Blister Exists. Slipknot recorded its first live album, 9.0: Live, while touring in support of the band's third album. Released on November 1, 2005 9.0: Live peaked at number 17 on the Billboard album charts. Touring in support of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) continued through 2004 and up to the end of 2005 before Slipknot went on hiatus for the second time.
In 2005, several members of Slipknot were involved in Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions, a collaborative album recorded by artists signed to Roadrunner Records for the label's 25th anniversary. 2006 saw Slipknot win their first Grammy Award, picking up the Best Metal Performance award for the single "Before I Forget". The single went on to be featured on the set list of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On December 5, 2006, Slipknot released its third DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine. While Slipknot was on hiatus, several band members again focused their attentions on side projects; vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root returned to Stone Sour, drummer Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches of Blood's third album Fire Up the Blades, Crahan founded Dirty Little Rabbits and Wilson returned as DJ Starscream once again.
All Hope Is Gone and Gray's death (2008–2010)
Preparation for Slipknot's fourth album began towards the end of 2007; work began at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman in February 2008. The album was finished in June, and the band went on the All Hope Is Gone World Tour on July 9, 2008. Slipknot's fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released on August 20, 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard albums chart. The album produced five singles; "All Hope Is Gone", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Sulfur" and "Snuff". 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of Slipknot's debut album; to commemorate the event, the band released a special-edition version of Slipknot on September 9, 2009. The band toured in support of the album throughout 2008 and continued until October 31, 2009, resulting in Slipknot's third hiatus.
During the hiatus, several band members focused on respective side projects; Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band and returned to Stone Sour with guitarist Root; Crahan continued working with his band Dirty Little Rabbits; and drummer Jordison returned with his band Murderdolls and became the new permanent drummer of Rob Zombie. Meanwhile, percussionist Fehn became a full-time bassist with metalcore band Will Haven and Sid Wilson founded the eponymous band Sid.
In 2010, Gray was planning to tour with the supergroup, Hail!, but on May 24, 2010, he was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room. Circumstances surrounding his death at the time were not immediately known; an autopsy suspected his death was not intentional but did not reveal the cause. The day after his death, the remaining eight members of the band held a live, unmasked, press conference alongside Gray's widow and brother. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl.
The band was hesitant to comment on the future of Slipknot. The members made conflicting statements in interviews; drummer Jordison told The Pulse of Radio "there is another Slipknot record already kinda in the making". Vocalist Taylor told FMQB Productions he was "very conflicted about whether or not [he wants] to do anything with Slipknot". The band released their fourth video album (sic)nesses on September 28, 2010; it debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD features Slipknot's entire live performance at the 2009 Download Festival and a 45-minute film documenting their tour in support of All Hope Is Gone, and served as a tribute to Paul Gray.
Return to the stage, Antennas to Hell and Knotfest (2011–2012)
Regarding the continuation of Slipknot, Taylor told NME Gray would want them to continue and he felt they should but he was ambivalent about returning to the band. Slipknot returned to touring in 2011, performing a small number of shows in Europe. They headlined the Sonisphere Festival and Rock in Rio alongside Iron Maiden and Metallica, and performed at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting. Donnie Steele substituted for Gray in the concerts; he was positioned behind Jordison and obscured from the audience's view.
Slipknot also said the band would complete and release the band's fifth studio album, and that there were no plans to replace Gray. Jordison said the writing process for the album had already begun and that he had written 17 songs.
Slipknot performed at the Mayhem Festival tour of 2012.
On May 29, 2012, Roadrunner Records posted a teaser video titled Antennas to Hell on its website. Later that day, on Twitter, Corey Taylor said Slipknot will release a greatest hits album on June 17, 2012. He also said the band was not yet recording new material but was putting together demos for a new album.
Slipknot's first annual music festival, called Knotfest, was held on August 17, 2012, at Mid-America Motorplex near Pacific Junction, Iowa, and on August 18, 2012, in Somerset, Wisconsin. Deftones, Lamb of God, and Serj Tankian also performed at the festival. The festival shows also debuted a Slipknot museum. On 14, June 2013, Slipknot headlined the Download Festival for a second time. The band performed to roughly 90,000 people and was twice forced to stop the set—once in the middle of a song—to allow the front barricade, which had split open under crowd pressure, to be repaired.
Jordison's departure, .5: The Gray Chapter, and new members (2013–2016)
Production of the band's fifth album began in late 2013. Taylor described the album as "very dark" and a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Guitarist Jim Root did not participate in Stone Sour's January tour so he could write material for Slipknot.
On December 12, 2013, the band announced through its official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after 18 years, citing personal reasons. On his official Facebook page, Jordison later said he "did not quit Slipknot" and that he was "shocked" and "blindsided" by the news. Both Jordison and Slipknot independently promised to release further details about the split. Taylor said Jordison would not be appearing on the new album because he did not participate in any songwriting sessions before his departure. After years of both sides being silent and evasive as to the reasons for his leaving the band, Jordison revealed in June 2016 that he suffered from Transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that cost him the ability to play the drums toward the end of his time with Slipknot. However, Jordison played drums in the blackened death metal act Sinsaenum, which he joined in 2016.
In July 2014, Slipknot began releasing teasers for the new album on the band's website and social media using cryptic messages and gory imagery. "The Negative One", the band's first song in six years, was released on August 1; it was accompanied by a music video directed by Crahan that was released four days later. The video did not feature any band members. On August 24, Slipknot released an official radio single titled "The Devil In I", and the name of the upcoming album was announced as .5: The Gray Chapter on iTunes, with an expected release date of October 28. The release was later preponed to October 17 for the Netherlands and Australia, October 20 for the UK and October 21 worldwide. "The Negative One" was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support. The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia. A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively; Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.
Taylor later said he was upset at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band. On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.
On March 11, 2015, while the band was not touring, guitarist Mick Thomson was hospitalized after a drunken knife fight with his brother at Thomson's home in Iowa. The pair sustained serious, but non life-threatening, injuries. On August 2, 2015, during a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, the band was forced to stop performing after Venturella was suddenly rushed to hospital, after undergoing a medical emergency. After 20 minutes, singer Taylor told the audience the band would continue the concert, performing without Venturella. It was later discovered that Venturella had collapsed because of extreme dehydration.
On September 25, 2016, the band performed at their annual festival Knotfest, which was altered to include Ozzfest this year. They performed the Iowa album in its entirety. In the meanwhile, Crahan made his directorial debut with the feature film Officer Downe, based on a graphic novel of the same name and starring actor Kim Coates. In November 2016, Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that he and fellow guitarist Jim Root would be teaming up in February 2017 to begin writing new material for a new Slipknot album because "we want to write."
We Are Not Your Kind (2017–2020)
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor regrouped with his other band Stone Sour in 2017, and they released their album Hydrograd on June 30. Talking about his first work in cinema and the other Slipknot members' plans, in an interview with WRIF's Meltdown, Crahan revealed that "we're beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. We have songs that we've written that are amazing." In December 2017, Crahan appeared on The Jasta Show podcast, where he stated that the next Slipknot album could be his last with the band.
Corey Taylor revealed in October 2018 that the band would enter the studio in early 2019, with a targeted release for their sixth album that same year, followed by a world tour. On October 31, the single "All Out Life" was released, as was an accompanying music video. On March 4, 2019, the band announced that the release date for the next album would be August 9, 2019 and that they would be embarking on the Knotfest Roadshow along with support by Gojira, Volbeat, and Behemoth to support the album. On March 7, Slipknot were revealed to be the opening act for Metallica's six WorldWired Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand from October 17 through October 31.
On March 14, 2019, Chris Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band citing withheld payments. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of setting up several band-related business entities, in different states, that collect money from the band. Fehn called for full forensic accounting to be done on all of the band's companies and assets in order to collect any profits and damages he may be owed. On that same day, Taylor responded via Twitter with a tweet stating, "You're gonna read a lot of bullshit today. This is all I'll say. JUST YOU WAIT TIL THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Long Live The Knot". On March 18, 2019, the band officially announced, via their website, that Chris Fehn was no longer a member of the band, stating, "Slipknot's focus is on making album #6, and our upcoming shows around the world, our best ever. Chris knows why he is no longer a part of Slipknot. We are disappointed that he chose to point fingers and manufacture claims, rather than doing what was necessary to continue to be a part of Slipknot. We would have preferred he not take the path that he has, but evolution in all things is a necessary part of this life. Long Live The Knot". However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing. By May 2019, Fehn's employment status with the band had apparently changed, as evident by his missing name on the band's Instagram posts for their new masks. He was replaced by a percussionist, whose identity is concealed, who the fans have dubbed "Tortilla Man". Loudwire has reported that fans have linked his identity as Michael Pfaff, a former member of Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits. The band themselves have not confirmed this claim.
On May 13, 2019, the band teased something was coming on May 16, ahead of their performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as screenshots of their new masks. On that day, the album's title was revealed to be We Are Not Your Kind, along with its tracklist and a music video for "Unsainted", where the new masks and outfits for the nine band members were shown for the first time, including an as-yet-unknown new percussionist. on July 22, they released the second single, from their upcoming album, titled "Solway Firth". This was accompanied by a music video which featured live footage from their 2019 shows as well as clips and audio from The Boys . On August 5, "Birth of the Cruel" was released as the album's third single, accompanied by a music video. On August 9, four days after they had released “Birth of the Cruel” they released their sixth album We Are Not Your Kind.
In August 2019, Crahan announced the band will release an experimental album of outtakes from the 2008 All Hope Is Gone sessions, titled Look Outside Your Window. The album was recorded with just 4 members (Crahan, Taylor, Root, and Wilson), in a different studio away from the other members, is expected to have 11 tracks that Taylor described as having a "Radiohead vibe", and Crahan saying in 2018 "it is not a Slipknot album". The band also released a twenty-minute experimental short film directed by Crahan and titled Pollution. One of the segments of the film is the music video for the song, "Nero Forte".
Seventh studio album and Jordison's death (2021−present)
On May 19, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that the band had been currently making "god music". In an article published by Loudwire on June 9, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that a new Slipknot album would ‘hopefully’ be released in 2021. He also added that the band would be parting ways with Roadrunner Records following the release of the album.
On July 26, 2021, the band's former drummer, Joey Jordison, died in his sleep at the age of 46.
In November 2021, the band started teasing new material on a new domain thechapeltownrag.com. Several snippets of a song were shown on the website leading to speculation of a new single that the band would later confirm on November 4, with the single titled "The Chapeltown Rag" slated for release the following day alongside its live debut at the Knotfest Roadshow in Los Angeles, California on November 5, 2021. In December 2021, Taylor revealed that the band were planning on mixing their seventh studio album in January, and are planning on releasing it by April 2022. He also stated that he preferred the material on their forthcoming seventh studio album to that on We Are Not Your Kind.
Artistry
Musical style
Slipknot is considered a nu metal band. The band's members prefer to distance themselves musically from other nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Slipknot describes its sound as "metal metal" and regards the link to nu metal as coincidental and a result of nu metal's emergence being concurrent with that of Slipknot. The band's sound typically features a heavily down-tuned guitar setup, a large percussive section, sampling, keyboards and DJing/turntablism. Using a variety of vocal styles, the music typically features growled vocals, screaming, backing vocals, as well as melodic singing. The band has continually experimented with its sound, most notably developing tracks led by acoustic guitars and melodic singing that first appeared on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses).
The album All Hope Is Gone is considered a groove metal album with elements of death metal and thrash metal. The band has also been described as heavy metal, alternative metal groove metal, death metal, hard rock, grindcore, thrash metal, and rap metal.
Lyrics
Slipknot's lyrics are generally very aggressive; they sometimes include profanity while exploring themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy, and psychosis. They often draw upon topics including the music industry, politics, personal strife, and reflection, among others. Rick Anderson of Allmusic said, "those lyrics that are discernible are not generally quotable on a family website". On Vol. 3, Taylor deliberately avoided using profanity in response to claims he relied on it.
Influences
Slipknot cited both Korn's self-titled album of 1994 and Limp Bizkit's album Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ of 1997 as major influences. However, the band's biggest influence, both on their image and music, has been singer Mike Patton and his bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Faith No More. Corey Taylor even stated that watching Faith No More perform on the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards saved his life. In an interview in 2000 Patton called the Slipknot members "really nice guys".
The band Kiss has been a big influence for Slipknot, both musically and image-wise. Several band members have in numerous interviews stated the impact Kiss had on them when growing up. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Joey Jordison said that "I saw Kiss on The Dick Clark Show in like, 1980 or something, and Kiss Alive! was the first record of theirs I had. This was back when you bought cassettes or records, and I still have my original cassette copy of it. And I tell you what, it just blew my mind! The cover tells you everything you need to know; it just makes you want to listen to the whole fucking record. And these guys look like fucking demons — you don't know when you're a kid and you're watching them on TV that it's just guys in makeup. So yeah, it was inspiring back then. They were a huge influence on me when I was a kid. And that record came out in 1975, so I was always like, "That's fucking badass — one of my favorite records of all time came out the year I was born!". In another interview with Loudwire, he also added that after listening to Kiss Alive! for the first, he was "changed forever, and then [he] just became completely engulfed in metal." Guitarist Mick Thomson revealed in Metal Hammer that Kiss' Destroyer was the first album he ever bought, and when talking about Kiss' Alive II; he stated that "...the artwork on Alive II with Gene's sweat running, the blood coming from his face and the make-up running had a profound influence on me. You only have to look at my own band to see how much so." Vocalist Corey Taylor has stated that Kiss were a huge influence on both him and the rest of the band and he has also covered multiple Kiss songs over the years; both as a solo artist as well as with Stone Sour, in which Slipknot guitarist Jim Root also played at the time.
Many authors single out the massive influence that experimental band Mr. Bungle has had on Slipknot; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members of Mr. Bungle donned strange masks (often clown and gimp ones), costumes (including jumpsuits) and hid their identities behind obscure pseudonyms. All of these were major features on their 1991 self-titled album cycle. Their creepy music videos from that record, such as "Travolta" which was banned on MTV, also pointed out at what would be the future image of Slipknot. In the same way, the musical influence of Mr. Bungle is evident in the eclecticism and adventurousness throughout Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Slipknot's first release of 1996, although the band added more metallic elements. A few songs on that album also hint at the eccentric catchiness of Faith No More and other funk metal bands.
While Slipknot was making its debut studio release, the entire band attended one of the first shows by avant-garde grindcore supergroup Fantômas-composed of Patton, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn-which greatly influenced them at the time. From that
album on, Slipknot has displayed a much more straightforward, extreme metal sound, largely because of producer Ross Robinson, and some writers have identified the influence of Faith No More on some tracks'
structures and alternating melodies from Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). On the other hand, the experimental imprint of Bungle has become rare, but it made a sudden reappearance on 2019's We Are Not Your Kind.
The members of Slipknot are also influenced by Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Deicide, Pantera, Anthrax, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sepultura, White Zombie, Alice in Chains, Malevolent Creation, Danny Heifetz, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Melvins, N.W.A, Skinny Puppy, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Emperor, Beastie Boys, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Misfits, Gorefest, Run-DMC, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica. Taylor has spoken of his admiration for vocalists Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield. In 1999, Chris Fehn said Sid Wilson is influenced by jungle music and rave music.
Stage performances
Slipknot is known for its chaotic, energetic live shows that contributed to the band's success. During performances, most of the band's members headbang heavily. The band's early performances included extreme acts such as stage dives from high balconies and band members setting each other on fire. Clown was known to go into the crowd and tie people up with the microphone cord. In later years, they tended to refrain from acts this extreme. Former bassist Paul Gray said this was due to receiving lawsuits and to avoid harming other people, and that it was a "better move" for the longevity of the band. Along with the energetic and unpredictable performances, Slipknot often use elaborate stage setups that use pyrotechnics, elevated stage areas, hydraulic drum risers, and computer screens. Reviewing a Slipknot performance, Alistair Lawrence of Kerrang! said, "the choreographed chaos is too multi-faceted to fully describe". and NME described one Slipknot show as "a scene of chaos".
Image and identities
The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms—typically jumpsuits—while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray.
The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'".
During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George.
The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public.
In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called Slipknot: Wear the Mask, which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are.
Logo and nonagram
An essential element for the band's image is the Slipknot logo. The nonagram was created by the band's members around the same time the band was founded. The nonagram is arguably the best-known sigil of Slipknot and it represents a 9-point star—a symbol of unity, loyalty, friendship and remembrance. The logo is composed of three equilateral triangles each rotated at 0, 40, and 80 degrees. Each star point was meant to stand for each of the nine members of the original band, with at least one member, Chris Fehn, possessing a nonagram tattoo. Despite popular belief, the nonagram is not a Satanist symbol and instead represents Slipknot's "battle with the fake world."
The pre-release of the 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter also witnessed a major change in the band's logo and branding strategy. A new nonagram drew the public's attention towards the band, announcing the beginning of a new era. The black and red color scheme and the minimalist, elegant design received public appreciation and it is still used today.
Clothing brand
In 2008, Slipknot launched their clothing line Tattered and Torn. Named after a song on their 1999 self-titled debut, the line runs as an imprint of Bravado, a company that runs the band's merchandising. While the band recognize that their merchandise is their biggest revenue income, they insist Tattered and Torn is more than just band merchandising. Vocalist Corey Taylor said, "It's a way for [the fans] to get cool clothing at affordable prices." The first items from the clothing line went on sale in late July 2008 through Hot Topic stores across North America and the Hot Topic website. Currently, the line is limited to shirts and hoodies but was expected to develop into a full-range clothing line.
Controversies
Slipknot's music and image have been the subject of many controversies throughout its career. The lyrical content of some of Slipknot's songs has been linked to several violent and criminal incidents. In 2003, two young killers blamed the lyrics of "Disasterpiece" for their crime. In 2006, the lyrics of "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbery.
In 2008, Corey Taylor commented on a slashing incident at a South African school to which Slipknot was linked; he said: ... obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died, as far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive ... there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost.
Slipknot had a longstanding feud with the band Mushroomhead which—along with their fans—said Slipknot "stole their image". While Slipknot acknowledged their images had similarities, its members were not actively involved in the feud, saying the similarities were coincidental. Taylor said, "we both started at the same time—neither one of us knowing anything about each other". Taylor also said that at a live show in Cleveland, Ohio, several Mushroomhead fans threw objects including a fistsized padlock at Slipknot and that when Slipknot's set was finished, Machine Head and Amen went into the crowd and "handled it right there". In 2009, former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis said his band's members were no longer interested in feuding with Slipknot, saying, "they're not the first masked band, we're not, no one was". During an interview with Rock Rage Radio, Reavis praised Slipknot as he criticized his former bandmates after a dispute with the band's founding members which led to his dismissal. He stated that Slipknot was better and he admitted that his thoughts were personal, since he was not involved with Mushroomhead when the feud started.
Slipknot's 2005 lawsuit against Burger King said the company created the advertising-based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. Burger King responded with a countersuit, saying many other bands, such as Mr. Bungle, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne, Kiss, Insane Clown Posse, and Gwar have used masks as part of their images. After negotiations, the advertising campaign and lawsuit were withdrawn.
Members
Current members
(#6) Shawn "Clown" Crahan – percussion, backing vocals ; samples, media
(#5) Craig "133" Jones – samples, media, keyboards ; guitars
(#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
(#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
(#0) Sid Wilson – turntables ; keyboards
(#4) Jim Root – guitars
Alessandro Venturella – bass ; keyboards
Jay Weinberg – drums
"Tortilla Man" – percussion, backing vocals
Former members
(#1) Joey Jordison – drums
Donnie Steele – guitars ; bass
(#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
(#4) Josh "Gnar" Brainard – guitars, backing vocals
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals, percussion ; backing vocals ; samples, media
(#3) Greg "Cuddles" Welts – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Brandon Darner – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
Timeline
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards and nominations
Slipknot have been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and have won one.
|-
| || "Wait and Bleed" ||rowspan="3"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Left Behind" ||
|-
| || "My Plague" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| || "Duality" || Best Hard Rock Performance ||
|-
| "Vermilion" ||rowspan="5"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Before I Forget" ||
|-
| || "Psychosocial" ||
|-
| || "The Negative One" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2016 || "Custer" ||
|-
| .5: The Gray Chapter || Best Rock Album ||
Discography
Studio albums
Slipknot (1999)
Iowa (2001)
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
All Hope Is Gone (2008)
.5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
We Are Not Your Kind (2019)
Notable tours
World Domination Tour (1999–2000)
Tattoo the Earth (2000)
Iowa World Tour (2001–2002)
The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005)
All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009)
Memorial World Tour (2011–2013)
As a support act
Livin la Vida Loco Tour (1999)
Festivals
Ozzfest (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013)
Knotfest (2012, 2014–present)
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
American alternative metal musical groups
American groove metal musical groups
American nu metal musical groups
Grammy Award winners
Heavy metal musical groups from Iowa
Kerrang! Awards winners
Bands with fictional stage personas
Musical groups established in 1995
Roadrunner Records artists
1995 establishments in Iowa
Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa
Masked musicians | false | [
"This list of Nebraska Cornhuskers academic honors and awards are the academic achievements of Nebraska Cornhuskers student-athletes. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Division I, fielding 22 varsity teams (9 men's, 13 women's) in 15 sports. Nebraska student-athletes have won 315 Academic All-American awards and 17 Today's Top 10 Awards—in both cases more than any other university. They have also won 15 Academic All-American of the Year awards.\n\nMajor awards\n\nToday's Top 10 Award\nNebraska student-athletes have won 17 Today's Top 10 Awards, more than any other school. The award honors student-athletes based upon the criteria of athletic achievement, academic achievement, and community involvement.\n\nAcademic All-American of the Year\nThe CoSIDA Academic All-American-of-the-Year award is given annually to the top student-athlete in each sport as voted on by the College Sports Information Directors of America. A total of 10 Nebraska student-athletes have won the award 15 times.\n\nAcademic All-Americans\nNebraska student-athletes have been named Academic All-America selections 340 times across all sports, most among NCAA Division I universities. Nebraska's football program has produced 108 Academic All-Americans, most among FBS schools.\n\nAcademic All-Americans by sport\n\nFirst team\n\nSecond team, third team, honorable mention\n\nReferences\n\nNebraska Cornhuskers",
"The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. The awards have been described by book critics such as The Guardian as a \"prestigious fantasy prize\", and one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards (which cover both fantasy and science fiction). The World Fantasy Award—Anthology is given each year for anthologies of fantasy stories by multiple authors published in English. An anthology can have any number of editors, and works in the anthology may have been previously published; awards are also given out for collections of works by a single author in the Collection category. The Anthology category has been awarded annually since 1988, though from 1977 through 1987 anthologies were admissible as nominees in the Collection category. During the ten years they were admissible for that category they won the award seven times and represented 38 of the 56 nominations.\n\nWorld Fantasy Award nominees and winners are decided by attendees and judges at the annual World Fantasy Convention. A ballot is posted in June for attendees of the current and previous two conferences to determine two of the finalists, and a panel of five judges adds three or more nominees before voting on the overall winner. The panel of judges is typically made up of fantasy authors and is chosen each year by the World Fantasy Awards Administration, which has the power to break ties. The final results are presented at the World Fantasy Convention at the end of October. Winners were presented with a statue in the form of a bust of H. P. Lovecraft through the 2015 awards; more recent winners receive a statuette of a tree.\n\nDuring the 34 nomination years, 121 editors have had works nominated; 38 of them have won, including co-editors. Only four editors have won more than once. Ellen Datlow has won 8 times out of 36 nominations, the most of any editor; Terri Windling has won 6 times out of 18 nominations, all of the nominations as a co-editor with Datlow; Jeff VanderMeer has two wins each out of seven nominations, with both wins and five nominations shared with Ann VanderMeer; Jack Dann has won twice out of five nominations; and Dennis Etchison has won twice out of three nominations. After Datlow and Windling, the editors with the most nominations are Stephen Jones, who has won once out of fifteen nominations, Gardner Dozois, who has won once out of seven nominations, and David Sutton and Martin H. Greenberg, who each have been nominated six times without winning. Seventeen editors in total have been nominated more than twice.\n\nWinners and nominees\nIn the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the anthology was first published. Each year links to the corresponding \"year in literature\". Entries with a blue background and an asterisk (*) next to the editor's name have won the award; those with a white background are the other nominees on the shortlist.\n\n * Winners\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n World Fantasy Convention official site\n\nAwards established in 1988\nAnthology\nAnthology awards"
]
|
[
"Slipknot (band)",
"Image and identities",
"what was their image?",
"attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits",
"what other things played a part in their image?",
"The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases.",
"What else were they known for?",
"Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives.",
"Were they successful?",
"The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick.",
"How did they respond to that accusation?",
"The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music.",
"Have they won any awards?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_f31f0e7d00714137ad76b19336e378be_0 | What else is noted about them? | 7 | Besides attention-grabbing image, members performance wearing unique costume and controversy, what else is noted about Slipknot (band)? | Slipknot (band) | The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits--while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray. The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'". During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George. The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask", which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are. CANNOTANSWER | The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. | Slipknot is an American heavy metal band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Gray died on May 24, 2010, and was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison was dismissed from the band on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Fehn was also dismissed from the band in March 2019 prior to the writing of We Are Not Your Kind.
Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows. The band rapidly rose to fame following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album, Iowa, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. Their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, was released on August 9, 2019. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, and five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
History
Background (1991-1995)
In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera. Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, and Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni later took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan often went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth, writing and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot"; another was titled "Painface", which Colsefni later used to name his band Painface.
In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed occasionally with this group. Brainard eventually left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of '93 and early in '94. During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed a death metal band called Body Pit, soon becoming popular in the local scene. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up.
In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started a band named the Pale Ones. The lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer, moving Crahan to percussion. Furthermore, Colsefni also took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist. The band then decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut; playing a benefit show using the name Meld.
Demo recording and beginnings (1995–1998)
Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray, Crahan and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights. It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at SR Audio, a studio in the band's hometown. As they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: "(he) was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons...I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist. After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996.
Distribution for the demo was initially left to the band and their producer Sean McMahon, before it was handed over to the distribution company -ismist Recordings in early 1997. Slipknot received a small amount of airplay on local radio stations off the back of the demo. However, it did not lead to any kind of interest from record labels, so the band returned to the studio to develop new material. It was at this time that the band sought more melodic vocals for their music. As a result, Corey Taylor was recruited from fellow Des Moines band Stone Sour; this moved Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion. While working in the studio, Slipknot continued to do local shows, during one of which in September 1997, Colsefni announced on stage that he was leaving the band. The gap on percussion was filled by Greg Welts, who was affectionately known as "Cuddles". In early 1998, Slipknot produced a second demo featuring five tracks exclusively for record labels. The band began to receive a lot of attention from record labels, and in February 1998, producer Ross Robinson offered to produce their debut album after attending rehearsals in Des Moines. Soon after, DJ Sid Wilson was recruited as the band's ninth member after showing great interest and impressing band members. In late June, Slipknot received a $500,000, seven-album deal, from Roadrunner Records; the band signed the deal publicly on July 8, 1998. Two days prior to this, Welts was fired from the band, something which Slipknot refuse to comment on. Welts was replaced by Brandon Darner, who departed from the band shortly after joining.
Self-titled album and emergence (1998–2000)
Chris Fehn was brought in to replace Darner on percussion before Slipknot traveled to Malibu, California, to work on their debut album in September 1998. Partway through the recording process of the album, Slipknot returned to Des Moines for the Christmas period. During that period, guitarist Brainard decided to leave the band. Brainard said, "some decisions were made that I wasn't particularly happy with". Slipknot later recruited Jim Root to complete their lineup and the band returned to Malibu to continue work on the album. Work on the album concluded in early 1999, allowing the band to go on their first tour as part of the Ozzfest lineup in 1999. Ozzfest greatly increased Slipknot's audience, furthering the band's success with their self-titled album that was released on June 29, 1999. Slipknot released its first home video Welcome to Our Neighborhood, which was directed by Thomas Mignone, and the singles "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out", which were also directed by Mignone. The singles received some airplay, but Slipknot quickly developed a large following, mainly from touring and word of mouth. The band toured several countries throughout 1999 and 2000 in support of the album. In early 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; a first for an album released by Roadrunner Records.
Iowa (2001–2003)
Anticipation for Slipknot's second album was intense. In early 2001, the band began recording the second album at Sound City and Sound Image studios in Los Angeles. Around this time, conflicts arose between band members due to extensive touring and recording schedules. Recording of their second album ended in February 2001 and the band embarked on their Iowa World Tour. Entitled Iowa, Slipknot's second album—released on August 28, 2001—peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and at number one in the UK. The album produced three singles; "The Heretic Anthem" (promotional single), "Left Behind" and "My Plague", which appeared on the soundtrack for the film Resident Evil. In 2002, Slipknot appeared in Rollerball (2002), performing "I Am Hated". The release and intense promotion of the album resulted in sold-out shows in large arenas in several countries.
In mid-2002, Slipknot went on hiatus because of internal conflicts, and band members focused on side projects. Vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Jordison created Murderdolls with vocalist Wednesday 13, percussionist Crahan founded To My Surprise and DJ Wilson went solo as DJ Starscream. For a while, the future of Slipknot was uncertain and there was much speculation about whether there would be a third album, or if the split would become permanent. "I don't have a problem with anyone in Slipknot," Jordison protested. "I've seen comments from Corey saying there are things to be resolved, but I have no fucking idea what he's talking about."
Nonetheless, on November 22, 2002, Slipknot released their second DVD, Disasterpieces.
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2003–2007)
After several delays, Slipknot moved into The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, in mid-2003 to work on their third album alongside producer Rick Rubin. By early 2004, work on the album had finished and the band began The Subliminal Verses World Tour with their appearance on the Jägermeister Music Tour in March 2004. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released on May 24, 2004; it peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts. The album produced six singles; "Duality", "Vermilion", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "Before I Forget", "The Nameless", and The Blister Exists. Slipknot recorded its first live album, 9.0: Live, while touring in support of the band's third album. Released on November 1, 2005 9.0: Live peaked at number 17 on the Billboard album charts. Touring in support of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) continued through 2004 and up to the end of 2005 before Slipknot went on hiatus for the second time.
In 2005, several members of Slipknot were involved in Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions, a collaborative album recorded by artists signed to Roadrunner Records for the label's 25th anniversary. 2006 saw Slipknot win their first Grammy Award, picking up the Best Metal Performance award for the single "Before I Forget". The single went on to be featured on the set list of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On December 5, 2006, Slipknot released its third DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine. While Slipknot was on hiatus, several band members again focused their attentions on side projects; vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root returned to Stone Sour, drummer Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches of Blood's third album Fire Up the Blades, Crahan founded Dirty Little Rabbits and Wilson returned as DJ Starscream once again.
All Hope Is Gone and Gray's death (2008–2010)
Preparation for Slipknot's fourth album began towards the end of 2007; work began at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman in February 2008. The album was finished in June, and the band went on the All Hope Is Gone World Tour on July 9, 2008. Slipknot's fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released on August 20, 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard albums chart. The album produced five singles; "All Hope Is Gone", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Sulfur" and "Snuff". 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of Slipknot's debut album; to commemorate the event, the band released a special-edition version of Slipknot on September 9, 2009. The band toured in support of the album throughout 2008 and continued until October 31, 2009, resulting in Slipknot's third hiatus.
During the hiatus, several band members focused on respective side projects; Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band and returned to Stone Sour with guitarist Root; Crahan continued working with his band Dirty Little Rabbits; and drummer Jordison returned with his band Murderdolls and became the new permanent drummer of Rob Zombie. Meanwhile, percussionist Fehn became a full-time bassist with metalcore band Will Haven and Sid Wilson founded the eponymous band Sid.
In 2010, Gray was planning to tour with the supergroup, Hail!, but on May 24, 2010, he was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room. Circumstances surrounding his death at the time were not immediately known; an autopsy suspected his death was not intentional but did not reveal the cause. The day after his death, the remaining eight members of the band held a live, unmasked, press conference alongside Gray's widow and brother. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl.
The band was hesitant to comment on the future of Slipknot. The members made conflicting statements in interviews; drummer Jordison told The Pulse of Radio "there is another Slipknot record already kinda in the making". Vocalist Taylor told FMQB Productions he was "very conflicted about whether or not [he wants] to do anything with Slipknot". The band released their fourth video album (sic)nesses on September 28, 2010; it debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD features Slipknot's entire live performance at the 2009 Download Festival and a 45-minute film documenting their tour in support of All Hope Is Gone, and served as a tribute to Paul Gray.
Return to the stage, Antennas to Hell and Knotfest (2011–2012)
Regarding the continuation of Slipknot, Taylor told NME Gray would want them to continue and he felt they should but he was ambivalent about returning to the band. Slipknot returned to touring in 2011, performing a small number of shows in Europe. They headlined the Sonisphere Festival and Rock in Rio alongside Iron Maiden and Metallica, and performed at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting. Donnie Steele substituted for Gray in the concerts; he was positioned behind Jordison and obscured from the audience's view.
Slipknot also said the band would complete and release the band's fifth studio album, and that there were no plans to replace Gray. Jordison said the writing process for the album had already begun and that he had written 17 songs.
Slipknot performed at the Mayhem Festival tour of 2012.
On May 29, 2012, Roadrunner Records posted a teaser video titled Antennas to Hell on its website. Later that day, on Twitter, Corey Taylor said Slipknot will release a greatest hits album on June 17, 2012. He also said the band was not yet recording new material but was putting together demos for a new album.
Slipknot's first annual music festival, called Knotfest, was held on August 17, 2012, at Mid-America Motorplex near Pacific Junction, Iowa, and on August 18, 2012, in Somerset, Wisconsin. Deftones, Lamb of God, and Serj Tankian also performed at the festival. The festival shows also debuted a Slipknot museum. On 14, June 2013, Slipknot headlined the Download Festival for a second time. The band performed to roughly 90,000 people and was twice forced to stop the set—once in the middle of a song—to allow the front barricade, which had split open under crowd pressure, to be repaired.
Jordison's departure, .5: The Gray Chapter, and new members (2013–2016)
Production of the band's fifth album began in late 2013. Taylor described the album as "very dark" and a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Guitarist Jim Root did not participate in Stone Sour's January tour so he could write material for Slipknot.
On December 12, 2013, the band announced through its official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after 18 years, citing personal reasons. On his official Facebook page, Jordison later said he "did not quit Slipknot" and that he was "shocked" and "blindsided" by the news. Both Jordison and Slipknot independently promised to release further details about the split. Taylor said Jordison would not be appearing on the new album because he did not participate in any songwriting sessions before his departure. After years of both sides being silent and evasive as to the reasons for his leaving the band, Jordison revealed in June 2016 that he suffered from Transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that cost him the ability to play the drums toward the end of his time with Slipknot. However, Jordison played drums in the blackened death metal act Sinsaenum, which he joined in 2016.
In July 2014, Slipknot began releasing teasers for the new album on the band's website and social media using cryptic messages and gory imagery. "The Negative One", the band's first song in six years, was released on August 1; it was accompanied by a music video directed by Crahan that was released four days later. The video did not feature any band members. On August 24, Slipknot released an official radio single titled "The Devil In I", and the name of the upcoming album was announced as .5: The Gray Chapter on iTunes, with an expected release date of October 28. The release was later preponed to October 17 for the Netherlands and Australia, October 20 for the UK and October 21 worldwide. "The Negative One" was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support. The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia. A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively; Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.
Taylor later said he was upset at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band. On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.
On March 11, 2015, while the band was not touring, guitarist Mick Thomson was hospitalized after a drunken knife fight with his brother at Thomson's home in Iowa. The pair sustained serious, but non life-threatening, injuries. On August 2, 2015, during a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, the band was forced to stop performing after Venturella was suddenly rushed to hospital, after undergoing a medical emergency. After 20 minutes, singer Taylor told the audience the band would continue the concert, performing without Venturella. It was later discovered that Venturella had collapsed because of extreme dehydration.
On September 25, 2016, the band performed at their annual festival Knotfest, which was altered to include Ozzfest this year. They performed the Iowa album in its entirety. In the meanwhile, Crahan made his directorial debut with the feature film Officer Downe, based on a graphic novel of the same name and starring actor Kim Coates. In November 2016, Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that he and fellow guitarist Jim Root would be teaming up in February 2017 to begin writing new material for a new Slipknot album because "we want to write."
We Are Not Your Kind (2017–2020)
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor regrouped with his other band Stone Sour in 2017, and they released their album Hydrograd on June 30. Talking about his first work in cinema and the other Slipknot members' plans, in an interview with WRIF's Meltdown, Crahan revealed that "we're beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. We have songs that we've written that are amazing." In December 2017, Crahan appeared on The Jasta Show podcast, where he stated that the next Slipknot album could be his last with the band.
Corey Taylor revealed in October 2018 that the band would enter the studio in early 2019, with a targeted release for their sixth album that same year, followed by a world tour. On October 31, the single "All Out Life" was released, as was an accompanying music video. On March 4, 2019, the band announced that the release date for the next album would be August 9, 2019 and that they would be embarking on the Knotfest Roadshow along with support by Gojira, Volbeat, and Behemoth to support the album. On March 7, Slipknot were revealed to be the opening act for Metallica's six WorldWired Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand from October 17 through October 31.
On March 14, 2019, Chris Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band citing withheld payments. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of setting up several band-related business entities, in different states, that collect money from the band. Fehn called for full forensic accounting to be done on all of the band's companies and assets in order to collect any profits and damages he may be owed. On that same day, Taylor responded via Twitter with a tweet stating, "You're gonna read a lot of bullshit today. This is all I'll say. JUST YOU WAIT TIL THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Long Live The Knot". On March 18, 2019, the band officially announced, via their website, that Chris Fehn was no longer a member of the band, stating, "Slipknot's focus is on making album #6, and our upcoming shows around the world, our best ever. Chris knows why he is no longer a part of Slipknot. We are disappointed that he chose to point fingers and manufacture claims, rather than doing what was necessary to continue to be a part of Slipknot. We would have preferred he not take the path that he has, but evolution in all things is a necessary part of this life. Long Live The Knot". However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing. By May 2019, Fehn's employment status with the band had apparently changed, as evident by his missing name on the band's Instagram posts for their new masks. He was replaced by a percussionist, whose identity is concealed, who the fans have dubbed "Tortilla Man". Loudwire has reported that fans have linked his identity as Michael Pfaff, a former member of Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits. The band themselves have not confirmed this claim.
On May 13, 2019, the band teased something was coming on May 16, ahead of their performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as screenshots of their new masks. On that day, the album's title was revealed to be We Are Not Your Kind, along with its tracklist and a music video for "Unsainted", where the new masks and outfits for the nine band members were shown for the first time, including an as-yet-unknown new percussionist. on July 22, they released the second single, from their upcoming album, titled "Solway Firth". This was accompanied by a music video which featured live footage from their 2019 shows as well as clips and audio from The Boys . On August 5, "Birth of the Cruel" was released as the album's third single, accompanied by a music video. On August 9, four days after they had released “Birth of the Cruel” they released their sixth album We Are Not Your Kind.
In August 2019, Crahan announced the band will release an experimental album of outtakes from the 2008 All Hope Is Gone sessions, titled Look Outside Your Window. The album was recorded with just 4 members (Crahan, Taylor, Root, and Wilson), in a different studio away from the other members, is expected to have 11 tracks that Taylor described as having a "Radiohead vibe", and Crahan saying in 2018 "it is not a Slipknot album". The band also released a twenty-minute experimental short film directed by Crahan and titled Pollution. One of the segments of the film is the music video for the song, "Nero Forte".
Seventh studio album and Jordison's death (2021−present)
On May 19, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that the band had been currently making "god music". In an article published by Loudwire on June 9, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that a new Slipknot album would ‘hopefully’ be released in 2021. He also added that the band would be parting ways with Roadrunner Records following the release of the album.
On July 26, 2021, the band's former drummer, Joey Jordison, died in his sleep at the age of 46.
In November 2021, the band started teasing new material on a new domain thechapeltownrag.com. Several snippets of a song were shown on the website leading to speculation of a new single that the band would later confirm on November 4, with the single titled "The Chapeltown Rag" slated for release the following day alongside its live debut at the Knotfest Roadshow in Los Angeles, California on November 5, 2021. In December 2021, Taylor revealed that the band were planning on mixing their seventh studio album in January, and are planning on releasing it by April 2022. He also stated that he preferred the material on their forthcoming seventh studio album to that on We Are Not Your Kind.
Artistry
Musical style
Slipknot is considered a nu metal band. The band's members prefer to distance themselves musically from other nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Slipknot describes its sound as "metal metal" and regards the link to nu metal as coincidental and a result of nu metal's emergence being concurrent with that of Slipknot. The band's sound typically features a heavily down-tuned guitar setup, a large percussive section, sampling, keyboards and DJing/turntablism. Using a variety of vocal styles, the music typically features growled vocals, screaming, backing vocals, as well as melodic singing. The band has continually experimented with its sound, most notably developing tracks led by acoustic guitars and melodic singing that first appeared on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses).
The album All Hope Is Gone is considered a groove metal album with elements of death metal and thrash metal. The band has also been described as heavy metal, alternative metal groove metal, death metal, hard rock, grindcore, thrash metal, and rap metal.
Lyrics
Slipknot's lyrics are generally very aggressive; they sometimes include profanity while exploring themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy, and psychosis. They often draw upon topics including the music industry, politics, personal strife, and reflection, among others. Rick Anderson of Allmusic said, "those lyrics that are discernible are not generally quotable on a family website". On Vol. 3, Taylor deliberately avoided using profanity in response to claims he relied on it.
Influences
Slipknot cited both Korn's self-titled album of 1994 and Limp Bizkit's album Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ of 1997 as major influences. However, the band's biggest influence, both on their image and music, has been singer Mike Patton and his bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Faith No More. Corey Taylor even stated that watching Faith No More perform on the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards saved his life. In an interview in 2000 Patton called the Slipknot members "really nice guys".
The band Kiss has been a big influence for Slipknot, both musically and image-wise. Several band members have in numerous interviews stated the impact Kiss had on them when growing up. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Joey Jordison said that "I saw Kiss on The Dick Clark Show in like, 1980 or something, and Kiss Alive! was the first record of theirs I had. This was back when you bought cassettes or records, and I still have my original cassette copy of it. And I tell you what, it just blew my mind! The cover tells you everything you need to know; it just makes you want to listen to the whole fucking record. And these guys look like fucking demons — you don't know when you're a kid and you're watching them on TV that it's just guys in makeup. So yeah, it was inspiring back then. They were a huge influence on me when I was a kid. And that record came out in 1975, so I was always like, "That's fucking badass — one of my favorite records of all time came out the year I was born!". In another interview with Loudwire, he also added that after listening to Kiss Alive! for the first, he was "changed forever, and then [he] just became completely engulfed in metal." Guitarist Mick Thomson revealed in Metal Hammer that Kiss' Destroyer was the first album he ever bought, and when talking about Kiss' Alive II; he stated that "...the artwork on Alive II with Gene's sweat running, the blood coming from his face and the make-up running had a profound influence on me. You only have to look at my own band to see how much so." Vocalist Corey Taylor has stated that Kiss were a huge influence on both him and the rest of the band and he has also covered multiple Kiss songs over the years; both as a solo artist as well as with Stone Sour, in which Slipknot guitarist Jim Root also played at the time.
Many authors single out the massive influence that experimental band Mr. Bungle has had on Slipknot; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members of Mr. Bungle donned strange masks (often clown and gimp ones), costumes (including jumpsuits) and hid their identities behind obscure pseudonyms. All of these were major features on their 1991 self-titled album cycle. Their creepy music videos from that record, such as "Travolta" which was banned on MTV, also pointed out at what would be the future image of Slipknot. In the same way, the musical influence of Mr. Bungle is evident in the eclecticism and adventurousness throughout Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Slipknot's first release of 1996, although the band added more metallic elements. A few songs on that album also hint at the eccentric catchiness of Faith No More and other funk metal bands.
While Slipknot was making its debut studio release, the entire band attended one of the first shows by avant-garde grindcore supergroup Fantômas-composed of Patton, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn-which greatly influenced them at the time. From that
album on, Slipknot has displayed a much more straightforward, extreme metal sound, largely because of producer Ross Robinson, and some writers have identified the influence of Faith No More on some tracks'
structures and alternating melodies from Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). On the other hand, the experimental imprint of Bungle has become rare, but it made a sudden reappearance on 2019's We Are Not Your Kind.
The members of Slipknot are also influenced by Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Deicide, Pantera, Anthrax, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sepultura, White Zombie, Alice in Chains, Malevolent Creation, Danny Heifetz, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Melvins, N.W.A, Skinny Puppy, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Emperor, Beastie Boys, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Misfits, Gorefest, Run-DMC, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica. Taylor has spoken of his admiration for vocalists Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield. In 1999, Chris Fehn said Sid Wilson is influenced by jungle music and rave music.
Stage performances
Slipknot is known for its chaotic, energetic live shows that contributed to the band's success. During performances, most of the band's members headbang heavily. The band's early performances included extreme acts such as stage dives from high balconies and band members setting each other on fire. Clown was known to go into the crowd and tie people up with the microphone cord. In later years, they tended to refrain from acts this extreme. Former bassist Paul Gray said this was due to receiving lawsuits and to avoid harming other people, and that it was a "better move" for the longevity of the band. Along with the energetic and unpredictable performances, Slipknot often use elaborate stage setups that use pyrotechnics, elevated stage areas, hydraulic drum risers, and computer screens. Reviewing a Slipknot performance, Alistair Lawrence of Kerrang! said, "the choreographed chaos is too multi-faceted to fully describe". and NME described one Slipknot show as "a scene of chaos".
Image and identities
The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms—typically jumpsuits—while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray.
The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'".
During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George.
The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public.
In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called Slipknot: Wear the Mask, which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are.
Logo and nonagram
An essential element for the band's image is the Slipknot logo. The nonagram was created by the band's members around the same time the band was founded. The nonagram is arguably the best-known sigil of Slipknot and it represents a 9-point star—a symbol of unity, loyalty, friendship and remembrance. The logo is composed of three equilateral triangles each rotated at 0, 40, and 80 degrees. Each star point was meant to stand for each of the nine members of the original band, with at least one member, Chris Fehn, possessing a nonagram tattoo. Despite popular belief, the nonagram is not a Satanist symbol and instead represents Slipknot's "battle with the fake world."
The pre-release of the 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter also witnessed a major change in the band's logo and branding strategy. A new nonagram drew the public's attention towards the band, announcing the beginning of a new era. The black and red color scheme and the minimalist, elegant design received public appreciation and it is still used today.
Clothing brand
In 2008, Slipknot launched their clothing line Tattered and Torn. Named after a song on their 1999 self-titled debut, the line runs as an imprint of Bravado, a company that runs the band's merchandising. While the band recognize that their merchandise is their biggest revenue income, they insist Tattered and Torn is more than just band merchandising. Vocalist Corey Taylor said, "It's a way for [the fans] to get cool clothing at affordable prices." The first items from the clothing line went on sale in late July 2008 through Hot Topic stores across North America and the Hot Topic website. Currently, the line is limited to shirts and hoodies but was expected to develop into a full-range clothing line.
Controversies
Slipknot's music and image have been the subject of many controversies throughout its career. The lyrical content of some of Slipknot's songs has been linked to several violent and criminal incidents. In 2003, two young killers blamed the lyrics of "Disasterpiece" for their crime. In 2006, the lyrics of "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbery.
In 2008, Corey Taylor commented on a slashing incident at a South African school to which Slipknot was linked; he said: ... obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died, as far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive ... there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost.
Slipknot had a longstanding feud with the band Mushroomhead which—along with their fans—said Slipknot "stole their image". While Slipknot acknowledged their images had similarities, its members were not actively involved in the feud, saying the similarities were coincidental. Taylor said, "we both started at the same time—neither one of us knowing anything about each other". Taylor also said that at a live show in Cleveland, Ohio, several Mushroomhead fans threw objects including a fistsized padlock at Slipknot and that when Slipknot's set was finished, Machine Head and Amen went into the crowd and "handled it right there". In 2009, former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis said his band's members were no longer interested in feuding with Slipknot, saying, "they're not the first masked band, we're not, no one was". During an interview with Rock Rage Radio, Reavis praised Slipknot as he criticized his former bandmates after a dispute with the band's founding members which led to his dismissal. He stated that Slipknot was better and he admitted that his thoughts were personal, since he was not involved with Mushroomhead when the feud started.
Slipknot's 2005 lawsuit against Burger King said the company created the advertising-based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. Burger King responded with a countersuit, saying many other bands, such as Mr. Bungle, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne, Kiss, Insane Clown Posse, and Gwar have used masks as part of their images. After negotiations, the advertising campaign and lawsuit were withdrawn.
Members
Current members
(#6) Shawn "Clown" Crahan – percussion, backing vocals ; samples, media
(#5) Craig "133" Jones – samples, media, keyboards ; guitars
(#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
(#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
(#0) Sid Wilson – turntables ; keyboards
(#4) Jim Root – guitars
Alessandro Venturella – bass ; keyboards
Jay Weinberg – drums
"Tortilla Man" – percussion, backing vocals
Former members
(#1) Joey Jordison – drums
Donnie Steele – guitars ; bass
(#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
(#4) Josh "Gnar" Brainard – guitars, backing vocals
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals, percussion ; backing vocals ; samples, media
(#3) Greg "Cuddles" Welts – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Brandon Darner – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
Timeline
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards and nominations
Slipknot have been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and have won one.
|-
| || "Wait and Bleed" ||rowspan="3"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Left Behind" ||
|-
| || "My Plague" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| || "Duality" || Best Hard Rock Performance ||
|-
| "Vermilion" ||rowspan="5"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Before I Forget" ||
|-
| || "Psychosocial" ||
|-
| || "The Negative One" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2016 || "Custer" ||
|-
| .5: The Gray Chapter || Best Rock Album ||
Discography
Studio albums
Slipknot (1999)
Iowa (2001)
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
All Hope Is Gone (2008)
.5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
We Are Not Your Kind (2019)
Notable tours
World Domination Tour (1999–2000)
Tattoo the Earth (2000)
Iowa World Tour (2001–2002)
The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005)
All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009)
Memorial World Tour (2011–2013)
As a support act
Livin la Vida Loco Tour (1999)
Festivals
Ozzfest (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013)
Knotfest (2012, 2014–present)
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
American alternative metal musical groups
American groove metal musical groups
American nu metal musical groups
Grammy Award winners
Heavy metal musical groups from Iowa
Kerrang! Awards winners
Bands with fictional stage personas
Musical groups established in 1995
Roadrunner Records artists
1995 establishments in Iowa
Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa
Masked musicians | 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",
"So What? is an album by bassist Ron Carter recorded in 1998 and originally released on the Japanese Somethin' Else label with a US release on Blue Note Records.\n\nReception\n\nThe AllMusic review by Michael G. Nastos observed \"Truly a team effort, this consistently well-played set should remind us all how brilliant these players are, especially with the cool Count Basie concept of \"less is more\" in mind\".\n\nTrack listing \nAll compositions by Ron Carter except where noted\n \"So What\" (Miles Davis) – 6:47\n \"You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To\" (Cole Porter) – 4:35\n \"It's About Time\" – 5:14\n \"My Foolish Heart\" (Victor Young, Ned Washington) – 8:15\t\n \"Hi-Fly\" (Randy Weston) – 6:02\n \"3 More Days\" – 7:35\n \"Eddie's Theme\" – 3:54\n \"The Third Plane\" – 4:55\n\nPersonnel \nRon Carter - bass \nKenny Barron – piano\nLewis Nash – drums\n\nReferences \n\nRon Carter albums\n1998 albums\nBlue Note Records albums"
]
|
[
"Slipknot (band)",
"Image and identities",
"what was their image?",
"attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits",
"what other things played a part in their image?",
"The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases.",
"What else were they known for?",
"Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives.",
"Were they successful?",
"The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick.",
"How did they respond to that accusation?",
"The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music.",
"Have they won any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"What else is noted about them?",
"The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started."
]
| C_f31f0e7d00714137ad76b19336e378be_0 | When did the band start | 8 | When did the Slipknot (band) start? | Slipknot (band) | The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits--while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray. The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'". During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George. The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask", which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Slipknot is an American heavy metal band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Gray died on May 24, 2010, and was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison was dismissed from the band on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Fehn was also dismissed from the band in March 2019 prior to the writing of We Are Not Your Kind.
Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows. The band rapidly rose to fame following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album, Iowa, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. Their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, was released on August 9, 2019. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, and five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
History
Background (1991-1995)
In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera. Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, and Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni later took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan often went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth, writing and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot"; another was titled "Painface", which Colsefni later used to name his band Painface.
In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed occasionally with this group. Brainard eventually left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of '93 and early in '94. During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed a death metal band called Body Pit, soon becoming popular in the local scene. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up.
In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started a band named the Pale Ones. The lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer, moving Crahan to percussion. Furthermore, Colsefni also took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist. The band then decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut; playing a benefit show using the name Meld.
Demo recording and beginnings (1995–1998)
Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray, Crahan and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights. It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at SR Audio, a studio in the band's hometown. As they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: "(he) was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons...I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist. After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996.
Distribution for the demo was initially left to the band and their producer Sean McMahon, before it was handed over to the distribution company -ismist Recordings in early 1997. Slipknot received a small amount of airplay on local radio stations off the back of the demo. However, it did not lead to any kind of interest from record labels, so the band returned to the studio to develop new material. It was at this time that the band sought more melodic vocals for their music. As a result, Corey Taylor was recruited from fellow Des Moines band Stone Sour; this moved Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion. While working in the studio, Slipknot continued to do local shows, during one of which in September 1997, Colsefni announced on stage that he was leaving the band. The gap on percussion was filled by Greg Welts, who was affectionately known as "Cuddles". In early 1998, Slipknot produced a second demo featuring five tracks exclusively for record labels. The band began to receive a lot of attention from record labels, and in February 1998, producer Ross Robinson offered to produce their debut album after attending rehearsals in Des Moines. Soon after, DJ Sid Wilson was recruited as the band's ninth member after showing great interest and impressing band members. In late June, Slipknot received a $500,000, seven-album deal, from Roadrunner Records; the band signed the deal publicly on July 8, 1998. Two days prior to this, Welts was fired from the band, something which Slipknot refuse to comment on. Welts was replaced by Brandon Darner, who departed from the band shortly after joining.
Self-titled album and emergence (1998–2000)
Chris Fehn was brought in to replace Darner on percussion before Slipknot traveled to Malibu, California, to work on their debut album in September 1998. Partway through the recording process of the album, Slipknot returned to Des Moines for the Christmas period. During that period, guitarist Brainard decided to leave the band. Brainard said, "some decisions were made that I wasn't particularly happy with". Slipknot later recruited Jim Root to complete their lineup and the band returned to Malibu to continue work on the album. Work on the album concluded in early 1999, allowing the band to go on their first tour as part of the Ozzfest lineup in 1999. Ozzfest greatly increased Slipknot's audience, furthering the band's success with their self-titled album that was released on June 29, 1999. Slipknot released its first home video Welcome to Our Neighborhood, which was directed by Thomas Mignone, and the singles "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out", which were also directed by Mignone. The singles received some airplay, but Slipknot quickly developed a large following, mainly from touring and word of mouth. The band toured several countries throughout 1999 and 2000 in support of the album. In early 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; a first for an album released by Roadrunner Records.
Iowa (2001–2003)
Anticipation for Slipknot's second album was intense. In early 2001, the band began recording the second album at Sound City and Sound Image studios in Los Angeles. Around this time, conflicts arose between band members due to extensive touring and recording schedules. Recording of their second album ended in February 2001 and the band embarked on their Iowa World Tour. Entitled Iowa, Slipknot's second album—released on August 28, 2001—peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and at number one in the UK. The album produced three singles; "The Heretic Anthem" (promotional single), "Left Behind" and "My Plague", which appeared on the soundtrack for the film Resident Evil. In 2002, Slipknot appeared in Rollerball (2002), performing "I Am Hated". The release and intense promotion of the album resulted in sold-out shows in large arenas in several countries.
In mid-2002, Slipknot went on hiatus because of internal conflicts, and band members focused on side projects. Vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Jordison created Murderdolls with vocalist Wednesday 13, percussionist Crahan founded To My Surprise and DJ Wilson went solo as DJ Starscream. For a while, the future of Slipknot was uncertain and there was much speculation about whether there would be a third album, or if the split would become permanent. "I don't have a problem with anyone in Slipknot," Jordison protested. "I've seen comments from Corey saying there are things to be resolved, but I have no fucking idea what he's talking about."
Nonetheless, on November 22, 2002, Slipknot released their second DVD, Disasterpieces.
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2003–2007)
After several delays, Slipknot moved into The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, in mid-2003 to work on their third album alongside producer Rick Rubin. By early 2004, work on the album had finished and the band began The Subliminal Verses World Tour with their appearance on the Jägermeister Music Tour in March 2004. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released on May 24, 2004; it peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts. The album produced six singles; "Duality", "Vermilion", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "Before I Forget", "The Nameless", and The Blister Exists. Slipknot recorded its first live album, 9.0: Live, while touring in support of the band's third album. Released on November 1, 2005 9.0: Live peaked at number 17 on the Billboard album charts. Touring in support of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) continued through 2004 and up to the end of 2005 before Slipknot went on hiatus for the second time.
In 2005, several members of Slipknot were involved in Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions, a collaborative album recorded by artists signed to Roadrunner Records for the label's 25th anniversary. 2006 saw Slipknot win their first Grammy Award, picking up the Best Metal Performance award for the single "Before I Forget". The single went on to be featured on the set list of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On December 5, 2006, Slipknot released its third DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine. While Slipknot was on hiatus, several band members again focused their attentions on side projects; vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root returned to Stone Sour, drummer Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches of Blood's third album Fire Up the Blades, Crahan founded Dirty Little Rabbits and Wilson returned as DJ Starscream once again.
All Hope Is Gone and Gray's death (2008–2010)
Preparation for Slipknot's fourth album began towards the end of 2007; work began at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman in February 2008. The album was finished in June, and the band went on the All Hope Is Gone World Tour on July 9, 2008. Slipknot's fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released on August 20, 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard albums chart. The album produced five singles; "All Hope Is Gone", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Sulfur" and "Snuff". 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of Slipknot's debut album; to commemorate the event, the band released a special-edition version of Slipknot on September 9, 2009. The band toured in support of the album throughout 2008 and continued until October 31, 2009, resulting in Slipknot's third hiatus.
During the hiatus, several band members focused on respective side projects; Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band and returned to Stone Sour with guitarist Root; Crahan continued working with his band Dirty Little Rabbits; and drummer Jordison returned with his band Murderdolls and became the new permanent drummer of Rob Zombie. Meanwhile, percussionist Fehn became a full-time bassist with metalcore band Will Haven and Sid Wilson founded the eponymous band Sid.
In 2010, Gray was planning to tour with the supergroup, Hail!, but on May 24, 2010, he was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room. Circumstances surrounding his death at the time were not immediately known; an autopsy suspected his death was not intentional but did not reveal the cause. The day after his death, the remaining eight members of the band held a live, unmasked, press conference alongside Gray's widow and brother. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl.
The band was hesitant to comment on the future of Slipknot. The members made conflicting statements in interviews; drummer Jordison told The Pulse of Radio "there is another Slipknot record already kinda in the making". Vocalist Taylor told FMQB Productions he was "very conflicted about whether or not [he wants] to do anything with Slipknot". The band released their fourth video album (sic)nesses on September 28, 2010; it debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD features Slipknot's entire live performance at the 2009 Download Festival and a 45-minute film documenting their tour in support of All Hope Is Gone, and served as a tribute to Paul Gray.
Return to the stage, Antennas to Hell and Knotfest (2011–2012)
Regarding the continuation of Slipknot, Taylor told NME Gray would want them to continue and he felt they should but he was ambivalent about returning to the band. Slipknot returned to touring in 2011, performing a small number of shows in Europe. They headlined the Sonisphere Festival and Rock in Rio alongside Iron Maiden and Metallica, and performed at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting. Donnie Steele substituted for Gray in the concerts; he was positioned behind Jordison and obscured from the audience's view.
Slipknot also said the band would complete and release the band's fifth studio album, and that there were no plans to replace Gray. Jordison said the writing process for the album had already begun and that he had written 17 songs.
Slipknot performed at the Mayhem Festival tour of 2012.
On May 29, 2012, Roadrunner Records posted a teaser video titled Antennas to Hell on its website. Later that day, on Twitter, Corey Taylor said Slipknot will release a greatest hits album on June 17, 2012. He also said the band was not yet recording new material but was putting together demos for a new album.
Slipknot's first annual music festival, called Knotfest, was held on August 17, 2012, at Mid-America Motorplex near Pacific Junction, Iowa, and on August 18, 2012, in Somerset, Wisconsin. Deftones, Lamb of God, and Serj Tankian also performed at the festival. The festival shows also debuted a Slipknot museum. On 14, June 2013, Slipknot headlined the Download Festival for a second time. The band performed to roughly 90,000 people and was twice forced to stop the set—once in the middle of a song—to allow the front barricade, which had split open under crowd pressure, to be repaired.
Jordison's departure, .5: The Gray Chapter, and new members (2013–2016)
Production of the band's fifth album began in late 2013. Taylor described the album as "very dark" and a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Guitarist Jim Root did not participate in Stone Sour's January tour so he could write material for Slipknot.
On December 12, 2013, the band announced through its official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after 18 years, citing personal reasons. On his official Facebook page, Jordison later said he "did not quit Slipknot" and that he was "shocked" and "blindsided" by the news. Both Jordison and Slipknot independently promised to release further details about the split. Taylor said Jordison would not be appearing on the new album because he did not participate in any songwriting sessions before his departure. After years of both sides being silent and evasive as to the reasons for his leaving the band, Jordison revealed in June 2016 that he suffered from Transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that cost him the ability to play the drums toward the end of his time with Slipknot. However, Jordison played drums in the blackened death metal act Sinsaenum, which he joined in 2016.
In July 2014, Slipknot began releasing teasers for the new album on the band's website and social media using cryptic messages and gory imagery. "The Negative One", the band's first song in six years, was released on August 1; it was accompanied by a music video directed by Crahan that was released four days later. The video did not feature any band members. On August 24, Slipknot released an official radio single titled "The Devil In I", and the name of the upcoming album was announced as .5: The Gray Chapter on iTunes, with an expected release date of October 28. The release was later preponed to October 17 for the Netherlands and Australia, October 20 for the UK and October 21 worldwide. "The Negative One" was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support. The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia. A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively; Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.
Taylor later said he was upset at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band. On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.
On March 11, 2015, while the band was not touring, guitarist Mick Thomson was hospitalized after a drunken knife fight with his brother at Thomson's home in Iowa. The pair sustained serious, but non life-threatening, injuries. On August 2, 2015, during a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, the band was forced to stop performing after Venturella was suddenly rushed to hospital, after undergoing a medical emergency. After 20 minutes, singer Taylor told the audience the band would continue the concert, performing without Venturella. It was later discovered that Venturella had collapsed because of extreme dehydration.
On September 25, 2016, the band performed at their annual festival Knotfest, which was altered to include Ozzfest this year. They performed the Iowa album in its entirety. In the meanwhile, Crahan made his directorial debut with the feature film Officer Downe, based on a graphic novel of the same name and starring actor Kim Coates. In November 2016, Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that he and fellow guitarist Jim Root would be teaming up in February 2017 to begin writing new material for a new Slipknot album because "we want to write."
We Are Not Your Kind (2017–2020)
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor regrouped with his other band Stone Sour in 2017, and they released their album Hydrograd on June 30. Talking about his first work in cinema and the other Slipknot members' plans, in an interview with WRIF's Meltdown, Crahan revealed that "we're beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. We have songs that we've written that are amazing." In December 2017, Crahan appeared on The Jasta Show podcast, where he stated that the next Slipknot album could be his last with the band.
Corey Taylor revealed in October 2018 that the band would enter the studio in early 2019, with a targeted release for their sixth album that same year, followed by a world tour. On October 31, the single "All Out Life" was released, as was an accompanying music video. On March 4, 2019, the band announced that the release date for the next album would be August 9, 2019 and that they would be embarking on the Knotfest Roadshow along with support by Gojira, Volbeat, and Behemoth to support the album. On March 7, Slipknot were revealed to be the opening act for Metallica's six WorldWired Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand from October 17 through October 31.
On March 14, 2019, Chris Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band citing withheld payments. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of setting up several band-related business entities, in different states, that collect money from the band. Fehn called for full forensic accounting to be done on all of the band's companies and assets in order to collect any profits and damages he may be owed. On that same day, Taylor responded via Twitter with a tweet stating, "You're gonna read a lot of bullshit today. This is all I'll say. JUST YOU WAIT TIL THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Long Live The Knot". On March 18, 2019, the band officially announced, via their website, that Chris Fehn was no longer a member of the band, stating, "Slipknot's focus is on making album #6, and our upcoming shows around the world, our best ever. Chris knows why he is no longer a part of Slipknot. We are disappointed that he chose to point fingers and manufacture claims, rather than doing what was necessary to continue to be a part of Slipknot. We would have preferred he not take the path that he has, but evolution in all things is a necessary part of this life. Long Live The Knot". However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing. By May 2019, Fehn's employment status with the band had apparently changed, as evident by his missing name on the band's Instagram posts for their new masks. He was replaced by a percussionist, whose identity is concealed, who the fans have dubbed "Tortilla Man". Loudwire has reported that fans have linked his identity as Michael Pfaff, a former member of Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits. The band themselves have not confirmed this claim.
On May 13, 2019, the band teased something was coming on May 16, ahead of their performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as screenshots of their new masks. On that day, the album's title was revealed to be We Are Not Your Kind, along with its tracklist and a music video for "Unsainted", where the new masks and outfits for the nine band members were shown for the first time, including an as-yet-unknown new percussionist. on July 22, they released the second single, from their upcoming album, titled "Solway Firth". This was accompanied by a music video which featured live footage from their 2019 shows as well as clips and audio from The Boys . On August 5, "Birth of the Cruel" was released as the album's third single, accompanied by a music video. On August 9, four days after they had released “Birth of the Cruel” they released their sixth album We Are Not Your Kind.
In August 2019, Crahan announced the band will release an experimental album of outtakes from the 2008 All Hope Is Gone sessions, titled Look Outside Your Window. The album was recorded with just 4 members (Crahan, Taylor, Root, and Wilson), in a different studio away from the other members, is expected to have 11 tracks that Taylor described as having a "Radiohead vibe", and Crahan saying in 2018 "it is not a Slipknot album". The band also released a twenty-minute experimental short film directed by Crahan and titled Pollution. One of the segments of the film is the music video for the song, "Nero Forte".
Seventh studio album and Jordison's death (2021−present)
On May 19, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that the band had been currently making "god music". In an article published by Loudwire on June 9, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that a new Slipknot album would ‘hopefully’ be released in 2021. He also added that the band would be parting ways with Roadrunner Records following the release of the album.
On July 26, 2021, the band's former drummer, Joey Jordison, died in his sleep at the age of 46.
In November 2021, the band started teasing new material on a new domain thechapeltownrag.com. Several snippets of a song were shown on the website leading to speculation of a new single that the band would later confirm on November 4, with the single titled "The Chapeltown Rag" slated for release the following day alongside its live debut at the Knotfest Roadshow in Los Angeles, California on November 5, 2021. In December 2021, Taylor revealed that the band were planning on mixing their seventh studio album in January, and are planning on releasing it by April 2022. He also stated that he preferred the material on their forthcoming seventh studio album to that on We Are Not Your Kind.
Artistry
Musical style
Slipknot is considered a nu metal band. The band's members prefer to distance themselves musically from other nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Slipknot describes its sound as "metal metal" and regards the link to nu metal as coincidental and a result of nu metal's emergence being concurrent with that of Slipknot. The band's sound typically features a heavily down-tuned guitar setup, a large percussive section, sampling, keyboards and DJing/turntablism. Using a variety of vocal styles, the music typically features growled vocals, screaming, backing vocals, as well as melodic singing. The band has continually experimented with its sound, most notably developing tracks led by acoustic guitars and melodic singing that first appeared on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses).
The album All Hope Is Gone is considered a groove metal album with elements of death metal and thrash metal. The band has also been described as heavy metal, alternative metal groove metal, death metal, hard rock, grindcore, thrash metal, and rap metal.
Lyrics
Slipknot's lyrics are generally very aggressive; they sometimes include profanity while exploring themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy, and psychosis. They often draw upon topics including the music industry, politics, personal strife, and reflection, among others. Rick Anderson of Allmusic said, "those lyrics that are discernible are not generally quotable on a family website". On Vol. 3, Taylor deliberately avoided using profanity in response to claims he relied on it.
Influences
Slipknot cited both Korn's self-titled album of 1994 and Limp Bizkit's album Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ of 1997 as major influences. However, the band's biggest influence, both on their image and music, has been singer Mike Patton and his bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Faith No More. Corey Taylor even stated that watching Faith No More perform on the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards saved his life. In an interview in 2000 Patton called the Slipknot members "really nice guys".
The band Kiss has been a big influence for Slipknot, both musically and image-wise. Several band members have in numerous interviews stated the impact Kiss had on them when growing up. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Joey Jordison said that "I saw Kiss on The Dick Clark Show in like, 1980 or something, and Kiss Alive! was the first record of theirs I had. This was back when you bought cassettes or records, and I still have my original cassette copy of it. And I tell you what, it just blew my mind! The cover tells you everything you need to know; it just makes you want to listen to the whole fucking record. And these guys look like fucking demons — you don't know when you're a kid and you're watching them on TV that it's just guys in makeup. So yeah, it was inspiring back then. They were a huge influence on me when I was a kid. And that record came out in 1975, so I was always like, "That's fucking badass — one of my favorite records of all time came out the year I was born!". In another interview with Loudwire, he also added that after listening to Kiss Alive! for the first, he was "changed forever, and then [he] just became completely engulfed in metal." Guitarist Mick Thomson revealed in Metal Hammer that Kiss' Destroyer was the first album he ever bought, and when talking about Kiss' Alive II; he stated that "...the artwork on Alive II with Gene's sweat running, the blood coming from his face and the make-up running had a profound influence on me. You only have to look at my own band to see how much so." Vocalist Corey Taylor has stated that Kiss were a huge influence on both him and the rest of the band and he has also covered multiple Kiss songs over the years; both as a solo artist as well as with Stone Sour, in which Slipknot guitarist Jim Root also played at the time.
Many authors single out the massive influence that experimental band Mr. Bungle has had on Slipknot; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members of Mr. Bungle donned strange masks (often clown and gimp ones), costumes (including jumpsuits) and hid their identities behind obscure pseudonyms. All of these were major features on their 1991 self-titled album cycle. Their creepy music videos from that record, such as "Travolta" which was banned on MTV, also pointed out at what would be the future image of Slipknot. In the same way, the musical influence of Mr. Bungle is evident in the eclecticism and adventurousness throughout Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Slipknot's first release of 1996, although the band added more metallic elements. A few songs on that album also hint at the eccentric catchiness of Faith No More and other funk metal bands.
While Slipknot was making its debut studio release, the entire band attended one of the first shows by avant-garde grindcore supergroup Fantômas-composed of Patton, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn-which greatly influenced them at the time. From that
album on, Slipknot has displayed a much more straightforward, extreme metal sound, largely because of producer Ross Robinson, and some writers have identified the influence of Faith No More on some tracks'
structures and alternating melodies from Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). On the other hand, the experimental imprint of Bungle has become rare, but it made a sudden reappearance on 2019's We Are Not Your Kind.
The members of Slipknot are also influenced by Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Deicide, Pantera, Anthrax, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sepultura, White Zombie, Alice in Chains, Malevolent Creation, Danny Heifetz, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Melvins, N.W.A, Skinny Puppy, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Emperor, Beastie Boys, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Misfits, Gorefest, Run-DMC, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica. Taylor has spoken of his admiration for vocalists Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield. In 1999, Chris Fehn said Sid Wilson is influenced by jungle music and rave music.
Stage performances
Slipknot is known for its chaotic, energetic live shows that contributed to the band's success. During performances, most of the band's members headbang heavily. The band's early performances included extreme acts such as stage dives from high balconies and band members setting each other on fire. Clown was known to go into the crowd and tie people up with the microphone cord. In later years, they tended to refrain from acts this extreme. Former bassist Paul Gray said this was due to receiving lawsuits and to avoid harming other people, and that it was a "better move" for the longevity of the band. Along with the energetic and unpredictable performances, Slipknot often use elaborate stage setups that use pyrotechnics, elevated stage areas, hydraulic drum risers, and computer screens. Reviewing a Slipknot performance, Alistair Lawrence of Kerrang! said, "the choreographed chaos is too multi-faceted to fully describe". and NME described one Slipknot show as "a scene of chaos".
Image and identities
The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms—typically jumpsuits—while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray.
The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'".
During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George.
The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public.
In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called Slipknot: Wear the Mask, which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are.
Logo and nonagram
An essential element for the band's image is the Slipknot logo. The nonagram was created by the band's members around the same time the band was founded. The nonagram is arguably the best-known sigil of Slipknot and it represents a 9-point star—a symbol of unity, loyalty, friendship and remembrance. The logo is composed of three equilateral triangles each rotated at 0, 40, and 80 degrees. Each star point was meant to stand for each of the nine members of the original band, with at least one member, Chris Fehn, possessing a nonagram tattoo. Despite popular belief, the nonagram is not a Satanist symbol and instead represents Slipknot's "battle with the fake world."
The pre-release of the 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter also witnessed a major change in the band's logo and branding strategy. A new nonagram drew the public's attention towards the band, announcing the beginning of a new era. The black and red color scheme and the minimalist, elegant design received public appreciation and it is still used today.
Clothing brand
In 2008, Slipknot launched their clothing line Tattered and Torn. Named after a song on their 1999 self-titled debut, the line runs as an imprint of Bravado, a company that runs the band's merchandising. While the band recognize that their merchandise is their biggest revenue income, they insist Tattered and Torn is more than just band merchandising. Vocalist Corey Taylor said, "It's a way for [the fans] to get cool clothing at affordable prices." The first items from the clothing line went on sale in late July 2008 through Hot Topic stores across North America and the Hot Topic website. Currently, the line is limited to shirts and hoodies but was expected to develop into a full-range clothing line.
Controversies
Slipknot's music and image have been the subject of many controversies throughout its career. The lyrical content of some of Slipknot's songs has been linked to several violent and criminal incidents. In 2003, two young killers blamed the lyrics of "Disasterpiece" for their crime. In 2006, the lyrics of "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbery.
In 2008, Corey Taylor commented on a slashing incident at a South African school to which Slipknot was linked; he said: ... obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died, as far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive ... there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost.
Slipknot had a longstanding feud with the band Mushroomhead which—along with their fans—said Slipknot "stole their image". While Slipknot acknowledged their images had similarities, its members were not actively involved in the feud, saying the similarities were coincidental. Taylor said, "we both started at the same time—neither one of us knowing anything about each other". Taylor also said that at a live show in Cleveland, Ohio, several Mushroomhead fans threw objects including a fistsized padlock at Slipknot and that when Slipknot's set was finished, Machine Head and Amen went into the crowd and "handled it right there". In 2009, former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis said his band's members were no longer interested in feuding with Slipknot, saying, "they're not the first masked band, we're not, no one was". During an interview with Rock Rage Radio, Reavis praised Slipknot as he criticized his former bandmates after a dispute with the band's founding members which led to his dismissal. He stated that Slipknot was better and he admitted that his thoughts were personal, since he was not involved with Mushroomhead when the feud started.
Slipknot's 2005 lawsuit against Burger King said the company created the advertising-based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. Burger King responded with a countersuit, saying many other bands, such as Mr. Bungle, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne, Kiss, Insane Clown Posse, and Gwar have used masks as part of their images. After negotiations, the advertising campaign and lawsuit were withdrawn.
Members
Current members
(#6) Shawn "Clown" Crahan – percussion, backing vocals ; samples, media
(#5) Craig "133" Jones – samples, media, keyboards ; guitars
(#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
(#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
(#0) Sid Wilson – turntables ; keyboards
(#4) Jim Root – guitars
Alessandro Venturella – bass ; keyboards
Jay Weinberg – drums
"Tortilla Man" – percussion, backing vocals
Former members
(#1) Joey Jordison – drums
Donnie Steele – guitars ; bass
(#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
(#4) Josh "Gnar" Brainard – guitars, backing vocals
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals, percussion ; backing vocals ; samples, media
(#3) Greg "Cuddles" Welts – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Brandon Darner – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
Timeline
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards and nominations
Slipknot have been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and have won one.
|-
| || "Wait and Bleed" ||rowspan="3"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Left Behind" ||
|-
| || "My Plague" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| || "Duality" || Best Hard Rock Performance ||
|-
| "Vermilion" ||rowspan="5"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Before I Forget" ||
|-
| || "Psychosocial" ||
|-
| || "The Negative One" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2016 || "Custer" ||
|-
| .5: The Gray Chapter || Best Rock Album ||
Discography
Studio albums
Slipknot (1999)
Iowa (2001)
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
All Hope Is Gone (2008)
.5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
We Are Not Your Kind (2019)
Notable tours
World Domination Tour (1999–2000)
Tattoo the Earth (2000)
Iowa World Tour (2001–2002)
The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005)
All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009)
Memorial World Tour (2011–2013)
As a support act
Livin la Vida Loco Tour (1999)
Festivals
Ozzfest (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013)
Knotfest (2012, 2014–present)
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
American alternative metal musical groups
American groove metal musical groups
American nu metal musical groups
Grammy Award winners
Heavy metal musical groups from Iowa
Kerrang! Awards winners
Bands with fictional stage personas
Musical groups established in 1995
Roadrunner Records artists
1995 establishments in Iowa
Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa
Masked musicians | false | [
"\"Start of a Romance\" is a 1989 single by Skyy and the title track of their 1989 album. The single was their first to place on the Hot Black Singles chart in almost two years. \"Start of a Romance\" peaked at number one on the Black Singles for two weeks, their first number one since 1982. Although the single did not chart on the Hot 100, it peaked at number forty-one on the dance charts. It was the first of two number one hits from the Start of a Romance album.\n\nReferences\n \n\n1989 singles\nSkyy (band) songs\n1989 songs",
"False Start was a power pop/rock band from Auckland, New Zealand, that formed in the winter of 2005. They were signed to Deadboy Records/Universal.\n\nHistory \n\nIn June 2005, False Start won the Henderson regional heat of Battle of the Bands, going on to claim first equal in the Primal final, out of over a hundred Auckland bands. Adding to their early success, False Start's Goodbye Summer EP sold out on the first night of sales, their record debuting at No. 3 on the Real Groovy National chart. Shortly after False Start signed to Deadboy Records with distribution/backing from Universal Music NZ.\n\nThey released their first single, \"Don't Walk Away\" from the EP titled Goodbye Summer EP and a mini album entitled Adore Tu Ser..... There is also a four-track acoustic mini album titled Tealight For Burma.\n\nSince forming their band, False Start have shared the stage with numerous local and international acts such as Fall Out Boy, Good Charlotte, Story of the Year, Funeral for a Friend, Aiden, Rise Against, The Used and many more. They have also toured extensively throughout New Zealand and Australia.\n\nFalse Start played at the Auckland Big Day Out 2008 on the Local Produce Stage. False Start also did a cover of \"4ever\" by The Veronicas.\n\nIn August 2008, False Start released their second studio album named Through The Looking Glass which includes the single \"Four Letter Lie\". The band opened for Escape The Fate in support of this album.\n\nIn September 2008, Vaughn announced he was leaving along with David a few months later in November.\n\nOn 3 June 2010, False Start posted on their Myspace that 2010 would be their last year as a band before breaking up, each member going their separate ways.\n\nFalse Start reunited with the original lineup in April 2017 for a show in Auckland.\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\nAdore Tu Ser\nThrough The Looking Glass\n\nEPs\nGoodbye Summer EP\nBeginnings...\n\nOther albums\nTealight For Burma\n\nSingles\n\nBand members \nAndrew Morrison – Vocals\nJim Marshall - Guitar\nKev Roberts - Drums\nDavid Wong - Bass\nVaughn Phillips - Guitar\n\nPast members\n\nAshley Wills \nPascal Jarry \nCraigen Durrant\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nOfficial Myspace\nOfficial Webstore\nOfficial Buzznet\n\nNew Zealand rock music groups\nPower pop groups"
]
|
[
"Slipknot (band)",
"Image and identities",
"what was their image?",
"attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits",
"what other things played a part in their image?",
"The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases.",
"What else were they known for?",
"Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives.",
"Were they successful?",
"The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick.",
"How did they respond to that accusation?",
"The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music.",
"Have they won any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"What else is noted about them?",
"The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started.",
"When did the band start",
"I don't know."
]
| C_f31f0e7d00714137ad76b19336e378be_0 | Do they all wear masks? | 9 | Do all members of the Slipknot (band) wear masks? | Slipknot (band) | The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits--while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray. The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'". During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George. The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask", which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are. CANNOTANSWER | the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks | Slipknot is an American heavy metal band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Gray died on May 24, 2010, and was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison was dismissed from the band on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Fehn was also dismissed from the band in March 2019 prior to the writing of We Are Not Your Kind.
Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows. The band rapidly rose to fame following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album, Iowa, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. Their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, was released on August 9, 2019. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, and five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
History
Background (1991-1995)
In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera. Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, and Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni later took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan often went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth, writing and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot"; another was titled "Painface", which Colsefni later used to name his band Painface.
In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed occasionally with this group. Brainard eventually left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of '93 and early in '94. During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed a death metal band called Body Pit, soon becoming popular in the local scene. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up.
In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started a band named the Pale Ones. The lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer, moving Crahan to percussion. Furthermore, Colsefni also took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist. The band then decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut; playing a benefit show using the name Meld.
Demo recording and beginnings (1995–1998)
Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray, Crahan and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights. It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at SR Audio, a studio in the band's hometown. As they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: "(he) was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons...I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist. After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996.
Distribution for the demo was initially left to the band and their producer Sean McMahon, before it was handed over to the distribution company -ismist Recordings in early 1997. Slipknot received a small amount of airplay on local radio stations off the back of the demo. However, it did not lead to any kind of interest from record labels, so the band returned to the studio to develop new material. It was at this time that the band sought more melodic vocals for their music. As a result, Corey Taylor was recruited from fellow Des Moines band Stone Sour; this moved Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion. While working in the studio, Slipknot continued to do local shows, during one of which in September 1997, Colsefni announced on stage that he was leaving the band. The gap on percussion was filled by Greg Welts, who was affectionately known as "Cuddles". In early 1998, Slipknot produced a second demo featuring five tracks exclusively for record labels. The band began to receive a lot of attention from record labels, and in February 1998, producer Ross Robinson offered to produce their debut album after attending rehearsals in Des Moines. Soon after, DJ Sid Wilson was recruited as the band's ninth member after showing great interest and impressing band members. In late June, Slipknot received a $500,000, seven-album deal, from Roadrunner Records; the band signed the deal publicly on July 8, 1998. Two days prior to this, Welts was fired from the band, something which Slipknot refuse to comment on. Welts was replaced by Brandon Darner, who departed from the band shortly after joining.
Self-titled album and emergence (1998–2000)
Chris Fehn was brought in to replace Darner on percussion before Slipknot traveled to Malibu, California, to work on their debut album in September 1998. Partway through the recording process of the album, Slipknot returned to Des Moines for the Christmas period. During that period, guitarist Brainard decided to leave the band. Brainard said, "some decisions were made that I wasn't particularly happy with". Slipknot later recruited Jim Root to complete their lineup and the band returned to Malibu to continue work on the album. Work on the album concluded in early 1999, allowing the band to go on their first tour as part of the Ozzfest lineup in 1999. Ozzfest greatly increased Slipknot's audience, furthering the band's success with their self-titled album that was released on June 29, 1999. Slipknot released its first home video Welcome to Our Neighborhood, which was directed by Thomas Mignone, and the singles "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out", which were also directed by Mignone. The singles received some airplay, but Slipknot quickly developed a large following, mainly from touring and word of mouth. The band toured several countries throughout 1999 and 2000 in support of the album. In early 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; a first for an album released by Roadrunner Records.
Iowa (2001–2003)
Anticipation for Slipknot's second album was intense. In early 2001, the band began recording the second album at Sound City and Sound Image studios in Los Angeles. Around this time, conflicts arose between band members due to extensive touring and recording schedules. Recording of their second album ended in February 2001 and the band embarked on their Iowa World Tour. Entitled Iowa, Slipknot's second album—released on August 28, 2001—peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and at number one in the UK. The album produced three singles; "The Heretic Anthem" (promotional single), "Left Behind" and "My Plague", which appeared on the soundtrack for the film Resident Evil. In 2002, Slipknot appeared in Rollerball (2002), performing "I Am Hated". The release and intense promotion of the album resulted in sold-out shows in large arenas in several countries.
In mid-2002, Slipknot went on hiatus because of internal conflicts, and band members focused on side projects. Vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Jordison created Murderdolls with vocalist Wednesday 13, percussionist Crahan founded To My Surprise and DJ Wilson went solo as DJ Starscream. For a while, the future of Slipknot was uncertain and there was much speculation about whether there would be a third album, or if the split would become permanent. "I don't have a problem with anyone in Slipknot," Jordison protested. "I've seen comments from Corey saying there are things to be resolved, but I have no fucking idea what he's talking about."
Nonetheless, on November 22, 2002, Slipknot released their second DVD, Disasterpieces.
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2003–2007)
After several delays, Slipknot moved into The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, in mid-2003 to work on their third album alongside producer Rick Rubin. By early 2004, work on the album had finished and the band began The Subliminal Verses World Tour with their appearance on the Jägermeister Music Tour in March 2004. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released on May 24, 2004; it peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts. The album produced six singles; "Duality", "Vermilion", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "Before I Forget", "The Nameless", and The Blister Exists. Slipknot recorded its first live album, 9.0: Live, while touring in support of the band's third album. Released on November 1, 2005 9.0: Live peaked at number 17 on the Billboard album charts. Touring in support of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) continued through 2004 and up to the end of 2005 before Slipknot went on hiatus for the second time.
In 2005, several members of Slipknot were involved in Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions, a collaborative album recorded by artists signed to Roadrunner Records for the label's 25th anniversary. 2006 saw Slipknot win their first Grammy Award, picking up the Best Metal Performance award for the single "Before I Forget". The single went on to be featured on the set list of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On December 5, 2006, Slipknot released its third DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine. While Slipknot was on hiatus, several band members again focused their attentions on side projects; vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root returned to Stone Sour, drummer Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches of Blood's third album Fire Up the Blades, Crahan founded Dirty Little Rabbits and Wilson returned as DJ Starscream once again.
All Hope Is Gone and Gray's death (2008–2010)
Preparation for Slipknot's fourth album began towards the end of 2007; work began at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman in February 2008. The album was finished in June, and the band went on the All Hope Is Gone World Tour on July 9, 2008. Slipknot's fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released on August 20, 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard albums chart. The album produced five singles; "All Hope Is Gone", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Sulfur" and "Snuff". 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of Slipknot's debut album; to commemorate the event, the band released a special-edition version of Slipknot on September 9, 2009. The band toured in support of the album throughout 2008 and continued until October 31, 2009, resulting in Slipknot's third hiatus.
During the hiatus, several band members focused on respective side projects; Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band and returned to Stone Sour with guitarist Root; Crahan continued working with his band Dirty Little Rabbits; and drummer Jordison returned with his band Murderdolls and became the new permanent drummer of Rob Zombie. Meanwhile, percussionist Fehn became a full-time bassist with metalcore band Will Haven and Sid Wilson founded the eponymous band Sid.
In 2010, Gray was planning to tour with the supergroup, Hail!, but on May 24, 2010, he was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room. Circumstances surrounding his death at the time were not immediately known; an autopsy suspected his death was not intentional but did not reveal the cause. The day after his death, the remaining eight members of the band held a live, unmasked, press conference alongside Gray's widow and brother. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl.
The band was hesitant to comment on the future of Slipknot. The members made conflicting statements in interviews; drummer Jordison told The Pulse of Radio "there is another Slipknot record already kinda in the making". Vocalist Taylor told FMQB Productions he was "very conflicted about whether or not [he wants] to do anything with Slipknot". The band released their fourth video album (sic)nesses on September 28, 2010; it debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD features Slipknot's entire live performance at the 2009 Download Festival and a 45-minute film documenting their tour in support of All Hope Is Gone, and served as a tribute to Paul Gray.
Return to the stage, Antennas to Hell and Knotfest (2011–2012)
Regarding the continuation of Slipknot, Taylor told NME Gray would want them to continue and he felt they should but he was ambivalent about returning to the band. Slipknot returned to touring in 2011, performing a small number of shows in Europe. They headlined the Sonisphere Festival and Rock in Rio alongside Iron Maiden and Metallica, and performed at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting. Donnie Steele substituted for Gray in the concerts; he was positioned behind Jordison and obscured from the audience's view.
Slipknot also said the band would complete and release the band's fifth studio album, and that there were no plans to replace Gray. Jordison said the writing process for the album had already begun and that he had written 17 songs.
Slipknot performed at the Mayhem Festival tour of 2012.
On May 29, 2012, Roadrunner Records posted a teaser video titled Antennas to Hell on its website. Later that day, on Twitter, Corey Taylor said Slipknot will release a greatest hits album on June 17, 2012. He also said the band was not yet recording new material but was putting together demos for a new album.
Slipknot's first annual music festival, called Knotfest, was held on August 17, 2012, at Mid-America Motorplex near Pacific Junction, Iowa, and on August 18, 2012, in Somerset, Wisconsin. Deftones, Lamb of God, and Serj Tankian also performed at the festival. The festival shows also debuted a Slipknot museum. On 14, June 2013, Slipknot headlined the Download Festival for a second time. The band performed to roughly 90,000 people and was twice forced to stop the set—once in the middle of a song—to allow the front barricade, which had split open under crowd pressure, to be repaired.
Jordison's departure, .5: The Gray Chapter, and new members (2013–2016)
Production of the band's fifth album began in late 2013. Taylor described the album as "very dark" and a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Guitarist Jim Root did not participate in Stone Sour's January tour so he could write material for Slipknot.
On December 12, 2013, the band announced through its official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after 18 years, citing personal reasons. On his official Facebook page, Jordison later said he "did not quit Slipknot" and that he was "shocked" and "blindsided" by the news. Both Jordison and Slipknot independently promised to release further details about the split. Taylor said Jordison would not be appearing on the new album because he did not participate in any songwriting sessions before his departure. After years of both sides being silent and evasive as to the reasons for his leaving the band, Jordison revealed in June 2016 that he suffered from Transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that cost him the ability to play the drums toward the end of his time with Slipknot. However, Jordison played drums in the blackened death metal act Sinsaenum, which he joined in 2016.
In July 2014, Slipknot began releasing teasers for the new album on the band's website and social media using cryptic messages and gory imagery. "The Negative One", the band's first song in six years, was released on August 1; it was accompanied by a music video directed by Crahan that was released four days later. The video did not feature any band members. On August 24, Slipknot released an official radio single titled "The Devil In I", and the name of the upcoming album was announced as .5: The Gray Chapter on iTunes, with an expected release date of October 28. The release was later preponed to October 17 for the Netherlands and Australia, October 20 for the UK and October 21 worldwide. "The Negative One" was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support. The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia. A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively; Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.
Taylor later said he was upset at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band. On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.
On March 11, 2015, while the band was not touring, guitarist Mick Thomson was hospitalized after a drunken knife fight with his brother at Thomson's home in Iowa. The pair sustained serious, but non life-threatening, injuries. On August 2, 2015, during a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, the band was forced to stop performing after Venturella was suddenly rushed to hospital, after undergoing a medical emergency. After 20 minutes, singer Taylor told the audience the band would continue the concert, performing without Venturella. It was later discovered that Venturella had collapsed because of extreme dehydration.
On September 25, 2016, the band performed at their annual festival Knotfest, which was altered to include Ozzfest this year. They performed the Iowa album in its entirety. In the meanwhile, Crahan made his directorial debut with the feature film Officer Downe, based on a graphic novel of the same name and starring actor Kim Coates. In November 2016, Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that he and fellow guitarist Jim Root would be teaming up in February 2017 to begin writing new material for a new Slipknot album because "we want to write."
We Are Not Your Kind (2017–2020)
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor regrouped with his other band Stone Sour in 2017, and they released their album Hydrograd on June 30. Talking about his first work in cinema and the other Slipknot members' plans, in an interview with WRIF's Meltdown, Crahan revealed that "we're beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. We have songs that we've written that are amazing." In December 2017, Crahan appeared on The Jasta Show podcast, where he stated that the next Slipknot album could be his last with the band.
Corey Taylor revealed in October 2018 that the band would enter the studio in early 2019, with a targeted release for their sixth album that same year, followed by a world tour. On October 31, the single "All Out Life" was released, as was an accompanying music video. On March 4, 2019, the band announced that the release date for the next album would be August 9, 2019 and that they would be embarking on the Knotfest Roadshow along with support by Gojira, Volbeat, and Behemoth to support the album. On March 7, Slipknot were revealed to be the opening act for Metallica's six WorldWired Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand from October 17 through October 31.
On March 14, 2019, Chris Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band citing withheld payments. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of setting up several band-related business entities, in different states, that collect money from the band. Fehn called for full forensic accounting to be done on all of the band's companies and assets in order to collect any profits and damages he may be owed. On that same day, Taylor responded via Twitter with a tweet stating, "You're gonna read a lot of bullshit today. This is all I'll say. JUST YOU WAIT TIL THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Long Live The Knot". On March 18, 2019, the band officially announced, via their website, that Chris Fehn was no longer a member of the band, stating, "Slipknot's focus is on making album #6, and our upcoming shows around the world, our best ever. Chris knows why he is no longer a part of Slipknot. We are disappointed that he chose to point fingers and manufacture claims, rather than doing what was necessary to continue to be a part of Slipknot. We would have preferred he not take the path that he has, but evolution in all things is a necessary part of this life. Long Live The Knot". However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing. By May 2019, Fehn's employment status with the band had apparently changed, as evident by his missing name on the band's Instagram posts for their new masks. He was replaced by a percussionist, whose identity is concealed, who the fans have dubbed "Tortilla Man". Loudwire has reported that fans have linked his identity as Michael Pfaff, a former member of Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits. The band themselves have not confirmed this claim.
On May 13, 2019, the band teased something was coming on May 16, ahead of their performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as screenshots of their new masks. On that day, the album's title was revealed to be We Are Not Your Kind, along with its tracklist and a music video for "Unsainted", where the new masks and outfits for the nine band members were shown for the first time, including an as-yet-unknown new percussionist. on July 22, they released the second single, from their upcoming album, titled "Solway Firth". This was accompanied by a music video which featured live footage from their 2019 shows as well as clips and audio from The Boys . On August 5, "Birth of the Cruel" was released as the album's third single, accompanied by a music video. On August 9, four days after they had released “Birth of the Cruel” they released their sixth album We Are Not Your Kind.
In August 2019, Crahan announced the band will release an experimental album of outtakes from the 2008 All Hope Is Gone sessions, titled Look Outside Your Window. The album was recorded with just 4 members (Crahan, Taylor, Root, and Wilson), in a different studio away from the other members, is expected to have 11 tracks that Taylor described as having a "Radiohead vibe", and Crahan saying in 2018 "it is not a Slipknot album". The band also released a twenty-minute experimental short film directed by Crahan and titled Pollution. One of the segments of the film is the music video for the song, "Nero Forte".
Seventh studio album and Jordison's death (2021−present)
On May 19, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that the band had been currently making "god music". In an article published by Loudwire on June 9, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that a new Slipknot album would ‘hopefully’ be released in 2021. He also added that the band would be parting ways with Roadrunner Records following the release of the album.
On July 26, 2021, the band's former drummer, Joey Jordison, died in his sleep at the age of 46.
In November 2021, the band started teasing new material on a new domain thechapeltownrag.com. Several snippets of a song were shown on the website leading to speculation of a new single that the band would later confirm on November 4, with the single titled "The Chapeltown Rag" slated for release the following day alongside its live debut at the Knotfest Roadshow in Los Angeles, California on November 5, 2021. In December 2021, Taylor revealed that the band were planning on mixing their seventh studio album in January, and are planning on releasing it by April 2022. He also stated that he preferred the material on their forthcoming seventh studio album to that on We Are Not Your Kind.
Artistry
Musical style
Slipknot is considered a nu metal band. The band's members prefer to distance themselves musically from other nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Slipknot describes its sound as "metal metal" and regards the link to nu metal as coincidental and a result of nu metal's emergence being concurrent with that of Slipknot. The band's sound typically features a heavily down-tuned guitar setup, a large percussive section, sampling, keyboards and DJing/turntablism. Using a variety of vocal styles, the music typically features growled vocals, screaming, backing vocals, as well as melodic singing. The band has continually experimented with its sound, most notably developing tracks led by acoustic guitars and melodic singing that first appeared on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses).
The album All Hope Is Gone is considered a groove metal album with elements of death metal and thrash metal. The band has also been described as heavy metal, alternative metal groove metal, death metal, hard rock, grindcore, thrash metal, and rap metal.
Lyrics
Slipknot's lyrics are generally very aggressive; they sometimes include profanity while exploring themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy, and psychosis. They often draw upon topics including the music industry, politics, personal strife, and reflection, among others. Rick Anderson of Allmusic said, "those lyrics that are discernible are not generally quotable on a family website". On Vol. 3, Taylor deliberately avoided using profanity in response to claims he relied on it.
Influences
Slipknot cited both Korn's self-titled album of 1994 and Limp Bizkit's album Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ of 1997 as major influences. However, the band's biggest influence, both on their image and music, has been singer Mike Patton and his bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Faith No More. Corey Taylor even stated that watching Faith No More perform on the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards saved his life. In an interview in 2000 Patton called the Slipknot members "really nice guys".
The band Kiss has been a big influence for Slipknot, both musically and image-wise. Several band members have in numerous interviews stated the impact Kiss had on them when growing up. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Joey Jordison said that "I saw Kiss on The Dick Clark Show in like, 1980 or something, and Kiss Alive! was the first record of theirs I had. This was back when you bought cassettes or records, and I still have my original cassette copy of it. And I tell you what, it just blew my mind! The cover tells you everything you need to know; it just makes you want to listen to the whole fucking record. And these guys look like fucking demons — you don't know when you're a kid and you're watching them on TV that it's just guys in makeup. So yeah, it was inspiring back then. They were a huge influence on me when I was a kid. And that record came out in 1975, so I was always like, "That's fucking badass — one of my favorite records of all time came out the year I was born!". In another interview with Loudwire, he also added that after listening to Kiss Alive! for the first, he was "changed forever, and then [he] just became completely engulfed in metal." Guitarist Mick Thomson revealed in Metal Hammer that Kiss' Destroyer was the first album he ever bought, and when talking about Kiss' Alive II; he stated that "...the artwork on Alive II with Gene's sweat running, the blood coming from his face and the make-up running had a profound influence on me. You only have to look at my own band to see how much so." Vocalist Corey Taylor has stated that Kiss were a huge influence on both him and the rest of the band and he has also covered multiple Kiss songs over the years; both as a solo artist as well as with Stone Sour, in which Slipknot guitarist Jim Root also played at the time.
Many authors single out the massive influence that experimental band Mr. Bungle has had on Slipknot; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members of Mr. Bungle donned strange masks (often clown and gimp ones), costumes (including jumpsuits) and hid their identities behind obscure pseudonyms. All of these were major features on their 1991 self-titled album cycle. Their creepy music videos from that record, such as "Travolta" which was banned on MTV, also pointed out at what would be the future image of Slipknot. In the same way, the musical influence of Mr. Bungle is evident in the eclecticism and adventurousness throughout Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Slipknot's first release of 1996, although the band added more metallic elements. A few songs on that album also hint at the eccentric catchiness of Faith No More and other funk metal bands.
While Slipknot was making its debut studio release, the entire band attended one of the first shows by avant-garde grindcore supergroup Fantômas-composed of Patton, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn-which greatly influenced them at the time. From that
album on, Slipknot has displayed a much more straightforward, extreme metal sound, largely because of producer Ross Robinson, and some writers have identified the influence of Faith No More on some tracks'
structures and alternating melodies from Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). On the other hand, the experimental imprint of Bungle has become rare, but it made a sudden reappearance on 2019's We Are Not Your Kind.
The members of Slipknot are also influenced by Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Deicide, Pantera, Anthrax, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sepultura, White Zombie, Alice in Chains, Malevolent Creation, Danny Heifetz, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Melvins, N.W.A, Skinny Puppy, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Emperor, Beastie Boys, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Misfits, Gorefest, Run-DMC, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica. Taylor has spoken of his admiration for vocalists Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield. In 1999, Chris Fehn said Sid Wilson is influenced by jungle music and rave music.
Stage performances
Slipknot is known for its chaotic, energetic live shows that contributed to the band's success. During performances, most of the band's members headbang heavily. The band's early performances included extreme acts such as stage dives from high balconies and band members setting each other on fire. Clown was known to go into the crowd and tie people up with the microphone cord. In later years, they tended to refrain from acts this extreme. Former bassist Paul Gray said this was due to receiving lawsuits and to avoid harming other people, and that it was a "better move" for the longevity of the band. Along with the energetic and unpredictable performances, Slipknot often use elaborate stage setups that use pyrotechnics, elevated stage areas, hydraulic drum risers, and computer screens. Reviewing a Slipknot performance, Alistair Lawrence of Kerrang! said, "the choreographed chaos is too multi-faceted to fully describe". and NME described one Slipknot show as "a scene of chaos".
Image and identities
The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms—typically jumpsuits—while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray.
The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'".
During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George.
The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public.
In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called Slipknot: Wear the Mask, which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are.
Logo and nonagram
An essential element for the band's image is the Slipknot logo. The nonagram was created by the band's members around the same time the band was founded. The nonagram is arguably the best-known sigil of Slipknot and it represents a 9-point star—a symbol of unity, loyalty, friendship and remembrance. The logo is composed of three equilateral triangles each rotated at 0, 40, and 80 degrees. Each star point was meant to stand for each of the nine members of the original band, with at least one member, Chris Fehn, possessing a nonagram tattoo. Despite popular belief, the nonagram is not a Satanist symbol and instead represents Slipknot's "battle with the fake world."
The pre-release of the 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter also witnessed a major change in the band's logo and branding strategy. A new nonagram drew the public's attention towards the band, announcing the beginning of a new era. The black and red color scheme and the minimalist, elegant design received public appreciation and it is still used today.
Clothing brand
In 2008, Slipknot launched their clothing line Tattered and Torn. Named after a song on their 1999 self-titled debut, the line runs as an imprint of Bravado, a company that runs the band's merchandising. While the band recognize that their merchandise is their biggest revenue income, they insist Tattered and Torn is more than just band merchandising. Vocalist Corey Taylor said, "It's a way for [the fans] to get cool clothing at affordable prices." The first items from the clothing line went on sale in late July 2008 through Hot Topic stores across North America and the Hot Topic website. Currently, the line is limited to shirts and hoodies but was expected to develop into a full-range clothing line.
Controversies
Slipknot's music and image have been the subject of many controversies throughout its career. The lyrical content of some of Slipknot's songs has been linked to several violent and criminal incidents. In 2003, two young killers blamed the lyrics of "Disasterpiece" for their crime. In 2006, the lyrics of "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbery.
In 2008, Corey Taylor commented on a slashing incident at a South African school to which Slipknot was linked; he said: ... obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died, as far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive ... there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost.
Slipknot had a longstanding feud with the band Mushroomhead which—along with their fans—said Slipknot "stole their image". While Slipknot acknowledged their images had similarities, its members were not actively involved in the feud, saying the similarities were coincidental. Taylor said, "we both started at the same time—neither one of us knowing anything about each other". Taylor also said that at a live show in Cleveland, Ohio, several Mushroomhead fans threw objects including a fistsized padlock at Slipknot and that when Slipknot's set was finished, Machine Head and Amen went into the crowd and "handled it right there". In 2009, former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis said his band's members were no longer interested in feuding with Slipknot, saying, "they're not the first masked band, we're not, no one was". During an interview with Rock Rage Radio, Reavis praised Slipknot as he criticized his former bandmates after a dispute with the band's founding members which led to his dismissal. He stated that Slipknot was better and he admitted that his thoughts were personal, since he was not involved with Mushroomhead when the feud started.
Slipknot's 2005 lawsuit against Burger King said the company created the advertising-based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. Burger King responded with a countersuit, saying many other bands, such as Mr. Bungle, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne, Kiss, Insane Clown Posse, and Gwar have used masks as part of their images. After negotiations, the advertising campaign and lawsuit were withdrawn.
Members
Current members
(#6) Shawn "Clown" Crahan – percussion, backing vocals ; samples, media
(#5) Craig "133" Jones – samples, media, keyboards ; guitars
(#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
(#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
(#0) Sid Wilson – turntables ; keyboards
(#4) Jim Root – guitars
Alessandro Venturella – bass ; keyboards
Jay Weinberg – drums
"Tortilla Man" – percussion, backing vocals
Former members
(#1) Joey Jordison – drums
Donnie Steele – guitars ; bass
(#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
(#4) Josh "Gnar" Brainard – guitars, backing vocals
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals, percussion ; backing vocals ; samples, media
(#3) Greg "Cuddles" Welts – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Brandon Darner – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
Timeline
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards and nominations
Slipknot have been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and have won one.
|-
| || "Wait and Bleed" ||rowspan="3"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Left Behind" ||
|-
| || "My Plague" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| || "Duality" || Best Hard Rock Performance ||
|-
| "Vermilion" ||rowspan="5"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Before I Forget" ||
|-
| || "Psychosocial" ||
|-
| || "The Negative One" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2016 || "Custer" ||
|-
| .5: The Gray Chapter || Best Rock Album ||
Discography
Studio albums
Slipknot (1999)
Iowa (2001)
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
All Hope Is Gone (2008)
.5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
We Are Not Your Kind (2019)
Notable tours
World Domination Tour (1999–2000)
Tattoo the Earth (2000)
Iowa World Tour (2001–2002)
The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005)
All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009)
Memorial World Tour (2011–2013)
As a support act
Livin la Vida Loco Tour (1999)
Festivals
Ozzfest (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013)
Knotfest (2012, 2014–present)
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
American alternative metal musical groups
American groove metal musical groups
American nu metal musical groups
Grammy Award winners
Heavy metal musical groups from Iowa
Kerrang! Awards winners
Bands with fictional stage personas
Musical groups established in 1995
Roadrunner Records artists
1995 establishments in Iowa
Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa
Masked musicians | true | [
"Mask refusal is opposition to requirements involving face coverings. Such opposition can occur during a pandemic, when health experts recommend wearing face coverings in order to reduce the spread of disease, causing municipalities or private establishments to require face masks as a public health measure. An individual opposing a mask requirement may be known as an anti-masker.\n\nThe criteria for, and exceptions to, face mask requirements has been an ongoing topic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tenor of mask refusal incidents may escalate into confrontations of verbal abuse, or in extreme cases might become violent. Mask refusers engaged in such confrontations may be arrested or criminally prosecuted. Videos of these incidents, occurring in locations from retail stores to airplanes, have been seen in the news and social media and have frequently gone viral.\n\nHistory\n\nOpposition to wearing masks occurred during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The Anti-Mask League of San Francisco was formed by those who refused to wear face masks. During the pandemic, $5 fines were imposed in San Francisco for failure to wear masks as a violation of \"disturbing the peace\", and many refusing to wear a mask paid the fines.\n\nMask opposition has been a common sight around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic as those opposed to requirements to cover their faces have exhibited protests and unruly behavior in public over their refusal to follow this guideline. On 26 September, 2021, a man surnamed Yang assaulted a female supermarket worker in Gaoshu, Taiwan, who had asked him to put on a mask. He proceeded to gouge her eyes, causing retinal detachment and possible loss of sight. In October 2021, a Taiwanese woman surnamed Chen knived another woman surnamed Wang over 10 times for asking her to put on a mask. Chen was detained for attempted murder but released on bail the same day.\n\nLegal background \nThere is no judicial precedent in the United States providing that a governmental entity may require individuals to wear face masks in public settings. However, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a Massachusetts law that mandated vaccines against smallpox amidst a public health crisis, thereby acknowledging the police power of the States. As for statutes, no federal law requires individuals to wear face masks in an effort to preserve public health. However, the executive branch is authorized to make any regulations necessary in preventing the spread of diseases into and within the United States.\n\nUnder the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends the wearing of face masks to slow the spread of COVID-19. Following this guidance, President Biden signed an executive order in January 2021 requiring individuals to wear face masks on all federal property. In addition, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) requires passengers to wear face masks when traveling on all transportation networks. To enforce this rule, the TSA imposes civil penalties on passengers who refuse to wear face masks while traveling on transportation networks throughout the United States.\n\nReasons\n\nReasons given by people who refuse to wear face masks range significantly, including: potential danger of wearing face masks due to personal health issues, the absence or lack of symptoms of COVID-19 exhibited by the individual, ineffectiveness at reducing COVID-19 transmission, alleged exaggeration of the threats of the virus (some would even argue that it does not exist) while others object to governments having the power to force people to wear face coverings, such as passing certain mandates (not laws) that require the population to wear it. Some people do not wear a face mask on medical grounds and are legally exempt from having to wear one.\n\nMask-wearing has been seen as an example of a generational divide by some, with older adults who refused to wear masks being seen as selfish. In addition, men have been seen as more likely to refuse wearing masks, seeing them as a threat to their masculinity. Refusal to wear face masks is also linked to vaccine hesitancy or anti-vaccination sentiment, political conservatism, rural dwelling, and non-adherence to public hygiene rules, or social distancing guidelines. Other factors which may make people less likely to wear masks includes a low death rate due to pandemic disease in one's hometown, and low mask-wearing among one's peers.\n\nConsequences\nConsequences for mask refusal or improper mask-wearing can range from anything from public shaming (including calling women who refuse to wear masks \"Karens\"), ejection or banning from an establishment either temporarily or permanently, criminal prosecution, and contracting or spreading a contagious disease such as COVID-19.\n\nSee also\n Incorrect mask usage\n\nReferences \n\nMasks in law\nFace masks during the COVID-19 pandemic\nSpanish flu\nDisobedience",
"Commedia dell'arte masks are one of the most integral aspects of each stock character. Each mask design is paired with a specific character based on its appearance and tradition. Masks were originally all made of leather, but now more commonly made of neoprene. The Commedia masks must show emotion and intelligence as they are covering the face which is the main place emotion can be seen on someone. Masks should be an extension of an actor and their costume, hair and accessories. A mask creates a completely different face for the person that is wearing it. Mask, in Commedia dell'arte speaks of the types of characters that each represents and includes all of the characters including the lovers. It is almost as speaking to the character rather than the masks, saying that they are a type that is unchanged.\n\nMasks help with the performance and practice of Commedia because they help bring the characters to life. Commedia masks make a statement to the audience from the moment they are seen on stage. Masks tell the audience who the character is, their social class and type, what they will do or won't do, and what their attitudes are. A comic mask is a nobody and a somebody at the same time, the characters seem important even if they are a lowly servant. Characters who embody the upper class, usually the lovers or Innamorati and the lower class female servants do not wear physical headpieces, but their characters are still referred to as \"masks.\" Commedia stock characters tend to introduce themselves as soon as they notice the audience and the mask helps them to do so. A comic mask is a nobody and somebody at the same time. A mask helps to create the beautiful, extravagant, repulsive and yet attractiveness of each character. Masks allow the actor to further explore the character. To the audience, the actor's physical movements and embodiment of the stock characters help to establish their character and the mask enhances it. The mask and lazzo connected, without the lazzo a character in a mask is not making anything and is less entertaining. Masks and lazzo go hand in hand and you need one to have the other. Without one, the other is not as great and fantastic, or as funny, lazzi without masks is not as meaningful.\n\nEvery mask has to contain a combination of distinct characteristics to create their specific characters. The original Commedia dell'arte performers originated in the 1530s and 1540s, they wanted to be immediately recognized as the familiar characters that they portrayed as well as being exciting. The actors wanted to be easily recognized and remembered from one show to the next. Actors were playing the same character in every show, and these characters were people that everyone knows. The masks became each character, and without them the character could not be the same. The mask creates the personage of each character and makes them associated to their name and movements. It makes them an individual, yet one that the audience can easily identify. Many actors will look at the characters as being a mask, with it on they are that specific character, without it they are themselves or another character. Even lovers can wear a mask if they are using it to disguise themselves, yet they do not become another character in that instance. Commedia uses two different types of masks, that of the personage and identity of a character, a specific characters face. As well as the mask that is an object for lovers and other nonmasked characters to use as a disguise. Actors are directed more so by the mask than by the director, they use to the movements that are associated with that character and follow their characters type. An actor must surrender his entire body to the character not just change his face with the mask.\n\nMask types \n\nEach character has specific elements and a distinct appearance that makes them recognizable in performances across the world. A character's identification is often found through their mask and how it impacts their presence on stage. There are four or five classes that the masks can be grouped into: the old men such as Pantalone and il Dottore; the young and adventurous man, il Capitano; the servant sometimes named Zanni; and another old man though more crooked and crippled Pulcinella. The servant characters such as Zanni typically will have a long nose, sometimes with more curve for Pantalone, and the servants whose names that end in \"ino\" such as Truffaldino or Arlecchino are more often small and round. To follow traditional masks the servant characters such as Zanni should have big noses and smaller eyes, this creates a more animal look making them seem more primitive, as the servant is lower than the master. The zanni mask was one of the first and was a full mask, covering the full face and sometimes head, until the bottom of the mouth was removed. Capitano's mask has a strong brow, in a frown, wide eyes would only make his farrowed brow less prominent so the smaller eyes are better for him as well. Some characters also have hair, beards, eyebrows, or eyelashes. Brighella is one character mentioned to have a beard in some early mentions of masked characters. He is often known to have a mustache now that is swirled up to give him the mischievous feeling. apitano is often described as having a long nose as well as Zanni, though typically larger. He also has a mustache sometimes that is a stiff and strong mustache under such a large nose, it almost looks like spikes poking out. Dottore also sometimes has hair, in the form of a small mustache, or eyebrows, and no upper lip. His mask covers the actors forehead and nose exposing their cheeks. Leaving the cheeks exposed so that the actor may use blush to create the look that he enjoys his spirits. Pantalone is known for his red and black costume but also his beard and easily recognizable mask. His long pointed beard looks almost like an extension of his equally long nose, he sometimes also has a mustache and some bushy eyebrows to give him a very distinct look. Dottore and Pantalone though both old men, have very different looks.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Commedia delArte An Actors Handbook|last=Rudlin|first=John|publisher=Routledge|year=1994}}</ref>\n\nEach mask has a very distinct look about it, some have large noses or foreheads, and others have bumps or are only a three quarter mask like Dottore. The distinct sections of the mask are the eyes, nose, forehead, upper lip and cheekbones, these create the overall shape of each mask. Each of these features may be exaggerated, or maybe the mask does not have one of these quality. Dottore typically does not have cheekbones or an upper lip under his nose. One factor that is most dis-configured and proportioned is the nose. Someone making a mask has the freedom to show their talents and skills in these areas, the nose, cheekbones, brows, and lip, but they do need to follow the fundamentals of each character that they are creating so that they are still recognizable. One does not want to make il Dottore unrecognizable for who he is, or cause confusion between to characters because they are too similar. Much like the people you see on a daily bases, not all masks must be perfect, they can have bumps just like any person can. The characters have the same skin problems as teenagers and the elder we see daily.\n\n The unmasked \nNot all of the characters in Commedia dell'arte are masked, some are unmasked, and some wear powdered faces instead of a mask. When actresses finally joined the men on stage they did not start wearing the masks, they wanted to show their faces as they were playing female lovers mostly. While men had been wearing masks and playing women before, now that women were playing the women, they did not want to hide their beautiful faces, even when they were a servant. This also meant that their counterparts, the male lovers, also stopped performing in masks. This led to more characters without masks, such as the \"servetta (French, soubrette''),\" who was the female servant that was also unmasked such as Colombina. Though unmasked she would have heavy makeup around her eyes drawing the focus there. Pedrolino did not wear a mask, instead he had a floured face. He was the start of the white clowns we see today in circuses and in mime. These characters still maintain the classification as 'masked' because they still follow the character types, even without a mask they are still a type. Both lovers tend to wear heavy makeup that almost forms its own mask containing beauty marks and heavy mascara.\n\nMask construction \nIn making a mask there are a few different ways to do this, leather is the traditional material used but there is also paper mache and plaster casts. Leather is the most used material for making masks as it is the easiest to shape without hurting the face. Leather is also close to the skin and creates a light, easy to wear mask that holds shape and life on stage. The process of working with leather to build Commedia Masks is relatively extensive. To begin, leather is first soaked for a 48 hours minimum. The leather is then draped over a base molded to the shape of a face. Once it is placed the leather is stretched by the artist's hands or a smooth wooden tool. The shaping is repeated continuously and the artist continues pushing it into the crevices formed by the mold. After the artist has manipulated the leather to its desired shape it is then dried. Drying the mask can be achieved in two ways: with a heat source (even a hairdryer in the modern day) or for an extensive air-drying period. Once the leather is completely dry the artist then applies a hardening agent.\n\nReferences\n\nCommedia dell'arte\nMasks in theatre\nMasks in Europe"
]
|
[
"Slipknot (band)",
"Image and identities",
"what was their image?",
"attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits",
"what other things played a part in their image?",
"The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases.",
"What else were they known for?",
"Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives.",
"Were they successful?",
"The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick.",
"How did they respond to that accusation?",
"The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music.",
"Have they won any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"What else is noted about them?",
"The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started.",
"When did the band start",
"I don't know.",
"Do they all wear masks?",
"the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks"
]
| C_f31f0e7d00714137ad76b19336e378be_0 | Did they wear anything else similar? | 10 | Other than unique individual face masks, did the Slipknot (band) members wear anything else similar? | Slipknot (band) | The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits--while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray. The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'". During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George. The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask", which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are. CANNOTANSWER | matching uniforms--typically jumpsuits | Slipknot is an American heavy metal band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Gray died on May 24, 2010, and was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison was dismissed from the band on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Fehn was also dismissed from the band in March 2019 prior to the writing of We Are Not Your Kind.
Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows. The band rapidly rose to fame following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album, Iowa, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. Their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, was released on August 9, 2019. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, and five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
History
Background (1991-1995)
In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera. Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, and Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni later took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan often went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth, writing and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot"; another was titled "Painface", which Colsefni later used to name his band Painface.
In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed occasionally with this group. Brainard eventually left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of '93 and early in '94. During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed a death metal band called Body Pit, soon becoming popular in the local scene. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up.
In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started a band named the Pale Ones. The lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer, moving Crahan to percussion. Furthermore, Colsefni also took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist. The band then decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut; playing a benefit show using the name Meld.
Demo recording and beginnings (1995–1998)
Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray, Crahan and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights. It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at SR Audio, a studio in the band's hometown. As they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: "(he) was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons...I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist. After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996.
Distribution for the demo was initially left to the band and their producer Sean McMahon, before it was handed over to the distribution company -ismist Recordings in early 1997. Slipknot received a small amount of airplay on local radio stations off the back of the demo. However, it did not lead to any kind of interest from record labels, so the band returned to the studio to develop new material. It was at this time that the band sought more melodic vocals for their music. As a result, Corey Taylor was recruited from fellow Des Moines band Stone Sour; this moved Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion. While working in the studio, Slipknot continued to do local shows, during one of which in September 1997, Colsefni announced on stage that he was leaving the band. The gap on percussion was filled by Greg Welts, who was affectionately known as "Cuddles". In early 1998, Slipknot produced a second demo featuring five tracks exclusively for record labels. The band began to receive a lot of attention from record labels, and in February 1998, producer Ross Robinson offered to produce their debut album after attending rehearsals in Des Moines. Soon after, DJ Sid Wilson was recruited as the band's ninth member after showing great interest and impressing band members. In late June, Slipknot received a $500,000, seven-album deal, from Roadrunner Records; the band signed the deal publicly on July 8, 1998. Two days prior to this, Welts was fired from the band, something which Slipknot refuse to comment on. Welts was replaced by Brandon Darner, who departed from the band shortly after joining.
Self-titled album and emergence (1998–2000)
Chris Fehn was brought in to replace Darner on percussion before Slipknot traveled to Malibu, California, to work on their debut album in September 1998. Partway through the recording process of the album, Slipknot returned to Des Moines for the Christmas period. During that period, guitarist Brainard decided to leave the band. Brainard said, "some decisions were made that I wasn't particularly happy with". Slipknot later recruited Jim Root to complete their lineup and the band returned to Malibu to continue work on the album. Work on the album concluded in early 1999, allowing the band to go on their first tour as part of the Ozzfest lineup in 1999. Ozzfest greatly increased Slipknot's audience, furthering the band's success with their self-titled album that was released on June 29, 1999. Slipknot released its first home video Welcome to Our Neighborhood, which was directed by Thomas Mignone, and the singles "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out", which were also directed by Mignone. The singles received some airplay, but Slipknot quickly developed a large following, mainly from touring and word of mouth. The band toured several countries throughout 1999 and 2000 in support of the album. In early 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; a first for an album released by Roadrunner Records.
Iowa (2001–2003)
Anticipation for Slipknot's second album was intense. In early 2001, the band began recording the second album at Sound City and Sound Image studios in Los Angeles. Around this time, conflicts arose between band members due to extensive touring and recording schedules. Recording of their second album ended in February 2001 and the band embarked on their Iowa World Tour. Entitled Iowa, Slipknot's second album—released on August 28, 2001—peaked at number three on the Billboard charts and at number one in the UK. The album produced three singles; "The Heretic Anthem" (promotional single), "Left Behind" and "My Plague", which appeared on the soundtrack for the film Resident Evil. In 2002, Slipknot appeared in Rollerball (2002), performing "I Am Hated". The release and intense promotion of the album resulted in sold-out shows in large arenas in several countries.
In mid-2002, Slipknot went on hiatus because of internal conflicts, and band members focused on side projects. Vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Jordison created Murderdolls with vocalist Wednesday 13, percussionist Crahan founded To My Surprise and DJ Wilson went solo as DJ Starscream. For a while, the future of Slipknot was uncertain and there was much speculation about whether there would be a third album, or if the split would become permanent. "I don't have a problem with anyone in Slipknot," Jordison protested. "I've seen comments from Corey saying there are things to be resolved, but I have no fucking idea what he's talking about."
Nonetheless, on November 22, 2002, Slipknot released their second DVD, Disasterpieces.
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2003–2007)
After several delays, Slipknot moved into The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, in mid-2003 to work on their third album alongside producer Rick Rubin. By early 2004, work on the album had finished and the band began The Subliminal Verses World Tour with their appearance on the Jägermeister Music Tour in March 2004. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released on May 24, 2004; it peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts. The album produced six singles; "Duality", "Vermilion", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "Before I Forget", "The Nameless", and The Blister Exists. Slipknot recorded its first live album, 9.0: Live, while touring in support of the band's third album. Released on November 1, 2005 9.0: Live peaked at number 17 on the Billboard album charts. Touring in support of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) continued through 2004 and up to the end of 2005 before Slipknot went on hiatus for the second time.
In 2005, several members of Slipknot were involved in Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions, a collaborative album recorded by artists signed to Roadrunner Records for the label's 25th anniversary. 2006 saw Slipknot win their first Grammy Award, picking up the Best Metal Performance award for the single "Before I Forget". The single went on to be featured on the set list of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On December 5, 2006, Slipknot released its third DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine. While Slipknot was on hiatus, several band members again focused their attentions on side projects; vocalist Taylor and guitarist Root returned to Stone Sour, drummer Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches of Blood's third album Fire Up the Blades, Crahan founded Dirty Little Rabbits and Wilson returned as DJ Starscream once again.
All Hope Is Gone and Gray's death (2008–2010)
Preparation for Slipknot's fourth album began towards the end of 2007; work began at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman in February 2008. The album was finished in June, and the band went on the All Hope Is Gone World Tour on July 9, 2008. Slipknot's fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released on August 20, 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard albums chart. The album produced five singles; "All Hope Is Gone", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Sulfur" and "Snuff". 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of Slipknot's debut album; to commemorate the event, the band released a special-edition version of Slipknot on September 9, 2009. The band toured in support of the album throughout 2008 and continued until October 31, 2009, resulting in Slipknot's third hiatus.
During the hiatus, several band members focused on respective side projects; Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band and returned to Stone Sour with guitarist Root; Crahan continued working with his band Dirty Little Rabbits; and drummer Jordison returned with his band Murderdolls and became the new permanent drummer of Rob Zombie. Meanwhile, percussionist Fehn became a full-time bassist with metalcore band Will Haven and Sid Wilson founded the eponymous band Sid.
In 2010, Gray was planning to tour with the supergroup, Hail!, but on May 24, 2010, he was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room. Circumstances surrounding his death at the time were not immediately known; an autopsy suspected his death was not intentional but did not reveal the cause. The day after his death, the remaining eight members of the band held a live, unmasked, press conference alongside Gray's widow and brother. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl.
The band was hesitant to comment on the future of Slipknot. The members made conflicting statements in interviews; drummer Jordison told The Pulse of Radio "there is another Slipknot record already kinda in the making". Vocalist Taylor told FMQB Productions he was "very conflicted about whether or not [he wants] to do anything with Slipknot". The band released their fourth video album (sic)nesses on September 28, 2010; it debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD features Slipknot's entire live performance at the 2009 Download Festival and a 45-minute film documenting their tour in support of All Hope Is Gone, and served as a tribute to Paul Gray.
Return to the stage, Antennas to Hell and Knotfest (2011–2012)
Regarding the continuation of Slipknot, Taylor told NME Gray would want them to continue and he felt they should but he was ambivalent about returning to the band. Slipknot returned to touring in 2011, performing a small number of shows in Europe. They headlined the Sonisphere Festival and Rock in Rio alongside Iron Maiden and Metallica, and performed at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting. Donnie Steele substituted for Gray in the concerts; he was positioned behind Jordison and obscured from the audience's view.
Slipknot also said the band would complete and release the band's fifth studio album, and that there were no plans to replace Gray. Jordison said the writing process for the album had already begun and that he had written 17 songs.
Slipknot performed at the Mayhem Festival tour of 2012.
On May 29, 2012, Roadrunner Records posted a teaser video titled Antennas to Hell on its website. Later that day, on Twitter, Corey Taylor said Slipknot will release a greatest hits album on June 17, 2012. He also said the band was not yet recording new material but was putting together demos for a new album.
Slipknot's first annual music festival, called Knotfest, was held on August 17, 2012, at Mid-America Motorplex near Pacific Junction, Iowa, and on August 18, 2012, in Somerset, Wisconsin. Deftones, Lamb of God, and Serj Tankian also performed at the festival. The festival shows also debuted a Slipknot museum. On 14, June 2013, Slipknot headlined the Download Festival for a second time. The band performed to roughly 90,000 people and was twice forced to stop the set—once in the middle of a song—to allow the front barricade, which had split open under crowd pressure, to be repaired.
Jordison's departure, .5: The Gray Chapter, and new members (2013–2016)
Production of the band's fifth album began in late 2013. Taylor described the album as "very dark" and a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Guitarist Jim Root did not participate in Stone Sour's January tour so he could write material for Slipknot.
On December 12, 2013, the band announced through its official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after 18 years, citing personal reasons. On his official Facebook page, Jordison later said he "did not quit Slipknot" and that he was "shocked" and "blindsided" by the news. Both Jordison and Slipknot independently promised to release further details about the split. Taylor said Jordison would not be appearing on the new album because he did not participate in any songwriting sessions before his departure. After years of both sides being silent and evasive as to the reasons for his leaving the band, Jordison revealed in June 2016 that he suffered from Transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that cost him the ability to play the drums toward the end of his time with Slipknot. However, Jordison played drums in the blackened death metal act Sinsaenum, which he joined in 2016.
In July 2014, Slipknot began releasing teasers for the new album on the band's website and social media using cryptic messages and gory imagery. "The Negative One", the band's first song in six years, was released on August 1; it was accompanied by a music video directed by Crahan that was released four days later. The video did not feature any band members. On August 24, Slipknot released an official radio single titled "The Devil In I", and the name of the upcoming album was announced as .5: The Gray Chapter on iTunes, with an expected release date of October 28. The release was later preponed to October 17 for the Netherlands and Australia, October 20 for the UK and October 21 worldwide. "The Negative One" was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support. The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia. A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively; Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.
Taylor later said he was upset at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band. On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.
On March 11, 2015, while the band was not touring, guitarist Mick Thomson was hospitalized after a drunken knife fight with his brother at Thomson's home in Iowa. The pair sustained serious, but non life-threatening, injuries. On August 2, 2015, during a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, the band was forced to stop performing after Venturella was suddenly rushed to hospital, after undergoing a medical emergency. After 20 minutes, singer Taylor told the audience the band would continue the concert, performing without Venturella. It was later discovered that Venturella had collapsed because of extreme dehydration.
On September 25, 2016, the band performed at their annual festival Knotfest, which was altered to include Ozzfest this year. They performed the Iowa album in its entirety. In the meanwhile, Crahan made his directorial debut with the feature film Officer Downe, based on a graphic novel of the same name and starring actor Kim Coates. In November 2016, Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that he and fellow guitarist Jim Root would be teaming up in February 2017 to begin writing new material for a new Slipknot album because "we want to write."
We Are Not Your Kind (2017–2020)
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor regrouped with his other band Stone Sour in 2017, and they released their album Hydrograd on June 30. Talking about his first work in cinema and the other Slipknot members' plans, in an interview with WRIF's Meltdown, Crahan revealed that "we're beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. We have songs that we've written that are amazing." In December 2017, Crahan appeared on The Jasta Show podcast, where he stated that the next Slipknot album could be his last with the band.
Corey Taylor revealed in October 2018 that the band would enter the studio in early 2019, with a targeted release for their sixth album that same year, followed by a world tour. On October 31, the single "All Out Life" was released, as was an accompanying music video. On March 4, 2019, the band announced that the release date for the next album would be August 9, 2019 and that they would be embarking on the Knotfest Roadshow along with support by Gojira, Volbeat, and Behemoth to support the album. On March 7, Slipknot were revealed to be the opening act for Metallica's six WorldWired Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand from October 17 through October 31.
On March 14, 2019, Chris Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band citing withheld payments. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of setting up several band-related business entities, in different states, that collect money from the band. Fehn called for full forensic accounting to be done on all of the band's companies and assets in order to collect any profits and damages he may be owed. On that same day, Taylor responded via Twitter with a tweet stating, "You're gonna read a lot of bullshit today. This is all I'll say. JUST YOU WAIT TIL THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Long Live The Knot". On March 18, 2019, the band officially announced, via their website, that Chris Fehn was no longer a member of the band, stating, "Slipknot's focus is on making album #6, and our upcoming shows around the world, our best ever. Chris knows why he is no longer a part of Slipknot. We are disappointed that he chose to point fingers and manufacture claims, rather than doing what was necessary to continue to be a part of Slipknot. We would have preferred he not take the path that he has, but evolution in all things is a necessary part of this life. Long Live The Knot". However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing. By May 2019, Fehn's employment status with the band had apparently changed, as evident by his missing name on the band's Instagram posts for their new masks. He was replaced by a percussionist, whose identity is concealed, who the fans have dubbed "Tortilla Man". Loudwire has reported that fans have linked his identity as Michael Pfaff, a former member of Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits. The band themselves have not confirmed this claim.
On May 13, 2019, the band teased something was coming on May 16, ahead of their performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as screenshots of their new masks. On that day, the album's title was revealed to be We Are Not Your Kind, along with its tracklist and a music video for "Unsainted", where the new masks and outfits for the nine band members were shown for the first time, including an as-yet-unknown new percussionist. on July 22, they released the second single, from their upcoming album, titled "Solway Firth". This was accompanied by a music video which featured live footage from their 2019 shows as well as clips and audio from The Boys . On August 5, "Birth of the Cruel" was released as the album's third single, accompanied by a music video. On August 9, four days after they had released “Birth of the Cruel” they released their sixth album We Are Not Your Kind.
In August 2019, Crahan announced the band will release an experimental album of outtakes from the 2008 All Hope Is Gone sessions, titled Look Outside Your Window. The album was recorded with just 4 members (Crahan, Taylor, Root, and Wilson), in a different studio away from the other members, is expected to have 11 tracks that Taylor described as having a "Radiohead vibe", and Crahan saying in 2018 "it is not a Slipknot album". The band also released a twenty-minute experimental short film directed by Crahan and titled Pollution. One of the segments of the film is the music video for the song, "Nero Forte".
Seventh studio album and Jordison's death (2021−present)
On May 19, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that the band had been currently making "god music". In an article published by Loudwire on June 9, 2021, Shawn Crahan revealed that a new Slipknot album would ‘hopefully’ be released in 2021. He also added that the band would be parting ways with Roadrunner Records following the release of the album.
On July 26, 2021, the band's former drummer, Joey Jordison, died in his sleep at the age of 46.
In November 2021, the band started teasing new material on a new domain thechapeltownrag.com. Several snippets of a song were shown on the website leading to speculation of a new single that the band would later confirm on November 4, with the single titled "The Chapeltown Rag" slated for release the following day alongside its live debut at the Knotfest Roadshow in Los Angeles, California on November 5, 2021. In December 2021, Taylor revealed that the band were planning on mixing their seventh studio album in January, and are planning on releasing it by April 2022. He also stated that he preferred the material on their forthcoming seventh studio album to that on We Are Not Your Kind.
Artistry
Musical style
Slipknot is considered a nu metal band. The band's members prefer to distance themselves musically from other nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Slipknot describes its sound as "metal metal" and regards the link to nu metal as coincidental and a result of nu metal's emergence being concurrent with that of Slipknot. The band's sound typically features a heavily down-tuned guitar setup, a large percussive section, sampling, keyboards and DJing/turntablism. Using a variety of vocal styles, the music typically features growled vocals, screaming, backing vocals, as well as melodic singing. The band has continually experimented with its sound, most notably developing tracks led by acoustic guitars and melodic singing that first appeared on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses).
The album All Hope Is Gone is considered a groove metal album with elements of death metal and thrash metal. The band has also been described as heavy metal, alternative metal groove metal, death metal, hard rock, grindcore, thrash metal, and rap metal.
Lyrics
Slipknot's lyrics are generally very aggressive; they sometimes include profanity while exploring themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy, and psychosis. They often draw upon topics including the music industry, politics, personal strife, and reflection, among others. Rick Anderson of Allmusic said, "those lyrics that are discernible are not generally quotable on a family website". On Vol. 3, Taylor deliberately avoided using profanity in response to claims he relied on it.
Influences
Slipknot cited both Korn's self-titled album of 1994 and Limp Bizkit's album Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ of 1997 as major influences. However, the band's biggest influence, both on their image and music, has been singer Mike Patton and his bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Faith No More. Corey Taylor even stated that watching Faith No More perform on the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards saved his life. In an interview in 2000 Patton called the Slipknot members "really nice guys".
The band Kiss has been a big influence for Slipknot, both musically and image-wise. Several band members have in numerous interviews stated the impact Kiss had on them when growing up. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Joey Jordison said that "I saw Kiss on The Dick Clark Show in like, 1980 or something, and Kiss Alive! was the first record of theirs I had. This was back when you bought cassettes or records, and I still have my original cassette copy of it. And I tell you what, it just blew my mind! The cover tells you everything you need to know; it just makes you want to listen to the whole fucking record. And these guys look like fucking demons — you don't know when you're a kid and you're watching them on TV that it's just guys in makeup. So yeah, it was inspiring back then. They were a huge influence on me when I was a kid. And that record came out in 1975, so I was always like, "That's fucking badass — one of my favorite records of all time came out the year I was born!". In another interview with Loudwire, he also added that after listening to Kiss Alive! for the first, he was "changed forever, and then [he] just became completely engulfed in metal." Guitarist Mick Thomson revealed in Metal Hammer that Kiss' Destroyer was the first album he ever bought, and when talking about Kiss' Alive II; he stated that "...the artwork on Alive II with Gene's sweat running, the blood coming from his face and the make-up running had a profound influence on me. You only have to look at my own band to see how much so." Vocalist Corey Taylor has stated that Kiss were a huge influence on both him and the rest of the band and he has also covered multiple Kiss songs over the years; both as a solo artist as well as with Stone Sour, in which Slipknot guitarist Jim Root also played at the time.
Many authors single out the massive influence that experimental band Mr. Bungle has had on Slipknot; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members of Mr. Bungle donned strange masks (often clown and gimp ones), costumes (including jumpsuits) and hid their identities behind obscure pseudonyms. All of these were major features on their 1991 self-titled album cycle. Their creepy music videos from that record, such as "Travolta" which was banned on MTV, also pointed out at what would be the future image of Slipknot. In the same way, the musical influence of Mr. Bungle is evident in the eclecticism and adventurousness throughout Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Slipknot's first release of 1996, although the band added more metallic elements. A few songs on that album also hint at the eccentric catchiness of Faith No More and other funk metal bands.
While Slipknot was making its debut studio release, the entire band attended one of the first shows by avant-garde grindcore supergroup Fantômas-composed of Patton, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn-which greatly influenced them at the time. From that
album on, Slipknot has displayed a much more straightforward, extreme metal sound, largely because of producer Ross Robinson, and some writers have identified the influence of Faith No More on some tracks'
structures and alternating melodies from Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). On the other hand, the experimental imprint of Bungle has become rare, but it made a sudden reappearance on 2019's We Are Not Your Kind.
The members of Slipknot are also influenced by Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Deicide, Pantera, Anthrax, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sepultura, White Zombie, Alice in Chains, Malevolent Creation, Danny Heifetz, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Melvins, N.W.A, Skinny Puppy, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Emperor, Beastie Boys, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Misfits, Gorefest, Run-DMC, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica. Taylor has spoken of his admiration for vocalists Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield. In 1999, Chris Fehn said Sid Wilson is influenced by jungle music and rave music.
Stage performances
Slipknot is known for its chaotic, energetic live shows that contributed to the band's success. During performances, most of the band's members headbang heavily. The band's early performances included extreme acts such as stage dives from high balconies and band members setting each other on fire. Clown was known to go into the crowd and tie people up with the microphone cord. In later years, they tended to refrain from acts this extreme. Former bassist Paul Gray said this was due to receiving lawsuits and to avoid harming other people, and that it was a "better move" for the longevity of the band. Along with the energetic and unpredictable performances, Slipknot often use elaborate stage setups that use pyrotechnics, elevated stage areas, hydraulic drum risers, and computer screens. Reviewing a Slipknot performance, Alistair Lawrence of Kerrang! said, "the choreographed chaos is too multi-faceted to fully describe". and NME described one Slipknot show as "a scene of chaos".
Image and identities
The band is known for its attention-grabbing image; the members perform wearing unique, individual facemasks and matching uniforms—typically jumpsuits—while each member is typically assigned and referred to by number based on their role in the band (#0 through #8), although the latter practice has diminished following the death of Paul Gray.
The band has said the idea of wearing masks stemmed from a clown mask that Crahan took to rehearsals when the band first started. Crahan later became known for his clown masks, adopting the pseudonym "Shawn the Clown". The concept developed; by late 1997, the band decided every band member would wear a unique mask and matching jumpsuit. Taylor said in 2002, "it's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music. It's a way for us to kind of crawl inside it and be able to use it." The concept of wearing matching jumpsuits has been described as a response to commercialism in the music industry and led to the idea of assigning the band members numerical aliases. According to Taylor, "Originally, we were just going to wear the jumpsuits ... we figured we might as well take that further and number ourselves ... We were basically saying, 'Hey, we're a product!'".
During their careers, the members of Slipknot have developed their images, updating their uniforms and each member's mask upon the release of each album. The appearance and style of the masks do not usually differ significantly between albums; members typically maintain the established theme of their mask while adding new elements. Jordison, in an interview in 2004, said the masks are updated to show growth within each individual. Slipknot's members have worn special masks for specific occasions, most notably for the music video and live performances of "Vermilion" in 2004 and 2005 when they wore life masks made from casts of their own faces. In 2008, the band wore a set of large masks titled "purgatory masks" during photograph shoots before the release of All Hope Is Gone; in the music video for "Psychosocial" they are seen burning them. Shortly after its inception, Slipknot's masks were homemade, but since 2000 they have been custom-made by special effect artist and musician Screaming Mad George.
The band's image has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, with critics generally accusing it of being a sales gimmick. The band's members object to these claims; according to them the masks are used to divert attention from themselves and put it on the music. Several band members have said wearing the masks helps to maintain privacy in their personal lives. During an interview in 2005, percussionist Fehn said the masks were a "blessing" because they meant the members are not recognized in public.
In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called Slipknot: Wear the Mask, which invites fans to construct their own masks, defining the kind of Slipknot fans they are.
Logo and nonagram
An essential element for the band's image is the Slipknot logo. The nonagram was created by the band's members around the same time the band was founded. The nonagram is arguably the best-known sigil of Slipknot and it represents a 9-point star—a symbol of unity, loyalty, friendship and remembrance. The logo is composed of three equilateral triangles each rotated at 0, 40, and 80 degrees. Each star point was meant to stand for each of the nine members of the original band, with at least one member, Chris Fehn, possessing a nonagram tattoo. Despite popular belief, the nonagram is not a Satanist symbol and instead represents Slipknot's "battle with the fake world."
The pre-release of the 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter also witnessed a major change in the band's logo and branding strategy. A new nonagram drew the public's attention towards the band, announcing the beginning of a new era. The black and red color scheme and the minimalist, elegant design received public appreciation and it is still used today.
Clothing brand
In 2008, Slipknot launched their clothing line Tattered and Torn. Named after a song on their 1999 self-titled debut, the line runs as an imprint of Bravado, a company that runs the band's merchandising. While the band recognize that their merchandise is their biggest revenue income, they insist Tattered and Torn is more than just band merchandising. Vocalist Corey Taylor said, "It's a way for [the fans] to get cool clothing at affordable prices." The first items from the clothing line went on sale in late July 2008 through Hot Topic stores across North America and the Hot Topic website. Currently, the line is limited to shirts and hoodies but was expected to develop into a full-range clothing line.
Controversies
Slipknot's music and image have been the subject of many controversies throughout its career. The lyrical content of some of Slipknot's songs has been linked to several violent and criminal incidents. In 2003, two young killers blamed the lyrics of "Disasterpiece" for their crime. In 2006, the lyrics of "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbery.
In 2008, Corey Taylor commented on a slashing incident at a South African school to which Slipknot was linked; he said: ... obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died, as far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive ... there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost.
Slipknot had a longstanding feud with the band Mushroomhead which—along with their fans—said Slipknot "stole their image". While Slipknot acknowledged their images had similarities, its members were not actively involved in the feud, saying the similarities were coincidental. Taylor said, "we both started at the same time—neither one of us knowing anything about each other". Taylor also said that at a live show in Cleveland, Ohio, several Mushroomhead fans threw objects including a fistsized padlock at Slipknot and that when Slipknot's set was finished, Machine Head and Amen went into the crowd and "handled it right there". In 2009, former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis said his band's members were no longer interested in feuding with Slipknot, saying, "they're not the first masked band, we're not, no one was". During an interview with Rock Rage Radio, Reavis praised Slipknot as he criticized his former bandmates after a dispute with the band's founding members which led to his dismissal. He stated that Slipknot was better and he admitted that his thoughts were personal, since he was not involved with Mushroomhead when the feud started.
Slipknot's 2005 lawsuit against Burger King said the company created the advertising-based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. Burger King responded with a countersuit, saying many other bands, such as Mr. Bungle, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne, Kiss, Insane Clown Posse, and Gwar have used masks as part of their images. After negotiations, the advertising campaign and lawsuit were withdrawn.
Members
Current members
(#6) Shawn "Clown" Crahan – percussion, backing vocals ; samples, media
(#5) Craig "133" Jones – samples, media, keyboards ; guitars
(#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
(#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
(#0) Sid Wilson – turntables ; keyboards
(#4) Jim Root – guitars
Alessandro Venturella – bass ; keyboards
Jay Weinberg – drums
"Tortilla Man" – percussion, backing vocals
Former members
(#1) Joey Jordison – drums
Donnie Steele – guitars ; bass
(#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
(#4) Josh "Gnar" Brainard – guitars, backing vocals
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals, percussion ; backing vocals ; samples, media
(#3) Greg "Cuddles" Welts – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Brandon Darner – percussion, backing vocals
(#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
Timeline
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards and nominations
Slipknot have been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and have won one.
|-
| || "Wait and Bleed" ||rowspan="3"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Left Behind" ||
|-
| || "My Plague" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| || "Duality" || Best Hard Rock Performance ||
|-
| "Vermilion" ||rowspan="5"| Best Metal Performance ||
|-
| || "Before I Forget" ||
|-
| || "Psychosocial" ||
|-
| || "The Negative One" ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2016 || "Custer" ||
|-
| .5: The Gray Chapter || Best Rock Album ||
Discography
Studio albums
Slipknot (1999)
Iowa (2001)
Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
All Hope Is Gone (2008)
.5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
We Are Not Your Kind (2019)
Notable tours
World Domination Tour (1999–2000)
Tattoo the Earth (2000)
Iowa World Tour (2001–2002)
The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005)
All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009)
Memorial World Tour (2011–2013)
As a support act
Livin la Vida Loco Tour (1999)
Festivals
Ozzfest (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013)
Knotfest (2012, 2014–present)
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
American alternative metal musical groups
American groove metal musical groups
American nu metal musical groups
Grammy Award winners
Heavy metal musical groups from Iowa
Kerrang! Awards winners
Bands with fictional stage personas
Musical groups established in 1995
Roadrunner Records artists
1995 establishments in Iowa
Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa
Masked musicians | false | [
"Field hands were slaves who labored in the plantation fields. They commonly were used to plant, tend, and harvest cotton, sugar, rice, and tobacco.\n\nChores \nField slaves usually worked in the fields from sunrise to sundown while being monitored by an overseer. The overseer ensured that slaves did not slow down or cease their field work until the day was over.\n\nClothing \nField slaves were given one outfit annually. During the winter time, field slaves were given additional clothing, or material to make additional cloth, in order to keep warm.\n\nChildren \nChildren did not go to school and were put to work as young as they were able. Younger children were given lighter tasks, like fetching meals and guarding livestock. Slave children received little to no clothing until they reached puberty. They were given gender-appropriate clothing.\n\nWomen \nWomen were given long dresses to wear in the summer. During the winter they made themselves a shawl and pantalettes. Women often wore turbans on the heads, covering their hair.\n\nMen \nMen were given pants to wear during the summer and then in the winter they were also given long coats to wear.\n\nMeals \nField slaves were given weekly rations of food by their master, which included meat, corn meal and flour. If permitted, the slaves could have a garden to grow themselves fresh vegetables. Otherwise they would make a meal from their rations and anything else they could find.\n\nSee also\nField holler\nHouse negro\nTreatment of the enslaved in the United States\n\nReferences\n\nSlavery in the United States\nPlantations in the United States",
"A cape, jacket, or vest is an article worn by a working dog to identify or assist them in their job.\n\nMany assistance dogs wear capes if nothing else than identification is needed. They often bear the logo of the organization that trained them, the names of companies that sponsored their training, and usually a patch requesting that the dog is not petted or distracted. Although they are not assistance dogs in the legal sense, some therapy dogs wear similar capes to identify them as such.\n\nA police or detection dog might wear a jacket to identify them and/or protect their torso.\n\nAnother piece of equipment similar to a cape is the harnesses that guide dogs and some mobility assistance dogs wear for leading, bracing, or pulling. Also, assistance dogs that carry items for their handlers wear backpacks, though sometimes these are also referred to as jackets.\n\nAssistance dog attire\n\nA cape is a lightweight loose-fitting piece of fabric that lays over the dog's back and has a strap that goes under the ribs and one across the chest. A service vest is usually more form-fitting than a cape. A brace and mobility harness is a tight-fighting strong harness with a handle used to assist people who need help walking or balancing. A pulling harness is a stronger-strapped harness with padding used for assisting in the pulling of wheelchairs. Additional elements for assistance dog attire might include reflective strips, zippered pockets, D-rings, hook-and-loop fastener areas for attaching patches, a top-mount handle, a brightly colored collar or leash, or one with lettering on it. Typical fabrics are breathable mesh, waterproof nylon, or canvas.\n\nIn the US, the Americans with Disabilities Act does not require a service dog to wear a vest, ID tag, or specific harness. In the UK, there is no requirement for an assistance dog to wear any particular jacket or other marks to show that it is an assistance dog. However, in 2015 the House of Lords Select Committee on the Equality Act 2010 published a report which, among other changes, suggested to amend the laws so that a kitemark might be worn by genuine assistance dogs trained to an appropriate standard and certified for public access. The purpose of such insignia is to deter use of fraudulent assistance dogs and reassure merchants that a particular dog is a legitimate assistance dog.\n\nIn over half the states of the US there are laws prohibiting dressing your dog in such a way as to fraudulently represent it as a service animal.\n\nGuide dog attire\n\nGuide dogs wear a snug-fitting harness with a rigid handle. The blind handler receives direction from the dog through the handle. As long as the harness is on, the dog is \"on duty\".\n\nPolice dog attire\n\nBulletproof vests are available for police dogs and are considered essential equipment by some police officers. Others claim that they are too hot for wearing all shift, or a particular dog who was not trained with such attire may not like to wear one. They are fairly expensive.\n\nMilitary dog attire\n\nMilitary dogs often wear tactical vests (tac vest for short) which are made of durable fabric for a high activity dog, and are constructed in the MOLLE style.\n\nBallistic vests for dogs (aka body armour or bulletproof vests) are used by police dogs (K-9) and military dogs. Such vests provide \"ballistic and edged weapon protection for vital organs while allowing complete freedom of movement\". They are made from similar material as bulletproof vests for humans and are expensive. Specialty body armor such as the $30,000 ones used by the United States Navy SEALs may be waterproof and incorporate night vision cameras and two-way audio.\n\nSearch and Rescue dog attire\n\nWater rescue dogs typically wear gear that provides extra floatation and \"has handles or attachments for tow lines or rescue gear.\"\n\nReferences\n\nDog equipment"
]
|
[
"Marilyn Chambers",
"1985 arrests"
]
| C_c1f55a4bf3794354a85d1cde15f0bc8b_0 | What type of films was Chambers known for? | 1 | What type of films was Marilyn Chambers known for? | Marilyn Chambers | On February 1, 1985, while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, Chambers was arrested by a vice squad and charged with committing a lewd act in a public place and soliciting prostitution. It was alleged by plainclothes policemen who were in the audience that Chambers allowed audience members to touch her with their hands and mouths during her show called "Feel the Magic". She was released on $2,000 bail and the charges were later dropped. "I've never been arrested in my life for anything, ever, so this is kind of a big shock for me, not only as a performer but as a human being", Chambers said at the time. "It's a heartbreaker. This is supposed to be a hip city. I really love -- make that LOVED -- this city. These people have been my fans for years, and it's a thrill for them to touch me up close. There's nothing illegal if I'm not taking money." Chambers' attorney claimed that Chambers was used "as a pawn in a struggle over control and adult businesses." Chambers' arrest came three days before the Board of Supervisors were to vote on a proposed ordinance to eliminate police permits for adult bookstores and theaters. In the wake of her arrest, the Board stripped police of their power to license the city's adult theaters. "The O'Farrell was packed the day after we were arrested," Chambers said later. "And they put the mayor's phone number up on the marquee -- 'Call Mayor Dianne Feinstein'...I'm in jail with my fur coat and nothing else on, and [the police officers] want to take pictures. I took a mug shot with every cop in the place, and they're going, 'I'm really sorry we had to do this.' And the next night they were all back enjoying the show". Later that year on December 13 she was arrested during a performance at Stage Door Johnny's, a strip club in Cleveland. Police said she was nude except for her shoes and was having sexual contact with an audience member. She was charged with promoting prostitution and was held in jail until she was freed on a $1,000 bond. Chambers denied the charge, saying, "I did the same show I've been doing for the last six years. Police just happened to be in the audience." In November 2012 the mugshots from Chambers' Cleveland arrest sold on eBay for $202.50. CANNOTANSWER | while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, | Marilyn Ann Taylor (née Briggs; April 22, 1952 – April 12, 2009), known professionally as Marilyn Chambers, was an American pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, actress and vice-presidential candidate. She was known for her 1972 hardcore film debut, Behind the Green Door, and her 1980 pornographic film Insatiable. She ranked at No. 6 on the list of Top 50 Porn Stars of All Time by AVN, and ranked as one of Playboy's Top 100 Sex Stars of the Century in 1999. Although she was primarily known for her adult film work, she made a successful transition to mainstream projects and has been called "porn's most famous crossover".
Early life
Born Marilyn Ann Briggs in Providence, Rhode Island, Chambers was raised in Westport, Connecticut, in a middle-class household. It is often reported that she was born in Westport; however, in a 2007 interview, Chambers confirmed she was born in Providence but grew up in Westport. Her father was in advertising and her mother was a nurse. She was the youngest of three children, a brother, Bill Briggs (keyboardist for 1960s Boston band The Remains), and a sister, Jann Smith. Chambers attended Burr Farms Elementary School, Hillspoint Elementary School, Long Lots Junior High School, and Staples High School. Her father tried to discourage her from pursuing a modeling career, citing brutal competition. "Ever since I was a little kid, I've always wanted to be an actress," Chambers said in 1997. "I was always a performer, a junior Olympic diver, a junior Olympic gymnast. My mother always told me I was a show-off".
"When I was about 16, I learned how to write my mother’s name on notes to get out of school", she said. "And then I'd take the train into the city to go to auditions". While in high school, she landed some modeling assignments and a small role in the film The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), in which Chambers was credited as Evelyn Lang. During her early career as a model, her most prominent job was as the "Ivory Soap girl" on the Ivory Snow soap flake box, posing as a mother holding a baby under the tag line "99 & 44/100% pure".
Career
Behind the Green Door
Upon the release of The Owl and the Pussycat, Chambers was sent to Los Angeles and San Francisco on a promotional tour. After that, she did not receive any roles except for a low-budget film, writer-director-producer Sean S. Cunningham's Together (1971), in which she appeared nude. In 1970, she moved from Westport to San Francisco, where she held several jobs that included topless model and bottomless dancer. "I moved to San Francisco, thinking it was the entertainment capital of the world, which indeed, it is not," she said.
Chambers sought work in theater and dance groups in San Francisco to no avail. In 1972, she saw an advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle for a casting call for what was billed as a "major motion picture". She rushed to the audition only to find it was for a pornographic film, which was to be called Behind the Green Door. She was about to leave when producers Artie and Jim Mitchell noticed her resemblance to Cybill Shepherd. They invited her upstairs to their offices and told her the film's plot. Chambers was highly dubious about accepting a role in a pornographic film, fearing it might ruin her chances at breaking into the mainstream. But she was turned on by the fantasy of the story and decided to take a chance, under the condition that she receive a hefty salary and 10 percent of the film's gross. She also insisted that each actor get tested for venereal disease. The Mitchell Brothers balked at her request for a percentage of the film's profits, but finally agreed, realizing the film needed a wholesome blonde actress.
The film told the story of a wealthy San Francisco socialite, Gloria Saunders (Chambers), who is taken against her will to an elite North Beach sex club and loved as she's never been loved before. Unusually, Chambers does not have a single word of dialogue in the entire film. After engaging in lesbian sex with a group of six women, she then has sex with actor Johnnie Keyes. This possibly makes Behind the Green Door the first U.S. feature-length hardcore film to include an interracial sex scene. The porn industry and viewing public were shocked by the then-taboo spectacle of a white woman having sex with a black man. The scene with Keyes is followed by Chambers mounting a trapeze contraption suspended from the ceiling. She then engages in vaginal intercourse with one man as she performs oral sex on another and masturbates two others.
"Each sequence was a surprise to me", she said in 1987. "They never told me what was happening next. I just did it as it happened, and it worked. I've always been highly sexed. Oh, my God, I love it! Insatiable is the right word for me".
After filming concluded, she informed the Mitchell Brothers that she was "the Ivory Snow Girl"; the Mitchells capitalized on this by billing her as the "99 and 44/100% impure" girl. Although she said at the time the film would help "sell a lot more soap", Procter & Gamble quickly dropped her after discovering her double life as an adult-film actress, and the advertising industry was scandalized. The fact that Chambers's image was so well known from Ivory Snow boosted the film's ticket sales, and led to several jokes on television talk shows. Nearly every adult film she made following this incident featured a cameo of her Ivory Snow box.
Chambers was relatively unknown prior to Behind the Green Door; however, the film made her a star. Green Door, along with Deep Throat, released the same year, and The Devil in Miss Jones, ushered in what is commonly known as the porno chic era. Critics have since debated whether she was really having orgasms in her scenes or just acting.
Resurrection of Eve and Inside Marilyn Chambers
Following Behind the Green Door, the Mitchell Brothers and Chambers teamed up for Resurrection of Eve, released in September 1973. Although not the runaway blockbuster that Green Door was, Eve was a hit and a well-received entry into the porno chic market. It also helped set Chambers apart from her contemporaries Linda Lovelace and Georgina Spelvin as the wholesome, all-American girl next door. Following Eve, Chambers was anxious to transition her fame into other areas of entertainment. At the time, the Mitchell Brothers were still her managers. "They were always talking about some half-assed idea I knew wouldn't come off", Chambers said in 1992. Flakes' is a terrible word but they were, in a cute sort of way". Chambers had always considered the brothers as her own brothers but when she abruptly announced that she was leaving them to take up with Chuck Traynor, they were appalled and had a falling out with Chambers.
In retaliation, the brothers created a documentary in 1976 called Inside Marilyn Chambers, which was composed of alternate shots and outtakes from Green Door and Eve, as well as interviews with some of her co-stars. This was done without Chambers's knowledge or approval but when she learned of it just prior to its release, she negotiated a deal that would offer her 10% of the gross as long as she would contribute interviews to the film and promote it nationally. "I hated the film and I still do", she said later. "It's supposed to be the story of my life, and it's not true. Jim and Art ripped me off. They felt I'd betrayed them... I felt they'd betrayed me, and for many years, we didn't speak. Only when money was to be made did we start talking again." Chambers reunited with the Mitchell Brothers in 1979 for two 30-minute features called Beyond de Sade and Never a Tender Moment, which explored BDSM. The films, which were shot at the Mitchell Brothers Theatre, co-starred Erica Boyer.
Mainstream crossover
Hollywood
Chambers dreamed of having a career in mainstream films and believed her celebrity as the star of Behind the Green Door and the Ivory Snow girl would be a stepping stone to other endeavors. "The paradox was that, as a result of Green Door, Hollywood blackballed me," she said later. "[Green Door] became a very high-grossing film ... But, to a lot of people, it was still a dirty movie; for me to do anything else, as an actress, was totally out of the question. I became known as a porno star, and that type of labeling really hurt me. It hurt my chances of doing anything else".
Throughout the 1970s, she was up for roles in several Hollywood films. Her biggest opportunity came in 1976 when it was announced in Variety that she was to star alongside Rip Torn in City Blues, a film about a young hooker defended by a seedy lawyer. The film was to be directed by Nicholas Ray. Ray had never seen Behind the Green Door or even screen-tested Chambers. Instead, the two met and Ray was impressed. "I have a camera in my head," he said, adding that Chambers would "eventually be able to handle anything that the young Katie Hepburn or Bette Davis could." However, the project never came to fruition, in large part due to Ray's alcohol and drug abuse. Ray died in 1979.
Chambers claimed that Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel brought her in to talk about a role in the 1978 film Goin' South, then asked her for cocaine and grilled her about whether her orgasms in Behind the Green Door were real; she was angered to the point where she stormed out of the interview. She was going to be cast in the film Hardcore, opposite George C. Scott, but the casting director took one look at her and said she was too wholesome to be cast as a porn queen. "The Hardcore people wanted a woman with orange hair who chews gum, swings a big purse, and wears stiletto heels. That's such a cliche," Chambers said years later. Season Hubley was cast instead.
Rabid
Chambers won the starring role in film director David Cronenberg's low-budget Canadian movie, Rabid, which was released in 1977. Cronenberg stated that he wanted to cast Sissy Spacek in the film lead, but the studio vetoed his choice because of her accent. The director says that the idea of casting Chambers came from producer Ivan Reitman, who had heard that Chambers was looking for a mainstream role. Reitman felt that it would be easier to market the film in different territories if the well-known porn star portrayed the main character. Cronenberg stated that Chambers put in a lot of hard work on the film and that he was impressed with her. Cronenberg further states he had not seen Behind the Green Door prior to casting her.
"It was great working with David", Chambers said in a 1997 interview. "He taught me a lot of things that were very valuable as an actress, especially in horror films. I found it useful in sex films, too!"
Theater work
In 1974, she starred in the dinner theater production of The Mind With the Dirty Man in Las Vegas and received favorable reviews for her work. The play ran for 52 weeks which, at the time, was the longest-running play in Vegas history, and the mayor gave Chambers the key to the city. In 1976, she starred in a short-lived musical revue off-Broadway called Le Bellybutton. In 1977, she starred in Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers in Vegas. The one-woman show Sex Surrogate, in 1979, caused controversy in Las Vegas as it featured full-frontal nudity, which was banned from all major hotel casino showrooms. In 1983, the play was spun off into a 26-part syndicated soap opera called Love Ya, Florence Nightingale. It was broadcast on cable television channels such as the Playboy Channel.
Singing career
Chambers had some chart success with the disco single "Benihana" in 1976, produced by Michael Zager on the Roulette Records label. Billboard magazine said, "She... sings quite nicely in a sexy little voice in this catchy disco tribute to an oriental lover man." The song is played in the background of one scene in the film Rabid. In Insatiable, she sang the theme song, "Shame On You," which plays over the opening credits. She did the same for the song, "Still Insatiable", which was used in her comeback in the 1999 adult film of the same name. She also sang vocals in the 1983 X-rated film, Up 'n' Coming, in which she plays a rising country music star. In the early 1980s, she was the lead singer of a country and western band called Haywire.
Published works
Chambers wrote an autobiography, My Story, in 1975, and co-authored Xaviera Meets Marilyn Chambers with Xaviera Hollander in 1977. Both were published by Warner Communications. She also wrote a sex advice column in the mid-to-late 1970's for Genesis magazine called "Private Chambers", and one for Club magazine throughout the 1980s called "State of the Nation". In 1981, she released a book of sex positions and tips called Sensual Secrets. One of the male models featured in the photos with Marilyn was a young Ron Jeremy. The same year, she released another sex manual called The Illustrated Kama Sutra.
Insatiable and return to porn
Although she had tried for several years to shed her image as a porn star, Chambers returned to the adult film industry with 1980's Insatiable. In the film, she played actress, model, and heiress Sandra Chase, whose appetite for sex is, as the title suggests, insatiable. Sandra is getting ready to make a movie and her manager, played by Jessie St. James, is working on getting some big names to appear alongside Sandra. The story is told in a series of flashbacks which detail Sandra's sexual encounters.
"My manager had never really wanted me to do X-rated film[s]," she said in 1997. "He tried to move me out of that, but—seeing as things didn't go that way, and I wasn't getting any legitimate projects—it was something that we needed to do. I was known in the X-rated business, and it was the right time. It was a cool story and the budget was going to be a lot higher; there were going to be helicopters and Ferraris. It was going to be very classy. There were some names in it that would be good for the box office, [including John Holmes] and that was at a time when X-films were still playing in theaters."
The bet paid off. Insatiable was the top-selling adult video in the U.S. from 1980 to 1982 and it was inducted in the XRCO Hall of Fame. It was followed by a sequel, Insatiable II in 1984. Another X-rated film, Up 'n' Coming, was released in 1983. She also released six direct-to-video features in the early 1980s called Marilyn Chambers' Private Fantasies, in which she acted out her own sexual fantasies alongside some of the biggest names in the industry. The scenarios and dialogue for the series were written by Chambers. Despite her return to the adult-film world, Chambers dreamed of launching a successful mainstream acting career, but was unable to do so.
Chambers left the pornography business because of the increasing fear of AIDS. In 1999, Chambers returned to San Francisco to perform at the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre. Mayor Willie Brown proclaimed a "Marilyn Chambers Day" for her unique place in San Francisco history, and praised her for her "artistic presence", her "vision", and her "energy". That same year Chambers returned to adult features with a trio of films made for VCA Pictures called Still Insatiable (1999), Dark Chambers (2000), and Edge Play (2000), each directed by Veronica Hart.
Near the end of her career, Chambers appeared primarily in independent films, including her last role in Solitaire. Chambers claimed that the more laid-back pace of these roles suited her as "there's a lot less pressure on you to perform [and] you don't have to be young and skinny". Among these were Bikini Bistro, Angel of H.E.A.T. (with Mary Woronov), Party Incorporated, and Breakfast in Bed.
In a 2004 interview, Chambers said, "My advice to somebody who wants to go into adult films is: absolutely not! It's heart-breaking. It leaves you kind of empty. So have a day job and don't quit it".
1985 arrests
On February 1, 1985, while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, Chambers was arrested by a vice squad and charged with committing a lewd act in a public place and soliciting prostitution. It was alleged by plainclothes policemen who were in the audience that Chambers allowed audience members to touch her with their hands and mouths during her show called "Feel the Magic". She was released on $2,000 bail and the charges were later dropped. "I've never been arrested in my life for anything, ever, so this is kind of a big shock to me, not only as a performer but as a human being", Chambers said at the time. "It's a heartbreaker. This is supposed to be a hip city. I really love—make that LOVED—this city. These people have been my fans for years, and it's a thrill for them to touch me up close. There's nothing illegal if I'm not taking money."
Chambers' attorney claimed that Chambers was used "as a pawn in a struggle over control of adult businesses." Chambers' arrest came three days before the Board of Supervisors were to vote on a proposed ordinance to eliminate police permits for adult bookstores and theaters. In the wake of her arrest, the Board stripped police of their power to license the city's adult theaters. "The O'Farrell was packed the day after we were arrested," Chambers said later. "And they put the mayor's phone number up on the marquee—'Call Mayor Dianne Feinstein'... I'm in jail with my fur coat and nothing else on, and [the police officers] want to take pictures. I took a mug shot with every cop in the place, and they're going, 'I'm really sorry we had to do this.' And the next night they were all back enjoying the show".
Later that year on December 13, 1985, she was arrested during a performance at Stage Door Johnny's, a strip club in Cleveland. Police said she was nude except for her shoes and was having sexual contact with an audience member. She was charged with promoting prostitution and was held in jail until she was freed on a $1,000 bond. Chambers denied the charge, saying, "I did the same show I've been doing for the last six years. Police just happened to be in the audience."
In November 2012, the mugshots from Chambers's Cleveland arrest sold on eBay for $202.50.
Efforts in politics
In the 2004 United States presidential election, Chambers ran for vice president on the Personal Choice Party ticket, a libertarian political party. She received a total of 946 votes. In the 2008 United States presidential election, she was again Charles Jay's running mate, this time as an alternate write-in candidate to his primary national Boston Tea Party running mate Thomas L. Knapp in the states of Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.
Personal life
Chambers was married three times. Her first marriage was to Doug Chapin, whom she met while he was playing bagpipes for money on the streets of San Francisco. They married in 1971. She divorced Chapin in 1974 and married Chuck Traynor, who was recently divorced from Linda Lovelace. He also became her manager and they were together for 10 years.
In the mid-1980's, Chambers was "on her way to an early grave, consuming massive amounts of alcohol and cocaine daily when she met her husband-to-be", William Taylor Jr., a truck driver, on a blind date. After their first date, he called her to say that he could not see her because he was a recovering heroin addict. Chambers got so angry that she kicked a wall and broke her leg. Taylor came to visit Chambers in the hospital, and upon her release, they began a romance and Chambers entered Narcotics Anonymous. The couple married around 1991 or 1992 and had one child, McKenna Marie Taylor, in 1992 before divorcing in 1994. When Chambers became clean and sober during the early 1990s, her Lexus had a vanity plate that read "LUV NA".
Death
On April 12, 2009, Chambers was found dead in her home near Santa Clarita, California. Documents found with her body identified her as Marilyn Ann Taylor. She was discovered by her 17-year-old daughter. The LA County Coroner's autopsy revealed Chambers died of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm related to heart disease. Chambers was ten days short of her 57th birthday. The painkiller hydrocodone and the antidepressant citalopram were found in her system, but not enough to cause death. The Associated Press reported she was survived by her daughter, sister and brother. Her ashes were scattered at sea.
Fictional portrayal
In 2000, Tracy Hutson played Chambers in the cable television biographical film Rated X, about the Mitchell brothers' film and Chambers's strip-club career.
Partial filmography
The Owl and the Pussycat (1970 - credited as Evelyn Lang)
Together (1971) (credited as Marilyn Briggs)
Behind the Green Door (1972)
Resurrection of Eve (1973)
Inside Marilyn Chambers (1976)
Rabid (1977)
Insatiable (1980)
Electric Blue - The Movie (1982)
My Therapist (1982)
Angel of H.E.A.T. (1983)
Up 'n' Coming (1983)
Insatiable II (1984)
Still Insatiable (1999)
Dark Chambers (2000)
Edge Play (2000)
Stash (2007)
Solitaire (2008)
Porndogs: The Adventures of Sadie (2009)
Awards
AVN Hall of Fame
XRCO Hall of Fame
1985 XRCO Award – Best Kinky Scene -Insatiable II (with Jamie Gillis)
1992 Adult Film Association of America – Lifetime Achievement Award
2005 FOXE Award – Lifetime Achievement
2008 XBIZ Award – Lifetime Achievement for a Female Performer
See also
Golden Age of Porn
References
External links
1952 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
American actor-politicians
American dance musicians
American pornographic film actresses
American libertarians
Neurological disease deaths in California
Deaths from aortic aneurysm
Deaths by intracerebral hemorrhage
Female candidates for Vice President of the United States
Actors from Providence, Rhode Island
Actresses from Santa Clarita, California
People from Westport, Connecticut
Personal Choice Party politicians
Pornographic film actors from Connecticut
Pornographic film actors from Rhode Island
2004 United States vice-presidential candidates
21st-century American politicians
20th-century American musicians
21st-century American women politicians
Staples High School alumni | true | [
"Oswald Chambers (24 July 187415 November 1917) was an early-twentieth-century Scottish Baptist evangelist and teacher who was aligned with the Holiness Movement. He is best known for the daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest.\n\nYouth and education\nBorn to devout parents in Aberdeen, Scotland, Chambers moved with his family in 1876 to Stoke-on-Trent when his father, Clarence Chambers, became Home Missions evangelist for the North Staffordshire Baptist Association, then to Perth, Scotland when his father returned to the pastorate, and finally to London in 1889, when Clarence was appointed Traveling Secretary of the Baptist Total Abstinence Association. At 16, Oswald Chambers was baptized and became a member of Rye Lane Baptist Chapel. Even as a teenager, Chambers was noted for his deep spirituality, and he participated in the evangelization of poor occupants of local lodging houses. Chambers also demonstrated gifts in both music and art.\n\nFrom 1893 to 1895, Chambers studied at the National Art Training School, now the Royal College of Art and was offered a scholarship for further study, which he declined. For the next two years he continued his study of art at the University of Edinburgh while being greatly influenced by the preaching of Alexander Whyte, pastor of Free St. George's Church. While at Edinburgh, he felt called to ministry, and he left for Dunoon College, a small theological training school near Glasgow, founded by the Rev. Duncan MacGregor. Chambers was soon teaching classes at the school and took over much of the administration when MacGregor was injured in 1898.\n\nHoliness minister\nWhile teaching at Dunoon, Chambers was influenced by Richard Reader Harris, KC, a prominent barrister and founder of the Pentecostal League of Prayer. In 1905, Reader introduced Chambers as \"a new speaker of exceptional power.\" Through the League, Chambers also met Juji Nakada, a Holiness evangelist from Japan, who stimulated Chambers' growing interest in world evangelism. In 1906, Nakada and Chambers sailed for Japan via the United States. In 1907, Chambers spent a semester teaching at God's Bible School, a Holiness institution in Cincinnati, then spent a few months in Japan working with Charles Cowman, a co-founder of the Oriental Missionary Society.\n\nArriving back in Britain by the end of the year, Chambers found the Holiness movement divided by the advocates and opponents of founding a new denomination and by supporters and detractors of the tongues movement. Chambers did not oppose glossolalia but criticized those who made it a test of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.\n\nSailing back to the United States in 1908, Chambers became better acquainted with Gertrude Hobbs, the daughter of friends, whom he had known casually. They married in May 1910; and on 24 May 1913, Gertrude (whom Chambers affectionately called \"Biddy\") gave birth to their only child, Kathleen. Even before they married, Chambers considered a partnership in ministry in which Biddy—who could take shorthand at 250 words per minute—would transcribe and type his sermons and lessons into written form.\n\nBible Training College\nIn 1911 Chambers founded and was principal of the Bible Training College in Clapham Common, Greater London, in an \"embarrassingly elegant\" property that had been purchased by the Pentecostal League of Prayer. Chambers accommodated not only students of every age, education, and class but also anyone in need, believing he ought to \"give to everyone who asks.\" \"No one was ever turned away from the door and whatever the person asked for, whether money, a winter overcoat, or a meal, was given.\" Between 1911 and 1915, 106 resident students attended the Bible Training College, and by July 1915, forty were serving as missionaries.\n\nYMCA chaplain\nIn 1915, a year after the outbreak of World War I, Chambers suspended the operation of the school and was accepted as a YMCA chaplain. He was assigned to Zeitoun, Cairo, Egypt, where he ministered to Australian and New Zealand troops, who later participated in the Battle of Gallipoli. Chambers raised the spiritual tone of a center intended by both the military and the YMCA to be simply an institution of social service providing wholesome alternatives to the brothels of Cairo. When he told a group of fellow YMCA workers that he had decided to abandon concerts and movies for Bible classes, they predicted the exodus of soldiers from his facilities. \"What the skeptics had not considered was Chamber's unusual personal appeal, his gift in speaking, and his genuine concern for the men.\" Soon his wooden-framed \"hut\" was packed with hundreds of soldiers listening attentively to messages such as \"What Is the Good of Prayer?\" Confronted by a soldier who said, \"I can't stand religious people,\" Chambers replied, \"Neither can I.\" Chambers irritated his YMCA superiors by giving away refreshments that the organization believed should be sold so as not to raise expectations elsewhere. Chambers installed a contribution box but refused to ask soldiers to pay for tea and cakes.\n\nDeath and influence\nChambers was stricken with appendicitis on 17 October 1917, but resisted going to a hospital on the grounds that the beds would be needed by men wounded in the long-expected Third Battle of Gaza. On 29 October, a surgeon performed an emergency appendectomy; however, Chambers died 15 November 1917 from a pulmonary hemorrhage. He was buried in Cairo with full military honors.\n\nBefore he died, Chambers had proofread the manuscript of his first book, Baffled to Fight Better, a title he had taken from a favorite line by Robert Browning. For the remainder of her life—and at first under very straitened circumstances—Chambers' widow transcribed and published books and articles edited from the notes she had taken in shorthand during the Bible College years and at Zeitoun. Most successful of the thirty books was My Utmost for His Highest (1924), a daily devotional composed of 365 selections of Chamber's talks, each of about 500 words. The work has never been out of print and has been translated into 39 languages.\n\nHonours\nChambers House in YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College, which was founded by YMCA of Hong Kong, was named in commemoration of Chambers.\n\nReferences\n\nBiography\n\nExternal links \n\n Oswald Chambers Publication Association\n My Utmost for His Highest Online Devotional\n Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections\n\nScottish clergy\nBritish military chaplains\nBritish evangelicals\nScottish Baptist missionaries\nScottish evangelicals\n1874 births\n1917 deaths\nPeople from Aberdeen\nDeaths from appendicitis\nDeaths from pulmonary hemorrhage\nBaptist missionaries in Japan\nBritish expatriates in Japan\nBritish expatriates in the United States\nYMCA leaders\n19th-century Baptists\nModern Christian devotional writers",
"\"Adam & Eve\" is a country song written and performed by Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson. It was co-produced by Kasey's brother, Nash and released in July 2012 as the lead single from their pair second collaborative studio album, Wreck & Ruin (2012).\n\nThe song is loaded with religious imagery including serpents and sin and storytelling that's part fairytale and Biblical. Nicholson said \"There is no symbolic connection between us and Adam and Eve. I don't know if that story ended that well anyway.\"\n\nChambers said \"Adam and Eve definitely takes a very old traditional type story and puts a modern twist on it, which is I guess what the album is generally. We talked about how that would be a good concept for a song, being that we're husband and wife and can play the parts as actors.\"\n\nAt the Country Music Awards of Australia of 2013, the song was nominated for Song of the Year, Single of the Year and Video of the Year. Chambers and Nicholson won Group or Duo of the Year for this song.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video for \"Adam & Eve\" was directed by Helen Clemens and released on 7 August 2012. The video tells the tale of outlaws on the run from the law. Kasey and Shane escape through outback purgatory, travelling through barren landscapes and changing climates.\n\nReception\nauspOp said the song sees \"Chambers & Nicholson doing what they do best – hamonising beautifully on a simple, stripped back country/folk song.\"\n\nReferences\n\n2012 songs\n2012 singles\nMale–female vocal duets\nKasey Chambers songs\nSongs written by Kasey Chambers"
]
|
[
"Marilyn Chambers",
"1985 arrests",
"What type of films was Chambers known for?",
"while performing her nude act at the \"Cine-Stage\" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco,"
]
| C_c1f55a4bf3794354a85d1cde15f0bc8b_0 | With who did she stared? | 2 | With who did Marilyn Chambers stared in the "Cine-Stage"? | Marilyn Chambers | On February 1, 1985, while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, Chambers was arrested by a vice squad and charged with committing a lewd act in a public place and soliciting prostitution. It was alleged by plainclothes policemen who were in the audience that Chambers allowed audience members to touch her with their hands and mouths during her show called "Feel the Magic". She was released on $2,000 bail and the charges were later dropped. "I've never been arrested in my life for anything, ever, so this is kind of a big shock for me, not only as a performer but as a human being", Chambers said at the time. "It's a heartbreaker. This is supposed to be a hip city. I really love -- make that LOVED -- this city. These people have been my fans for years, and it's a thrill for them to touch me up close. There's nothing illegal if I'm not taking money." Chambers' attorney claimed that Chambers was used "as a pawn in a struggle over control and adult businesses." Chambers' arrest came three days before the Board of Supervisors were to vote on a proposed ordinance to eliminate police permits for adult bookstores and theaters. In the wake of her arrest, the Board stripped police of their power to license the city's adult theaters. "The O'Farrell was packed the day after we were arrested," Chambers said later. "And they put the mayor's phone number up on the marquee -- 'Call Mayor Dianne Feinstein'...I'm in jail with my fur coat and nothing else on, and [the police officers] want to take pictures. I took a mug shot with every cop in the place, and they're going, 'I'm really sorry we had to do this.' And the next night they were all back enjoying the show". Later that year on December 13 she was arrested during a performance at Stage Door Johnny's, a strip club in Cleveland. Police said she was nude except for her shoes and was having sexual contact with an audience member. She was charged with promoting prostitution and was held in jail until she was freed on a $1,000 bond. Chambers denied the charge, saying, "I did the same show I've been doing for the last six years. Police just happened to be in the audience." In November 2012 the mugshots from Chambers' Cleveland arrest sold on eBay for $202.50. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Marilyn Ann Taylor (née Briggs; April 22, 1952 – April 12, 2009), known professionally as Marilyn Chambers, was an American pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, actress and vice-presidential candidate. She was known for her 1972 hardcore film debut, Behind the Green Door, and her 1980 pornographic film Insatiable. She ranked at No. 6 on the list of Top 50 Porn Stars of All Time by AVN, and ranked as one of Playboy's Top 100 Sex Stars of the Century in 1999. Although she was primarily known for her adult film work, she made a successful transition to mainstream projects and has been called "porn's most famous crossover".
Early life
Born Marilyn Ann Briggs in Providence, Rhode Island, Chambers was raised in Westport, Connecticut, in a middle-class household. It is often reported that she was born in Westport; however, in a 2007 interview, Chambers confirmed she was born in Providence but grew up in Westport. Her father was in advertising and her mother was a nurse. She was the youngest of three children, a brother, Bill Briggs (keyboardist for 1960s Boston band The Remains), and a sister, Jann Smith. Chambers attended Burr Farms Elementary School, Hillspoint Elementary School, Long Lots Junior High School, and Staples High School. Her father tried to discourage her from pursuing a modeling career, citing brutal competition. "Ever since I was a little kid, I've always wanted to be an actress," Chambers said in 1997. "I was always a performer, a junior Olympic diver, a junior Olympic gymnast. My mother always told me I was a show-off".
"When I was about 16, I learned how to write my mother’s name on notes to get out of school", she said. "And then I'd take the train into the city to go to auditions". While in high school, she landed some modeling assignments and a small role in the film The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), in which Chambers was credited as Evelyn Lang. During her early career as a model, her most prominent job was as the "Ivory Soap girl" on the Ivory Snow soap flake box, posing as a mother holding a baby under the tag line "99 & 44/100% pure".
Career
Behind the Green Door
Upon the release of The Owl and the Pussycat, Chambers was sent to Los Angeles and San Francisco on a promotional tour. After that, she did not receive any roles except for a low-budget film, writer-director-producer Sean S. Cunningham's Together (1971), in which she appeared nude. In 1970, she moved from Westport to San Francisco, where she held several jobs that included topless model and bottomless dancer. "I moved to San Francisco, thinking it was the entertainment capital of the world, which indeed, it is not," she said.
Chambers sought work in theater and dance groups in San Francisco to no avail. In 1972, she saw an advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle for a casting call for what was billed as a "major motion picture". She rushed to the audition only to find it was for a pornographic film, which was to be called Behind the Green Door. She was about to leave when producers Artie and Jim Mitchell noticed her resemblance to Cybill Shepherd. They invited her upstairs to their offices and told her the film's plot. Chambers was highly dubious about accepting a role in a pornographic film, fearing it might ruin her chances at breaking into the mainstream. But she was turned on by the fantasy of the story and decided to take a chance, under the condition that she receive a hefty salary and 10 percent of the film's gross. She also insisted that each actor get tested for venereal disease. The Mitchell Brothers balked at her request for a percentage of the film's profits, but finally agreed, realizing the film needed a wholesome blonde actress.
The film told the story of a wealthy San Francisco socialite, Gloria Saunders (Chambers), who is taken against her will to an elite North Beach sex club and loved as she's never been loved before. Unusually, Chambers does not have a single word of dialogue in the entire film. After engaging in lesbian sex with a group of six women, she then has sex with actor Johnnie Keyes. This possibly makes Behind the Green Door the first U.S. feature-length hardcore film to include an interracial sex scene. The porn industry and viewing public were shocked by the then-taboo spectacle of a white woman having sex with a black man. The scene with Keyes is followed by Chambers mounting a trapeze contraption suspended from the ceiling. She then engages in vaginal intercourse with one man as she performs oral sex on another and masturbates two others.
"Each sequence was a surprise to me", she said in 1987. "They never told me what was happening next. I just did it as it happened, and it worked. I've always been highly sexed. Oh, my God, I love it! Insatiable is the right word for me".
After filming concluded, she informed the Mitchell Brothers that she was "the Ivory Snow Girl"; the Mitchells capitalized on this by billing her as the "99 and 44/100% impure" girl. Although she said at the time the film would help "sell a lot more soap", Procter & Gamble quickly dropped her after discovering her double life as an adult-film actress, and the advertising industry was scandalized. The fact that Chambers's image was so well known from Ivory Snow boosted the film's ticket sales, and led to several jokes on television talk shows. Nearly every adult film she made following this incident featured a cameo of her Ivory Snow box.
Chambers was relatively unknown prior to Behind the Green Door; however, the film made her a star. Green Door, along with Deep Throat, released the same year, and The Devil in Miss Jones, ushered in what is commonly known as the porno chic era. Critics have since debated whether she was really having orgasms in her scenes or just acting.
Resurrection of Eve and Inside Marilyn Chambers
Following Behind the Green Door, the Mitchell Brothers and Chambers teamed up for Resurrection of Eve, released in September 1973. Although not the runaway blockbuster that Green Door was, Eve was a hit and a well-received entry into the porno chic market. It also helped set Chambers apart from her contemporaries Linda Lovelace and Georgina Spelvin as the wholesome, all-American girl next door. Following Eve, Chambers was anxious to transition her fame into other areas of entertainment. At the time, the Mitchell Brothers were still her managers. "They were always talking about some half-assed idea I knew wouldn't come off", Chambers said in 1992. Flakes' is a terrible word but they were, in a cute sort of way". Chambers had always considered the brothers as her own brothers but when she abruptly announced that she was leaving them to take up with Chuck Traynor, they were appalled and had a falling out with Chambers.
In retaliation, the brothers created a documentary in 1976 called Inside Marilyn Chambers, which was composed of alternate shots and outtakes from Green Door and Eve, as well as interviews with some of her co-stars. This was done without Chambers's knowledge or approval but when she learned of it just prior to its release, she negotiated a deal that would offer her 10% of the gross as long as she would contribute interviews to the film and promote it nationally. "I hated the film and I still do", she said later. "It's supposed to be the story of my life, and it's not true. Jim and Art ripped me off. They felt I'd betrayed them... I felt they'd betrayed me, and for many years, we didn't speak. Only when money was to be made did we start talking again." Chambers reunited with the Mitchell Brothers in 1979 for two 30-minute features called Beyond de Sade and Never a Tender Moment, which explored BDSM. The films, which were shot at the Mitchell Brothers Theatre, co-starred Erica Boyer.
Mainstream crossover
Hollywood
Chambers dreamed of having a career in mainstream films and believed her celebrity as the star of Behind the Green Door and the Ivory Snow girl would be a stepping stone to other endeavors. "The paradox was that, as a result of Green Door, Hollywood blackballed me," she said later. "[Green Door] became a very high-grossing film ... But, to a lot of people, it was still a dirty movie; for me to do anything else, as an actress, was totally out of the question. I became known as a porno star, and that type of labeling really hurt me. It hurt my chances of doing anything else".
Throughout the 1970s, she was up for roles in several Hollywood films. Her biggest opportunity came in 1976 when it was announced in Variety that she was to star alongside Rip Torn in City Blues, a film about a young hooker defended by a seedy lawyer. The film was to be directed by Nicholas Ray. Ray had never seen Behind the Green Door or even screen-tested Chambers. Instead, the two met and Ray was impressed. "I have a camera in my head," he said, adding that Chambers would "eventually be able to handle anything that the young Katie Hepburn or Bette Davis could." However, the project never came to fruition, in large part due to Ray's alcohol and drug abuse. Ray died in 1979.
Chambers claimed that Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel brought her in to talk about a role in the 1978 film Goin' South, then asked her for cocaine and grilled her about whether her orgasms in Behind the Green Door were real; she was angered to the point where she stormed out of the interview. She was going to be cast in the film Hardcore, opposite George C. Scott, but the casting director took one look at her and said she was too wholesome to be cast as a porn queen. "The Hardcore people wanted a woman with orange hair who chews gum, swings a big purse, and wears stiletto heels. That's such a cliche," Chambers said years later. Season Hubley was cast instead.
Rabid
Chambers won the starring role in film director David Cronenberg's low-budget Canadian movie, Rabid, which was released in 1977. Cronenberg stated that he wanted to cast Sissy Spacek in the film lead, but the studio vetoed his choice because of her accent. The director says that the idea of casting Chambers came from producer Ivan Reitman, who had heard that Chambers was looking for a mainstream role. Reitman felt that it would be easier to market the film in different territories if the well-known porn star portrayed the main character. Cronenberg stated that Chambers put in a lot of hard work on the film and that he was impressed with her. Cronenberg further states he had not seen Behind the Green Door prior to casting her.
"It was great working with David", Chambers said in a 1997 interview. "He taught me a lot of things that were very valuable as an actress, especially in horror films. I found it useful in sex films, too!"
Theater work
In 1974, she starred in the dinner theater production of The Mind With the Dirty Man in Las Vegas and received favorable reviews for her work. The play ran for 52 weeks which, at the time, was the longest-running play in Vegas history, and the mayor gave Chambers the key to the city. In 1976, she starred in a short-lived musical revue off-Broadway called Le Bellybutton. In 1977, she starred in Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers in Vegas. The one-woman show Sex Surrogate, in 1979, caused controversy in Las Vegas as it featured full-frontal nudity, which was banned from all major hotel casino showrooms. In 1983, the play was spun off into a 26-part syndicated soap opera called Love Ya, Florence Nightingale. It was broadcast on cable television channels such as the Playboy Channel.
Singing career
Chambers had some chart success with the disco single "Benihana" in 1976, produced by Michael Zager on the Roulette Records label. Billboard magazine said, "She... sings quite nicely in a sexy little voice in this catchy disco tribute to an oriental lover man." The song is played in the background of one scene in the film Rabid. In Insatiable, she sang the theme song, "Shame On You," which plays over the opening credits. She did the same for the song, "Still Insatiable", which was used in her comeback in the 1999 adult film of the same name. She also sang vocals in the 1983 X-rated film, Up 'n' Coming, in which she plays a rising country music star. In the early 1980s, she was the lead singer of a country and western band called Haywire.
Published works
Chambers wrote an autobiography, My Story, in 1975, and co-authored Xaviera Meets Marilyn Chambers with Xaviera Hollander in 1977. Both were published by Warner Communications. She also wrote a sex advice column in the mid-to-late 1970's for Genesis magazine called "Private Chambers", and one for Club magazine throughout the 1980s called "State of the Nation". In 1981, she released a book of sex positions and tips called Sensual Secrets. One of the male models featured in the photos with Marilyn was a young Ron Jeremy. The same year, she released another sex manual called The Illustrated Kama Sutra.
Insatiable and return to porn
Although she had tried for several years to shed her image as a porn star, Chambers returned to the adult film industry with 1980's Insatiable. In the film, she played actress, model, and heiress Sandra Chase, whose appetite for sex is, as the title suggests, insatiable. Sandra is getting ready to make a movie and her manager, played by Jessie St. James, is working on getting some big names to appear alongside Sandra. The story is told in a series of flashbacks which detail Sandra's sexual encounters.
"My manager had never really wanted me to do X-rated film[s]," she said in 1997. "He tried to move me out of that, but—seeing as things didn't go that way, and I wasn't getting any legitimate projects—it was something that we needed to do. I was known in the X-rated business, and it was the right time. It was a cool story and the budget was going to be a lot higher; there were going to be helicopters and Ferraris. It was going to be very classy. There were some names in it that would be good for the box office, [including John Holmes] and that was at a time when X-films were still playing in theaters."
The bet paid off. Insatiable was the top-selling adult video in the U.S. from 1980 to 1982 and it was inducted in the XRCO Hall of Fame. It was followed by a sequel, Insatiable II in 1984. Another X-rated film, Up 'n' Coming, was released in 1983. She also released six direct-to-video features in the early 1980s called Marilyn Chambers' Private Fantasies, in which she acted out her own sexual fantasies alongside some of the biggest names in the industry. The scenarios and dialogue for the series were written by Chambers. Despite her return to the adult-film world, Chambers dreamed of launching a successful mainstream acting career, but was unable to do so.
Chambers left the pornography business because of the increasing fear of AIDS. In 1999, Chambers returned to San Francisco to perform at the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre. Mayor Willie Brown proclaimed a "Marilyn Chambers Day" for her unique place in San Francisco history, and praised her for her "artistic presence", her "vision", and her "energy". That same year Chambers returned to adult features with a trio of films made for VCA Pictures called Still Insatiable (1999), Dark Chambers (2000), and Edge Play (2000), each directed by Veronica Hart.
Near the end of her career, Chambers appeared primarily in independent films, including her last role in Solitaire. Chambers claimed that the more laid-back pace of these roles suited her as "there's a lot less pressure on you to perform [and] you don't have to be young and skinny". Among these were Bikini Bistro, Angel of H.E.A.T. (with Mary Woronov), Party Incorporated, and Breakfast in Bed.
In a 2004 interview, Chambers said, "My advice to somebody who wants to go into adult films is: absolutely not! It's heart-breaking. It leaves you kind of empty. So have a day job and don't quit it".
1985 arrests
On February 1, 1985, while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, Chambers was arrested by a vice squad and charged with committing a lewd act in a public place and soliciting prostitution. It was alleged by plainclothes policemen who were in the audience that Chambers allowed audience members to touch her with their hands and mouths during her show called "Feel the Magic". She was released on $2,000 bail and the charges were later dropped. "I've never been arrested in my life for anything, ever, so this is kind of a big shock to me, not only as a performer but as a human being", Chambers said at the time. "It's a heartbreaker. This is supposed to be a hip city. I really love—make that LOVED—this city. These people have been my fans for years, and it's a thrill for them to touch me up close. There's nothing illegal if I'm not taking money."
Chambers' attorney claimed that Chambers was used "as a pawn in a struggle over control of adult businesses." Chambers' arrest came three days before the Board of Supervisors were to vote on a proposed ordinance to eliminate police permits for adult bookstores and theaters. In the wake of her arrest, the Board stripped police of their power to license the city's adult theaters. "The O'Farrell was packed the day after we were arrested," Chambers said later. "And they put the mayor's phone number up on the marquee—'Call Mayor Dianne Feinstein'... I'm in jail with my fur coat and nothing else on, and [the police officers] want to take pictures. I took a mug shot with every cop in the place, and they're going, 'I'm really sorry we had to do this.' And the next night they were all back enjoying the show".
Later that year on December 13, 1985, she was arrested during a performance at Stage Door Johnny's, a strip club in Cleveland. Police said she was nude except for her shoes and was having sexual contact with an audience member. She was charged with promoting prostitution and was held in jail until she was freed on a $1,000 bond. Chambers denied the charge, saying, "I did the same show I've been doing for the last six years. Police just happened to be in the audience."
In November 2012, the mugshots from Chambers's Cleveland arrest sold on eBay for $202.50.
Efforts in politics
In the 2004 United States presidential election, Chambers ran for vice president on the Personal Choice Party ticket, a libertarian political party. She received a total of 946 votes. In the 2008 United States presidential election, she was again Charles Jay's running mate, this time as an alternate write-in candidate to his primary national Boston Tea Party running mate Thomas L. Knapp in the states of Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.
Personal life
Chambers was married three times. Her first marriage was to Doug Chapin, whom she met while he was playing bagpipes for money on the streets of San Francisco. They married in 1971. She divorced Chapin in 1974 and married Chuck Traynor, who was recently divorced from Linda Lovelace. He also became her manager and they were together for 10 years.
In the mid-1980's, Chambers was "on her way to an early grave, consuming massive amounts of alcohol and cocaine daily when she met her husband-to-be", William Taylor Jr., a truck driver, on a blind date. After their first date, he called her to say that he could not see her because he was a recovering heroin addict. Chambers got so angry that she kicked a wall and broke her leg. Taylor came to visit Chambers in the hospital, and upon her release, they began a romance and Chambers entered Narcotics Anonymous. The couple married around 1991 or 1992 and had one child, McKenna Marie Taylor, in 1992 before divorcing in 1994. When Chambers became clean and sober during the early 1990s, her Lexus had a vanity plate that read "LUV NA".
Death
On April 12, 2009, Chambers was found dead in her home near Santa Clarita, California. Documents found with her body identified her as Marilyn Ann Taylor. She was discovered by her 17-year-old daughter. The LA County Coroner's autopsy revealed Chambers died of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm related to heart disease. Chambers was ten days short of her 57th birthday. The painkiller hydrocodone and the antidepressant citalopram were found in her system, but not enough to cause death. The Associated Press reported she was survived by her daughter, sister and brother. Her ashes were scattered at sea.
Fictional portrayal
In 2000, Tracy Hutson played Chambers in the cable television biographical film Rated X, about the Mitchell brothers' film and Chambers's strip-club career.
Partial filmography
The Owl and the Pussycat (1970 - credited as Evelyn Lang)
Together (1971) (credited as Marilyn Briggs)
Behind the Green Door (1972)
Resurrection of Eve (1973)
Inside Marilyn Chambers (1976)
Rabid (1977)
Insatiable (1980)
Electric Blue - The Movie (1982)
My Therapist (1982)
Angel of H.E.A.T. (1983)
Up 'n' Coming (1983)
Insatiable II (1984)
Still Insatiable (1999)
Dark Chambers (2000)
Edge Play (2000)
Stash (2007)
Solitaire (2008)
Porndogs: The Adventures of Sadie (2009)
Awards
AVN Hall of Fame
XRCO Hall of Fame
1985 XRCO Award – Best Kinky Scene -Insatiable II (with Jamie Gillis)
1992 Adult Film Association of America – Lifetime Achievement Award
2005 FOXE Award – Lifetime Achievement
2008 XBIZ Award – Lifetime Achievement for a Female Performer
See also
Golden Age of Porn
References
External links
1952 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
American actor-politicians
American dance musicians
American pornographic film actresses
American libertarians
Neurological disease deaths in California
Deaths from aortic aneurysm
Deaths by intracerebral hemorrhage
Female candidates for Vice President of the United States
Actors from Providence, Rhode Island
Actresses from Santa Clarita, California
People from Westport, Connecticut
Personal Choice Party politicians
Pornographic film actors from Connecticut
Pornographic film actors from Rhode Island
2004 United States vice-presidential candidates
21st-century American politicians
20th-century American musicians
21st-century American women politicians
Staples High School alumni | false | [
"Æthelwynn, often spelled Ethylwynn, Ethylwyn, or Ethelwynn (10th-century) was an English noblewoman and textile artist. She was known for her embroidery work and her encounter with Saint Dunstan.\n\nAccording to Saint Dunstan's biographer, Æthelwynn asked him to help her make a design for a stole for religious use that had various figured patterns, and which she planned to later decorate with gold and precious stones. The stole embellished by Æthelwynn has since vanished.\nAccording to the Biography of Saint Dunstan, when he went to visit Æthelwynn he took his lyre (which has also been described as a harp) with him, in order to play it in between working. According to legend, he hung the lyre on the wall and it miraculously played by itself; upon hearing this, Dunstan, Æthelwynn, and all her work women who were present, \"were seized with dread and, altogether forgetful of the work in their hands, they stared at each other in amazement.”\n\nLegacy \nThe story of Æthelwynn and Saint Dunstan offers insight into the relationships between commissioner, designer, and craftsperson in the production of textiles. She is a unique example, as it was common not to seek original designs for embroidery work.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nChristianity and women\nYear of birth missing\nPlace of birth missing\nYear of death missing\nPlace of death missing\n10th-century English people\n10th-century English women\nMedieval women artists",
"Ingrid Elena Cruz Toro (born 1 July 1975 in Antofagasta) is a Chilean actress, known for her roles in Brujas (2005), Somos los Carmona (2013-2014) and Pituca sin Lucas (2014-2015).\n\nBiography \nBorn as Ingrid Elena Cruz Toro, in Antofagasta, on July 1, 1975, she is the daughter of Norman Cruz, a notary and real estate conservator in the city, and Sara Toro, a secretary. Her father is from El Salvador, he came to Chile after the war. He studied as a lawyer in Antofagasta.\n\nHer studies were carried out at the Experimental Artistic Lyceum and at the Colegio Instituto Santa María Antofagasta. She later moved to Santiago to study acting at the Fernando González Mardones Theater Club Academy, graduating in 1998. In 2007, she had her first daughter with Leo Scheinffelt, Emilia Scheinffelt. In 2014, she separated from Leo, staying alone with Emilia.\n\nCareer \nIngrid Cruz made her television debut with the telenovela Marparaíso (1998) on Canal 13 , sharing credits with Cristián Campos and Jorge Zabaleta. Next, she worked for ten years at Canal 13, under the orders of Verónica Saquel.\n\nDuring this period, she appeared in commercially successful telenovelas such as Machos in 2003, Brujas in 2005 and Lola in 2007, in which she became known despite not having a leading role. In 2009, Canal 13 decided not to renew Cruz's contract, because they preferred to promote actresses with greater prominence in the television industry, as was the case with Tamara Acosta and Blanca Lewin.\n\nAfter a time without many appearances on television, María Eugenia Rencoret gives her the opportunity to antagonize the daytime soap opera Esperanza (2011), with great success. Since then, she has been directing her career towards a more commercial side, becoming an advertising face. She would continue on TVN in the evening Reserva de familia (2012) and with the evening show Somos los Carmona (2013).\n\nIn 2014, Cruz emigrated to Mega together with Rencoret, who forms a new dramatic area for the channel. Íngrid gets the main antagonist in the evening show Pituca sin Lucas (2014), which ends up being a hit for the timeslot. She would continue to be linked to Mega in various productions; She also served as a judge on the show The Switch on the same channel. She recently stared in Mega's Demente, as Javiera Cáceres alongside Patricia Rivadeneira, who played Flavia Betantcourt.\n\nPersonal Life \nIngrid has a daughter, Emilia.\n\nIn 2019, Ingrid began a relationship with Ignacio Rocco, a kinesiologist known for his work on Kinect Pro. They broke up for a while but reconciled in 2020.\n\nFilmography\n\nSeries\n\nPrograms\n\nCinema\n\nTelevision\n\nTelenovelas\n\nMusic Videos\n\nTheatre \n\n Un dios salvaje (2013)\n\nAdvertising \n\n Tottus ( 2012 -present), along with Iván Zamorano (2014-2015) and Álvaro Rudolphy (2015-2016).\n\nAwards and Nominations\n\nAcknowledgements \n\n 1994 - Queen of the City of Antofagasta .\n\nSources\n\nExternal links \n\nIngrid Cruz on Twitter\n\nIngrid Cruz on Instagram\n\n1975 births\nPeople from Antofagasta Region\nLiving people\nChilean film actresses\nChilean television actresses\nChilean stage actresses\nThe Switch Drag Race"
]
|
[
"Marilyn Chambers",
"1985 arrests",
"What type of films was Chambers known for?",
"while performing her nude act at the \"Cine-Stage\" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco,",
"With who did she stared?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_c1f55a4bf3794354a85d1cde15f0bc8b_0 | With what director did Merilyn Chambers work? | 3 | With what director did Merilyn Chambers work while performing her nude act? | Marilyn Chambers | On February 1, 1985, while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, Chambers was arrested by a vice squad and charged with committing a lewd act in a public place and soliciting prostitution. It was alleged by plainclothes policemen who were in the audience that Chambers allowed audience members to touch her with their hands and mouths during her show called "Feel the Magic". She was released on $2,000 bail and the charges were later dropped. "I've never been arrested in my life for anything, ever, so this is kind of a big shock for me, not only as a performer but as a human being", Chambers said at the time. "It's a heartbreaker. This is supposed to be a hip city. I really love -- make that LOVED -- this city. These people have been my fans for years, and it's a thrill for them to touch me up close. There's nothing illegal if I'm not taking money." Chambers' attorney claimed that Chambers was used "as a pawn in a struggle over control and adult businesses." Chambers' arrest came three days before the Board of Supervisors were to vote on a proposed ordinance to eliminate police permits for adult bookstores and theaters. In the wake of her arrest, the Board stripped police of their power to license the city's adult theaters. "The O'Farrell was packed the day after we were arrested," Chambers said later. "And they put the mayor's phone number up on the marquee -- 'Call Mayor Dianne Feinstein'...I'm in jail with my fur coat and nothing else on, and [the police officers] want to take pictures. I took a mug shot with every cop in the place, and they're going, 'I'm really sorry we had to do this.' And the next night they were all back enjoying the show". Later that year on December 13 she was arrested during a performance at Stage Door Johnny's, a strip club in Cleveland. Police said she was nude except for her shoes and was having sexual contact with an audience member. She was charged with promoting prostitution and was held in jail until she was freed on a $1,000 bond. Chambers denied the charge, saying, "I did the same show I've been doing for the last six years. Police just happened to be in the audience." In November 2012 the mugshots from Chambers' Cleveland arrest sold on eBay for $202.50. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Marilyn Ann Taylor (née Briggs; April 22, 1952 – April 12, 2009), known professionally as Marilyn Chambers, was an American pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, actress and vice-presidential candidate. She was known for her 1972 hardcore film debut, Behind the Green Door, and her 1980 pornographic film Insatiable. She ranked at No. 6 on the list of Top 50 Porn Stars of All Time by AVN, and ranked as one of Playboy's Top 100 Sex Stars of the Century in 1999. Although she was primarily known for her adult film work, she made a successful transition to mainstream projects and has been called "porn's most famous crossover".
Early life
Born Marilyn Ann Briggs in Providence, Rhode Island, Chambers was raised in Westport, Connecticut, in a middle-class household. It is often reported that she was born in Westport; however, in a 2007 interview, Chambers confirmed she was born in Providence but grew up in Westport. Her father was in advertising and her mother was a nurse. She was the youngest of three children, a brother, Bill Briggs (keyboardist for 1960s Boston band The Remains), and a sister, Jann Smith. Chambers attended Burr Farms Elementary School, Hillspoint Elementary School, Long Lots Junior High School, and Staples High School. Her father tried to discourage her from pursuing a modeling career, citing brutal competition. "Ever since I was a little kid, I've always wanted to be an actress," Chambers said in 1997. "I was always a performer, a junior Olympic diver, a junior Olympic gymnast. My mother always told me I was a show-off".
"When I was about 16, I learned how to write my mother’s name on notes to get out of school", she said. "And then I'd take the train into the city to go to auditions". While in high school, she landed some modeling assignments and a small role in the film The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), in which Chambers was credited as Evelyn Lang. During her early career as a model, her most prominent job was as the "Ivory Soap girl" on the Ivory Snow soap flake box, posing as a mother holding a baby under the tag line "99 & 44/100% pure".
Career
Behind the Green Door
Upon the release of The Owl and the Pussycat, Chambers was sent to Los Angeles and San Francisco on a promotional tour. After that, she did not receive any roles except for a low-budget film, writer-director-producer Sean S. Cunningham's Together (1971), in which she appeared nude. In 1970, she moved from Westport to San Francisco, where she held several jobs that included topless model and bottomless dancer. "I moved to San Francisco, thinking it was the entertainment capital of the world, which indeed, it is not," she said.
Chambers sought work in theater and dance groups in San Francisco to no avail. In 1972, she saw an advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle for a casting call for what was billed as a "major motion picture". She rushed to the audition only to find it was for a pornographic film, which was to be called Behind the Green Door. She was about to leave when producers Artie and Jim Mitchell noticed her resemblance to Cybill Shepherd. They invited her upstairs to their offices and told her the film's plot. Chambers was highly dubious about accepting a role in a pornographic film, fearing it might ruin her chances at breaking into the mainstream. But she was turned on by the fantasy of the story and decided to take a chance, under the condition that she receive a hefty salary and 10 percent of the film's gross. She also insisted that each actor get tested for venereal disease. The Mitchell Brothers balked at her request for a percentage of the film's profits, but finally agreed, realizing the film needed a wholesome blonde actress.
The film told the story of a wealthy San Francisco socialite, Gloria Saunders (Chambers), who is taken against her will to an elite North Beach sex club and loved as she's never been loved before. Unusually, Chambers does not have a single word of dialogue in the entire film. After engaging in lesbian sex with a group of six women, she then has sex with actor Johnnie Keyes. This possibly makes Behind the Green Door the first U.S. feature-length hardcore film to include an interracial sex scene. The porn industry and viewing public were shocked by the then-taboo spectacle of a white woman having sex with a black man. The scene with Keyes is followed by Chambers mounting a trapeze contraption suspended from the ceiling. She then engages in vaginal intercourse with one man as she performs oral sex on another and masturbates two others.
"Each sequence was a surprise to me", she said in 1987. "They never told me what was happening next. I just did it as it happened, and it worked. I've always been highly sexed. Oh, my God, I love it! Insatiable is the right word for me".
After filming concluded, she informed the Mitchell Brothers that she was "the Ivory Snow Girl"; the Mitchells capitalized on this by billing her as the "99 and 44/100% impure" girl. Although she said at the time the film would help "sell a lot more soap", Procter & Gamble quickly dropped her after discovering her double life as an adult-film actress, and the advertising industry was scandalized. The fact that Chambers's image was so well known from Ivory Snow boosted the film's ticket sales, and led to several jokes on television talk shows. Nearly every adult film she made following this incident featured a cameo of her Ivory Snow box.
Chambers was relatively unknown prior to Behind the Green Door; however, the film made her a star. Green Door, along with Deep Throat, released the same year, and The Devil in Miss Jones, ushered in what is commonly known as the porno chic era. Critics have since debated whether she was really having orgasms in her scenes or just acting.
Resurrection of Eve and Inside Marilyn Chambers
Following Behind the Green Door, the Mitchell Brothers and Chambers teamed up for Resurrection of Eve, released in September 1973. Although not the runaway blockbuster that Green Door was, Eve was a hit and a well-received entry into the porno chic market. It also helped set Chambers apart from her contemporaries Linda Lovelace and Georgina Spelvin as the wholesome, all-American girl next door. Following Eve, Chambers was anxious to transition her fame into other areas of entertainment. At the time, the Mitchell Brothers were still her managers. "They were always talking about some half-assed idea I knew wouldn't come off", Chambers said in 1992. Flakes' is a terrible word but they were, in a cute sort of way". Chambers had always considered the brothers as her own brothers but when she abruptly announced that she was leaving them to take up with Chuck Traynor, they were appalled and had a falling out with Chambers.
In retaliation, the brothers created a documentary in 1976 called Inside Marilyn Chambers, which was composed of alternate shots and outtakes from Green Door and Eve, as well as interviews with some of her co-stars. This was done without Chambers's knowledge or approval but when she learned of it just prior to its release, she negotiated a deal that would offer her 10% of the gross as long as she would contribute interviews to the film and promote it nationally. "I hated the film and I still do", she said later. "It's supposed to be the story of my life, and it's not true. Jim and Art ripped me off. They felt I'd betrayed them... I felt they'd betrayed me, and for many years, we didn't speak. Only when money was to be made did we start talking again." Chambers reunited with the Mitchell Brothers in 1979 for two 30-minute features called Beyond de Sade and Never a Tender Moment, which explored BDSM. The films, which were shot at the Mitchell Brothers Theatre, co-starred Erica Boyer.
Mainstream crossover
Hollywood
Chambers dreamed of having a career in mainstream films and believed her celebrity as the star of Behind the Green Door and the Ivory Snow girl would be a stepping stone to other endeavors. "The paradox was that, as a result of Green Door, Hollywood blackballed me," she said later. "[Green Door] became a very high-grossing film ... But, to a lot of people, it was still a dirty movie; for me to do anything else, as an actress, was totally out of the question. I became known as a porno star, and that type of labeling really hurt me. It hurt my chances of doing anything else".
Throughout the 1970s, she was up for roles in several Hollywood films. Her biggest opportunity came in 1976 when it was announced in Variety that she was to star alongside Rip Torn in City Blues, a film about a young hooker defended by a seedy lawyer. The film was to be directed by Nicholas Ray. Ray had never seen Behind the Green Door or even screen-tested Chambers. Instead, the two met and Ray was impressed. "I have a camera in my head," he said, adding that Chambers would "eventually be able to handle anything that the young Katie Hepburn or Bette Davis could." However, the project never came to fruition, in large part due to Ray's alcohol and drug abuse. Ray died in 1979.
Chambers claimed that Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel brought her in to talk about a role in the 1978 film Goin' South, then asked her for cocaine and grilled her about whether her orgasms in Behind the Green Door were real; she was angered to the point where she stormed out of the interview. She was going to be cast in the film Hardcore, opposite George C. Scott, but the casting director took one look at her and said she was too wholesome to be cast as a porn queen. "The Hardcore people wanted a woman with orange hair who chews gum, swings a big purse, and wears stiletto heels. That's such a cliche," Chambers said years later. Season Hubley was cast instead.
Rabid
Chambers won the starring role in film director David Cronenberg's low-budget Canadian movie, Rabid, which was released in 1977. Cronenberg stated that he wanted to cast Sissy Spacek in the film lead, but the studio vetoed his choice because of her accent. The director says that the idea of casting Chambers came from producer Ivan Reitman, who had heard that Chambers was looking for a mainstream role. Reitman felt that it would be easier to market the film in different territories if the well-known porn star portrayed the main character. Cronenberg stated that Chambers put in a lot of hard work on the film and that he was impressed with her. Cronenberg further states he had not seen Behind the Green Door prior to casting her.
"It was great working with David", Chambers said in a 1997 interview. "He taught me a lot of things that were very valuable as an actress, especially in horror films. I found it useful in sex films, too!"
Theater work
In 1974, she starred in the dinner theater production of The Mind With the Dirty Man in Las Vegas and received favorable reviews for her work. The play ran for 52 weeks which, at the time, was the longest-running play in Vegas history, and the mayor gave Chambers the key to the city. In 1976, she starred in a short-lived musical revue off-Broadway called Le Bellybutton. In 1977, she starred in Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers in Vegas. The one-woman show Sex Surrogate, in 1979, caused controversy in Las Vegas as it featured full-frontal nudity, which was banned from all major hotel casino showrooms. In 1983, the play was spun off into a 26-part syndicated soap opera called Love Ya, Florence Nightingale. It was broadcast on cable television channels such as the Playboy Channel.
Singing career
Chambers had some chart success with the disco single "Benihana" in 1976, produced by Michael Zager on the Roulette Records label. Billboard magazine said, "She... sings quite nicely in a sexy little voice in this catchy disco tribute to an oriental lover man." The song is played in the background of one scene in the film Rabid. In Insatiable, she sang the theme song, "Shame On You," which plays over the opening credits. She did the same for the song, "Still Insatiable", which was used in her comeback in the 1999 adult film of the same name. She also sang vocals in the 1983 X-rated film, Up 'n' Coming, in which she plays a rising country music star. In the early 1980s, she was the lead singer of a country and western band called Haywire.
Published works
Chambers wrote an autobiography, My Story, in 1975, and co-authored Xaviera Meets Marilyn Chambers with Xaviera Hollander in 1977. Both were published by Warner Communications. She also wrote a sex advice column in the mid-to-late 1970's for Genesis magazine called "Private Chambers", and one for Club magazine throughout the 1980s called "State of the Nation". In 1981, she released a book of sex positions and tips called Sensual Secrets. One of the male models featured in the photos with Marilyn was a young Ron Jeremy. The same year, she released another sex manual called The Illustrated Kama Sutra.
Insatiable and return to porn
Although she had tried for several years to shed her image as a porn star, Chambers returned to the adult film industry with 1980's Insatiable. In the film, she played actress, model, and heiress Sandra Chase, whose appetite for sex is, as the title suggests, insatiable. Sandra is getting ready to make a movie and her manager, played by Jessie St. James, is working on getting some big names to appear alongside Sandra. The story is told in a series of flashbacks which detail Sandra's sexual encounters.
"My manager had never really wanted me to do X-rated film[s]," she said in 1997. "He tried to move me out of that, but—seeing as things didn't go that way, and I wasn't getting any legitimate projects—it was something that we needed to do. I was known in the X-rated business, and it was the right time. It was a cool story and the budget was going to be a lot higher; there were going to be helicopters and Ferraris. It was going to be very classy. There were some names in it that would be good for the box office, [including John Holmes] and that was at a time when X-films were still playing in theaters."
The bet paid off. Insatiable was the top-selling adult video in the U.S. from 1980 to 1982 and it was inducted in the XRCO Hall of Fame. It was followed by a sequel, Insatiable II in 1984. Another X-rated film, Up 'n' Coming, was released in 1983. She also released six direct-to-video features in the early 1980s called Marilyn Chambers' Private Fantasies, in which she acted out her own sexual fantasies alongside some of the biggest names in the industry. The scenarios and dialogue for the series were written by Chambers. Despite her return to the adult-film world, Chambers dreamed of launching a successful mainstream acting career, but was unable to do so.
Chambers left the pornography business because of the increasing fear of AIDS. In 1999, Chambers returned to San Francisco to perform at the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre. Mayor Willie Brown proclaimed a "Marilyn Chambers Day" for her unique place in San Francisco history, and praised her for her "artistic presence", her "vision", and her "energy". That same year Chambers returned to adult features with a trio of films made for VCA Pictures called Still Insatiable (1999), Dark Chambers (2000), and Edge Play (2000), each directed by Veronica Hart.
Near the end of her career, Chambers appeared primarily in independent films, including her last role in Solitaire. Chambers claimed that the more laid-back pace of these roles suited her as "there's a lot less pressure on you to perform [and] you don't have to be young and skinny". Among these were Bikini Bistro, Angel of H.E.A.T. (with Mary Woronov), Party Incorporated, and Breakfast in Bed.
In a 2004 interview, Chambers said, "My advice to somebody who wants to go into adult films is: absolutely not! It's heart-breaking. It leaves you kind of empty. So have a day job and don't quit it".
1985 arrests
On February 1, 1985, while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, Chambers was arrested by a vice squad and charged with committing a lewd act in a public place and soliciting prostitution. It was alleged by plainclothes policemen who were in the audience that Chambers allowed audience members to touch her with their hands and mouths during her show called "Feel the Magic". She was released on $2,000 bail and the charges were later dropped. "I've never been arrested in my life for anything, ever, so this is kind of a big shock to me, not only as a performer but as a human being", Chambers said at the time. "It's a heartbreaker. This is supposed to be a hip city. I really love—make that LOVED—this city. These people have been my fans for years, and it's a thrill for them to touch me up close. There's nothing illegal if I'm not taking money."
Chambers' attorney claimed that Chambers was used "as a pawn in a struggle over control of adult businesses." Chambers' arrest came three days before the Board of Supervisors were to vote on a proposed ordinance to eliminate police permits for adult bookstores and theaters. In the wake of her arrest, the Board stripped police of their power to license the city's adult theaters. "The O'Farrell was packed the day after we were arrested," Chambers said later. "And they put the mayor's phone number up on the marquee—'Call Mayor Dianne Feinstein'... I'm in jail with my fur coat and nothing else on, and [the police officers] want to take pictures. I took a mug shot with every cop in the place, and they're going, 'I'm really sorry we had to do this.' And the next night they were all back enjoying the show".
Later that year on December 13, 1985, she was arrested during a performance at Stage Door Johnny's, a strip club in Cleveland. Police said she was nude except for her shoes and was having sexual contact with an audience member. She was charged with promoting prostitution and was held in jail until she was freed on a $1,000 bond. Chambers denied the charge, saying, "I did the same show I've been doing for the last six years. Police just happened to be in the audience."
In November 2012, the mugshots from Chambers's Cleveland arrest sold on eBay for $202.50.
Efforts in politics
In the 2004 United States presidential election, Chambers ran for vice president on the Personal Choice Party ticket, a libertarian political party. She received a total of 946 votes. In the 2008 United States presidential election, she was again Charles Jay's running mate, this time as an alternate write-in candidate to his primary national Boston Tea Party running mate Thomas L. Knapp in the states of Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.
Personal life
Chambers was married three times. Her first marriage was to Doug Chapin, whom she met while he was playing bagpipes for money on the streets of San Francisco. They married in 1971. She divorced Chapin in 1974 and married Chuck Traynor, who was recently divorced from Linda Lovelace. He also became her manager and they were together for 10 years.
In the mid-1980's, Chambers was "on her way to an early grave, consuming massive amounts of alcohol and cocaine daily when she met her husband-to-be", William Taylor Jr., a truck driver, on a blind date. After their first date, he called her to say that he could not see her because he was a recovering heroin addict. Chambers got so angry that she kicked a wall and broke her leg. Taylor came to visit Chambers in the hospital, and upon her release, they began a romance and Chambers entered Narcotics Anonymous. The couple married around 1991 or 1992 and had one child, McKenna Marie Taylor, in 1992 before divorcing in 1994. When Chambers became clean and sober during the early 1990s, her Lexus had a vanity plate that read "LUV NA".
Death
On April 12, 2009, Chambers was found dead in her home near Santa Clarita, California. Documents found with her body identified her as Marilyn Ann Taylor. She was discovered by her 17-year-old daughter. The LA County Coroner's autopsy revealed Chambers died of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm related to heart disease. Chambers was ten days short of her 57th birthday. The painkiller hydrocodone and the antidepressant citalopram were found in her system, but not enough to cause death. The Associated Press reported she was survived by her daughter, sister and brother. Her ashes were scattered at sea.
Fictional portrayal
In 2000, Tracy Hutson played Chambers in the cable television biographical film Rated X, about the Mitchell brothers' film and Chambers's strip-club career.
Partial filmography
The Owl and the Pussycat (1970 - credited as Evelyn Lang)
Together (1971) (credited as Marilyn Briggs)
Behind the Green Door (1972)
Resurrection of Eve (1973)
Inside Marilyn Chambers (1976)
Rabid (1977)
Insatiable (1980)
Electric Blue - The Movie (1982)
My Therapist (1982)
Angel of H.E.A.T. (1983)
Up 'n' Coming (1983)
Insatiable II (1984)
Still Insatiable (1999)
Dark Chambers (2000)
Edge Play (2000)
Stash (2007)
Solitaire (2008)
Porndogs: The Adventures of Sadie (2009)
Awards
AVN Hall of Fame
XRCO Hall of Fame
1985 XRCO Award – Best Kinky Scene -Insatiable II (with Jamie Gillis)
1992 Adult Film Association of America – Lifetime Achievement Award
2005 FOXE Award – Lifetime Achievement
2008 XBIZ Award – Lifetime Achievement for a Female Performer
See also
Golden Age of Porn
References
External links
1952 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
American actor-politicians
American dance musicians
American pornographic film actresses
American libertarians
Neurological disease deaths in California
Deaths from aortic aneurysm
Deaths by intracerebral hemorrhage
Female candidates for Vice President of the United States
Actors from Providence, Rhode Island
Actresses from Santa Clarita, California
People from Westport, Connecticut
Personal Choice Party politicians
Pornographic film actors from Connecticut
Pornographic film actors from Rhode Island
2004 United States vice-presidential candidates
21st-century American politicians
20th-century American musicians
21st-century American women politicians
Staples High School alumni | false | [
"Merilyn is a feminine given name.\n\nList of people with the given name \n Merilyn Gómez Pozos (born 1981), Mexican politician\n Merilyn Phillips (born 1957), Caymanian former cyclist\n Merilyn Simonds (born 1949), Canadian writer\n Merilyn Wiseman (1941– 2019), New Zealand potter\n\nList of people with the middle name \n Jean Merilyn Simmons (1929–2010), British actress and singer\n\nSee also \n Marilyn (given name)\n Merrilyn\n Merlin\n\nFeminine given names\nEnglish feminine given names\nSpanish feminine given names",
"Merrilyn is a feminine given name. It is similar to Merilyn and Marilyn.\n\nList of people with the name \n\n Merrilyn Gann (born 1963), Canadian actress\n Merrilyn Goos, Australian mathematician\n Merrilyn Rose (born 1955), Australian politician\n Anne Merrilyn Tolley (born 1953), New Zealand politician\n\nFeminine given names\nEnglish feminine given names"
]
|
[
"Marilyn Chambers",
"1985 arrests",
"What type of films was Chambers known for?",
"while performing her nude act at the \"Cine-Stage\" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco,",
"With who did she stared?",
"I don't know.",
"With what director did Merilyn Chambers work?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_c1f55a4bf3794354a85d1cde15f0bc8b_0 | Did she ever get in trouble for her movies? | 4 | Did Marilyn Chambers ever get in trouble for her nude movies? | Marilyn Chambers | On February 1, 1985, while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, Chambers was arrested by a vice squad and charged with committing a lewd act in a public place and soliciting prostitution. It was alleged by plainclothes policemen who were in the audience that Chambers allowed audience members to touch her with their hands and mouths during her show called "Feel the Magic". She was released on $2,000 bail and the charges were later dropped. "I've never been arrested in my life for anything, ever, so this is kind of a big shock for me, not only as a performer but as a human being", Chambers said at the time. "It's a heartbreaker. This is supposed to be a hip city. I really love -- make that LOVED -- this city. These people have been my fans for years, and it's a thrill for them to touch me up close. There's nothing illegal if I'm not taking money." Chambers' attorney claimed that Chambers was used "as a pawn in a struggle over control and adult businesses." Chambers' arrest came three days before the Board of Supervisors were to vote on a proposed ordinance to eliminate police permits for adult bookstores and theaters. In the wake of her arrest, the Board stripped police of their power to license the city's adult theaters. "The O'Farrell was packed the day after we were arrested," Chambers said later. "And they put the mayor's phone number up on the marquee -- 'Call Mayor Dianne Feinstein'...I'm in jail with my fur coat and nothing else on, and [the police officers] want to take pictures. I took a mug shot with every cop in the place, and they're going, 'I'm really sorry we had to do this.' And the next night they were all back enjoying the show". Later that year on December 13 she was arrested during a performance at Stage Door Johnny's, a strip club in Cleveland. Police said she was nude except for her shoes and was having sexual contact with an audience member. She was charged with promoting prostitution and was held in jail until she was freed on a $1,000 bond. Chambers denied the charge, saying, "I did the same show I've been doing for the last six years. Police just happened to be in the audience." In November 2012 the mugshots from Chambers' Cleveland arrest sold on eBay for $202.50. CANNOTANSWER | On February 1, 1985, while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, Chambers was arrested by a vice squad | Marilyn Ann Taylor (née Briggs; April 22, 1952 – April 12, 2009), known professionally as Marilyn Chambers, was an American pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, actress and vice-presidential candidate. She was known for her 1972 hardcore film debut, Behind the Green Door, and her 1980 pornographic film Insatiable. She ranked at No. 6 on the list of Top 50 Porn Stars of All Time by AVN, and ranked as one of Playboy's Top 100 Sex Stars of the Century in 1999. Although she was primarily known for her adult film work, she made a successful transition to mainstream projects and has been called "porn's most famous crossover".
Early life
Born Marilyn Ann Briggs in Providence, Rhode Island, Chambers was raised in Westport, Connecticut, in a middle-class household. It is often reported that she was born in Westport; however, in a 2007 interview, Chambers confirmed she was born in Providence but grew up in Westport. Her father was in advertising and her mother was a nurse. She was the youngest of three children, a brother, Bill Briggs (keyboardist for 1960s Boston band The Remains), and a sister, Jann Smith. Chambers attended Burr Farms Elementary School, Hillspoint Elementary School, Long Lots Junior High School, and Staples High School. Her father tried to discourage her from pursuing a modeling career, citing brutal competition. "Ever since I was a little kid, I've always wanted to be an actress," Chambers said in 1997. "I was always a performer, a junior Olympic diver, a junior Olympic gymnast. My mother always told me I was a show-off".
"When I was about 16, I learned how to write my mother’s name on notes to get out of school", she said. "And then I'd take the train into the city to go to auditions". While in high school, she landed some modeling assignments and a small role in the film The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), in which Chambers was credited as Evelyn Lang. During her early career as a model, her most prominent job was as the "Ivory Soap girl" on the Ivory Snow soap flake box, posing as a mother holding a baby under the tag line "99 & 44/100% pure".
Career
Behind the Green Door
Upon the release of The Owl and the Pussycat, Chambers was sent to Los Angeles and San Francisco on a promotional tour. After that, she did not receive any roles except for a low-budget film, writer-director-producer Sean S. Cunningham's Together (1971), in which she appeared nude. In 1970, she moved from Westport to San Francisco, where she held several jobs that included topless model and bottomless dancer. "I moved to San Francisco, thinking it was the entertainment capital of the world, which indeed, it is not," she said.
Chambers sought work in theater and dance groups in San Francisco to no avail. In 1972, she saw an advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle for a casting call for what was billed as a "major motion picture". She rushed to the audition only to find it was for a pornographic film, which was to be called Behind the Green Door. She was about to leave when producers Artie and Jim Mitchell noticed her resemblance to Cybill Shepherd. They invited her upstairs to their offices and told her the film's plot. Chambers was highly dubious about accepting a role in a pornographic film, fearing it might ruin her chances at breaking into the mainstream. But she was turned on by the fantasy of the story and decided to take a chance, under the condition that she receive a hefty salary and 10 percent of the film's gross. She also insisted that each actor get tested for venereal disease. The Mitchell Brothers balked at her request for a percentage of the film's profits, but finally agreed, realizing the film needed a wholesome blonde actress.
The film told the story of a wealthy San Francisco socialite, Gloria Saunders (Chambers), who is taken against her will to an elite North Beach sex club and loved as she's never been loved before. Unusually, Chambers does not have a single word of dialogue in the entire film. After engaging in lesbian sex with a group of six women, she then has sex with actor Johnnie Keyes. This possibly makes Behind the Green Door the first U.S. feature-length hardcore film to include an interracial sex scene. The porn industry and viewing public were shocked by the then-taboo spectacle of a white woman having sex with a black man. The scene with Keyes is followed by Chambers mounting a trapeze contraption suspended from the ceiling. She then engages in vaginal intercourse with one man as she performs oral sex on another and masturbates two others.
"Each sequence was a surprise to me", she said in 1987. "They never told me what was happening next. I just did it as it happened, and it worked. I've always been highly sexed. Oh, my God, I love it! Insatiable is the right word for me".
After filming concluded, she informed the Mitchell Brothers that she was "the Ivory Snow Girl"; the Mitchells capitalized on this by billing her as the "99 and 44/100% impure" girl. Although she said at the time the film would help "sell a lot more soap", Procter & Gamble quickly dropped her after discovering her double life as an adult-film actress, and the advertising industry was scandalized. The fact that Chambers's image was so well known from Ivory Snow boosted the film's ticket sales, and led to several jokes on television talk shows. Nearly every adult film she made following this incident featured a cameo of her Ivory Snow box.
Chambers was relatively unknown prior to Behind the Green Door; however, the film made her a star. Green Door, along with Deep Throat, released the same year, and The Devil in Miss Jones, ushered in what is commonly known as the porno chic era. Critics have since debated whether she was really having orgasms in her scenes or just acting.
Resurrection of Eve and Inside Marilyn Chambers
Following Behind the Green Door, the Mitchell Brothers and Chambers teamed up for Resurrection of Eve, released in September 1973. Although not the runaway blockbuster that Green Door was, Eve was a hit and a well-received entry into the porno chic market. It also helped set Chambers apart from her contemporaries Linda Lovelace and Georgina Spelvin as the wholesome, all-American girl next door. Following Eve, Chambers was anxious to transition her fame into other areas of entertainment. At the time, the Mitchell Brothers were still her managers. "They were always talking about some half-assed idea I knew wouldn't come off", Chambers said in 1992. Flakes' is a terrible word but they were, in a cute sort of way". Chambers had always considered the brothers as her own brothers but when she abruptly announced that she was leaving them to take up with Chuck Traynor, they were appalled and had a falling out with Chambers.
In retaliation, the brothers created a documentary in 1976 called Inside Marilyn Chambers, which was composed of alternate shots and outtakes from Green Door and Eve, as well as interviews with some of her co-stars. This was done without Chambers's knowledge or approval but when she learned of it just prior to its release, she negotiated a deal that would offer her 10% of the gross as long as she would contribute interviews to the film and promote it nationally. "I hated the film and I still do", she said later. "It's supposed to be the story of my life, and it's not true. Jim and Art ripped me off. They felt I'd betrayed them... I felt they'd betrayed me, and for many years, we didn't speak. Only when money was to be made did we start talking again." Chambers reunited with the Mitchell Brothers in 1979 for two 30-minute features called Beyond de Sade and Never a Tender Moment, which explored BDSM. The films, which were shot at the Mitchell Brothers Theatre, co-starred Erica Boyer.
Mainstream crossover
Hollywood
Chambers dreamed of having a career in mainstream films and believed her celebrity as the star of Behind the Green Door and the Ivory Snow girl would be a stepping stone to other endeavors. "The paradox was that, as a result of Green Door, Hollywood blackballed me," she said later. "[Green Door] became a very high-grossing film ... But, to a lot of people, it was still a dirty movie; for me to do anything else, as an actress, was totally out of the question. I became known as a porno star, and that type of labeling really hurt me. It hurt my chances of doing anything else".
Throughout the 1970s, she was up for roles in several Hollywood films. Her biggest opportunity came in 1976 when it was announced in Variety that she was to star alongside Rip Torn in City Blues, a film about a young hooker defended by a seedy lawyer. The film was to be directed by Nicholas Ray. Ray had never seen Behind the Green Door or even screen-tested Chambers. Instead, the two met and Ray was impressed. "I have a camera in my head," he said, adding that Chambers would "eventually be able to handle anything that the young Katie Hepburn or Bette Davis could." However, the project never came to fruition, in large part due to Ray's alcohol and drug abuse. Ray died in 1979.
Chambers claimed that Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel brought her in to talk about a role in the 1978 film Goin' South, then asked her for cocaine and grilled her about whether her orgasms in Behind the Green Door were real; she was angered to the point where she stormed out of the interview. She was going to be cast in the film Hardcore, opposite George C. Scott, but the casting director took one look at her and said she was too wholesome to be cast as a porn queen. "The Hardcore people wanted a woman with orange hair who chews gum, swings a big purse, and wears stiletto heels. That's such a cliche," Chambers said years later. Season Hubley was cast instead.
Rabid
Chambers won the starring role in film director David Cronenberg's low-budget Canadian movie, Rabid, which was released in 1977. Cronenberg stated that he wanted to cast Sissy Spacek in the film lead, but the studio vetoed his choice because of her accent. The director says that the idea of casting Chambers came from producer Ivan Reitman, who had heard that Chambers was looking for a mainstream role. Reitman felt that it would be easier to market the film in different territories if the well-known porn star portrayed the main character. Cronenberg stated that Chambers put in a lot of hard work on the film and that he was impressed with her. Cronenberg further states he had not seen Behind the Green Door prior to casting her.
"It was great working with David", Chambers said in a 1997 interview. "He taught me a lot of things that were very valuable as an actress, especially in horror films. I found it useful in sex films, too!"
Theater work
In 1974, she starred in the dinner theater production of The Mind With the Dirty Man in Las Vegas and received favorable reviews for her work. The play ran for 52 weeks which, at the time, was the longest-running play in Vegas history, and the mayor gave Chambers the key to the city. In 1976, she starred in a short-lived musical revue off-Broadway called Le Bellybutton. In 1977, she starred in Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers in Vegas. The one-woman show Sex Surrogate, in 1979, caused controversy in Las Vegas as it featured full-frontal nudity, which was banned from all major hotel casino showrooms. In 1983, the play was spun off into a 26-part syndicated soap opera called Love Ya, Florence Nightingale. It was broadcast on cable television channels such as the Playboy Channel.
Singing career
Chambers had some chart success with the disco single "Benihana" in 1976, produced by Michael Zager on the Roulette Records label. Billboard magazine said, "She... sings quite nicely in a sexy little voice in this catchy disco tribute to an oriental lover man." The song is played in the background of one scene in the film Rabid. In Insatiable, she sang the theme song, "Shame On You," which plays over the opening credits. She did the same for the song, "Still Insatiable", which was used in her comeback in the 1999 adult film of the same name. She also sang vocals in the 1983 X-rated film, Up 'n' Coming, in which she plays a rising country music star. In the early 1980s, she was the lead singer of a country and western band called Haywire.
Published works
Chambers wrote an autobiography, My Story, in 1975, and co-authored Xaviera Meets Marilyn Chambers with Xaviera Hollander in 1977. Both were published by Warner Communications. She also wrote a sex advice column in the mid-to-late 1970's for Genesis magazine called "Private Chambers", and one for Club magazine throughout the 1980s called "State of the Nation". In 1981, she released a book of sex positions and tips called Sensual Secrets. One of the male models featured in the photos with Marilyn was a young Ron Jeremy. The same year, she released another sex manual called The Illustrated Kama Sutra.
Insatiable and return to porn
Although she had tried for several years to shed her image as a porn star, Chambers returned to the adult film industry with 1980's Insatiable. In the film, she played actress, model, and heiress Sandra Chase, whose appetite for sex is, as the title suggests, insatiable. Sandra is getting ready to make a movie and her manager, played by Jessie St. James, is working on getting some big names to appear alongside Sandra. The story is told in a series of flashbacks which detail Sandra's sexual encounters.
"My manager had never really wanted me to do X-rated film[s]," she said in 1997. "He tried to move me out of that, but—seeing as things didn't go that way, and I wasn't getting any legitimate projects—it was something that we needed to do. I was known in the X-rated business, and it was the right time. It was a cool story and the budget was going to be a lot higher; there were going to be helicopters and Ferraris. It was going to be very classy. There were some names in it that would be good for the box office, [including John Holmes] and that was at a time when X-films were still playing in theaters."
The bet paid off. Insatiable was the top-selling adult video in the U.S. from 1980 to 1982 and it was inducted in the XRCO Hall of Fame. It was followed by a sequel, Insatiable II in 1984. Another X-rated film, Up 'n' Coming, was released in 1983. She also released six direct-to-video features in the early 1980s called Marilyn Chambers' Private Fantasies, in which she acted out her own sexual fantasies alongside some of the biggest names in the industry. The scenarios and dialogue for the series were written by Chambers. Despite her return to the adult-film world, Chambers dreamed of launching a successful mainstream acting career, but was unable to do so.
Chambers left the pornography business because of the increasing fear of AIDS. In 1999, Chambers returned to San Francisco to perform at the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre. Mayor Willie Brown proclaimed a "Marilyn Chambers Day" for her unique place in San Francisco history, and praised her for her "artistic presence", her "vision", and her "energy". That same year Chambers returned to adult features with a trio of films made for VCA Pictures called Still Insatiable (1999), Dark Chambers (2000), and Edge Play (2000), each directed by Veronica Hart.
Near the end of her career, Chambers appeared primarily in independent films, including her last role in Solitaire. Chambers claimed that the more laid-back pace of these roles suited her as "there's a lot less pressure on you to perform [and] you don't have to be young and skinny". Among these were Bikini Bistro, Angel of H.E.A.T. (with Mary Woronov), Party Incorporated, and Breakfast in Bed.
In a 2004 interview, Chambers said, "My advice to somebody who wants to go into adult films is: absolutely not! It's heart-breaking. It leaves you kind of empty. So have a day job and don't quit it".
1985 arrests
On February 1, 1985, while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, Chambers was arrested by a vice squad and charged with committing a lewd act in a public place and soliciting prostitution. It was alleged by plainclothes policemen who were in the audience that Chambers allowed audience members to touch her with their hands and mouths during her show called "Feel the Magic". She was released on $2,000 bail and the charges were later dropped. "I've never been arrested in my life for anything, ever, so this is kind of a big shock to me, not only as a performer but as a human being", Chambers said at the time. "It's a heartbreaker. This is supposed to be a hip city. I really love—make that LOVED—this city. These people have been my fans for years, and it's a thrill for them to touch me up close. There's nothing illegal if I'm not taking money."
Chambers' attorney claimed that Chambers was used "as a pawn in a struggle over control of adult businesses." Chambers' arrest came three days before the Board of Supervisors were to vote on a proposed ordinance to eliminate police permits for adult bookstores and theaters. In the wake of her arrest, the Board stripped police of their power to license the city's adult theaters. "The O'Farrell was packed the day after we were arrested," Chambers said later. "And they put the mayor's phone number up on the marquee—'Call Mayor Dianne Feinstein'... I'm in jail with my fur coat and nothing else on, and [the police officers] want to take pictures. I took a mug shot with every cop in the place, and they're going, 'I'm really sorry we had to do this.' And the next night they were all back enjoying the show".
Later that year on December 13, 1985, she was arrested during a performance at Stage Door Johnny's, a strip club in Cleveland. Police said she was nude except for her shoes and was having sexual contact with an audience member. She was charged with promoting prostitution and was held in jail until she was freed on a $1,000 bond. Chambers denied the charge, saying, "I did the same show I've been doing for the last six years. Police just happened to be in the audience."
In November 2012, the mugshots from Chambers's Cleveland arrest sold on eBay for $202.50.
Efforts in politics
In the 2004 United States presidential election, Chambers ran for vice president on the Personal Choice Party ticket, a libertarian political party. She received a total of 946 votes. In the 2008 United States presidential election, she was again Charles Jay's running mate, this time as an alternate write-in candidate to his primary national Boston Tea Party running mate Thomas L. Knapp in the states of Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.
Personal life
Chambers was married three times. Her first marriage was to Doug Chapin, whom she met while he was playing bagpipes for money on the streets of San Francisco. They married in 1971. She divorced Chapin in 1974 and married Chuck Traynor, who was recently divorced from Linda Lovelace. He also became her manager and they were together for 10 years.
In the mid-1980's, Chambers was "on her way to an early grave, consuming massive amounts of alcohol and cocaine daily when she met her husband-to-be", William Taylor Jr., a truck driver, on a blind date. After their first date, he called her to say that he could not see her because he was a recovering heroin addict. Chambers got so angry that she kicked a wall and broke her leg. Taylor came to visit Chambers in the hospital, and upon her release, they began a romance and Chambers entered Narcotics Anonymous. The couple married around 1991 or 1992 and had one child, McKenna Marie Taylor, in 1992 before divorcing in 1994. When Chambers became clean and sober during the early 1990s, her Lexus had a vanity plate that read "LUV NA".
Death
On April 12, 2009, Chambers was found dead in her home near Santa Clarita, California. Documents found with her body identified her as Marilyn Ann Taylor. She was discovered by her 17-year-old daughter. The LA County Coroner's autopsy revealed Chambers died of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm related to heart disease. Chambers was ten days short of her 57th birthday. The painkiller hydrocodone and the antidepressant citalopram were found in her system, but not enough to cause death. The Associated Press reported she was survived by her daughter, sister and brother. Her ashes were scattered at sea.
Fictional portrayal
In 2000, Tracy Hutson played Chambers in the cable television biographical film Rated X, about the Mitchell brothers' film and Chambers's strip-club career.
Partial filmography
The Owl and the Pussycat (1970 - credited as Evelyn Lang)
Together (1971) (credited as Marilyn Briggs)
Behind the Green Door (1972)
Resurrection of Eve (1973)
Inside Marilyn Chambers (1976)
Rabid (1977)
Insatiable (1980)
Electric Blue - The Movie (1982)
My Therapist (1982)
Angel of H.E.A.T. (1983)
Up 'n' Coming (1983)
Insatiable II (1984)
Still Insatiable (1999)
Dark Chambers (2000)
Edge Play (2000)
Stash (2007)
Solitaire (2008)
Porndogs: The Adventures of Sadie (2009)
Awards
AVN Hall of Fame
XRCO Hall of Fame
1985 XRCO Award – Best Kinky Scene -Insatiable II (with Jamie Gillis)
1992 Adult Film Association of America – Lifetime Achievement Award
2005 FOXE Award – Lifetime Achievement
2008 XBIZ Award – Lifetime Achievement for a Female Performer
See also
Golden Age of Porn
References
External links
1952 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
American actor-politicians
American dance musicians
American pornographic film actresses
American libertarians
Neurological disease deaths in California
Deaths from aortic aneurysm
Deaths by intracerebral hemorrhage
Female candidates for Vice President of the United States
Actors from Providence, Rhode Island
Actresses from Santa Clarita, California
People from Westport, Connecticut
Personal Choice Party politicians
Pornographic film actors from Connecticut
Pornographic film actors from Rhode Island
2004 United States vice-presidential candidates
21st-century American politicians
20th-century American musicians
21st-century American women politicians
Staples High School alumni | true | [
"Ashishma Nakarmi is a Nepalese actress, model and singer. She is runner-up of Miss South Asia Texas 2012 beauty pageant which was held in United States. She made her acting debut with Nepal Bhasa movie Nyalla Bya directed by Aryan Nakarmi, after the success of her first movie she got offer from director Deepa Basnet to do Nepali movie Antaraal in 2013.\n\nEarly life\nNakarmi was born in Balambhu, Kathmandu, Nepal. She hails from Newar community. Her father Mana Raj Nakarmi is famous tabala badak of Nepal. She did her school and higher education from Richmond Academy, for further study she went to USA for bachelor's degree in hospitality. She did acting course in USA from Dallas, Texas.\nInspired by her grandfather and father, who have been dedicated to the music field for a long time now, she learnt to play sitar at an early age of 13. Ever since, Ashishma has received classes, formal training and earned Junior Diploma in sitar. When at home, she often spends time watching Oscar nominated movies based on drama, romanticism and history. Moreover, while watching a good set of films she makes sure to learn and gain an insight on acting and film making. Launching her first album ‘Nanu’ when she was a kid, Ashishma loves tuning to classical music and sings as a chorus to her father's composition and recordings.\n\nCareer\nShe is best known for playing the role of Timila, in Nepal Bhasha movie Nyalla Bya. She did several Nepal Bhasa movie like \"Papu Madhu Ma Jhanga\", \"Taremam\", and Matina La Ana He Du. After the success of her movie she got chance to debut in Nepali movie Antaraal in 2013.\nHaving starred in more than a dozen of Newari movies, Ashishma Nakarmi had entered the Nepali film industry with her first movie ‘Antaraal’ in 2013. Ever since, her acting career has been progressing and bringing movies into her kitty.\nAshishma has played various roles in as many as 12 movies so far and is currently pursuing her master's degree in Rural Development.\n\nMovies\n\nAwards\n\nExternal links\nBhintuna Joshi\n\nReferences\n\nNepalese actresses\nNepalese female models\nLiving people\nNewar\nActors from Kathmandu\n21st-century Nepalese women singers\nNepalese expatriates in the United States\nNewar-language film actresses\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"Sruthy Sasidharan is an Indian playback singer and voice-over artist. She sings in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi and Hindi.\n\nPersonal life\n\nSruthy Sasidharan was born in Kozhikode, Kerala. She did her schooling in Calicut and in Malappuram. She received her initial classical training from Baburaj and later continued her training with Krishnakumar from Kerala. She did school education at NSS High school Manjeri and completed plus two at GBHSS Manjeri. She started performing in TV channels and radio at \na young age and participated in state and national level youth festival. She attended College of Engineering, Trivandrum and graduated her Computer Science Engineering in 2015. She is married to Deepak Sunil and is now settled in the U.S. She has a younger brother.\n\nCareer\nWhile pursuing her career in engineering she continued to perform in concerts. She later left her job to pursue her passion in music. She first started her career by singing for various ad films including Bhima Jewellers and giving backing vocals for back score for some movies. Sruthy stepped into the world of playback singing with the song \"Kiya kiva\" from the movie Akashamittayi (Malayalam). She continued her work in Malayalam movies with Mayillla Njan from Queen for Jakes Bejoy, \"Nenjil\" from the movie \"Ikkayude shakadam\" for Charles Nazerath. Her song \"Kadhale\" for Sushin Shyam from the movie \"Maradona\" topped the charts and brought her many award nominations and wider recognition. She then started to sing for other languages too. In Tamil, her song \"Nee en\", featuring Charu Hassan, for the movie \"Dhadha 87\", with the music director Leander Lee Marthy. She also sung in a couple of Kannada movies like \"Chanaksha\", and also in Marathi movies.\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\n1993 births\nLiving people"
]
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"Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford",
"Family and childhood"
]
| C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_1 | WHo are his parents? | 1 | Who are Edward de Vere's parents? | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford | De Vere was born heir to the second oldest earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, north-east of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding. He was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. De Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck and raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid PS10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately PS2,500, may have run as high as PS3,500 (PS1.08 million as of 2018). CANNOTANSWER | He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding. | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate.
Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child.
A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals.
He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates.
Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.
Family and childhood
Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559.
Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor.
His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ).
Wardship
While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events.
In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries.
Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570.
In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law.
On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence.
Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring.
In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court.
Coming of age
On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled.
Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000.
By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court.
Marriage
In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried.
In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace.
Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece.
In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain.
The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000.
In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour.
Foreign travel
Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship.
Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September.
Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "."
In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds.
On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him.
On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years.
In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year.
Quarrels, plots and scandals
Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more.
In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment.
In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen".
In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February.
Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters.
Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time.
Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless".
The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did."
Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave."
Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus.
On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth."
During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it.
On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July.
While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house".
Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton.
At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored.
Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet".
On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later.
After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.
Theatrical enterprises
The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602.
Royal annuity
On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music.
Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments.
In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety.
In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death.
Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age.
In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592.
In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him.
In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship.
In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes.
In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music.
Remarriage and later life
On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31.
On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir.
Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime.
Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing.
His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them.
Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.
From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly.
In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit.
In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health.
On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown.
In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy.
After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment.
Last years
In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession.
Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000.
Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time.
The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey:
The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England
Literary reputation
Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain.
Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman.
Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse".
May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable".
Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences".
Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship
The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s.
Notes
References
External links
De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site
Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner
Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham
Earls of Oxford
Lord Great Chamberlains
Edward
People of the Elizabethan era
Court of Elizabeth I
English dramatists and playwrights
17th-century English poets
17th-century male writers
1550 births
1604 deaths
16th-century English nobility
16th-century English poets
Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Patrons of literature
Theatre patrons
Lyric poets
English art patrons
People from Castle Hedingham
Prisoners in the Tower of London
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male poets
17th-century English nobility
Literary peers | false | [
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"Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford",
"Family and childhood",
"WHo are his parents?",
"He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding."
]
| C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_1 | did he have siblings? | 2 | Did Edward de Vere have siblings? | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford | De Vere was born heir to the second oldest earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, north-east of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding. He was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. De Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck and raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid PS10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately PS2,500, may have run as high as PS3,500 (PS1.08 million as of 2018). CANNOTANSWER | He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate.
Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child.
A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals.
He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates.
Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.
Family and childhood
Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559.
Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor.
His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ).
Wardship
While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events.
In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries.
Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570.
In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law.
On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence.
Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring.
In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court.
Coming of age
On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled.
Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000.
By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court.
Marriage
In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried.
In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace.
Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece.
In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain.
The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000.
In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour.
Foreign travel
Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship.
Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September.
Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "."
In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds.
On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him.
On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years.
In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year.
Quarrels, plots and scandals
Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more.
In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment.
In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen".
In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February.
Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters.
Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time.
Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless".
The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did."
Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave."
Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus.
On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth."
During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it.
On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July.
While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house".
Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton.
At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored.
Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet".
On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later.
After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.
Theatrical enterprises
The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602.
Royal annuity
On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music.
Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments.
In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety.
In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death.
Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age.
In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592.
In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him.
In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship.
In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes.
In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music.
Remarriage and later life
On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31.
On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir.
Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime.
Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing.
His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them.
Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.
From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly.
In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit.
In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health.
On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown.
In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy.
After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment.
Last years
In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession.
Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000.
Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time.
The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey:
The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England
Literary reputation
Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain.
Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman.
Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse".
May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable".
Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences".
Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship
The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s.
Notes
References
External links
De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site
Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner
Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham
Earls of Oxford
Lord Great Chamberlains
Edward
People of the Elizabethan era
Court of Elizabeth I
English dramatists and playwrights
17th-century English poets
17th-century male writers
1550 births
1604 deaths
16th-century English nobility
16th-century English poets
Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Patrons of literature
Theatre patrons
Lyric poets
English art patrons
People from Castle Hedingham
Prisoners in the Tower of London
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male poets
17th-century English nobility
Literary peers | true | [
"Kayin Maunghnama (; ) are two traditional Karen nats, named San Sae Phoe and Naw Mu Phan, who are believed to live in Mount Zwegabin, Hpa-An, Kayin State.\n\nLegend\nAccording to local legends, a Karen man Saw Phar Thant and his wife Naw Phaw Ya had two children named San Sae Phoe and Naw Mu Phan. After years of saving and honestly collecting all the hard-earned money, he needed to initiate his son into the Buddhist order and to make a big donation. While he was working in the farm, he died after being bitten by a tiger due to bad luck. After the death of Saw Phar Thant, Naw Phaw Ya was left a widow with two children. And then she remarried with Saw Phar Pug, a widower from the same village. At that time, two innocent siblings, San Sae Po and Naw Mu Phan, were full of fear and anxiety. Anxiety and pain overwhelmed them. The quiet little house was full of swearing and shouting. The two siblings burst into tears under the angry and violent insults of their stepfather. \n\nOne day, the stepfather took two siblings to the farm and pushed them down a steep cliff on the way to the farm and returned home alone. Two brothers and sisters fell from the mountain and prayed for Zwegabin Pagoda to be saved so they survived by lying on a bamboo tree under the cliff without dying. The two siblings returned to their mother in almost dawn and told her all about it. Their mother, Naw Phaw Ya was sad and cried. However, when it was not possible to bring the two children back home, she hid them in a forest cave on Mount Zwegabin to keep them safe. The two siblings did not dare go far from the forest cave that their mother left behind. Everywhere they looked in the forest was dark. It was a place they had never been to before, where they could only hear the sounds of wild animals. The younger sister did not know anything so the elder brother had to take care of her. One day morning two siblings made a campfire in the cold weather and a weizza-hermit came to them and greets two siblings. And then he was given three golden pills and forced to go down into the fire, transforming into a young man and a young woman. The two siblings gained the power of influence. They took care Pagoda as promised to hermit, Work diligently for the sake of the Dhamma and all those who believe in the Dhamma and all those who come to the Mount Zwegabin to pray the Pagoda that you will be took care of them, two siblings. \n\nThe Kayin Maunghnama shrine was built about 50 years ago by Sayadaw U Kay Tu of Naung Ein Saing at the foot of Mount Zwegabin. Zwegabin Sayadaw U Kawidaza was also a pilgrimage resort. The Lumbini Garden has also been remodeled to make it more memorable.\n\nReferences\n\nBurmese nats\nBurmese goddesses",
"(1548 – September 19, 1603) was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku through early Edo period. He is believed to have been the illegitimate son of Matsudaira Hirotada of Okazaki, and therefore the half-brother of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He known as Matsudaira Saburo Goro Iemoto.\n\nFamily\n Father: Matsudaira Hirotada\n Half-siblings:\n Tokugawa Ieyasu\n Naito Nobunari\n Matsudaira Tadamasa (1544-1591)\n Shooko Eike\n Matsudaira Chikayoshi\n Natural Siblings:\nIchibahime (d.1593) married Arakawa Yoshihiro\n Yadahime married Matsudaira Yasutada\n\n1548 births\n1603 deaths\nSamurai"
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"Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford",
"Family and childhood",
"WHo are his parents?",
"He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding.",
"did he have siblings?",
"He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere."
]
| C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 3 | Are there any other interesting aspects about Edward de Vere's life besides his family? | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford | De Vere was born heir to the second oldest earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, north-east of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding. He was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. De Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck and raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid PS10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately PS2,500, may have run as high as PS3,500 (PS1.08 million as of 2018). CANNOTANSWER | Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate.
Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child.
A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals.
He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates.
Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.
Family and childhood
Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559.
Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor.
His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ).
Wardship
While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events.
In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries.
Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570.
In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law.
On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence.
Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring.
In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court.
Coming of age
On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled.
Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000.
By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court.
Marriage
In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried.
In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace.
Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece.
In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain.
The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000.
In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour.
Foreign travel
Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship.
Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September.
Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "."
In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds.
On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him.
On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years.
In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year.
Quarrels, plots and scandals
Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more.
In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment.
In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen".
In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February.
Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters.
Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time.
Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless".
The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did."
Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave."
Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus.
On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth."
During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it.
On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July.
While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house".
Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton.
At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored.
Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet".
On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later.
After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.
Theatrical enterprises
The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602.
Royal annuity
On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music.
Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments.
In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety.
In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death.
Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age.
In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592.
In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him.
In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship.
In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes.
In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music.
Remarriage and later life
On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31.
On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir.
Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime.
Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing.
His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them.
Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.
From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly.
In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit.
In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health.
On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown.
In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy.
After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment.
Last years
In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession.
Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000.
Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time.
The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey:
The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England
Literary reputation
Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain.
Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman.
Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse".
May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable".
Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences".
Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship
The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s.
Notes
References
External links
De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site
Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner
Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham
Earls of Oxford
Lord Great Chamberlains
Edward
People of the Elizabethan era
Court of Elizabeth I
English dramatists and playwrights
17th-century English poets
17th-century male writers
1550 births
1604 deaths
16th-century English nobility
16th-century English poets
Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Patrons of literature
Theatre patrons
Lyric poets
English art patrons
People from Castle Hedingham
Prisoners in the Tower of London
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male poets
17th-century English nobility
Literary peers | 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"
]
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[
"Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford",
"Family and childhood",
"WHo are his parents?",
"He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding.",
"did he have siblings?",
"He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen"
]
| C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_1 | when did he marry? | 4 | When did Edward de Vere marry? | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford | De Vere was born heir to the second oldest earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, north-east of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding. He was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. De Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck and raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid PS10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately PS2,500, may have run as high as PS3,500 (PS1.08 million as of 2018). CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate.
Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child.
A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals.
He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates.
Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.
Family and childhood
Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559.
Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor.
His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ).
Wardship
While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events.
In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries.
Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570.
In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law.
On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence.
Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring.
In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court.
Coming of age
On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled.
Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000.
By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court.
Marriage
In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried.
In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace.
Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece.
In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain.
The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000.
In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour.
Foreign travel
Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship.
Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September.
Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "."
In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds.
On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him.
On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years.
In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year.
Quarrels, plots and scandals
Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more.
In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment.
In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen".
In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February.
Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters.
Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time.
Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless".
The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did."
Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave."
Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus.
On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth."
During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it.
On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July.
While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house".
Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton.
At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored.
Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet".
On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later.
After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.
Theatrical enterprises
The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602.
Royal annuity
On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music.
Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments.
In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety.
In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death.
Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age.
In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592.
In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him.
In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship.
In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes.
In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music.
Remarriage and later life
On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31.
On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir.
Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime.
Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing.
His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them.
Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.
From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly.
In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit.
In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health.
On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown.
In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy.
After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment.
Last years
In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession.
Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000.
Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time.
The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey:
The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England
Literary reputation
Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain.
Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman.
Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse".
May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable".
Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences".
Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship
The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s.
Notes
References
External links
De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site
Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner
Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham
Earls of Oxford
Lord Great Chamberlains
Edward
People of the Elizabethan era
Court of Elizabeth I
English dramatists and playwrights
17th-century English poets
17th-century male writers
1550 births
1604 deaths
16th-century English nobility
16th-century English poets
Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Patrons of literature
Theatre patrons
Lyric poets
English art patrons
People from Castle Hedingham
Prisoners in the Tower of London
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male poets
17th-century English nobility
Literary peers | false | [
"I Told You So is a 1970 Ghanaian movie. The movie portrays Ghanaians and their way of life in a satirical style. It also gives insight into the life of a young lady who did not take the advice of her father when about to marry a man, she did not know anything about the man she was going to marry, but rather took her mother's and uncle's advice because of the wealth and power the man has.\n\nThe young lady later finds out that the man she is supposed to marry was an armed robber. She was unhappy of the whole incident. When her dad ask what had happened, she replied that the man she was supposed to marry is an armed robber; her father ended by saying \"I told you so\".\n\nCast\nBobe Cole\nMargret Quainoo (Araba Stamp)\nKweku Crankson (Osuo Abrobor)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n I TOLD YOU SO GHANAIAN MOVIE\n\n1970 films\nGhanaian films",
"Marianus III (died 1321) was the sole Giudice of Arborea from 1308 to his death. He co-ruled with his elder brother Andrew from the death of their father, John of Arborea, in 1304. Their mother was Vera Cappai. They were illegitimate.\n\nIn 1312, he was constrained by the Republic of Pisa to buy his own right of succession from the Emperor Henry VII and to marry Constance of Montalcino by proxy. In 1314, he requested aid from the Crown of Aragon against the Pisans.\n\nHe restored roads and bridges, complete the walls of Oristano and her defensive towers, and constructed a new archiepiscopal palace.\n\nHe never did marry Constance, but he did cohabitate with Padulesa de Serra, who gave him six children, among whom was his successor, Hugh II.\n\n1321 deaths\nJudges (judikes) of Arborea\nYear of birth unknown"
]
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[
"Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford",
"Family and childhood",
"WHo are his parents?",
"He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding.",
"did he have siblings?",
"He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen",
"when did he marry?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_1 | Who is his wife? | 5 | Who is Edward de Vere's wife? | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford | De Vere was born heir to the second oldest earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, north-east of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding. He was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. De Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck and raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid PS10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately PS2,500, may have run as high as PS3,500 (PS1.08 million as of 2018). CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate.
Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child.
A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals.
He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates.
Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.
Family and childhood
Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559.
Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor.
His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ).
Wardship
While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events.
In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries.
Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570.
In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law.
On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence.
Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring.
In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court.
Coming of age
On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled.
Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000.
By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court.
Marriage
In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried.
In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace.
Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece.
In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain.
The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000.
In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour.
Foreign travel
Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship.
Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September.
Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "."
In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds.
On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him.
On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years.
In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year.
Quarrels, plots and scandals
Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more.
In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment.
In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen".
In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February.
Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters.
Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time.
Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless".
The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did."
Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave."
Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus.
On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth."
During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it.
On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July.
While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house".
Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton.
At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored.
Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet".
On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later.
After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.
Theatrical enterprises
The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602.
Royal annuity
On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music.
Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments.
In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety.
In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death.
Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age.
In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592.
In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him.
In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship.
In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes.
In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music.
Remarriage and later life
On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31.
On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir.
Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime.
Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing.
His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them.
Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.
From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly.
In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit.
In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health.
On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown.
In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy.
After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment.
Last years
In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession.
Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000.
Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time.
The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey:
The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England
Literary reputation
Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain.
Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman.
Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse".
May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable".
Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences".
Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship
The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s.
Notes
References
External links
De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site
Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner
Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham
Earls of Oxford
Lord Great Chamberlains
Edward
People of the Elizabethan era
Court of Elizabeth I
English dramatists and playwrights
17th-century English poets
17th-century male writers
1550 births
1604 deaths
16th-century English nobility
16th-century English poets
Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Patrons of literature
Theatre patrons
Lyric poets
English art patrons
People from Castle Hedingham
Prisoners in the Tower of London
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male poets
17th-century English nobility
Literary peers | false | [
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"Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford",
"Family and childhood",
"WHo are his parents?",
"He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding.",
"did he have siblings?",
"He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen",
"when did he marry?",
"I don't know.",
"Who is his wife?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_1 | When was his son born? | 6 | When was Edward de Vere's son born? | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford | De Vere was born heir to the second oldest earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, north-east of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding. He was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. De Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck and raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid PS10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately PS2,500, may have run as high as PS3,500 (PS1.08 million as of 2018). CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate.
Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child.
A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals.
He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates.
Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.
Family and childhood
Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559.
Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor.
His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ).
Wardship
While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events.
In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries.
Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570.
In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law.
On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence.
Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring.
In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court.
Coming of age
On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled.
Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000.
By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court.
Marriage
In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried.
In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace.
Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece.
In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain.
The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000.
In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour.
Foreign travel
Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship.
Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September.
Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "."
In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds.
On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him.
On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years.
In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year.
Quarrels, plots and scandals
Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more.
In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment.
In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen".
In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February.
Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters.
Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time.
Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless".
The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did."
Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave."
Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus.
On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth."
During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it.
On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July.
While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house".
Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton.
At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored.
Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet".
On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later.
After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.
Theatrical enterprises
The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602.
Royal annuity
On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music.
Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments.
In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety.
In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death.
Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age.
In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592.
In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him.
In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship.
In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes.
In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music.
Remarriage and later life
On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31.
On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir.
Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime.
Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing.
His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them.
Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.
From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly.
In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit.
In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health.
On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown.
In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy.
After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment.
Last years
In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession.
Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000.
Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time.
The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey:
The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England
Literary reputation
Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain.
Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman.
Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse".
May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable".
Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences".
Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship
The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s.
Notes
References
External links
De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site
Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner
Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham
Earls of Oxford
Lord Great Chamberlains
Edward
People of the Elizabethan era
Court of Elizabeth I
English dramatists and playwrights
17th-century English poets
17th-century male writers
1550 births
1604 deaths
16th-century English nobility
16th-century English poets
Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Patrons of literature
Theatre patrons
Lyric poets
English art patrons
People from Castle Hedingham
Prisoners in the Tower of London
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male poets
17th-century English nobility
Literary peers | false | [
", adopted son of Nagayoshi, was a samurai of the Sengoku period who was practically the last head of Miyoshi clan, daimyō of Kawachi Province of Japan. HIs wife was Ashikaga Yoshiaki's sister.\n\nBorn to Sogō Kazumasa, younger brother of Miyoshi Nagayoshi, he was initially known as Sogō Shigemasa (). After 1561 when his father died, he was reared by Nagayoshi. When Nagayoshi's eldest son Yoshioki died in 1563, he was adopted as a son and changed his surname to Miyoshi. The following year when Nagayoshi died, Yoshitsugu succeeded him as head of the clan.\n\nReferences\n\nSamurai\nDaimyo\nMiyoshi clan\n1549 births\n1573 deaths",
"Howard Van Pelt (September 27, 1830April 20, 1878) was a 19th-century New York Sandy Hook Pilot. He is best known for being a Sandy Hook pilot that lost his life on duty. He was knocked overboard when the hawser parted struck him in the chest while towing the bark Ukraine. His son, James Howard Van Pelt, was also a Sandy Hook pilot and lost his life when boarding a tank ship in 1915.\n\nEarly life and career \n\nHoward Van Pelt was born on September 27, 1830, in Stapleton, Staten Island. His father was Jacob Van Pelt and his mother was Mary Simonson. He married Margaret M. Perry and had five children.\n\nHe was a pilot who trained his son, James Howard Van Pelt, in the piloting business who became a Sandy Hook pilot. His son was fifteen when he helped his father sail a four masted schooner safely into the Brooklyn docks.\n\nOn May 21, 1866, Howard Van Pelt was listed as a member on the Board of Pilot Commissioners.\n\nDeath \n\nOn April 20, 1878, Howard Van Pelt, at age 47, drowned when he was knocked overboard when towing the bark Ukraine off Sandy Hook. The hawser parted striking him in the chest killing him instantly. His body was recovered and taken to his residence at Stapleton, Staten Island. He was buried at the Silver Mount Cemetery in Sunnyside, Staten Island. His son, James H. Van Pelt, was serving as an apprentice on a pilot boat outside Sandy Hook when his father was killed.\n\nHis nephew Frank P. Van Pelt, a Sandy Hook Pilot, died at age 81 in Staten Island on July 20, 1942.\n\nSee also\n\nList of Northeastern U. S. Pilot Boats\n\nReferences\n\n \n\nMaritime pilotage\nSea captains\nPeople from Staten Island\n1878 deaths\n1830 births"
]
|
[
"Erich Mielke",
"Bulowplatz trial"
]
| C_5879ec3395ef473987bcbbff52d1eee2_1 | When did the trial take place? | 1 | When did the Bulowplatz trial take place? | Erich Mielke | In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the first degree murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the 1934 trial transcripts, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke had admitted that, "the Bulowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing Germany. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the files for purposes of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified about how Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bulowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965. During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plotzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (German: "Ich mochte in mein Bett zuruck."). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution. After twenty months of one-and-a-half hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century." CANNOTANSWER | 1992, | Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
A native of Berlin and a second-generation member of the Communist Party of Germany, Mielke was one of two triggermen in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. After learning that a witness had survived, Mielke escaped arrest by fleeing to the Soviet Union, where the NKVD recruited him. He was one of the key figures in the decimation of Moscow's German Communists during the Great Purge as well as in the persecution of suspected anti-Stalinists in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany, which he helped organize into a Marxist-Leninist satellite state under the Socialist Unity Party (SED), later becoming head of the Stasi. According to historian Jack Koehler, he was "the longest serving secret police chief in the Soviet Bloc".
The Stasi under Mielke has been called by historian Edward Peterson the "most pervasive police state apparatus ever to exist on German soil". In a 1993 interview, Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal has said that, if one considers only the oppression of their own people, the Stasi under Mielke was "much, much worse than the Gestapo".
During the 1950s and 1960s Mielke led the process of forcibly forming collectivised farms from East Germany's family-owned farms, which sent a flood of refugees to West Germany. In response, Mielke oversaw the construction (1961) of the Berlin Wall and co-signed orders to shoot fatally all East Germans who attempted to leave the country. He also oversaw the establishment of pro-Soviet police states and paramilitary insurgencies in Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
In addition to his role as head of the Stasi, Mielke was also an Army General in the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee), and a member of the SED's ruling Politburo. Dubbed "The Master of Fear" () by the West German press, Mielke was one of the most powerful and most hated men in East Germany.
After German reunification in 1990, Mielke was arrested (1991), prosecuted (1992), convicted, and incarcerated (1993) for the 1931 murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. Released from prison early due to ill health in 1995, he died in a Berlin nursing home in 2000.
Early life
Erich Mielke was born in a tenement in Berlin-Wedding, Brandenburg, on 28 December 1907. During the First World War, the neighborhood was known as "Red Wedding" due to many residents' Marxist militancy. In a handwritten biography written for the Soviet secret police, Mielke described his father as "a poor, uneducated woodworker," and said that his mother died in 1911. Both were, he said, members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After his remarriage to "a seamstress," the elder Mielke and his new wife joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and remained members when it was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). His son Erich claimed "My younger brother Kurt and two sisters were Communist sympathisers."
Despite his family's poverty, Erich Mielke was academically gifted enough to be awarded a free scholarship in the prestigious Köllnisches Gymnasium, but was expelled on 19 February 1929, for being "unable to meet the great demands of this school." While attending the Gymnasium, Mielke joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1925, and worked as a reporter for the communist newspaper Rote Fahne from 1928 to 1931.
During the Weimar Republic, the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and was seen as the "leading party" of the communist movement outside the Soviet Union. Under Ernst Thälmann's leadership, the KPD was completely obedient to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the Party was both funded and controlled by the Comintern in Moscow.
Until the end of the Republic, the KPD viewed the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which dominated German politics between 1918 and 1931, as their mortal enemy. In keeping with Stalin's policy towards social democracy, the KPD considered all SPD members to be "social fascists". The KPD also believed that all other political parties were "fascist" and regarded itself as "the only anti-fascist Party" in Germany. Nevertheless, the KPD closely collaborated with the Nazi Party during the early 1930s and both Parties intended to replace the democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic with a totalitarian single party state.
Soon after joining the Party, Mielke joined the KPD's paramilitary wing, or Parteiselbstschutz ("Party Self Defense Unit"). At the time, the Parteiselbstschutz in Berlin was commanded by KPD Reichstag Representatives Hans Kippenberger and Heinz Neumann.
According to John Koehler, "Mielke was a special protege of Kippenberger's having taken to his paramilitary training with the enthusiasm of a Prussian Junker. World War I veterans taught the novices how to handle pistols, rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades. This clandestine training was conducted in the sparsely populated, pastoral countryside surrounding Berlin. Mielke also pleased Kippenberger by being an exceptional student in classes on the arts of conspiratorial behavior and espionage, taught by comrades who had studied at the secret M-school of the GRU in Moscow."
According to John Koehler, members of the Parteiselbstschutz "served as bouncers at Party meetings and specialized in cracking heads during street battles with political enemies." Besides the ruling SPD and its paramilitary Reichsbanner forces, the arch-enemies of the Parteiselbstschutz were the Stahlhelm, which was the armed wing of the Monarchist German National People's Party (DVNP), Trotskyites, and "radical nationalist parties."
According to Koehler, the KPD's Selbstschutz men "always carried a Stahlrute, two steel springs that telescoped into a tube seventeen centimeters long, which when extended became a deadly, 35-centimeter weapon. Not to be outdone by the Nazis, these street-fighters were often armed with pistols as well."
In a 1931 biography written for the Cadre Division of the Comintern, Mielke recalled, "We took care of all kinds of work; terror acts, protecting illegal demonstrations and meetings, arms-trafficking, etc. The last work, which was accomplished by a Comrade and myself, was the Bülowplatz Affair" ().
Bülowplatz murders
Planning
During the last days of the Weimar Republic, the KPD had a policy of assassinating two Berlin police officers in retaliation for every KPD member killed by the police.
On 2 August 1931, KPD Members of the Reichstag Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger received a dressing down from Walter Ulbricht, the Party's leader in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Enraged by police interference and by Neumann and Kippenberger's failure to follow the policy, Ulbricht stated, "At home in Saxony we would have done something about the police a long time ago. Here in Berlin we will not fool around much longer. Soon we will hit the police in the head."
Enraged by Ulbricht's words, Kippenberger and Neumann decided to assassinate Paul Anlauf, the 42-year-old Captain of the Berlin Police's Seventh Precinct. Captain Anlauf, a widower with three daughters, had been nicknamed "Schweinebacke", or "Pig Face" by the KPD.
According to historian John Koehler, "Of all the policemen in strife-torn Berlin, the reds hated Anlauf the most. His precinct included the area around KPD headquarters, which made it the most dangerous in the city. The captain almost always led the riot squads that broke up illegal rallies of the Communist Party."
On the morning of Sunday 9 August 1931, Kippenberger and Neumann gave a last briefing to the hit-team in a room at the Lassant beer hall. Mielke and Erich Ziemer were selected as the shooters. During the meeting, Max Matern gave a Luger pistol to fellow lookout Max Thunert and said, "Now we're getting serious. We're going to give Schweinebacke something to remember us by."
Kippenberger then asked Mielke and Ziemer, "Are you sure that you are ready to shoot Schweinebacke?" Mielke responded that he had seen Anlauf many times during police searches of Party Headquarters. Kippenberger then instructed them to wait at a nearby beer hall which would permit them to overlook the entire Bülow-Platz. He further reminded them that Anlauf was accompanied everywhere by Senior Sergeant Max Willig, whom the KPD had nicknamed, "Hussar".
Kippenberger concluded, "When you spot Schweinebacke and Hussar, you take care of them." Mielke and Ziemer were informed that, after the assassinations were completed, a diversion would assist in their escape. They were then to return to their homes and await further instructions.
That evening, Anlauf was lured to Bülow-Platz by a violent rally demanding the dissolution of the Prussian Parliament.
According to Koehler, "As was often the case when it came to battling the dominant SPD, the KPD and the Nazis had combined forces during the pre-plebiscite campaign. At one point in this particular campaign, Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels even shared a speaker's platform with KPD agitator Walter Ulbricht. Both parties wanted the parliament dissolved because they were hoping that new elections would oust the SPD, the sworn enemy of all radicals. That fact explained why the atmosphere was particularly volatile this Sunday."
Murder at the Babylon Cinema
At eight o'clock that evening, Mielke and Ziemer waited in a doorway as Anlauf, Willig, and Captain Franz Lenck walked toward the Babylon Cinema, which was located at the corner of Bülowplatz and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. As they reached the door of the movie house, the policemen heard someone scream, "Schweinebacke!"
As Anlauf turned toward the sound, Mielke and Ziemer opened fire at point blank range. Willig was wounded in the left arm and the stomach. However, he managed to draw his Luger pistol and fired a full magazine at the assailants. Lenck was shot in the chest and fell dead in front of the entrance. Willig crawled over and cradled the head of Anlauf, who had taken two bullets in the neck.
Meanwhile, Mielke and Ziemer made their escape by running into the theater and out an emergency exit. They tossed their pistols over a fence, where they were later found by Homicide Detectives from the elite Mordkommission. Mielke and Ziemer then returned to their homes.
According to Koehler, "Back at Bülowplatz, the killings had triggered a major police action. At least a thousand officers poured into the square, and a bloody street battle ensued. Rocks and bricks were hurled from the rooftops. Communist gunmen fired indiscriminately from the roofs of surrounding apartment houses. As darkness fell, police searchlights illuminated the buildings. Using megaphones, officers shouted, "Clear the streets! Move away from the windows! We are returning fire!" By now the rabble had fled the square, but shooting continued as riot squads combed the tenements, arresting hundreds of residents suspected of having fired weapons. The battle lasted until one o'clock the next morning. In addition to the two police officers, the casualties included one Communist who died of a gunshot wound and seventeen others who were seriously wounded."
Anlauf's wife had died three weeks earlier of kidney failure. The murder of Anlauf thus left their three daughters as orphans. Their oldest daughter was forced to rush her planned wedding in order to keep her sisters from being put in an orphanage. Lenck was survived by his wife. Willig was hospitalized for 14 weeks, but made a full recovery and returned to active duty. In recognition for Willig's courage, the Berlin Police promoted him to Lieutenant.
After the murders, the act was celebrated at the Lichtenberger Hof, a favorite beer hall of the Rotfrontkämpferbund, where Mielke boasted: "Today we celebrate a job that I pulled!" ()
Fugitive
According to Koehler, "Kippenberger was alarmed when word reached him that Sergeant Willig had survived the shooting. Not knowing whether the sergeant could talk and identify the attackers, Kippenberger was taking no chances. He directed a runner to summon Mielke and Ziemer to his apartment at 74 Bellermannstrasse, only a few minutes walk from where the two lived. When the assassins arrived, Kippenberger told them the news and ordered them to leave Berlin at once. The parliamentarian's wife Thea, an unemployed schoolteacher and as staunch a Communist Party member as her husband, shepherded the young murderers to the Belgian border. Agents of the Communist International (Comintern) in the port city of Antwerp supplied them with money and forged passports. Aboard a merchant ship, they sailed for Leningrad. When their ship docked, they were met by another Comintern representative, who escorted them to Moscow."
Beginning in 1932, Mielke attended the Comintern's Military Political school under the alias Paul Bach. He later graduated from the Lenin School shortly before being recruited into the OGPU.
Trial
According to Koehler, "In mid-March 1933, while attending the Lenin School, Mielke received word from his OGPU sponsors that Berlin police had arrested Max Thunert, one of the conspirators in the Anlauf and Lenck murders. Within days, fifteen other members of the assassination team were in custody. Mielke had to wait six more months before the details of the police action against his Berlin comrades reached Moscow. On 14 September 1933, Berlin newspapers reported that all fifteen had confessed to their roles in the murders. Arrest warrants were issued for ten others who had fled, including Mielke, Ziemer, Ulbricht, Kippenberger, and Neumann."
Koehler also stated, "Defenders of Mielke later claimed that confessions had been obtained under torture by the Nazi Gestapo. However, all suspects were in the custody of the regular Berlin city criminal investigation bureau, most of whose detectives were SPD members. Some of the suspects had been nabbed by Nazi SA men and probably beaten before they were turned over to police. In the 1993 trial of Mielke, the court gave the defense the benefit of the doubt and threw out a number of suspect confessions."
On 19 June 1934, the 15 conspirators were convicted of first degree murder. The three deemed most culpable, Michael Klause, Max Matern, and Friedrich Bröde were sentenced to death. Their co-defendants received sentences ranging from nine months to fifteen years incarceration at hard labor. Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation. Bröde hanged himself in his cell. As a result, only Matern was left to be executed by beheading on 22 May 1935.
Matern was subsequently glorified as a martyr by KPD and East German propaganda. Ziemer was officially killed in action while fighting on the Republican-side during the Spanish Civil War. Mielke, however, would not face trial for the murders until 1993.
Career in Soviet intelligence
The Great Terror
Although Moscow's German Communist community was decimated during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Mielke survived and was promoted.
In a handwritten autobiography prepared after World War II, Mielke recalled, "During my stay in the S.U. (Soviet Union), I participated in all Party discussions of the K.P.D. and also in the problems concerning the establishment of socialism and in the trials against the traitors and enemies of the S.U."
Among the German communists executed as a result of these "discussions" were Mielke's former mentors Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger.
Mielke further recalled, "I was a guest on the honor grandstand of Red Square during the May Day and October Revolution parades. I became acquainted with many comrades of the Federation of World Communist Parties and the War Council of the Special Commission of the Comintern. I will never forget my meeting with Comrade Dimitrov, the Chairman of the Comintern, whom I served as an aide together with another comrade. I saw Comrade Stalin during all demonstrations at Red Square, especially when I stood on the grandstand. I mention these meetings because all these comrades are our models and teachers for our work."
During his time in the USSR, Mielke also developed a lifelong reverence for Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Polish aristocrat who founded the Soviet secret police. Mielke also began an equally permanent habit of calling himself a Chekist.
In a citation written decades later, Mielke described his philosophy of life, "The Chekist is the political combatant. He is the loyal son of... the workers' class. He stands at the head of the battle to strengthen the power of our workers' and peasants' state."
Spanish Civil War
From 1936 to 1939, Mielke served in Spain as an operative of the Servicio de Investigación Militar, the political police of the Second Spanish Republic. While attached to the staff of, "veteran GRU agent," and future Stasi minister Wilhelm Zaisser, Mielke used the alias Fritz Leissner. Bernd Kaufmann, the director of the Stasi's espionage school later said, "The Soviets trusted Mielke implicitly. He earned his spurs in Spain."
At the time, the S.I.M. was heavily staffed by agents of the Soviet NKVD, whose Spanish rezident was General Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and International Brigade commanders than on fighting Franco. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics."
In a 1991 interview, Walter Janka, a fellow German communist exile and company commander in the International Brigade, recalled his encounters with Mielke. During the winter of 1936, Janka was summoned by the SIM and interrogated by Mielke. Mielke demanded to know why Janka had voluntarily traveled to Spain rather than being assigned there by the Party. When he told Mielke to get lost, the SIM demoted Janka to the ranks and then expelled him from the International Brigade. Years later, Janka recalled, "While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists."
Upon the defeat of the Spanish Republic, Mielke fled across the Pyrenees Mountains to France, where he was interned at Camp de Rivesaltes, Pyrénées-Orientales. Mielke, however, managed to send a message to exiled KPD members and, in May 1939, escaped to Belgium. Although the Public Prosecutor of Berlin learned of Mielke's presence and filed for his extradition, the Belgian Government refused to comply, regarding the assassinations of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as "a political crime."
The NKVD and the SIM's witch hunt for both real and imagined anti-Stalinists had serious consequences. It horrified numerous formerly pro-Soviet Westerners who had been witnesses, including John Dos Passos, Arthur Koestler and George Orwell, and caused them to permanently turn against the USSR.
Mielke's belief that anti-Soviet Marxists had collaborated with Franco and stabbed the Republic in the back continued to shape his attitudes for the rest of his life. In a 1982 speech before a group of senior Stasi officers, he said, "We are not immune from villains among us. If I knew of any already, they wouldn't live past tomorrow. Short shrift. It's because I'm a Humanist, that I'm of this view."
In the same speech, Mielke also said, "All this blithering over to execute or not to execute, for the death penalty or against—all rot, Comrades. Execute! And, when necessary, without a court judgment."
World War II
During World War II, Mielke's movements remain mysterious. In a biography written after the war, he claimed to have infiltrated Organisation Todt under the alias Richard Hebel, but historian John O. Koehler considers this unlikely.
Koehler admits, however, "Mielke's exploits must have been substantial. By war's end, he had been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War First Class, and twice with the Order of Lenin. It is likely that he served as an NKVD agent, at least part of the time with guerrilla units behind German lines, for he knew all the partisan songs by heart and sang them in faultless Russian."
Occupied Germany
Komissariat-5
In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.
That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."
On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No. 2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services.
In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke disclosed—truthfully—his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, and—mistakenly or misleadingly—that for this he had been tried in absentia, found guilty, and sentenced to death. In actuality, Mielke's "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried". He admitted—truthfully—fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed—falsely—that he had been released from the French internment camps and had worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston". Furthermore, Mielke concealed his past and contemporaneous involvement with the NKVD, NKGB, and the Nazi Organisation Todt (which he asserted he'd infiltrated).
According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets. Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers. But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."
On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany.
According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan. In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a "new Gestapo." Furthermore, Abakumov, like Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked." Notwithstanding Abakumov's objections, however, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately. It is possible, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers' lack of fluency in the German language was engendering massive popular resentment.
Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head. Mielke was installed as his deputy.
According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police. Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons. Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party. Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision. The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them. Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."
According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees. Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers. In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary rule of law."
According to Edward N. Peterson, "Not surprisingly, K-5 acquired a reputation as bad as that of Stalin's secret police and worse than that of the Gestapo. At least with the Nazis, albeit fanatically racist, their victims did not suddenly disappear into the GULAG."
The Amalgamation
Despite the K-5's mass arrests of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Zone, the number of SPD members continued to grow. By March 1946, SPD members outnumbered KPD members by more than 100,000. Fearing that they would lose the elections scheduled for the autumn, the leadership of the KPD asked for and received Stalin's permission to merge the two parties. When the SPD's leadership agreed only to schedule a vote for the rank and file to decide, permission was denied by the Soviet occupation authorities. The K-5 then began mass arrests of SPD members who refused to support the merger.
On 22 April 1946, the remaining leaders of the SPD in the Soviet Zone announced that they had united with the KPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SPD in the western zones of Occupied Germany responded by forming the SPD East Bureau in order to support and finance those Social Democrats who refused to accept the merger. Those who joined or worked with the East Bureau were, however, in serious danger of arrest by the K-5 and trial by Soviet military tribunals. By 1950, more than 5,000 SPD members and sympathisers had been imprisoned in the Soviet Zone or transferred to the GULAG. More than 400 were either executed or died during their imprisonments.
John Koehler has written that, prior to the spring of 1946, many Germans in the Soviet Zone, "merely shrugged at the wave of arrests, believing that the victims were former Nazi officials and war criminals." But then came the mass arrests of Social Democrats who opposed the merger, who, "were joined by people who had been denounced for making anti-communist or anti-Soviet remarks, among their number hundreds who were as young as fourteen years. Although these arrests were made by Germans purporting to be officials of the criminal police, the existence of the K-5 political police eventually was exposed. Mielke, meanwhile, had risen to the post of vice-president of the German Administration for Interior Affairs – the equivalent of the NKVD – and continued his manipulations from behind the scenes."
Investigation
In January 1947, two retired Berlin policemen recognized Mielke at an official function. Informing the head of the criminal police in West Berlin, the policemen demanded that Mielke be arrested and prosecuted for the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. Wilhelm Kühnast, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin, was immediately informed and ordered a search of the Kammergericht archives. To his astonishment, the files of the 1931 murders had survived the wartime bombing of Germany. Finding ample evidence of Mielke's involvement, Kühnast ordered the arrest of the communist policeman.
According to John Koehler, "At that time, the city administration, including the police, was under the control of the Allied Control Commission, which consisted of U.S., British, French, and Soviet military officers. All actions by city officials, including the judiciary, were to be reported to the Commission. The Soviet representative alerted the MGB. Action was swift. Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, who had replaced Zhukov, protested, and his representatives at the Commission launched a vicious campaign to discredit Kühnast."
The Soviet representatives falsely claimed that Kühnast, a jurist with an impeccable anti-Nazi record, had been an official of Roland Freisler's People's Court. Taking the Soviets at their word, the Western Allies removed Kühnast from his position and placed him under house arrest. During the Berlin airlift, Kühnast fled from his home in East Berlin and was granted political asylum in the American Zone.
Meanwhile, the Soviet authorities confiscated all documents relating to the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. According to Koehler, "The Soviets handed the court records to Mielke. Instead of destroying the incriminating papers, he locked them in his private safe, where they were found when his home was searched in 1990. They were used against him in his trial for murder."
Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission
In 1948, Mielke was appointed as security chief of the German Economic Commission (), the precursor to the future East German government.
Mielke's task was to investigate the theft and sale of state property on the black market. He was also charged with intercepting the growing number of refugees fleeing to the French, British, and American Zones.
Those his security forces caught while attempting to defect were used as slave labor in the uranium mines that were providing raw material for the Soviet atomic bomb project.
German Democratic Republic
Independence
In 1949, the Soviet Military Administration ceded its legal functions to the newly created German Democratic Republic.
On 14 January 1950, Marshal Vasili Chuikov announced that all Soviet "internment camps" on German soil had been closed. Soon after, the DWK was absorbed into the newly created Ministry for State Security. In keeping with earlier syllabic abbreviations along the same lines (see OrPo, KriPo, and GeStaPo) East Germans immediately dubbed it the "Stasi" (from Staatssicherheit). With the approval of the Soviets, Mielke's commanding officer from Spain and in the K5, Wilhelm Zaisser, was appointed as the Stasi's head. Mielke was appointed to his staff with the rank of State Secretary. Mielke was also granted a seat in the SED's ruling Politburo.
According to John Koehler, "In the five years since the end of World War II, the Soviets and their vassals had arrested between 170,000 and 180,000 Germans. Some 160,000 had passed through the concentration camps, and of these about 65,000 had died, 36,000 had been shipped to the Soviet Gulag, and another 46,000 had been freed."
In 1949, as a response to the remilitarization of East Germany and the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Portugal formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. In 1950, as a response to the outbreak of the Korean War, West Germany was also permitted to join NATO, which was then upgraded into a military alliance.
According to Koehler, however, "As the Cold War intensified, living conditions in Soviet-occupied East Germany showed little improvement beyond the postwar level of bare subsistence. The new government of the DDR – a mere puppet of the Kremlin – relied more and more on the Stasi to quell discontent among factory workers and farmers. Ulbricht, claiming that the social unrest was fomented by capitalist agents, once ordered Mielke to personally visit one large plant and 'arrest four or five such agents' as an example to the others. The Stasi deputy 'discovered' the agents in record time."
Field show trials
Also in 1949, Noel Field, an American citizen who had spied for the NKVD from inside the U.S. State Department, the Office of Strategic Services, and the CIA, fled from his posting in Switzerland to Communist Czechoslovakia after his cover was blown by fellow mole Whittaker Chambers. On 11 May 1949, the Czechoslovakian secret police, or StB, in obedience to a direct order from KGB chief Lavrenti Beria, arrested Field in Prague. Field was then handed over to the Hungarian ÁVO. After his interrogation in Budapest, Fields was used as a witness at show trials of senior Soviet Bloc Communists who, like László Rajk and Rudolf Slánský, stood accused of having spied for the United States. The real reason for the trials was to replace homegrown Communists in Eastern Europe with those who would be blindly loyal to Joseph Stalin and to blame the division of Germany on the intrigues of U.S. intelligence.
At the Rajk show trial, the prosecutor declared, "Noel Field, one of the leaders of American espionage, specialized in recruiting spies from among left-wing elements."
In August 1950, six senior SED members, including Willi Kreikemeyer, the director of Deutsche Reichsbahn and head of Berliner Rundfunk, were accused of "special connections with Noel Field, the American spy." All were either imprisoned or shot.
John Koehler writes, "Similar purges were conducted in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, where Field appeared as a witness in show trials that resulted in some death sentences. The Soviets simply distrusted all Communists who had sought exile in the West. All the while, Mielke remained untouched and continued to serve as the deputy secret police chief. His survival reinforced the belief that he had spent the war years in the Soviet Union instead of France and Belgium as he had claimed in the 1945 questionnaire."
In June 1950, Erica Wallach, Noel Field's adopted daughter, decided to search for him. From Paris, she telephoned Leo Bauer, the editor-in-chief of Berliner Rundfunk. The call was monitored by agents of the Soviet Ministry for Internal Affairs, and Bauer's handler instructed him to invite Mrs. Wallach to East Berlin, where she was immediately arrested. Mielke personally interrogated her and, at one point, offered Mrs. Wallach immediate release if she named the members of her fictitious spy network. She was condemned to death by a Soviet military tribunal in East Berlin and shipped to the Lubianka prison in Moscow for her execution. After Joseph Stalin's death in on 5 March 1953, Erica Wallach's sentence was reduced to hard labor in Vorkuta, a region of the Gulag located above the Arctic Circle. She was released during the Khrushchev thaw in October 1955. At first, she was unable to join her husband and daughters in the U.S. because of the U.S. State Department's concern over her former membership in the Communist Party of Germany. It took the personal intervention of CIA Director Allen Dulles to reunite Erica Wallach with her family in 1957. Wallach's memoir of her experiences, Light at Midnight, was published in 1967.
Death of Stalin
After Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin died inside his Kuntsevo Dacha on 5 March 1953, the Central Committee of the East German Socialist Unity Party met in a special session and eulogized the dictator as the "great friend of Germany who was always an advisor of and help to our people."
Two months later, on 5 May 1953, the SED's General Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, and the rest of the leadership increased work quotas by 10%. They also decided to rename Chemnitz Karl-Marx-Stadt and to institute the Order of Karl Marx as the GDR's highest award.
Two weeks later, Mielke accused "a group of Party officials" of "plotting against the leadership", which "resulted in more expulsions from the Politburo and the Central Committee."
East German uprising of 1953
Discontent among factory workers about a 10% increase of work quotas without a corresponding wage hike boiled over. On 16 June 1953, nearly one hundred construction workers gathered before work for a protest meeting at Stalinallee, in East Berlin. Words spread rapidly to other construction sites and hundreds of men and women joined the rally, which marched to the House of Ministries. The protesters chanted slogans for five hours, demanding to speak to Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl. Only Heavy Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann and Professor Robert Havemann, president of the GDR Peace Council, emerged. Their speech, however, was answered with jeers and the Ministers retreated into the heavily armed building. The regular and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei were summoned from their barracks, but made no move to attack the protesters, who returned to Stalinallee, where a general strike was called.
Following West Germany's Federal Minister for All-German Questions Jakob Kaiser's admonition in a late night broadcast to East Germans to shy away from provocations, RIAS, starting with its 11 pm news broadcast, and from then on in hourly intermissions, repeated the workers' demand to continue the strike the next day, calling specifically for all East Berliners to participate in a demo at 7am on the 17th at Strausberger Platz.
The following day, 17 June 1953, more that 100,000 protesters took to the streets of East Berlin. More than 400,000 protesters also took to the streets in other cities and towns throughout the German Democratic Republic. Everywhere, the demands were the same: free elections by secret ballot.
Outside of Berlin, the main centres of the protests included the industrial region around Halle, Merseburg, and Bitterfeld, as well as middle-size towns like Jena, Görlitz, and Brandenburg. No more than 25,000 people participated in strikes and demonstrations in Leipzig, but there were 32,000 in Magdeburg, 43,000 in Dresden, 53,000 in Potsdam – and in Halle, a figure close to 100,000.
In West Berlin, the American radio station RIAS and several other West German stations reported on the protests and on plans for a general strike. As East Germans listened to the broadcasts, 267,000 workers at State-owned plants in 304 cities and towns joined the general strike. In 24 towns, outraged East Germans stormed the Stasi's prisons and freed between 2,000 and 3,000 political prisoners.
In response to orders, the Soviet Occupation Forces, the Stasi and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei went on the attack. Bloody street battles ensued and hundreds of policemen defected to the side of the protesters. Both police and Stasi stations were overrun and some government offices were sacked. The Party leadership retreated into a fortified compound in the Pankow district of East Berlin.
At noon, the Soviet authorities terminated all tram and metro traffic into the Eastern sector and all but closed the sector borders to West Berlin to prevent more demonstrators from reaching the city centre. An hour later, they declared martial law in East Berlin.
The repression took place outside East Berlin police HQ – where Soviet tanks opened fire on "the insurgents".
According to John Koehler, "... by late afternoon, Soviet tanks accompanied by Infantry and MVD troops had rolled into East Berlin and other cities in the Soviet Zone. This made the people even angrier. At Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, which bordered on the American Sector, irate protesters ignored machine gun fire and the menacing barrels of tank guns. They ripped cobblestones from the streets and hurled them at the tanks."
Fighting between the Red Army (and later GDR police) and the demonstrators persisted into the afternoon and night. In some cases, the tanks and the soldiers fired directly into the crowds.
Overnight, the Soviets (and the Stasi) started to arrest hundreds of people. Ultimately, up to 10,000 people were detained and at least 20, probably as many as 40, people were executed, including Red Army soldiers who refused to obey orders. With the SED leadership effectively paralysed at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, control of the city passed to the Soviets.
In honor of the uprising, West Germany established 17 June as a national holiday, called Day of German Unity. The extension of the Unter den Linden boulevard to the west of the Brandenburg Gate, formerly called Charlottenburger Chaussee, was also renamed Straße des 17. Juni ("17 June Street") in honor of the uprising.
According to John Koehler, "Provisional prison camps were set up to hold the thousands of Stasi victims. Nearly 1,500 persons were sentenced in secret trials to long prison terms. On 24 June, Mielke issued a terse announcement that one Stasi officer, nineteen demonstrators, and two bystanders had been killed during the uprising. He did not say how many were victims of official lynching. The numbers of the wounded were given as 191 policemen, 126 demonstrators, and 61 bystanders."
Also according to Koehler, "Calm returned to the streets of the Soviet Zone, yet escapes to the West continued at a high rate. Of the 331,390 who fled in 1953, 8,000 were members of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the barracked people's police units, which were actually the secret cadre of the future East German Army. Also among the escapees were 2,718 members and candidates of the SED, the ruling Party."
The Khrushchev thaw
Purges
Alarmed by the uprising, Lavrenty Beria, the First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, personally travelled from Moscow to East Berlin. He conferred with Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser and with Mielke, his deputy, both of whom he had known since the early 1930s. During both conversations, Beria demanded to know why the Stasi had failed to recognize the extreme discontent of the population and inform the Party leadership, which could then have prevented the uprising by taking extremely repressive measures in advance. Both Zaisser and Mielke answered Beria's questions circumspectly, and were accordingly left in their posts.
In response to the uprising, Beria decided to replace several hundred MVD officers, including Major General Ivan Fadeykin, the MVD resident of East Germany. The Stasi, according to John Koehler, "generally remained untouched except for the arrests and dismissals, for dereliction of duty, of a handful of officers in the provinces. One high-ranking Stasi officer shot himself."
Following Beria's return to Moscow, however, he was arrested on 26 June 1953, in a coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Beria was tried on charges of 357 counts of rape and high treason. He was sentenced to death and shot by Red Army Colonel-General Pavel Batitsky on 23 December 1953.
In an interview to Neues Deutschland, the official party newspaper of East Germany, on 30 June 1953, the Party's Minister of Justice, Max Fechner, declared that, "illegal arrests," had been made and that being a member of a strike committee or suspicion of being a ringleader was not in itself grounds for arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, when the East German Politburo met on 8 July, it seemed that Ulbricht would be deposed as Party General Secretary. Zaisser conceded that the whole Politburo was responsible for the "accelerated construction of socialism" and of the subsequent fallout. But he also added that to leave Ulbricht as Premier, "would be opposed catastrophic for the New Course".
By the end of the meeting, only two Politburo members still supported Ulbricht's leadership: Free German Youth League chief Erich Honecker and Party Control Commission Chairman Hermann Matern. Ulbricht only managed to forestall a decision then and there with a promise to make a statement at the forthcoming 15th SED CC Plenum, scheduled for later that month.
Meanwhile, Mielke informed a Party commission looking for scapegoats that his boss, Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser, was calling for secret negotiations with West Germany and that, "he believed the Soviet Union would abandon the DDR."
By late July, Ulbricht was completely certain that he had the support of the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Therefore, he expelled his main opponents, Zaisser, Hernstadt and Ackermann, from the Politburo, and thus strengthened his position further.
SED Minister of Justice Max Fechner was personally arrested by Mielke and replaced by Hilde Benjamin, who was known to East German citizens as "Red Hilde", "The Red Freisler," and as, "The Red Guillotine," for her role as a judge in the SED's show trials.
Fechner was convicted of being, "an enemy of the Party and the State," and served three years in Bautzen Prison.
Wilhelm Zaisser was replaced as head of the Stasi by Ernst Wollweber and Mielke remained on staff as his deputy.
Tenure as Stasi head
Mielke headed the Stasi from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There was, under the East German system, no provision for parliamentary oversight. However, starting in 1971 Mielke was required to provide a detailed intelligence briefing to party secretary Erich Honecker each Tuesday, directly following the weekly Politburo meeting. (Before 1971, under Walter Ulbricht, Mielke was not involved in routine intelligence briefings to the leadership which, instead, were provided directly to Ulbricht by Intelligence Chief Markus Wolf.)
Internal discipline
During his tenure, Mielke enforced "political and personal discipline reminiscent of the early French Foreign Legion". New recruits were required to take a solemn oath pledging "to fight alongside the state security organs of all socialist countries against all enemies of socialism" on pain of "the severest punishment under the Republic's laws and the contempt of the workers." Recruits were also required to sign a security pledge vowing never to make unauthorized visits to any "capitalist countries" and to report on any members of their families who did so.
Violations of the oath resulted in expulsion from the Stasi and blacklisting from all but the most menial jobs. Serious violations were tried before secret tribunals and led an estimated 200 Stasi agents to be shot. Colonel Rainer Wiegand once said, "There was only one way to leave the MfS without being haunted for the rest of your life. You either retired or you died."
Domestic activities
Under Erich Mielke's leadership, the Stasi employed 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 civilian informants () (IMs). East Germans coined a term to describe the Stasi's pervasive surveillance of the population "All-Covered" (). For this reason, Anna Funder has referred to East Germany as, "the most perfected surveillance state of all time."
According to John Koehler, "...the Stasi's tentacles probed every aspect of life. Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei...In turn, the police officer was the Stasi's man. If a relative or friend came to stay overnight, it was reported. Schools, universities and hospitals were infiltrated from top to bottom. German academe was shocked to learn that Heinrich Fink, professor of theology and vice-chancellor of East Berlin's Humboldt University, had been a Stasi informer since 1968. After Fink's Stasi connections came to light, he was summarily fired. Doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, and sports figures were co-opted by Stasi officers, as were waiters and hotel personnel. Tapping about 100,000 telephone lines in East Germany and West Berlin around the clock was the job of 2,000 officers... Churchmen, including high officials of both Protestant and Catholic denominations, were recruited en masse as secret informants. Their offices and confessionals were infested with eavesdropping devices. Even the director of Leipzig's famous Thomas Church choir, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, was forced to resign when he was unmasked as a Spitzel, the people's pejorative for a Stasi informant."
In an interview with journalist Anna Funder, an ex-Stasi officer recalled, "Most often, people we approached would inform for us. It was very rare that they would not. However, sometimes we felt that we might need to know where their weak points were, just in case. For example, if we wanted a pastor, we'd find out if he'd had an affair, or had a drinking problem—things that we could use as leverage. Mostly though, people said yes."
On Mielke's orders, and with his full knowledge, Stasi officers also engaged in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, brutal harassment of political dissidents, torture, and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens.
In a 1991 interview, Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said, "The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people. The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million."
Activities abroad
During Mielke's tenure, the Stasi's operations beyond East Germany were overseen by Markus Wolf and the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (MfS-HVA).
Mielke and Wolf provided money, training, and surveillance equipment to help build pro-Soviet secret police forces in Fidel Castro's Cuba, Baathist Syria, Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua, Mengistu Haile Mariam's Ethiopia, Idi Amin's Uganda, Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, and South Yemen.
After the opening of Stasi archives, it was revealed that West Germany was riddled with MfS-HVA moles. In what John Koehler has dubbed, "The Invisible Invasion", some West German citizens collaborated out of Marxist beliefs, but others were recruited through blackmail, greed, career frustrations, or sexual favors from Stasi operatives.
Another tactic was for Stasi military advisers assigned to African and Middle Eastern countries to request the arrest of West German tourists. Local police would then turn the prisoner over to the Stasi agent, who would offer the West German a choice between espionage or incarceration.
Senior politicians from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union were exposed and, when still alive, prosecuted.
Mielke and Wolf also seriously compromised West Germany's police departments, foreign and domestic intelligence services, diplomatic corps, military-industrial complex, and journalistic profession.
The Stasi compromised the United States military and diplomatic presence in West Germany.
The most damaging American to spy for the Stasi was United States Army Sergeant James Hall III, who volunteered his services to Soviet and East German intelligence in November 1981.
Sergeant Hall sold the Stasi 13,088 pages of classified documents, including detailed information about Project Trojan, a worldwide electronic network with the ability to pinpoint armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft by recording their signal emissions during wartime and the complete National SIGINT Requirements List (NSRL), a 4258-page document about NSA operations at home and abroad.
In 1988, Sergeant Hall was tricked into confessing his espionage career to an undercover FBI Special Agent named Dmitri Droujinsky, a Russian-American who was posing as an agent of the KGB. When news of Sergeant Hall's arrest became public, one Washington intelligence official called the breach, "the Army's Walker Case."
Collusion with Nazism
Beginning in 1960, Mielke and Wolf used false flag recruitment to secretly organize and finance Neo-Nazi organizations, which they then instructed to vandalize Jewish religious and cultural sites throughout West Germany. During the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann, Stasi agents sent letters to West German Neo-Nazis and Waffen-SS veterans, urging them to speak out and to raise money for Eichmann's defense attorney. This was done in order to lend credibility to Communist propaganda about the allegedly Fascist and neo-Nazi orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to German historian Michael Wolffsohn, "There is no doubt that in the 1960s as now, there were Nazis who were unreconstructed, unchangeable and evil, but without the help of East Germany, these Nazis were incapable of a national, coordinated campaign. That was true of right-wing extremist criminals in the 1980s as well. The East German Communists used anything they could against West Germany, including the... fears by Western countries and Jews that a new Nazism could be growing in West Germany. There is... evidence that the East Germans continued to use Anti-Semitism as a tool against West Germany in the 1970s and perhaps right up until 1989."
In a 1991 interview with John Koehler, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said of the Stasi, "They not only terrorized their own people worse than the Gestapo, but the government was the most Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israeli in the entire Eastern Bloc. They did nothing to help the West in tracking down Nazi criminals; they ignored all requests from West German judicial authorities for assistance. We have just discovered shelves of files on Nazis stretching over four miles. Now we also know how the Stasi used those files. They blackmailed Nazi criminals who fled abroad after the war into spying for them. What's more, the Stasi trained terrorists from all over the world."
Support for paramilitary and terrorist groups
During a 1979 visit to the GDR by senior PLO member Salah Khalaf, Mielke said, "We are paying great attention to the Palestine resistance and the other revolutionary forces fighting against the policies of the United States and against the provocations of the Israeli aggressor. Together with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, we will do everything to support this just battle."
With this in mind, Mielke ordered the Stasi to finance, arm, and train, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, Mielke's ties to violent paramilitary groups were overseen by Markus Wolf and Department Three of the MfS-HVA. Members of the West German Baader-Meinhoff Group, the Chilean Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware, insurgent tactics, and, "the leadership role of the Party." Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Nidal, and Black September.
Other Stasi agents worked as military advisers to Soviet-backed African guerrilla organizations and the governments they later formed. They included the Namibian SWAPO and the Angolan MPLA during the South African Border War, the FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence and civil war, and Robert Mugabe's ZANLA during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Venezuelan-born PLO terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Black September leader Abu Daoud during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972 Munich massacre and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.
During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly blackmailed a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that the La Belle bombing and other terrorist attacks against American and West German citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.
According to John Koehler, "Murder, kidnapping, extortion, bank robbery, and arson were felonies under the East German criminal code. However, if these offenses were committed under the banner of the 'anti-imperialist struggle,' the communist system would look the other way. Moreover, it had assigned the Stasi to make sure that terrorists were properly trained for murder and sowing mayhem. There was no limits to the East German regime's involvement with terrorism, so long as it could be ideologically justified."
The Peaceful Revolution
According to John Koehler, "Increasingly concerned over the growing popular opposition, Stasi Minister Mielke early in 1989 ordered the creation of a special elite unit for crushing disturbances. Its personnel were carefully selected members of the counterespionage and counterterrorism directorate. They were equipped with special batons similar to electric cattle prods but much more powerful. In a secret speech to top-ranking Stasi officers on 29 June, Mielke warned that, 'hostile opposing forces and groups have already achieved a measure of power and are using all methods to achieve a change in the balance of power. Former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand told me he was horrified when Mielke compared the situation with that of China two months earlier. Chinese students in Beijing had begun massive protests in April and in May, during a student demonstration in Tiananmen Square, security troops had opened fire on them killing hundreds. 'Mielke said our situation was comparable and we had to be ready to counter it with all means and methods,' Wiegand recalled. 'Mielke said that the Chinese leadership had succeeded in smothering the protests before the situation got out of hand.'"
Despite Mielke's attempts to suppress them, East Germany's protesters grew more emboldened with every arrest.
40th anniversary of the GDR
As the fortieth anniversary of the GDR approached, Mielke ordered, "We must stop the internal enemy. At the least hint of a disturbance of the celebration, isolate and arrest them."
One former Stasi Major recalled, "We mixed inconspicuously with the demonstrators, accompanied by our IMs. Hundreds of us stood at the sides of the street in order to stop any activity before it got started. We barely got any sleep toward the end. Never did I sense that the people were afraid of the MfS. The Stasi was more afraid of the people than the people were of them."
According to Koehler, "Despite the unrest, the regime celebrated its fortieth with a huge, pompous ceremony in Berlin on 7 October, while tens of thousands of outside the ornate building of the State Council. The People's Police cordons were utterly ineffectual. As Stasi Minister Erich Mielke drove up and was greeted by General Günter Kratsch, the counterintelligence chief, Mielke screamed at police: "Club those pigs into submission!" () The police ignored Mielke's ranting.
As more and more East Germans were arrested for protesting the 40th anniversary celebrations, many of them sang The Internationale in Vopo and Stasi custody to imply that they, rather than their captors, were the real working class and the real revolutionaries.
According to Anna Funder, "There was a sea of red flags, a torchlight procession, and tanks. The old men on the podium wore light-grey suits studded with medals. Mikhail Gorbachev stood next to Honecker, but he looked uncomfortable among the much older Germans. He had come to tell them that it was over, to convince the leadership to adopt his reformist policies. He had spoken openly about the danger of not 'responding to reality.' He pointedly told the Politburo that, 'life punishes those who come too late.' Honecker and Mielke ignored him, just as they ignored the crowds when they chanted, "Gorby, help us! Gorby, help us!"
Plan X
On 8 October 1989, Mielke and Honecker ordered the Stasi to implement "Plan X"—the SED's plan to arrest and indefinitely detain 85,939 East Germans during a state of emergency. According to John Koehler, Plan X had been in preparation since 1979 and was, "a carbon copy of how the Nazi concentration camps got their start after Hitler came to power in 1933."
By 1984, 23 sites had been selected for "isolation and internment camps." Those who were to be imprisoned in them ran into six categories; including anyone who had ever been under surveillance for anti-state activities, including all members of peace movements which were not under Stasi control.
According to Anna Funder, "The plans contained exact provisions for the use of all available prisons and camps, and when those were full for the conversion of other buildings: Nazi detention centers, schools, hospitals, and factory holiday hostels. Every detail was foreseen, from where the doorbell was located on the house of each person to be arrested to the adequate supply of barbed wire and the rules of dress and etiquette in the camps..."
However, when Mielke sent the orders, codenamed "Shield" (), to each local Stasi precinct to begin the planned arrests, he was not obeyed. Terrified of an East German version of the mass lynchings of Hungarian secret police agents during the 1956 Revolution, Stasi agents throughout the GDR fortified their office-buildings and barricaded themselves inside.
Toppling Honecker
Even as orders were going out to implement Plan X, Mielke had already thrown his support behind the anti-Honecker faction in the SED's Politburo. Although he was of the same generation as Honecker and had matured in an environment where following orders was the rule, he was sober enough and politically savvy enough to realize this approach no longer worked. During a session on 10 October 1989, Mielke delivered a report attacking Honecker's desire to violently suppress the demonstrations rather than offer concessions.
In what Edward N. Peterson has called "a remarkable disclaimer of responsibility for the violence," Mielke declared that Honecker's orders to him "were built on false situation judgments." He added that Honecker's commands on 7 and 8 October "were false and undifferentiated condemnations of those who think differently. Despite this evaluation, there was never any instructions to use violence against persons. There is nothing in our basic principles to consider a demonstration as part of a possible counterrevolutionary coup."
Mielke also claimed that "the Party judged the situation falsely. We tried to tell them the true situation, but enough was not done." Mielke argued in favor of solving the demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel."
On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents who were loyal to him were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with tanks," and tried to impress upon Honecker that it was "the end".
After the vote to oust Honecker passed, Mielke "got nasty," and accused Honecker of corruption. Honecker responded that Mielke should not open his mouth so much. Mielke responded by putting the last nail into Honecker's coffin. He announced that the MfS had a file on the now-ousted leader. It contained proof of Honecker's corrupt business practices, sexual activities, and how, as a member of the underground Communist Party of Germany during the Nazi years, he had been arrested by the Gestapo and had named names.
To the shock of both the Politburo and the Stasi, Krenz's first televised addresses failed to win popular support. Despite his assurances that the SED was at last ready to embrace Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, Krenz's approval ratings remained extremely low.
Former Politburo member Günter Schabowski later recalled, "We made a palace revolution without offering a real alternative... We had not quickly and thoroughly enough whittled away from Stalin's methods."
Defeat
On 7 November 1989, Mielke resigned, along with eleven out of eighteen members of the SED's Council of Ministers, in response to the increasing disintegration of the GDR.
Two days later, Schabowski announced on television that the east–west border was open without restriction.
According to Anna Funder, there was panic at Stasi Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg, "Stasi officers were instructed to destroy files, starting with the most incriminating–those naming westerners who spied for them, and those that concerned deaths. They shredded the files until the paper shredders overheated and shorted out. Among other shortages in the East, there was a shredder shortage, so they had to send agents out under cover to West Berlin to buy more. In Building 8 alone, the citizens' movement found over a hundred burnt out shredders. When they ran out of working shredders from the West and could not procure more they began using scissors to cut the documents by hand.
According to William F. Buckley, Jr., "In the weeks after 9 November, Stasi offices were stormed in various cities around East Germany. Stasi commissars in three of those cities committed suicide. But not one was lynched or executed."
Televised humiliation
On 13 November 1989, Mielke was summoned to deliver a briefing about the protests to the GDR parliament, or Volkskammer. Formerly a "rubber stamp parliament," the disintegration of the SED's power had allowed the Volkskammer to begin exercising real authority over the GDR. Therefore, Mielke, as the head of the Stasi (known as the "shield and sword of the [SED] party"), was summoned before the newly empowered parliament to justify his position in government.
As his speech was broadcast live, Mielke began by using overly bombastic, flag-waving language, saying "We have, comrades, dear assembly members, an extraordinarily high amount of contact with all working people" (). To his shock, the Volkskammer responded with boos, whistles, and catcalls.
His face grief-stricken and pale, Mielke then tried to defuse the situation, "Yes, we have such contact, let me tell you-let me tell you why. I am not afraid to stand here and to give you an unbiased answer" (). Mielke continued, speaking of the "triumph" of the socialist economy, continuing all the while to address the members of the Volkskammer as "Comrades" (). In response, Volkskammer member Dietmar Czok of the Christian Democratic Union, rose from his seat and raised his hand. The Volkskammer's president, Günther Maleuda, interrupted Mielke and urged Czok to speak.
With his voice dripping with contempt, Czok told Mielke, "As a point of order, I will not tell you this again. There are more people sitting in this Chamber than just your Comrades!" (). In response, many in the Volkskammer burst into applause, cheers, and shouts of "We are not your Comrades!" ()
Trying to appear magnanimous, Mielke responded, "This is a natural, Humanistic question! This is just a question of formality." (), leading to further shouts of displeasure from the members of the Volkskammer. In a last ditch effort, Mielke "raised his arms like an evangelist," and cried, "I love all – all Humanity! I really do! I set myself before you!" ()
Everyone in the room, including staunch SED members, burst out laughing. Then Mielke started to cry. John Koehler later wrote, "Mielke was finished."
Mielke's address to the Volkskammer remains the most famous broadcast in the history of German television. Anna Funder has written, "When they think of Mielke, East Germans like to think of this."
The Fall
On 17 November 1989, the Volkskammer renamed the MfS the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit (AfNS – Office for National Security). The following day, Mielke's tenure in office ended when the Volkskammer appointed Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz as the new director of the AfNS.
On 1 December 1989, the Volkskammer nullified the clause of the GDR constitution that enshrined the SED's "leading role" in the government and formally ending Communist rule in East Germany. Two days later, the SED announced that Mielke's party membership had been permanently revoked. Years later, he lamented, "Millions have died for nothing. Everything we fought for – it has all amounted to nothing." He also said, "If the party had given me the task, then there would perhaps still be a GDR today. On that you can rely."
Prosecution
Indictments
On 7 December 1989, Erich Mielke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for embezzlement of public funds in order to improve his hunting estate. He was charged with "Damaging the People's Economy" (Schädigung der Volkswirtschaft). On 7 January 1990, he was further charged with high treason and conspiring with Erich Honecker to bug the telephones and open the mail of every one of East Germany's citizens.
Meanwhile, the Federal Constitutional Court announced that Mielke had also been indicted for having ordered two terrorist attacks by the Baader-Meinhoff Group against United States military personnel who were stationed on West German soil. The first was the car bomb attack against the United States Air Force at Ramstein Air Base on 31 August 1981. The second was the attempted murder with an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket of United States Army General Frederick Kroesen, his wife, and the West German police officer who was driving their armored Mercedes at Heidelberg on 15 September 1981.
After German reunification in October 1990, Mielke was also indicted for ordering the shootings of defectors at the Berlin Wall. He was also charged with misuse of office, breach of trust, and incitement to pervert the course of justice.
Bülowplatz trial
In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the 1931 first degree murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the transcripts from the 1934 trial of his co-conspirators, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke revealed that his role in, "the Bülowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing to Moscow from the Weimar Republic in 1931. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the documents for the purpose of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified that Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bülowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965.
During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plötzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution.
After twenty months of one-and-a-half-hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. At his sentencing, Mielke started to cry. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Imprisonment
Mielke was then put on trial for ordering the shootings of East Germans who were trying to defect to the West. In November 1994, the presiding judge adjourned the proceedings, ruling that Mielke was not mentally competent to stand trial.
During his incarceration, at JVA Moabit corrections officers supplied Mielke with a red telephone like the one in his office at Stasi Headquarters. Although it was not connected to the outside world, Mielke enjoyed having imaginary conversations with non-existent Stasi agents. His other favorite pastime was watching game shows on television.
In 1995, parole officers and Mielke's attorneys argued that he was "totally confused" and obtained his release. At 87 years of age, Erich Mielke was Germany's oldest prison inmate and had been incarcerated for 1,904 days. Days before his release, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin announced that he was "not interested in chasing an 87-year-old man anymore" and that all further prosecution of Mielke had been indefinitely suspended.
According to Koehler, "[Mielke's] bank account, which held more than 300,000 Marks (about US$187,500), was confiscated. Before his arrest in 1989, the most feared man in East Germany had lived in a luxurious home with access to an indoor pool. In addition, he owned a palatial hunting villa, complete with a movie theater, trophy room, 60 servants, and a 60 square kilometers hunting preserve. After he was released from prison Mielke was obliged to move into a two-room, 55-square-meter flat. Like all Stasi pensioners, he would henceforth have to live on 802 marks (about US$512) a month."
Death
Erich Mielke died on 21 May 2000, aged 92, in a Berlin nursing home. After being cremated at the crematorium in Meissen, an urn containing Mielke's ashes was buried in an unmarked grave at the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. An estimated 100 people reportedly attended the funeral. Erich Mielke's grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes. Within hours of his funeral, the flowers and wreaths left at Mielke's grave were ripped to shreds by persons unknown.
Legacy
Writing in 2003, Australian journalist Anna Funder declared, "The name Mielke has now come to mean 'Stasi.' Victims are dubiously honored to find his signature in their files: on plans for someone to be observed 'with all possible methods', on commands for arrest, for kidnapping, instructions to judges for sentencing, orders for 'liquidation'. The honor is dubious because... he signed so many."
In 2012, the museum at the former Stasi headquarters opened Mielke's office as a permanent exhibit. Soon after, The Guardian correspondent Tam Eastley visited the exhibit and numerous sites in Berlin connected to Mielke's life, times, and legacy. When she visited Mielke's grave, Eastley found that it had become a shrine for adherents of Ostalgie.
Personal life
Erich Mielke was a fitness enthusiast, a non-smoker, and drank very little. He was a keen hunter and owned a large area of ground where he would hunt animals with other East German and visiting Soviet officials.
During the late 1940s, when Mielke was working as security chief of the DWK, he began a relationship with Gertrud Mueller, a seamstress. On 18 December 1948, shortly after the birth of their son Frank Mielke, Erich and Gertrud married in a civil ceremony.
According to the newspaper Bild, the Mielkes adopted an orphaned girl named Ingrid, who was born in 1950. Like her adopted brother Frank, Ingrid Mielke attended the Wilhelm Pieck School. She ultimately became a captain in the Stasi and married a Stasi Lieutenant named Norbert Knappe. As of 1999, the Knappes had both refused to grant an interview to Bild reporters.
In popular culture
Erich Mielke has appeared as a character in both films and novels set in the GDR.
Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita (2000), which focuses on Stasi collusion with the West German far-left terrorist organization Rote Armee Fraktion. In conversation with fictional Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke), Mielke (Dietrich Körner) expresses admiration for the RAF's campaign against the United States, West Germany, and the State of Israel, which he compares with his own activities against the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. The RAF members are then brought to a training camp, where Stasi agents instruct them in the use of grenade launchers and other kinds of military hardware. Mielke's name is never disclosed and Agent Hull addresses him only as, "Comrade General." ()
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (2006), which focuses on the Stasi's surveillance and repression of the East German population. In the film, a previously loyal GDR playwright named Georg Dreymann (Sebastian Koch) publishes an anonymous article in the West German magazine Der Spiegel which accuses East Germany's Minister of Culture of having persecuted a blacklisted stage director until he hanged himself. Soon after the article goes to press, Mielke's voice is heard over the telephone giving a dressing down to fictional Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur). Addressed only as "Genosse Armeegeneral" (Mielke was the only person to ever hold that rank in the Stasi), Mielke threatens to throw Grubitz in front of a firing squad if he fails to identify and arrest the article's author.
In Philip Kerr's novel Field Grey (2010), Mielke first appears in 1931 Berlin, when protagonist Bernie Gunther saves him from being murdered by Nazi Brownshirts. The novel then flashes forward to 1954, when Gunther is recruited into a CIA plot to abduct Mielke from East Berlin.
Honours and awards
Mielke received a large number of awards and commemorative medals from organisations within the German Democratic Republic and from allied states. A more complete list is available (in German) at Liste der Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Erich Mielke.
Awards of the German Democratic Republic
Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (7 October 1954)
Six Orders of Karl Marx (28 December 1957, 20 November 1973, 1 December 1975, 28 December 1977, 28 June 1982, 28 December 1982)
Twice Hero of Labour of the GDR (5 October 1964, 24 February 1968)
Twice Hero of the GDR (1 December 1975, 28 December 1982)
Banner of Labour (8 May 1960)
Medal for Exemplary Border Service (26 April 1956)
Medal for Faithful Service in the National People's Army;
Bronze (7 October 1957)
Silver (8 February 1959)
Gold (1 July 1960)
Gold for 20 years service (8 February 1965)
Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (6 September 1958)
Gold Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (1 March 1957)
Scharnhorst Order, twice (25 September 1979, 7 October 1984)
Awards of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union (25 December 1987)
Four Orders of Lenin (12 June 1973, 28 December 1982, 1 April 1985, 28 December 1987)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (6 May 1970)
Four Orders of the Red Banner (23 October 1958, 5 February 1968, 28 December 1977, February 1980)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Soviet Militia" (20 December 1967)
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" (1970)
Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR" (6 January 1970)
Order of the October Revolution (February 1975)
Other states
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 28 December 1982)
Order of Friendship (Czechoslovakia) (28 December 1982)
Order of the Red Star (Czechoslovakia) (16 November 1970)
References
Further reading
Buckley, Jr., William F. (2004), The Fall of the Berlin Wall, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Funder, Anna (2003), Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books, London.
Kuchel, Dany (2011) "Le Glaive et le Bouclier", une histoire de la Stasi en France.
Otto, Wilfriede, Erich Mielke, Biographie: Aufstieg und Fall eines Tschekisten. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2000, .
Peterson, Edward N. (2002). The Secret Police and the Revolution: The Fall of the German Democratic Republic, Praeger Publications, Westport, Connecticut. London.
Pickard, Ralph (2007). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide. Frontline Historical Publishing.
Pickard, Ralph (2012). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II. Frontline Historical Publication.
1907 births
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German military personnel of World War II | true | [
"The 31st edition of the Deutschland Tour cycle race took place in Germany from August 10 to August 18, 2007. It did not start with the traditional prologue but with a normal stage. The race included a team time trial, an individual time trial and seven stages, covering a total of . The race began in Saarbrücken and finished in Hanover. For the second year in a row Jens Voigt held off Levi Leipheimer to take the victory.\n\nFinal General Classification\n\nTeams\n23 teams took part. Of the 20 ProTour teams, only did not take part (the team was in crisis from doping results at the 2007 Tour de France). Four non-ProTour teams were given a wildcard invitation: Skil-Shimano, Team Volksbank, Team Wiesenhof-Felt and Elk Haus-Simplon.\n\nStages\n\nStage 1 Saarbrücken 183.7 km Friday, August 10\n\nStage 2 Bretten Team Time Trial 42.2 km Saturday, August 11\n\nStage 3 Pforzheim – Offenburg 181.8 km Sunday, August 12\n\nStage 4 Singen – Sonthofen 183.8 km Monday, August 13\n\nStage 5 Singen – Sölden (Austria) 157.6 km Tuesday, August 14\n\nStage 6 Längenfeld (Austria) – Kufstein (Austria) 175 km Wednesday, August 15\n\nStage 7 Kufstein (Austria) – Regensburg 192.2 km Thursday, August 16\n\nStage 8 Fürth Individual Time Trial 33.1 km Friday, August 17\n\nStage 9 Einbeck – Hannover 143.1 km Saturday, August 18 \n\nStage 9 Result\n\nJersey progress\n\nExternal links\nRace website\n\n2007\nDeutschland Tour\n2007 UCI ProTour",
"The fifth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! began on 20 November 2005 and ended on 5 December 2005. The programme ran for 16 days (18 days if counting the day the celebrities arrived and the morning the finalists exited). The series was won by Carol Thatcher.\n\nContestants\n12 contestants participated, one more than in the previous series.\n\nResults and elimination\n\n Indicates that the celebrity received the fewest votes and was immediately eliminated (no bottom two)\n Indicates that the celebrity was in the bottom two in the public vote\n\nBushtucker Trials\nThe contestants take part in daily trials to earn food. The participants are chosen by the public, up until the first eviction, when the campers decide who will take part in the trial\n\n The public voted for who they wanted to face the trial\n The contestants decided who did which trial\n The trial was compulsory and neither the public or celebrities decided who took part\n\nStar count\n\nReferences\n\n2005 British television seasons\n05"
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[
"Erich Mielke",
"Bulowplatz trial",
"When did the trial take place?",
"1992,"
]
| C_5879ec3395ef473987bcbbff52d1eee2_1 | What was the verdict? | 2 | What was the verdict of the 1992 Bulowplatz trial? | Erich Mielke | In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the first degree murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the 1934 trial transcripts, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke had admitted that, "the Bulowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing Germany. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the files for purposes of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified about how Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bulowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965. During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plotzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (German: "Ich mochte in mein Bett zuruck."). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution. After twenty months of one-and-a-half hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century." CANNOTANSWER | convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. | Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
A native of Berlin and a second-generation member of the Communist Party of Germany, Mielke was one of two triggermen in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. After learning that a witness had survived, Mielke escaped arrest by fleeing to the Soviet Union, where the NKVD recruited him. He was one of the key figures in the decimation of Moscow's German Communists during the Great Purge as well as in the persecution of suspected anti-Stalinists in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany, which he helped organize into a Marxist-Leninist satellite state under the Socialist Unity Party (SED), later becoming head of the Stasi. According to historian Jack Koehler, he was "the longest serving secret police chief in the Soviet Bloc".
The Stasi under Mielke has been called by historian Edward Peterson the "most pervasive police state apparatus ever to exist on German soil". In a 1993 interview, Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal has said that, if one considers only the oppression of their own people, the Stasi under Mielke was "much, much worse than the Gestapo".
During the 1950s and 1960s Mielke led the process of forcibly forming collectivised farms from East Germany's family-owned farms, which sent a flood of refugees to West Germany. In response, Mielke oversaw the construction (1961) of the Berlin Wall and co-signed orders to shoot fatally all East Germans who attempted to leave the country. He also oversaw the establishment of pro-Soviet police states and paramilitary insurgencies in Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
In addition to his role as head of the Stasi, Mielke was also an Army General in the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee), and a member of the SED's ruling Politburo. Dubbed "The Master of Fear" () by the West German press, Mielke was one of the most powerful and most hated men in East Germany.
After German reunification in 1990, Mielke was arrested (1991), prosecuted (1992), convicted, and incarcerated (1993) for the 1931 murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. Released from prison early due to ill health in 1995, he died in a Berlin nursing home in 2000.
Early life
Erich Mielke was born in a tenement in Berlin-Wedding, Brandenburg, on 28 December 1907. During the First World War, the neighborhood was known as "Red Wedding" due to many residents' Marxist militancy. In a handwritten biography written for the Soviet secret police, Mielke described his father as "a poor, uneducated woodworker," and said that his mother died in 1911. Both were, he said, members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After his remarriage to "a seamstress," the elder Mielke and his new wife joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and remained members when it was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). His son Erich claimed "My younger brother Kurt and two sisters were Communist sympathisers."
Despite his family's poverty, Erich Mielke was academically gifted enough to be awarded a free scholarship in the prestigious Köllnisches Gymnasium, but was expelled on 19 February 1929, for being "unable to meet the great demands of this school." While attending the Gymnasium, Mielke joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1925, and worked as a reporter for the communist newspaper Rote Fahne from 1928 to 1931.
During the Weimar Republic, the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and was seen as the "leading party" of the communist movement outside the Soviet Union. Under Ernst Thälmann's leadership, the KPD was completely obedient to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the Party was both funded and controlled by the Comintern in Moscow.
Until the end of the Republic, the KPD viewed the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which dominated German politics between 1918 and 1931, as their mortal enemy. In keeping with Stalin's policy towards social democracy, the KPD considered all SPD members to be "social fascists". The KPD also believed that all other political parties were "fascist" and regarded itself as "the only anti-fascist Party" in Germany. Nevertheless, the KPD closely collaborated with the Nazi Party during the early 1930s and both Parties intended to replace the democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic with a totalitarian single party state.
Soon after joining the Party, Mielke joined the KPD's paramilitary wing, or Parteiselbstschutz ("Party Self Defense Unit"). At the time, the Parteiselbstschutz in Berlin was commanded by KPD Reichstag Representatives Hans Kippenberger and Heinz Neumann.
According to John Koehler, "Mielke was a special protege of Kippenberger's having taken to his paramilitary training with the enthusiasm of a Prussian Junker. World War I veterans taught the novices how to handle pistols, rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades. This clandestine training was conducted in the sparsely populated, pastoral countryside surrounding Berlin. Mielke also pleased Kippenberger by being an exceptional student in classes on the arts of conspiratorial behavior and espionage, taught by comrades who had studied at the secret M-school of the GRU in Moscow."
According to John Koehler, members of the Parteiselbstschutz "served as bouncers at Party meetings and specialized in cracking heads during street battles with political enemies." Besides the ruling SPD and its paramilitary Reichsbanner forces, the arch-enemies of the Parteiselbstschutz were the Stahlhelm, which was the armed wing of the Monarchist German National People's Party (DVNP), Trotskyites, and "radical nationalist parties."
According to Koehler, the KPD's Selbstschutz men "always carried a Stahlrute, two steel springs that telescoped into a tube seventeen centimeters long, which when extended became a deadly, 35-centimeter weapon. Not to be outdone by the Nazis, these street-fighters were often armed with pistols as well."
In a 1931 biography written for the Cadre Division of the Comintern, Mielke recalled, "We took care of all kinds of work; terror acts, protecting illegal demonstrations and meetings, arms-trafficking, etc. The last work, which was accomplished by a Comrade and myself, was the Bülowplatz Affair" ().
Bülowplatz murders
Planning
During the last days of the Weimar Republic, the KPD had a policy of assassinating two Berlin police officers in retaliation for every KPD member killed by the police.
On 2 August 1931, KPD Members of the Reichstag Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger received a dressing down from Walter Ulbricht, the Party's leader in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Enraged by police interference and by Neumann and Kippenberger's failure to follow the policy, Ulbricht stated, "At home in Saxony we would have done something about the police a long time ago. Here in Berlin we will not fool around much longer. Soon we will hit the police in the head."
Enraged by Ulbricht's words, Kippenberger and Neumann decided to assassinate Paul Anlauf, the 42-year-old Captain of the Berlin Police's Seventh Precinct. Captain Anlauf, a widower with three daughters, had been nicknamed "Schweinebacke", or "Pig Face" by the KPD.
According to historian John Koehler, "Of all the policemen in strife-torn Berlin, the reds hated Anlauf the most. His precinct included the area around KPD headquarters, which made it the most dangerous in the city. The captain almost always led the riot squads that broke up illegal rallies of the Communist Party."
On the morning of Sunday 9 August 1931, Kippenberger and Neumann gave a last briefing to the hit-team in a room at the Lassant beer hall. Mielke and Erich Ziemer were selected as the shooters. During the meeting, Max Matern gave a Luger pistol to fellow lookout Max Thunert and said, "Now we're getting serious. We're going to give Schweinebacke something to remember us by."
Kippenberger then asked Mielke and Ziemer, "Are you sure that you are ready to shoot Schweinebacke?" Mielke responded that he had seen Anlauf many times during police searches of Party Headquarters. Kippenberger then instructed them to wait at a nearby beer hall which would permit them to overlook the entire Bülow-Platz. He further reminded them that Anlauf was accompanied everywhere by Senior Sergeant Max Willig, whom the KPD had nicknamed, "Hussar".
Kippenberger concluded, "When you spot Schweinebacke and Hussar, you take care of them." Mielke and Ziemer were informed that, after the assassinations were completed, a diversion would assist in their escape. They were then to return to their homes and await further instructions.
That evening, Anlauf was lured to Bülow-Platz by a violent rally demanding the dissolution of the Prussian Parliament.
According to Koehler, "As was often the case when it came to battling the dominant SPD, the KPD and the Nazis had combined forces during the pre-plebiscite campaign. At one point in this particular campaign, Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels even shared a speaker's platform with KPD agitator Walter Ulbricht. Both parties wanted the parliament dissolved because they were hoping that new elections would oust the SPD, the sworn enemy of all radicals. That fact explained why the atmosphere was particularly volatile this Sunday."
Murder at the Babylon Cinema
At eight o'clock that evening, Mielke and Ziemer waited in a doorway as Anlauf, Willig, and Captain Franz Lenck walked toward the Babylon Cinema, which was located at the corner of Bülowplatz and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. As they reached the door of the movie house, the policemen heard someone scream, "Schweinebacke!"
As Anlauf turned toward the sound, Mielke and Ziemer opened fire at point blank range. Willig was wounded in the left arm and the stomach. However, he managed to draw his Luger pistol and fired a full magazine at the assailants. Lenck was shot in the chest and fell dead in front of the entrance. Willig crawled over and cradled the head of Anlauf, who had taken two bullets in the neck.
Meanwhile, Mielke and Ziemer made their escape by running into the theater and out an emergency exit. They tossed their pistols over a fence, where they were later found by Homicide Detectives from the elite Mordkommission. Mielke and Ziemer then returned to their homes.
According to Koehler, "Back at Bülowplatz, the killings had triggered a major police action. At least a thousand officers poured into the square, and a bloody street battle ensued. Rocks and bricks were hurled from the rooftops. Communist gunmen fired indiscriminately from the roofs of surrounding apartment houses. As darkness fell, police searchlights illuminated the buildings. Using megaphones, officers shouted, "Clear the streets! Move away from the windows! We are returning fire!" By now the rabble had fled the square, but shooting continued as riot squads combed the tenements, arresting hundreds of residents suspected of having fired weapons. The battle lasted until one o'clock the next morning. In addition to the two police officers, the casualties included one Communist who died of a gunshot wound and seventeen others who were seriously wounded."
Anlauf's wife had died three weeks earlier of kidney failure. The murder of Anlauf thus left their three daughters as orphans. Their oldest daughter was forced to rush her planned wedding in order to keep her sisters from being put in an orphanage. Lenck was survived by his wife. Willig was hospitalized for 14 weeks, but made a full recovery and returned to active duty. In recognition for Willig's courage, the Berlin Police promoted him to Lieutenant.
After the murders, the act was celebrated at the Lichtenberger Hof, a favorite beer hall of the Rotfrontkämpferbund, where Mielke boasted: "Today we celebrate a job that I pulled!" ()
Fugitive
According to Koehler, "Kippenberger was alarmed when word reached him that Sergeant Willig had survived the shooting. Not knowing whether the sergeant could talk and identify the attackers, Kippenberger was taking no chances. He directed a runner to summon Mielke and Ziemer to his apartment at 74 Bellermannstrasse, only a few minutes walk from where the two lived. When the assassins arrived, Kippenberger told them the news and ordered them to leave Berlin at once. The parliamentarian's wife Thea, an unemployed schoolteacher and as staunch a Communist Party member as her husband, shepherded the young murderers to the Belgian border. Agents of the Communist International (Comintern) in the port city of Antwerp supplied them with money and forged passports. Aboard a merchant ship, they sailed for Leningrad. When their ship docked, they were met by another Comintern representative, who escorted them to Moscow."
Beginning in 1932, Mielke attended the Comintern's Military Political school under the alias Paul Bach. He later graduated from the Lenin School shortly before being recruited into the OGPU.
Trial
According to Koehler, "In mid-March 1933, while attending the Lenin School, Mielke received word from his OGPU sponsors that Berlin police had arrested Max Thunert, one of the conspirators in the Anlauf and Lenck murders. Within days, fifteen other members of the assassination team were in custody. Mielke had to wait six more months before the details of the police action against his Berlin comrades reached Moscow. On 14 September 1933, Berlin newspapers reported that all fifteen had confessed to their roles in the murders. Arrest warrants were issued for ten others who had fled, including Mielke, Ziemer, Ulbricht, Kippenberger, and Neumann."
Koehler also stated, "Defenders of Mielke later claimed that confessions had been obtained under torture by the Nazi Gestapo. However, all suspects were in the custody of the regular Berlin city criminal investigation bureau, most of whose detectives were SPD members. Some of the suspects had been nabbed by Nazi SA men and probably beaten before they were turned over to police. In the 1993 trial of Mielke, the court gave the defense the benefit of the doubt and threw out a number of suspect confessions."
On 19 June 1934, the 15 conspirators were convicted of first degree murder. The three deemed most culpable, Michael Klause, Max Matern, and Friedrich Bröde were sentenced to death. Their co-defendants received sentences ranging from nine months to fifteen years incarceration at hard labor. Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation. Bröde hanged himself in his cell. As a result, only Matern was left to be executed by beheading on 22 May 1935.
Matern was subsequently glorified as a martyr by KPD and East German propaganda. Ziemer was officially killed in action while fighting on the Republican-side during the Spanish Civil War. Mielke, however, would not face trial for the murders until 1993.
Career in Soviet intelligence
The Great Terror
Although Moscow's German Communist community was decimated during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Mielke survived and was promoted.
In a handwritten autobiography prepared after World War II, Mielke recalled, "During my stay in the S.U. (Soviet Union), I participated in all Party discussions of the K.P.D. and also in the problems concerning the establishment of socialism and in the trials against the traitors and enemies of the S.U."
Among the German communists executed as a result of these "discussions" were Mielke's former mentors Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger.
Mielke further recalled, "I was a guest on the honor grandstand of Red Square during the May Day and October Revolution parades. I became acquainted with many comrades of the Federation of World Communist Parties and the War Council of the Special Commission of the Comintern. I will never forget my meeting with Comrade Dimitrov, the Chairman of the Comintern, whom I served as an aide together with another comrade. I saw Comrade Stalin during all demonstrations at Red Square, especially when I stood on the grandstand. I mention these meetings because all these comrades are our models and teachers for our work."
During his time in the USSR, Mielke also developed a lifelong reverence for Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Polish aristocrat who founded the Soviet secret police. Mielke also began an equally permanent habit of calling himself a Chekist.
In a citation written decades later, Mielke described his philosophy of life, "The Chekist is the political combatant. He is the loyal son of... the workers' class. He stands at the head of the battle to strengthen the power of our workers' and peasants' state."
Spanish Civil War
From 1936 to 1939, Mielke served in Spain as an operative of the Servicio de Investigación Militar, the political police of the Second Spanish Republic. While attached to the staff of, "veteran GRU agent," and future Stasi minister Wilhelm Zaisser, Mielke used the alias Fritz Leissner. Bernd Kaufmann, the director of the Stasi's espionage school later said, "The Soviets trusted Mielke implicitly. He earned his spurs in Spain."
At the time, the S.I.M. was heavily staffed by agents of the Soviet NKVD, whose Spanish rezident was General Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and International Brigade commanders than on fighting Franco. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics."
In a 1991 interview, Walter Janka, a fellow German communist exile and company commander in the International Brigade, recalled his encounters with Mielke. During the winter of 1936, Janka was summoned by the SIM and interrogated by Mielke. Mielke demanded to know why Janka had voluntarily traveled to Spain rather than being assigned there by the Party. When he told Mielke to get lost, the SIM demoted Janka to the ranks and then expelled him from the International Brigade. Years later, Janka recalled, "While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists."
Upon the defeat of the Spanish Republic, Mielke fled across the Pyrenees Mountains to France, where he was interned at Camp de Rivesaltes, Pyrénées-Orientales. Mielke, however, managed to send a message to exiled KPD members and, in May 1939, escaped to Belgium. Although the Public Prosecutor of Berlin learned of Mielke's presence and filed for his extradition, the Belgian Government refused to comply, regarding the assassinations of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as "a political crime."
The NKVD and the SIM's witch hunt for both real and imagined anti-Stalinists had serious consequences. It horrified numerous formerly pro-Soviet Westerners who had been witnesses, including John Dos Passos, Arthur Koestler and George Orwell, and caused them to permanently turn against the USSR.
Mielke's belief that anti-Soviet Marxists had collaborated with Franco and stabbed the Republic in the back continued to shape his attitudes for the rest of his life. In a 1982 speech before a group of senior Stasi officers, he said, "We are not immune from villains among us. If I knew of any already, they wouldn't live past tomorrow. Short shrift. It's because I'm a Humanist, that I'm of this view."
In the same speech, Mielke also said, "All this blithering over to execute or not to execute, for the death penalty or against—all rot, Comrades. Execute! And, when necessary, without a court judgment."
World War II
During World War II, Mielke's movements remain mysterious. In a biography written after the war, he claimed to have infiltrated Organisation Todt under the alias Richard Hebel, but historian John O. Koehler considers this unlikely.
Koehler admits, however, "Mielke's exploits must have been substantial. By war's end, he had been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War First Class, and twice with the Order of Lenin. It is likely that he served as an NKVD agent, at least part of the time with guerrilla units behind German lines, for he knew all the partisan songs by heart and sang them in faultless Russian."
Occupied Germany
Komissariat-5
In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.
That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."
On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No. 2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services.
In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke disclosed—truthfully—his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, and—mistakenly or misleadingly—that for this he had been tried in absentia, found guilty, and sentenced to death. In actuality, Mielke's "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried". He admitted—truthfully—fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed—falsely—that he had been released from the French internment camps and had worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston". Furthermore, Mielke concealed his past and contemporaneous involvement with the NKVD, NKGB, and the Nazi Organisation Todt (which he asserted he'd infiltrated).
According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets. Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers. But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."
On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany.
According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan. In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a "new Gestapo." Furthermore, Abakumov, like Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked." Notwithstanding Abakumov's objections, however, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately. It is possible, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers' lack of fluency in the German language was engendering massive popular resentment.
Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head. Mielke was installed as his deputy.
According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police. Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons. Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party. Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision. The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them. Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."
According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees. Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers. In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary rule of law."
According to Edward N. Peterson, "Not surprisingly, K-5 acquired a reputation as bad as that of Stalin's secret police and worse than that of the Gestapo. At least with the Nazis, albeit fanatically racist, their victims did not suddenly disappear into the GULAG."
The Amalgamation
Despite the K-5's mass arrests of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Zone, the number of SPD members continued to grow. By March 1946, SPD members outnumbered KPD members by more than 100,000. Fearing that they would lose the elections scheduled for the autumn, the leadership of the KPD asked for and received Stalin's permission to merge the two parties. When the SPD's leadership agreed only to schedule a vote for the rank and file to decide, permission was denied by the Soviet occupation authorities. The K-5 then began mass arrests of SPD members who refused to support the merger.
On 22 April 1946, the remaining leaders of the SPD in the Soviet Zone announced that they had united with the KPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SPD in the western zones of Occupied Germany responded by forming the SPD East Bureau in order to support and finance those Social Democrats who refused to accept the merger. Those who joined or worked with the East Bureau were, however, in serious danger of arrest by the K-5 and trial by Soviet military tribunals. By 1950, more than 5,000 SPD members and sympathisers had been imprisoned in the Soviet Zone or transferred to the GULAG. More than 400 were either executed or died during their imprisonments.
John Koehler has written that, prior to the spring of 1946, many Germans in the Soviet Zone, "merely shrugged at the wave of arrests, believing that the victims were former Nazi officials and war criminals." But then came the mass arrests of Social Democrats who opposed the merger, who, "were joined by people who had been denounced for making anti-communist or anti-Soviet remarks, among their number hundreds who were as young as fourteen years. Although these arrests were made by Germans purporting to be officials of the criminal police, the existence of the K-5 political police eventually was exposed. Mielke, meanwhile, had risen to the post of vice-president of the German Administration for Interior Affairs – the equivalent of the NKVD – and continued his manipulations from behind the scenes."
Investigation
In January 1947, two retired Berlin policemen recognized Mielke at an official function. Informing the head of the criminal police in West Berlin, the policemen demanded that Mielke be arrested and prosecuted for the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. Wilhelm Kühnast, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin, was immediately informed and ordered a search of the Kammergericht archives. To his astonishment, the files of the 1931 murders had survived the wartime bombing of Germany. Finding ample evidence of Mielke's involvement, Kühnast ordered the arrest of the communist policeman.
According to John Koehler, "At that time, the city administration, including the police, was under the control of the Allied Control Commission, which consisted of U.S., British, French, and Soviet military officers. All actions by city officials, including the judiciary, were to be reported to the Commission. The Soviet representative alerted the MGB. Action was swift. Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, who had replaced Zhukov, protested, and his representatives at the Commission launched a vicious campaign to discredit Kühnast."
The Soviet representatives falsely claimed that Kühnast, a jurist with an impeccable anti-Nazi record, had been an official of Roland Freisler's People's Court. Taking the Soviets at their word, the Western Allies removed Kühnast from his position and placed him under house arrest. During the Berlin airlift, Kühnast fled from his home in East Berlin and was granted political asylum in the American Zone.
Meanwhile, the Soviet authorities confiscated all documents relating to the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. According to Koehler, "The Soviets handed the court records to Mielke. Instead of destroying the incriminating papers, he locked them in his private safe, where they were found when his home was searched in 1990. They were used against him in his trial for murder."
Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission
In 1948, Mielke was appointed as security chief of the German Economic Commission (), the precursor to the future East German government.
Mielke's task was to investigate the theft and sale of state property on the black market. He was also charged with intercepting the growing number of refugees fleeing to the French, British, and American Zones.
Those his security forces caught while attempting to defect were used as slave labor in the uranium mines that were providing raw material for the Soviet atomic bomb project.
German Democratic Republic
Independence
In 1949, the Soviet Military Administration ceded its legal functions to the newly created German Democratic Republic.
On 14 January 1950, Marshal Vasili Chuikov announced that all Soviet "internment camps" on German soil had been closed. Soon after, the DWK was absorbed into the newly created Ministry for State Security. In keeping with earlier syllabic abbreviations along the same lines (see OrPo, KriPo, and GeStaPo) East Germans immediately dubbed it the "Stasi" (from Staatssicherheit). With the approval of the Soviets, Mielke's commanding officer from Spain and in the K5, Wilhelm Zaisser, was appointed as the Stasi's head. Mielke was appointed to his staff with the rank of State Secretary. Mielke was also granted a seat in the SED's ruling Politburo.
According to John Koehler, "In the five years since the end of World War II, the Soviets and their vassals had arrested between 170,000 and 180,000 Germans. Some 160,000 had passed through the concentration camps, and of these about 65,000 had died, 36,000 had been shipped to the Soviet Gulag, and another 46,000 had been freed."
In 1949, as a response to the remilitarization of East Germany and the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Portugal formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. In 1950, as a response to the outbreak of the Korean War, West Germany was also permitted to join NATO, which was then upgraded into a military alliance.
According to Koehler, however, "As the Cold War intensified, living conditions in Soviet-occupied East Germany showed little improvement beyond the postwar level of bare subsistence. The new government of the DDR – a mere puppet of the Kremlin – relied more and more on the Stasi to quell discontent among factory workers and farmers. Ulbricht, claiming that the social unrest was fomented by capitalist agents, once ordered Mielke to personally visit one large plant and 'arrest four or five such agents' as an example to the others. The Stasi deputy 'discovered' the agents in record time."
Field show trials
Also in 1949, Noel Field, an American citizen who had spied for the NKVD from inside the U.S. State Department, the Office of Strategic Services, and the CIA, fled from his posting in Switzerland to Communist Czechoslovakia after his cover was blown by fellow mole Whittaker Chambers. On 11 May 1949, the Czechoslovakian secret police, or StB, in obedience to a direct order from KGB chief Lavrenti Beria, arrested Field in Prague. Field was then handed over to the Hungarian ÁVO. After his interrogation in Budapest, Fields was used as a witness at show trials of senior Soviet Bloc Communists who, like László Rajk and Rudolf Slánský, stood accused of having spied for the United States. The real reason for the trials was to replace homegrown Communists in Eastern Europe with those who would be blindly loyal to Joseph Stalin and to blame the division of Germany on the intrigues of U.S. intelligence.
At the Rajk show trial, the prosecutor declared, "Noel Field, one of the leaders of American espionage, specialized in recruiting spies from among left-wing elements."
In August 1950, six senior SED members, including Willi Kreikemeyer, the director of Deutsche Reichsbahn and head of Berliner Rundfunk, were accused of "special connections with Noel Field, the American spy." All were either imprisoned or shot.
John Koehler writes, "Similar purges were conducted in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, where Field appeared as a witness in show trials that resulted in some death sentences. The Soviets simply distrusted all Communists who had sought exile in the West. All the while, Mielke remained untouched and continued to serve as the deputy secret police chief. His survival reinforced the belief that he had spent the war years in the Soviet Union instead of France and Belgium as he had claimed in the 1945 questionnaire."
In June 1950, Erica Wallach, Noel Field's adopted daughter, decided to search for him. From Paris, she telephoned Leo Bauer, the editor-in-chief of Berliner Rundfunk. The call was monitored by agents of the Soviet Ministry for Internal Affairs, and Bauer's handler instructed him to invite Mrs. Wallach to East Berlin, where she was immediately arrested. Mielke personally interrogated her and, at one point, offered Mrs. Wallach immediate release if she named the members of her fictitious spy network. She was condemned to death by a Soviet military tribunal in East Berlin and shipped to the Lubianka prison in Moscow for her execution. After Joseph Stalin's death in on 5 March 1953, Erica Wallach's sentence was reduced to hard labor in Vorkuta, a region of the Gulag located above the Arctic Circle. She was released during the Khrushchev thaw in October 1955. At first, she was unable to join her husband and daughters in the U.S. because of the U.S. State Department's concern over her former membership in the Communist Party of Germany. It took the personal intervention of CIA Director Allen Dulles to reunite Erica Wallach with her family in 1957. Wallach's memoir of her experiences, Light at Midnight, was published in 1967.
Death of Stalin
After Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin died inside his Kuntsevo Dacha on 5 March 1953, the Central Committee of the East German Socialist Unity Party met in a special session and eulogized the dictator as the "great friend of Germany who was always an advisor of and help to our people."
Two months later, on 5 May 1953, the SED's General Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, and the rest of the leadership increased work quotas by 10%. They also decided to rename Chemnitz Karl-Marx-Stadt and to institute the Order of Karl Marx as the GDR's highest award.
Two weeks later, Mielke accused "a group of Party officials" of "plotting against the leadership", which "resulted in more expulsions from the Politburo and the Central Committee."
East German uprising of 1953
Discontent among factory workers about a 10% increase of work quotas without a corresponding wage hike boiled over. On 16 June 1953, nearly one hundred construction workers gathered before work for a protest meeting at Stalinallee, in East Berlin. Words spread rapidly to other construction sites and hundreds of men and women joined the rally, which marched to the House of Ministries. The protesters chanted slogans for five hours, demanding to speak to Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl. Only Heavy Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann and Professor Robert Havemann, president of the GDR Peace Council, emerged. Their speech, however, was answered with jeers and the Ministers retreated into the heavily armed building. The regular and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei were summoned from their barracks, but made no move to attack the protesters, who returned to Stalinallee, where a general strike was called.
Following West Germany's Federal Minister for All-German Questions Jakob Kaiser's admonition in a late night broadcast to East Germans to shy away from provocations, RIAS, starting with its 11 pm news broadcast, and from then on in hourly intermissions, repeated the workers' demand to continue the strike the next day, calling specifically for all East Berliners to participate in a demo at 7am on the 17th at Strausberger Platz.
The following day, 17 June 1953, more that 100,000 protesters took to the streets of East Berlin. More than 400,000 protesters also took to the streets in other cities and towns throughout the German Democratic Republic. Everywhere, the demands were the same: free elections by secret ballot.
Outside of Berlin, the main centres of the protests included the industrial region around Halle, Merseburg, and Bitterfeld, as well as middle-size towns like Jena, Görlitz, and Brandenburg. No more than 25,000 people participated in strikes and demonstrations in Leipzig, but there were 32,000 in Magdeburg, 43,000 in Dresden, 53,000 in Potsdam – and in Halle, a figure close to 100,000.
In West Berlin, the American radio station RIAS and several other West German stations reported on the protests and on plans for a general strike. As East Germans listened to the broadcasts, 267,000 workers at State-owned plants in 304 cities and towns joined the general strike. In 24 towns, outraged East Germans stormed the Stasi's prisons and freed between 2,000 and 3,000 political prisoners.
In response to orders, the Soviet Occupation Forces, the Stasi and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei went on the attack. Bloody street battles ensued and hundreds of policemen defected to the side of the protesters. Both police and Stasi stations were overrun and some government offices were sacked. The Party leadership retreated into a fortified compound in the Pankow district of East Berlin.
At noon, the Soviet authorities terminated all tram and metro traffic into the Eastern sector and all but closed the sector borders to West Berlin to prevent more demonstrators from reaching the city centre. An hour later, they declared martial law in East Berlin.
The repression took place outside East Berlin police HQ – where Soviet tanks opened fire on "the insurgents".
According to John Koehler, "... by late afternoon, Soviet tanks accompanied by Infantry and MVD troops had rolled into East Berlin and other cities in the Soviet Zone. This made the people even angrier. At Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, which bordered on the American Sector, irate protesters ignored machine gun fire and the menacing barrels of tank guns. They ripped cobblestones from the streets and hurled them at the tanks."
Fighting between the Red Army (and later GDR police) and the demonstrators persisted into the afternoon and night. In some cases, the tanks and the soldiers fired directly into the crowds.
Overnight, the Soviets (and the Stasi) started to arrest hundreds of people. Ultimately, up to 10,000 people were detained and at least 20, probably as many as 40, people were executed, including Red Army soldiers who refused to obey orders. With the SED leadership effectively paralysed at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, control of the city passed to the Soviets.
In honor of the uprising, West Germany established 17 June as a national holiday, called Day of German Unity. The extension of the Unter den Linden boulevard to the west of the Brandenburg Gate, formerly called Charlottenburger Chaussee, was also renamed Straße des 17. Juni ("17 June Street") in honor of the uprising.
According to John Koehler, "Provisional prison camps were set up to hold the thousands of Stasi victims. Nearly 1,500 persons were sentenced in secret trials to long prison terms. On 24 June, Mielke issued a terse announcement that one Stasi officer, nineteen demonstrators, and two bystanders had been killed during the uprising. He did not say how many were victims of official lynching. The numbers of the wounded were given as 191 policemen, 126 demonstrators, and 61 bystanders."
Also according to Koehler, "Calm returned to the streets of the Soviet Zone, yet escapes to the West continued at a high rate. Of the 331,390 who fled in 1953, 8,000 were members of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the barracked people's police units, which were actually the secret cadre of the future East German Army. Also among the escapees were 2,718 members and candidates of the SED, the ruling Party."
The Khrushchev thaw
Purges
Alarmed by the uprising, Lavrenty Beria, the First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, personally travelled from Moscow to East Berlin. He conferred with Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser and with Mielke, his deputy, both of whom he had known since the early 1930s. During both conversations, Beria demanded to know why the Stasi had failed to recognize the extreme discontent of the population and inform the Party leadership, which could then have prevented the uprising by taking extremely repressive measures in advance. Both Zaisser and Mielke answered Beria's questions circumspectly, and were accordingly left in their posts.
In response to the uprising, Beria decided to replace several hundred MVD officers, including Major General Ivan Fadeykin, the MVD resident of East Germany. The Stasi, according to John Koehler, "generally remained untouched except for the arrests and dismissals, for dereliction of duty, of a handful of officers in the provinces. One high-ranking Stasi officer shot himself."
Following Beria's return to Moscow, however, he was arrested on 26 June 1953, in a coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Beria was tried on charges of 357 counts of rape and high treason. He was sentenced to death and shot by Red Army Colonel-General Pavel Batitsky on 23 December 1953.
In an interview to Neues Deutschland, the official party newspaper of East Germany, on 30 June 1953, the Party's Minister of Justice, Max Fechner, declared that, "illegal arrests," had been made and that being a member of a strike committee or suspicion of being a ringleader was not in itself grounds for arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, when the East German Politburo met on 8 July, it seemed that Ulbricht would be deposed as Party General Secretary. Zaisser conceded that the whole Politburo was responsible for the "accelerated construction of socialism" and of the subsequent fallout. But he also added that to leave Ulbricht as Premier, "would be opposed catastrophic for the New Course".
By the end of the meeting, only two Politburo members still supported Ulbricht's leadership: Free German Youth League chief Erich Honecker and Party Control Commission Chairman Hermann Matern. Ulbricht only managed to forestall a decision then and there with a promise to make a statement at the forthcoming 15th SED CC Plenum, scheduled for later that month.
Meanwhile, Mielke informed a Party commission looking for scapegoats that his boss, Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser, was calling for secret negotiations with West Germany and that, "he believed the Soviet Union would abandon the DDR."
By late July, Ulbricht was completely certain that he had the support of the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Therefore, he expelled his main opponents, Zaisser, Hernstadt and Ackermann, from the Politburo, and thus strengthened his position further.
SED Minister of Justice Max Fechner was personally arrested by Mielke and replaced by Hilde Benjamin, who was known to East German citizens as "Red Hilde", "The Red Freisler," and as, "The Red Guillotine," for her role as a judge in the SED's show trials.
Fechner was convicted of being, "an enemy of the Party and the State," and served three years in Bautzen Prison.
Wilhelm Zaisser was replaced as head of the Stasi by Ernst Wollweber and Mielke remained on staff as his deputy.
Tenure as Stasi head
Mielke headed the Stasi from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There was, under the East German system, no provision for parliamentary oversight. However, starting in 1971 Mielke was required to provide a detailed intelligence briefing to party secretary Erich Honecker each Tuesday, directly following the weekly Politburo meeting. (Before 1971, under Walter Ulbricht, Mielke was not involved in routine intelligence briefings to the leadership which, instead, were provided directly to Ulbricht by Intelligence Chief Markus Wolf.)
Internal discipline
During his tenure, Mielke enforced "political and personal discipline reminiscent of the early French Foreign Legion". New recruits were required to take a solemn oath pledging "to fight alongside the state security organs of all socialist countries against all enemies of socialism" on pain of "the severest punishment under the Republic's laws and the contempt of the workers." Recruits were also required to sign a security pledge vowing never to make unauthorized visits to any "capitalist countries" and to report on any members of their families who did so.
Violations of the oath resulted in expulsion from the Stasi and blacklisting from all but the most menial jobs. Serious violations were tried before secret tribunals and led an estimated 200 Stasi agents to be shot. Colonel Rainer Wiegand once said, "There was only one way to leave the MfS without being haunted for the rest of your life. You either retired or you died."
Domestic activities
Under Erich Mielke's leadership, the Stasi employed 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 civilian informants () (IMs). East Germans coined a term to describe the Stasi's pervasive surveillance of the population "All-Covered" (). For this reason, Anna Funder has referred to East Germany as, "the most perfected surveillance state of all time."
According to John Koehler, "...the Stasi's tentacles probed every aspect of life. Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei...In turn, the police officer was the Stasi's man. If a relative or friend came to stay overnight, it was reported. Schools, universities and hospitals were infiltrated from top to bottom. German academe was shocked to learn that Heinrich Fink, professor of theology and vice-chancellor of East Berlin's Humboldt University, had been a Stasi informer since 1968. After Fink's Stasi connections came to light, he was summarily fired. Doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, and sports figures were co-opted by Stasi officers, as were waiters and hotel personnel. Tapping about 100,000 telephone lines in East Germany and West Berlin around the clock was the job of 2,000 officers... Churchmen, including high officials of both Protestant and Catholic denominations, were recruited en masse as secret informants. Their offices and confessionals were infested with eavesdropping devices. Even the director of Leipzig's famous Thomas Church choir, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, was forced to resign when he was unmasked as a Spitzel, the people's pejorative for a Stasi informant."
In an interview with journalist Anna Funder, an ex-Stasi officer recalled, "Most often, people we approached would inform for us. It was very rare that they would not. However, sometimes we felt that we might need to know where their weak points were, just in case. For example, if we wanted a pastor, we'd find out if he'd had an affair, or had a drinking problem—things that we could use as leverage. Mostly though, people said yes."
On Mielke's orders, and with his full knowledge, Stasi officers also engaged in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, brutal harassment of political dissidents, torture, and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens.
In a 1991 interview, Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said, "The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people. The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million."
Activities abroad
During Mielke's tenure, the Stasi's operations beyond East Germany were overseen by Markus Wolf and the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (MfS-HVA).
Mielke and Wolf provided money, training, and surveillance equipment to help build pro-Soviet secret police forces in Fidel Castro's Cuba, Baathist Syria, Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua, Mengistu Haile Mariam's Ethiopia, Idi Amin's Uganda, Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, and South Yemen.
After the opening of Stasi archives, it was revealed that West Germany was riddled with MfS-HVA moles. In what John Koehler has dubbed, "The Invisible Invasion", some West German citizens collaborated out of Marxist beliefs, but others were recruited through blackmail, greed, career frustrations, or sexual favors from Stasi operatives.
Another tactic was for Stasi military advisers assigned to African and Middle Eastern countries to request the arrest of West German tourists. Local police would then turn the prisoner over to the Stasi agent, who would offer the West German a choice between espionage or incarceration.
Senior politicians from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union were exposed and, when still alive, prosecuted.
Mielke and Wolf also seriously compromised West Germany's police departments, foreign and domestic intelligence services, diplomatic corps, military-industrial complex, and journalistic profession.
The Stasi compromised the United States military and diplomatic presence in West Germany.
The most damaging American to spy for the Stasi was United States Army Sergeant James Hall III, who volunteered his services to Soviet and East German intelligence in November 1981.
Sergeant Hall sold the Stasi 13,088 pages of classified documents, including detailed information about Project Trojan, a worldwide electronic network with the ability to pinpoint armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft by recording their signal emissions during wartime and the complete National SIGINT Requirements List (NSRL), a 4258-page document about NSA operations at home and abroad.
In 1988, Sergeant Hall was tricked into confessing his espionage career to an undercover FBI Special Agent named Dmitri Droujinsky, a Russian-American who was posing as an agent of the KGB. When news of Sergeant Hall's arrest became public, one Washington intelligence official called the breach, "the Army's Walker Case."
Collusion with Nazism
Beginning in 1960, Mielke and Wolf used false flag recruitment to secretly organize and finance Neo-Nazi organizations, which they then instructed to vandalize Jewish religious and cultural sites throughout West Germany. During the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann, Stasi agents sent letters to West German Neo-Nazis and Waffen-SS veterans, urging them to speak out and to raise money for Eichmann's defense attorney. This was done in order to lend credibility to Communist propaganda about the allegedly Fascist and neo-Nazi orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to German historian Michael Wolffsohn, "There is no doubt that in the 1960s as now, there were Nazis who were unreconstructed, unchangeable and evil, but without the help of East Germany, these Nazis were incapable of a national, coordinated campaign. That was true of right-wing extremist criminals in the 1980s as well. The East German Communists used anything they could against West Germany, including the... fears by Western countries and Jews that a new Nazism could be growing in West Germany. There is... evidence that the East Germans continued to use Anti-Semitism as a tool against West Germany in the 1970s and perhaps right up until 1989."
In a 1991 interview with John Koehler, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said of the Stasi, "They not only terrorized their own people worse than the Gestapo, but the government was the most Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israeli in the entire Eastern Bloc. They did nothing to help the West in tracking down Nazi criminals; they ignored all requests from West German judicial authorities for assistance. We have just discovered shelves of files on Nazis stretching over four miles. Now we also know how the Stasi used those files. They blackmailed Nazi criminals who fled abroad after the war into spying for them. What's more, the Stasi trained terrorists from all over the world."
Support for paramilitary and terrorist groups
During a 1979 visit to the GDR by senior PLO member Salah Khalaf, Mielke said, "We are paying great attention to the Palestine resistance and the other revolutionary forces fighting against the policies of the United States and against the provocations of the Israeli aggressor. Together with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, we will do everything to support this just battle."
With this in mind, Mielke ordered the Stasi to finance, arm, and train, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, Mielke's ties to violent paramilitary groups were overseen by Markus Wolf and Department Three of the MfS-HVA. Members of the West German Baader-Meinhoff Group, the Chilean Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware, insurgent tactics, and, "the leadership role of the Party." Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Nidal, and Black September.
Other Stasi agents worked as military advisers to Soviet-backed African guerrilla organizations and the governments they later formed. They included the Namibian SWAPO and the Angolan MPLA during the South African Border War, the FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence and civil war, and Robert Mugabe's ZANLA during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Venezuelan-born PLO terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Black September leader Abu Daoud during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972 Munich massacre and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.
During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly blackmailed a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that the La Belle bombing and other terrorist attacks against American and West German citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.
According to John Koehler, "Murder, kidnapping, extortion, bank robbery, and arson were felonies under the East German criminal code. However, if these offenses were committed under the banner of the 'anti-imperialist struggle,' the communist system would look the other way. Moreover, it had assigned the Stasi to make sure that terrorists were properly trained for murder and sowing mayhem. There was no limits to the East German regime's involvement with terrorism, so long as it could be ideologically justified."
The Peaceful Revolution
According to John Koehler, "Increasingly concerned over the growing popular opposition, Stasi Minister Mielke early in 1989 ordered the creation of a special elite unit for crushing disturbances. Its personnel were carefully selected members of the counterespionage and counterterrorism directorate. They were equipped with special batons similar to electric cattle prods but much more powerful. In a secret speech to top-ranking Stasi officers on 29 June, Mielke warned that, 'hostile opposing forces and groups have already achieved a measure of power and are using all methods to achieve a change in the balance of power. Former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand told me he was horrified when Mielke compared the situation with that of China two months earlier. Chinese students in Beijing had begun massive protests in April and in May, during a student demonstration in Tiananmen Square, security troops had opened fire on them killing hundreds. 'Mielke said our situation was comparable and we had to be ready to counter it with all means and methods,' Wiegand recalled. 'Mielke said that the Chinese leadership had succeeded in smothering the protests before the situation got out of hand.'"
Despite Mielke's attempts to suppress them, East Germany's protesters grew more emboldened with every arrest.
40th anniversary of the GDR
As the fortieth anniversary of the GDR approached, Mielke ordered, "We must stop the internal enemy. At the least hint of a disturbance of the celebration, isolate and arrest them."
One former Stasi Major recalled, "We mixed inconspicuously with the demonstrators, accompanied by our IMs. Hundreds of us stood at the sides of the street in order to stop any activity before it got started. We barely got any sleep toward the end. Never did I sense that the people were afraid of the MfS. The Stasi was more afraid of the people than the people were of them."
According to Koehler, "Despite the unrest, the regime celebrated its fortieth with a huge, pompous ceremony in Berlin on 7 October, while tens of thousands of outside the ornate building of the State Council. The People's Police cordons were utterly ineffectual. As Stasi Minister Erich Mielke drove up and was greeted by General Günter Kratsch, the counterintelligence chief, Mielke screamed at police: "Club those pigs into submission!" () The police ignored Mielke's ranting.
As more and more East Germans were arrested for protesting the 40th anniversary celebrations, many of them sang The Internationale in Vopo and Stasi custody to imply that they, rather than their captors, were the real working class and the real revolutionaries.
According to Anna Funder, "There was a sea of red flags, a torchlight procession, and tanks. The old men on the podium wore light-grey suits studded with medals. Mikhail Gorbachev stood next to Honecker, but he looked uncomfortable among the much older Germans. He had come to tell them that it was over, to convince the leadership to adopt his reformist policies. He had spoken openly about the danger of not 'responding to reality.' He pointedly told the Politburo that, 'life punishes those who come too late.' Honecker and Mielke ignored him, just as they ignored the crowds when they chanted, "Gorby, help us! Gorby, help us!"
Plan X
On 8 October 1989, Mielke and Honecker ordered the Stasi to implement "Plan X"—the SED's plan to arrest and indefinitely detain 85,939 East Germans during a state of emergency. According to John Koehler, Plan X had been in preparation since 1979 and was, "a carbon copy of how the Nazi concentration camps got their start after Hitler came to power in 1933."
By 1984, 23 sites had been selected for "isolation and internment camps." Those who were to be imprisoned in them ran into six categories; including anyone who had ever been under surveillance for anti-state activities, including all members of peace movements which were not under Stasi control.
According to Anna Funder, "The plans contained exact provisions for the use of all available prisons and camps, and when those were full for the conversion of other buildings: Nazi detention centers, schools, hospitals, and factory holiday hostels. Every detail was foreseen, from where the doorbell was located on the house of each person to be arrested to the adequate supply of barbed wire and the rules of dress and etiquette in the camps..."
However, when Mielke sent the orders, codenamed "Shield" (), to each local Stasi precinct to begin the planned arrests, he was not obeyed. Terrified of an East German version of the mass lynchings of Hungarian secret police agents during the 1956 Revolution, Stasi agents throughout the GDR fortified their office-buildings and barricaded themselves inside.
Toppling Honecker
Even as orders were going out to implement Plan X, Mielke had already thrown his support behind the anti-Honecker faction in the SED's Politburo. Although he was of the same generation as Honecker and had matured in an environment where following orders was the rule, he was sober enough and politically savvy enough to realize this approach no longer worked. During a session on 10 October 1989, Mielke delivered a report attacking Honecker's desire to violently suppress the demonstrations rather than offer concessions.
In what Edward N. Peterson has called "a remarkable disclaimer of responsibility for the violence," Mielke declared that Honecker's orders to him "were built on false situation judgments." He added that Honecker's commands on 7 and 8 October "were false and undifferentiated condemnations of those who think differently. Despite this evaluation, there was never any instructions to use violence against persons. There is nothing in our basic principles to consider a demonstration as part of a possible counterrevolutionary coup."
Mielke also claimed that "the Party judged the situation falsely. We tried to tell them the true situation, but enough was not done." Mielke argued in favor of solving the demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel."
On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents who were loyal to him were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with tanks," and tried to impress upon Honecker that it was "the end".
After the vote to oust Honecker passed, Mielke "got nasty," and accused Honecker of corruption. Honecker responded that Mielke should not open his mouth so much. Mielke responded by putting the last nail into Honecker's coffin. He announced that the MfS had a file on the now-ousted leader. It contained proof of Honecker's corrupt business practices, sexual activities, and how, as a member of the underground Communist Party of Germany during the Nazi years, he had been arrested by the Gestapo and had named names.
To the shock of both the Politburo and the Stasi, Krenz's first televised addresses failed to win popular support. Despite his assurances that the SED was at last ready to embrace Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, Krenz's approval ratings remained extremely low.
Former Politburo member Günter Schabowski later recalled, "We made a palace revolution without offering a real alternative... We had not quickly and thoroughly enough whittled away from Stalin's methods."
Defeat
On 7 November 1989, Mielke resigned, along with eleven out of eighteen members of the SED's Council of Ministers, in response to the increasing disintegration of the GDR.
Two days later, Schabowski announced on television that the east–west border was open without restriction.
According to Anna Funder, there was panic at Stasi Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg, "Stasi officers were instructed to destroy files, starting with the most incriminating–those naming westerners who spied for them, and those that concerned deaths. They shredded the files until the paper shredders overheated and shorted out. Among other shortages in the East, there was a shredder shortage, so they had to send agents out under cover to West Berlin to buy more. In Building 8 alone, the citizens' movement found over a hundred burnt out shredders. When they ran out of working shredders from the West and could not procure more they began using scissors to cut the documents by hand.
According to William F. Buckley, Jr., "In the weeks after 9 November, Stasi offices were stormed in various cities around East Germany. Stasi commissars in three of those cities committed suicide. But not one was lynched or executed."
Televised humiliation
On 13 November 1989, Mielke was summoned to deliver a briefing about the protests to the GDR parliament, or Volkskammer. Formerly a "rubber stamp parliament," the disintegration of the SED's power had allowed the Volkskammer to begin exercising real authority over the GDR. Therefore, Mielke, as the head of the Stasi (known as the "shield and sword of the [SED] party"), was summoned before the newly empowered parliament to justify his position in government.
As his speech was broadcast live, Mielke began by using overly bombastic, flag-waving language, saying "We have, comrades, dear assembly members, an extraordinarily high amount of contact with all working people" (). To his shock, the Volkskammer responded with boos, whistles, and catcalls.
His face grief-stricken and pale, Mielke then tried to defuse the situation, "Yes, we have such contact, let me tell you-let me tell you why. I am not afraid to stand here and to give you an unbiased answer" (). Mielke continued, speaking of the "triumph" of the socialist economy, continuing all the while to address the members of the Volkskammer as "Comrades" (). In response, Volkskammer member Dietmar Czok of the Christian Democratic Union, rose from his seat and raised his hand. The Volkskammer's president, Günther Maleuda, interrupted Mielke and urged Czok to speak.
With his voice dripping with contempt, Czok told Mielke, "As a point of order, I will not tell you this again. There are more people sitting in this Chamber than just your Comrades!" (). In response, many in the Volkskammer burst into applause, cheers, and shouts of "We are not your Comrades!" ()
Trying to appear magnanimous, Mielke responded, "This is a natural, Humanistic question! This is just a question of formality." (), leading to further shouts of displeasure from the members of the Volkskammer. In a last ditch effort, Mielke "raised his arms like an evangelist," and cried, "I love all – all Humanity! I really do! I set myself before you!" ()
Everyone in the room, including staunch SED members, burst out laughing. Then Mielke started to cry. John Koehler later wrote, "Mielke was finished."
Mielke's address to the Volkskammer remains the most famous broadcast in the history of German television. Anna Funder has written, "When they think of Mielke, East Germans like to think of this."
The Fall
On 17 November 1989, the Volkskammer renamed the MfS the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit (AfNS – Office for National Security). The following day, Mielke's tenure in office ended when the Volkskammer appointed Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz as the new director of the AfNS.
On 1 December 1989, the Volkskammer nullified the clause of the GDR constitution that enshrined the SED's "leading role" in the government and formally ending Communist rule in East Germany. Two days later, the SED announced that Mielke's party membership had been permanently revoked. Years later, he lamented, "Millions have died for nothing. Everything we fought for – it has all amounted to nothing." He also said, "If the party had given me the task, then there would perhaps still be a GDR today. On that you can rely."
Prosecution
Indictments
On 7 December 1989, Erich Mielke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for embezzlement of public funds in order to improve his hunting estate. He was charged with "Damaging the People's Economy" (Schädigung der Volkswirtschaft). On 7 January 1990, he was further charged with high treason and conspiring with Erich Honecker to bug the telephones and open the mail of every one of East Germany's citizens.
Meanwhile, the Federal Constitutional Court announced that Mielke had also been indicted for having ordered two terrorist attacks by the Baader-Meinhoff Group against United States military personnel who were stationed on West German soil. The first was the car bomb attack against the United States Air Force at Ramstein Air Base on 31 August 1981. The second was the attempted murder with an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket of United States Army General Frederick Kroesen, his wife, and the West German police officer who was driving their armored Mercedes at Heidelberg on 15 September 1981.
After German reunification in October 1990, Mielke was also indicted for ordering the shootings of defectors at the Berlin Wall. He was also charged with misuse of office, breach of trust, and incitement to pervert the course of justice.
Bülowplatz trial
In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the 1931 first degree murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the transcripts from the 1934 trial of his co-conspirators, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke revealed that his role in, "the Bülowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing to Moscow from the Weimar Republic in 1931. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the documents for the purpose of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified that Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bülowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965.
During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plötzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution.
After twenty months of one-and-a-half-hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. At his sentencing, Mielke started to cry. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Imprisonment
Mielke was then put on trial for ordering the shootings of East Germans who were trying to defect to the West. In November 1994, the presiding judge adjourned the proceedings, ruling that Mielke was not mentally competent to stand trial.
During his incarceration, at JVA Moabit corrections officers supplied Mielke with a red telephone like the one in his office at Stasi Headquarters. Although it was not connected to the outside world, Mielke enjoyed having imaginary conversations with non-existent Stasi agents. His other favorite pastime was watching game shows on television.
In 1995, parole officers and Mielke's attorneys argued that he was "totally confused" and obtained his release. At 87 years of age, Erich Mielke was Germany's oldest prison inmate and had been incarcerated for 1,904 days. Days before his release, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin announced that he was "not interested in chasing an 87-year-old man anymore" and that all further prosecution of Mielke had been indefinitely suspended.
According to Koehler, "[Mielke's] bank account, which held more than 300,000 Marks (about US$187,500), was confiscated. Before his arrest in 1989, the most feared man in East Germany had lived in a luxurious home with access to an indoor pool. In addition, he owned a palatial hunting villa, complete with a movie theater, trophy room, 60 servants, and a 60 square kilometers hunting preserve. After he was released from prison Mielke was obliged to move into a two-room, 55-square-meter flat. Like all Stasi pensioners, he would henceforth have to live on 802 marks (about US$512) a month."
Death
Erich Mielke died on 21 May 2000, aged 92, in a Berlin nursing home. After being cremated at the crematorium in Meissen, an urn containing Mielke's ashes was buried in an unmarked grave at the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. An estimated 100 people reportedly attended the funeral. Erich Mielke's grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes. Within hours of his funeral, the flowers and wreaths left at Mielke's grave were ripped to shreds by persons unknown.
Legacy
Writing in 2003, Australian journalist Anna Funder declared, "The name Mielke has now come to mean 'Stasi.' Victims are dubiously honored to find his signature in their files: on plans for someone to be observed 'with all possible methods', on commands for arrest, for kidnapping, instructions to judges for sentencing, orders for 'liquidation'. The honor is dubious because... he signed so many."
In 2012, the museum at the former Stasi headquarters opened Mielke's office as a permanent exhibit. Soon after, The Guardian correspondent Tam Eastley visited the exhibit and numerous sites in Berlin connected to Mielke's life, times, and legacy. When she visited Mielke's grave, Eastley found that it had become a shrine for adherents of Ostalgie.
Personal life
Erich Mielke was a fitness enthusiast, a non-smoker, and drank very little. He was a keen hunter and owned a large area of ground where he would hunt animals with other East German and visiting Soviet officials.
During the late 1940s, when Mielke was working as security chief of the DWK, he began a relationship with Gertrud Mueller, a seamstress. On 18 December 1948, shortly after the birth of their son Frank Mielke, Erich and Gertrud married in a civil ceremony.
According to the newspaper Bild, the Mielkes adopted an orphaned girl named Ingrid, who was born in 1950. Like her adopted brother Frank, Ingrid Mielke attended the Wilhelm Pieck School. She ultimately became a captain in the Stasi and married a Stasi Lieutenant named Norbert Knappe. As of 1999, the Knappes had both refused to grant an interview to Bild reporters.
In popular culture
Erich Mielke has appeared as a character in both films and novels set in the GDR.
Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita (2000), which focuses on Stasi collusion with the West German far-left terrorist organization Rote Armee Fraktion. In conversation with fictional Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke), Mielke (Dietrich Körner) expresses admiration for the RAF's campaign against the United States, West Germany, and the State of Israel, which he compares with his own activities against the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. The RAF members are then brought to a training camp, where Stasi agents instruct them in the use of grenade launchers and other kinds of military hardware. Mielke's name is never disclosed and Agent Hull addresses him only as, "Comrade General." ()
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (2006), which focuses on the Stasi's surveillance and repression of the East German population. In the film, a previously loyal GDR playwright named Georg Dreymann (Sebastian Koch) publishes an anonymous article in the West German magazine Der Spiegel which accuses East Germany's Minister of Culture of having persecuted a blacklisted stage director until he hanged himself. Soon after the article goes to press, Mielke's voice is heard over the telephone giving a dressing down to fictional Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur). Addressed only as "Genosse Armeegeneral" (Mielke was the only person to ever hold that rank in the Stasi), Mielke threatens to throw Grubitz in front of a firing squad if he fails to identify and arrest the article's author.
In Philip Kerr's novel Field Grey (2010), Mielke first appears in 1931 Berlin, when protagonist Bernie Gunther saves him from being murdered by Nazi Brownshirts. The novel then flashes forward to 1954, when Gunther is recruited into a CIA plot to abduct Mielke from East Berlin.
Honours and awards
Mielke received a large number of awards and commemorative medals from organisations within the German Democratic Republic and from allied states. A more complete list is available (in German) at Liste der Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Erich Mielke.
Awards of the German Democratic Republic
Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (7 October 1954)
Six Orders of Karl Marx (28 December 1957, 20 November 1973, 1 December 1975, 28 December 1977, 28 June 1982, 28 December 1982)
Twice Hero of Labour of the GDR (5 October 1964, 24 February 1968)
Twice Hero of the GDR (1 December 1975, 28 December 1982)
Banner of Labour (8 May 1960)
Medal for Exemplary Border Service (26 April 1956)
Medal for Faithful Service in the National People's Army;
Bronze (7 October 1957)
Silver (8 February 1959)
Gold (1 July 1960)
Gold for 20 years service (8 February 1965)
Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (6 September 1958)
Gold Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (1 March 1957)
Scharnhorst Order, twice (25 September 1979, 7 October 1984)
Awards of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union (25 December 1987)
Four Orders of Lenin (12 June 1973, 28 December 1982, 1 April 1985, 28 December 1987)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (6 May 1970)
Four Orders of the Red Banner (23 October 1958, 5 February 1968, 28 December 1977, February 1980)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Soviet Militia" (20 December 1967)
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" (1970)
Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR" (6 January 1970)
Order of the October Revolution (February 1975)
Other states
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 28 December 1982)
Order of Friendship (Czechoslovakia) (28 December 1982)
Order of the Red Star (Czechoslovakia) (16 November 1970)
References
Further reading
Buckley, Jr., William F. (2004), The Fall of the Berlin Wall, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Funder, Anna (2003), Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books, London.
Kuchel, Dany (2011) "Le Glaive et le Bouclier", une histoire de la Stasi en France.
Otto, Wilfriede, Erich Mielke, Biographie: Aufstieg und Fall eines Tschekisten. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2000, .
Peterson, Edward N. (2002). The Secret Police and the Revolution: The Fall of the German Democratic Republic, Praeger Publications, Westport, Connecticut. London.
Pickard, Ralph (2007). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide. Frontline Historical Publishing.
Pickard, Ralph (2012). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II. Frontline Historical Publication.
1907 births
2000 deaths
Politicians from Berlin
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Government ministers of East Germany
Members of the 3rd Volkskammer
Members of the 4th Volkskammer
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Members of the 7th Volkskammer
Members of the 8th Volkskammer
Members of the 9th Volkskammer
East German spies
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Great Purge perpetrators
Interwar-period spies
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Murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck
Perpetrators of political repression in the Second Spanish Republic
People convicted of murder by Germany
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Recipients of the Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"
Recipients of the Order of Georgi Dimitrov
20th-century German criminals
People from Mitte
German mass murderers
Criminals from Berlin
German military personnel of World War II | true | [
"Not proven (, ) is a verdict available to a court of law in Scotland. Under Scots law, a criminal trial may end in one of three verdicts, one of conviction (\"guilty\") and two of acquittal (\"not proven\" and \"not guilty\").\n\nBetween the Restoration in the late 17th century and the early 18th century, jurors in Scotland were expected only to find whether individual factual allegations were proven or not proven, rather than to rule on an accused's guilt. In 1728, the jury in a murder trial asserted \"its ancient right\" to declare a defendant \"not guilty\". Over time, the \"not guilty\" verdict regained wide acceptance and use amongst Scots juries, with the encouragement of defence lawyers. It eventually displaced \"not proven\" as the primary verdict of acquittal. Nowadays, juries can return a verdict of either \"not guilty\" or \"not proven\", with the same legal effect of acquittal.\n\nAlthough historically it may be a similar verdict to not guilty, in the present day not proven is typically used by a jury when there is a belief that the defendant is guilty but the crown has not provided sufficient evidence. Scots law requires corroboration; the evidence of one witness, however credible, is not sufficient to prove a charge against an accused or to establish any material or crucial fact.\n\nOut of the country, the \"not proven\" verdict may be referred to as the Scottish verdict. \n\nIn Scotland, there have been attempts to abolish what Sir Walter Scott famously called that bastard verdict. In 1827, Scott, who was sheriff in the court of Selkirk, wrote in his journal that \"the jury gave that bastard verdict, Not proven.\n\nHistory\nBy the early 17th century, the standard practice of juries in Scotland was to return a finding of \"fylet, culpable and convict\" or \"clene, innocent and acquit\". This changed in the late 17th century, at which point the role of the jury became simply to \"declare whether or not the facts alleged had been proved\", with the judge left to determine, based on that declaration, whether the accused was guilty or not.\n\nThere is some disagreement between historians as to why this change happened. David Hume and Hugo Arnot argue that it was rooted in religious oppression. The Crown persecuted the Covenanters but popular support made it impossible to convict them in a jury trial. To pare the power of the jury, the Scottish judges began restricting the jury's role: no longer would the jury announce whether the accused was \"guilty\" or \"not guilty\"; instead it would decide whether specific factual allegations were \"proven\" or \"not proven\"; and the judge would then decide whether to convict.\n\nReintroduction of \"not guilty\"\nIn 1728, in the trial of Carnegie of Finhaven for the murder of the Earl of Strathmore, the defence lawyer (Robert Dundas) persuaded a jury to reassert its ancient right of acquitting, of finding an accused \"not guilty\", in spite of the facts being proven. The law required the jury merely to look at the facts and pass a verdict of \"proven\" or \"not proven\" depending on whether they believed the evidence proved that the accused had killed the Earl. Carnegie had undoubtedly killed the Earl, but had also clearly not intended to do so. If the jury brought in a \"proven\" verdict they would in effect constrain the judge to find Carnegie guilty of murder, for which the punishment was hanging. To avert this outcome, the jury asserted what it believed to be their \"ancient right\" to judge the whole case and not just the facts, and brought in the verdict of \"not guilty\".\n\nThe reintroduction of the \"not guilty\" verdict was part of a wider movement during the 17th and 18th century which saw a gradual increase in the power of juries, such as the trial of William Penn in 1670, in which an English jury first gained the right to pass a verdict contrary to the law (known as jury nullification), and the trial of John Peter Zenger in New York in 1735 in which jury nullification is credited with establishing freedom of the press as a firm right in what became the United States. Legal academic Ian Willock argues that the 1728 case was \"of great significance in calling a halt to a process of attrition which might have led to the total extinction of the criminal jury\".\n\nAlthough jurors continued to use both \"not guilty\" and \"not proven\" after 1728, jurors tended to favour the \"not guilty\" verdict over the \"not proven\" and the interpretation changed.\n\nCalls for reform\nThere have been repeated calls to abolish the \"not proven\" verdict since the middle of the 20th century. In 1975, the Thomson Committee on Criminal Procedure in Scotland (chaired by Lord Thomson) recommended retaining the three-verdict system. The Scottish Office consulted on removing \"not proven\" in 1994. Unsuccessful attempts to scrap the \"not proven\" verdict were made in Parliament by Donald Dewar in 1969, George Robertson in 1993 (prompted by the trial outcome in the murder of Amanda Duffy) and Lord Macauly of Bragar in 1995. A members' bill to abolish the \"not proven\" verdict was debated in the Scottish Parliament in 2016, but was rejected by 80 votes to 28.\n\nProponents of reform argue that the \"not proven\" verdict is widely regarded as an acquittal used when the judge or jury does not have enough evidence to convict but is not sufficiently convinced of the accused person's innocence to bring in a \"not guilty\" verdict. Essentially, the judge or jury is unconvinced that the suspect is innocent, but guilt has not been proven \"beyond reasonable doubt\". Conversely, its opponents argue that a two-verdict system would lead to an increase in wrongful convictions.\n\nFollowing a not proven verdict in a criminal trial in 2015, Miss M successfully sued Stephen Coxen in the civil courts, in what was the first civil damages action for rape following an unsuccessful criminal prosecution in almost 100 years. In 2018 Miss M launched #EndNotProven alongside Rape Crisis Scotland, calling for Not Proven to be removed and citing the disproportionate use in rape cases, the widespread misunderstandings of the verdict and fears that it is being used as an 'easy way out' by jurors.\n\nModern usage\nIn Scotland, a criminal case may be decided either in solemn procedure by a jury (instructed by the judge), or in summary procedure by the judge alone (with no jury appointed). There are various rules for when the one or the other procedure may or must be employed; in general, juries are employed for the more severe accusations, while petty crimes and offences are treated summarily. A criminal case jury consists of fifteen jurors, who make their decision by a simple majority vote: eight votes are necessary and sufficient for the verdict guilty, which has replaced the verdict proven.\n\nApproximately one-third of all acquittal verdicts by Scottish juries use the formulation not proven; the others use not guilty. The verdict not proven also is available for judges in the summary procedure, and is employed in about a fifth of such acquittals. The proportion of not proven acquittals, in general, is higher in the more severe cases; but so then are the proportion of acquittals versus convictions. This might have many different reasons, for example that on average it might be more difficult to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in the more severe cases.\n\nNot proven is sometimes interpreted as indicating that the jury or judge is not convinced of the innocence of the accused; in fact, they may be morally convinced that the accused is guilty, but do not find the evidence sufficient for a conviction. One reason for this is the rule that in such cases the evidence for the prosecution must be corroborated in order to permit a conviction. Thus, there might be a single plaintiff or witness for the prosecution, which the jury or judge believes is both truthful and trustworthy, but no other witness or circumstances against the accused. By Scots law, the accused then should be acquitted, but often will be so by the verdict not proven.\n\nUse in other jurisdictions\n\nIn general, the Scottish verdict has not been permanently adopted outside its home country, but it was sometimes used in colonial Canada, especially by some judges in southwestern Ontario. Its most famous use in the United States came when Senator Arlen Specter tried to vote \"not proven\" on the two articles of impeachment of Bill Clinton, his votes were recorded as \"not guilty\" and when, at the O. J. Simpson murder case, various reformers, including Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman's father, pushed for a change to \"not proven\" because of what they felt was an incorrect presumption of innocence on the part of Simpson. The verdict is often referenced in US cases where the jury is obliged to find the state has not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, but there is widespread feeling that the defendant does not deserve the exoneration of a \"not guilty\" verdict. A popular saying about the \"not proven\" verdict is that it means \"not guilty, but don't do it again\".\n\nIn 2005, a proposal was made in the University of Chicago Law Review to introduce the not proven verdict into the United States.\n\nCases which resulted in a not proven verdict\nSir Hugh Campbell and Sir George Campbell for being part of the rising at Bothwell Bridge.\nAlfred John Monson, in relation to the Ardlamont murder\nMadeleine Smith, accused of murdering her boyfriend by poison\nHelen McDougal, in relation to the Burke and Hare murders\nAlan Peters, in relation to the murder of Maxwell Garvie\nDonald Merrett, tried in February 1927 for the murder of his mother \nJohn Leslie, in relation to an alleged sexual assault\nFrancis Auld, accused of the murder of Amanda Duffy\n Stephen Coxen, in 2015 acquitted with a not proven verdict for raping Miss M. In 2018 a judge in a civil case found that he had raped her. \nOn 23 March 2020, a jury found the former SNP leader and Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond \"not proven\" on one charge—and not guilty on twelve other charges—of sexual assault; he was thus acquitted of all charges against him.\n\nSee also\nJury nullification\nMiscarriage of justice\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\n The Scottish criminal jury: A very peculiar institution, Peter Duff, 62 Law & Contemp. Probs. 173 (Spring 1999)\n \n \n\nScots language\nScottish criminal law\nScots law legal terminology\nHigh Court of Justiciary",
"DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was actor Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose reviews were quoted by sources such as CBS Marketwatch, and were praised by such writers as Anthony Augustine of Uptown.\n\nDVD Verdict also had four sister sites, titled Cinema Verdict, a theatrical movie review site, TV Verdict, a television review site, Pixel Verdict, a video game review site, and DVD Verdict Presents. The last reviews were published in 2017. , the site is offline.\n\nSee also\n DVD Talk\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links\nDVD Verdict\nDVD Verdict Presents\n\nAmerican film review websites\nInternet properties established in 1999\nInternet properties disestablished in 2017"
]
|
[
"Erich Mielke",
"Bulowplatz trial",
"When did the trial take place?",
"1992,",
"What was the verdict?",
"convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder."
]
| C_5879ec3395ef473987bcbbff52d1eee2_1 | Who was the first person murdered? | 3 | Who was the first person murdered in relation to the Bulowplatz trial? | Erich Mielke | In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the first degree murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the 1934 trial transcripts, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke had admitted that, "the Bulowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing Germany. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the files for purposes of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified about how Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bulowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965. During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plotzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (German: "Ich mochte in mein Bett zuruck."). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution. After twenty months of one-and-a-half hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century." CANNOTANSWER | Captains Anlauf and Lenck | Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
A native of Berlin and a second-generation member of the Communist Party of Germany, Mielke was one of two triggermen in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. After learning that a witness had survived, Mielke escaped arrest by fleeing to the Soviet Union, where the NKVD recruited him. He was one of the key figures in the decimation of Moscow's German Communists during the Great Purge as well as in the persecution of suspected anti-Stalinists in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany, which he helped organize into a Marxist-Leninist satellite state under the Socialist Unity Party (SED), later becoming head of the Stasi. According to historian Jack Koehler, he was "the longest serving secret police chief in the Soviet Bloc".
The Stasi under Mielke has been called by historian Edward Peterson the "most pervasive police state apparatus ever to exist on German soil". In a 1993 interview, Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal has said that, if one considers only the oppression of their own people, the Stasi under Mielke was "much, much worse than the Gestapo".
During the 1950s and 1960s Mielke led the process of forcibly forming collectivised farms from East Germany's family-owned farms, which sent a flood of refugees to West Germany. In response, Mielke oversaw the construction (1961) of the Berlin Wall and co-signed orders to shoot fatally all East Germans who attempted to leave the country. He also oversaw the establishment of pro-Soviet police states and paramilitary insurgencies in Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
In addition to his role as head of the Stasi, Mielke was also an Army General in the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee), and a member of the SED's ruling Politburo. Dubbed "The Master of Fear" () by the West German press, Mielke was one of the most powerful and most hated men in East Germany.
After German reunification in 1990, Mielke was arrested (1991), prosecuted (1992), convicted, and incarcerated (1993) for the 1931 murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. Released from prison early due to ill health in 1995, he died in a Berlin nursing home in 2000.
Early life
Erich Mielke was born in a tenement in Berlin-Wedding, Brandenburg, on 28 December 1907. During the First World War, the neighborhood was known as "Red Wedding" due to many residents' Marxist militancy. In a handwritten biography written for the Soviet secret police, Mielke described his father as "a poor, uneducated woodworker," and said that his mother died in 1911. Both were, he said, members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After his remarriage to "a seamstress," the elder Mielke and his new wife joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and remained members when it was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). His son Erich claimed "My younger brother Kurt and two sisters were Communist sympathisers."
Despite his family's poverty, Erich Mielke was academically gifted enough to be awarded a free scholarship in the prestigious Köllnisches Gymnasium, but was expelled on 19 February 1929, for being "unable to meet the great demands of this school." While attending the Gymnasium, Mielke joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1925, and worked as a reporter for the communist newspaper Rote Fahne from 1928 to 1931.
During the Weimar Republic, the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and was seen as the "leading party" of the communist movement outside the Soviet Union. Under Ernst Thälmann's leadership, the KPD was completely obedient to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the Party was both funded and controlled by the Comintern in Moscow.
Until the end of the Republic, the KPD viewed the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which dominated German politics between 1918 and 1931, as their mortal enemy. In keeping with Stalin's policy towards social democracy, the KPD considered all SPD members to be "social fascists". The KPD also believed that all other political parties were "fascist" and regarded itself as "the only anti-fascist Party" in Germany. Nevertheless, the KPD closely collaborated with the Nazi Party during the early 1930s and both Parties intended to replace the democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic with a totalitarian single party state.
Soon after joining the Party, Mielke joined the KPD's paramilitary wing, or Parteiselbstschutz ("Party Self Defense Unit"). At the time, the Parteiselbstschutz in Berlin was commanded by KPD Reichstag Representatives Hans Kippenberger and Heinz Neumann.
According to John Koehler, "Mielke was a special protege of Kippenberger's having taken to his paramilitary training with the enthusiasm of a Prussian Junker. World War I veterans taught the novices how to handle pistols, rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades. This clandestine training was conducted in the sparsely populated, pastoral countryside surrounding Berlin. Mielke also pleased Kippenberger by being an exceptional student in classes on the arts of conspiratorial behavior and espionage, taught by comrades who had studied at the secret M-school of the GRU in Moscow."
According to John Koehler, members of the Parteiselbstschutz "served as bouncers at Party meetings and specialized in cracking heads during street battles with political enemies." Besides the ruling SPD and its paramilitary Reichsbanner forces, the arch-enemies of the Parteiselbstschutz were the Stahlhelm, which was the armed wing of the Monarchist German National People's Party (DVNP), Trotskyites, and "radical nationalist parties."
According to Koehler, the KPD's Selbstschutz men "always carried a Stahlrute, two steel springs that telescoped into a tube seventeen centimeters long, which when extended became a deadly, 35-centimeter weapon. Not to be outdone by the Nazis, these street-fighters were often armed with pistols as well."
In a 1931 biography written for the Cadre Division of the Comintern, Mielke recalled, "We took care of all kinds of work; terror acts, protecting illegal demonstrations and meetings, arms-trafficking, etc. The last work, which was accomplished by a Comrade and myself, was the Bülowplatz Affair" ().
Bülowplatz murders
Planning
During the last days of the Weimar Republic, the KPD had a policy of assassinating two Berlin police officers in retaliation for every KPD member killed by the police.
On 2 August 1931, KPD Members of the Reichstag Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger received a dressing down from Walter Ulbricht, the Party's leader in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Enraged by police interference and by Neumann and Kippenberger's failure to follow the policy, Ulbricht stated, "At home in Saxony we would have done something about the police a long time ago. Here in Berlin we will not fool around much longer. Soon we will hit the police in the head."
Enraged by Ulbricht's words, Kippenberger and Neumann decided to assassinate Paul Anlauf, the 42-year-old Captain of the Berlin Police's Seventh Precinct. Captain Anlauf, a widower with three daughters, had been nicknamed "Schweinebacke", or "Pig Face" by the KPD.
According to historian John Koehler, "Of all the policemen in strife-torn Berlin, the reds hated Anlauf the most. His precinct included the area around KPD headquarters, which made it the most dangerous in the city. The captain almost always led the riot squads that broke up illegal rallies of the Communist Party."
On the morning of Sunday 9 August 1931, Kippenberger and Neumann gave a last briefing to the hit-team in a room at the Lassant beer hall. Mielke and Erich Ziemer were selected as the shooters. During the meeting, Max Matern gave a Luger pistol to fellow lookout Max Thunert and said, "Now we're getting serious. We're going to give Schweinebacke something to remember us by."
Kippenberger then asked Mielke and Ziemer, "Are you sure that you are ready to shoot Schweinebacke?" Mielke responded that he had seen Anlauf many times during police searches of Party Headquarters. Kippenberger then instructed them to wait at a nearby beer hall which would permit them to overlook the entire Bülow-Platz. He further reminded them that Anlauf was accompanied everywhere by Senior Sergeant Max Willig, whom the KPD had nicknamed, "Hussar".
Kippenberger concluded, "When you spot Schweinebacke and Hussar, you take care of them." Mielke and Ziemer were informed that, after the assassinations were completed, a diversion would assist in their escape. They were then to return to their homes and await further instructions.
That evening, Anlauf was lured to Bülow-Platz by a violent rally demanding the dissolution of the Prussian Parliament.
According to Koehler, "As was often the case when it came to battling the dominant SPD, the KPD and the Nazis had combined forces during the pre-plebiscite campaign. At one point in this particular campaign, Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels even shared a speaker's platform with KPD agitator Walter Ulbricht. Both parties wanted the parliament dissolved because they were hoping that new elections would oust the SPD, the sworn enemy of all radicals. That fact explained why the atmosphere was particularly volatile this Sunday."
Murder at the Babylon Cinema
At eight o'clock that evening, Mielke and Ziemer waited in a doorway as Anlauf, Willig, and Captain Franz Lenck walked toward the Babylon Cinema, which was located at the corner of Bülowplatz and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. As they reached the door of the movie house, the policemen heard someone scream, "Schweinebacke!"
As Anlauf turned toward the sound, Mielke and Ziemer opened fire at point blank range. Willig was wounded in the left arm and the stomach. However, he managed to draw his Luger pistol and fired a full magazine at the assailants. Lenck was shot in the chest and fell dead in front of the entrance. Willig crawled over and cradled the head of Anlauf, who had taken two bullets in the neck.
Meanwhile, Mielke and Ziemer made their escape by running into the theater and out an emergency exit. They tossed their pistols over a fence, where they were later found by Homicide Detectives from the elite Mordkommission. Mielke and Ziemer then returned to their homes.
According to Koehler, "Back at Bülowplatz, the killings had triggered a major police action. At least a thousand officers poured into the square, and a bloody street battle ensued. Rocks and bricks were hurled from the rooftops. Communist gunmen fired indiscriminately from the roofs of surrounding apartment houses. As darkness fell, police searchlights illuminated the buildings. Using megaphones, officers shouted, "Clear the streets! Move away from the windows! We are returning fire!" By now the rabble had fled the square, but shooting continued as riot squads combed the tenements, arresting hundreds of residents suspected of having fired weapons. The battle lasted until one o'clock the next morning. In addition to the two police officers, the casualties included one Communist who died of a gunshot wound and seventeen others who were seriously wounded."
Anlauf's wife had died three weeks earlier of kidney failure. The murder of Anlauf thus left their three daughters as orphans. Their oldest daughter was forced to rush her planned wedding in order to keep her sisters from being put in an orphanage. Lenck was survived by his wife. Willig was hospitalized for 14 weeks, but made a full recovery and returned to active duty. In recognition for Willig's courage, the Berlin Police promoted him to Lieutenant.
After the murders, the act was celebrated at the Lichtenberger Hof, a favorite beer hall of the Rotfrontkämpferbund, where Mielke boasted: "Today we celebrate a job that I pulled!" ()
Fugitive
According to Koehler, "Kippenberger was alarmed when word reached him that Sergeant Willig had survived the shooting. Not knowing whether the sergeant could talk and identify the attackers, Kippenberger was taking no chances. He directed a runner to summon Mielke and Ziemer to his apartment at 74 Bellermannstrasse, only a few minutes walk from where the two lived. When the assassins arrived, Kippenberger told them the news and ordered them to leave Berlin at once. The parliamentarian's wife Thea, an unemployed schoolteacher and as staunch a Communist Party member as her husband, shepherded the young murderers to the Belgian border. Agents of the Communist International (Comintern) in the port city of Antwerp supplied them with money and forged passports. Aboard a merchant ship, they sailed for Leningrad. When their ship docked, they were met by another Comintern representative, who escorted them to Moscow."
Beginning in 1932, Mielke attended the Comintern's Military Political school under the alias Paul Bach. He later graduated from the Lenin School shortly before being recruited into the OGPU.
Trial
According to Koehler, "In mid-March 1933, while attending the Lenin School, Mielke received word from his OGPU sponsors that Berlin police had arrested Max Thunert, one of the conspirators in the Anlauf and Lenck murders. Within days, fifteen other members of the assassination team were in custody. Mielke had to wait six more months before the details of the police action against his Berlin comrades reached Moscow. On 14 September 1933, Berlin newspapers reported that all fifteen had confessed to their roles in the murders. Arrest warrants were issued for ten others who had fled, including Mielke, Ziemer, Ulbricht, Kippenberger, and Neumann."
Koehler also stated, "Defenders of Mielke later claimed that confessions had been obtained under torture by the Nazi Gestapo. However, all suspects were in the custody of the regular Berlin city criminal investigation bureau, most of whose detectives were SPD members. Some of the suspects had been nabbed by Nazi SA men and probably beaten before they were turned over to police. In the 1993 trial of Mielke, the court gave the defense the benefit of the doubt and threw out a number of suspect confessions."
On 19 June 1934, the 15 conspirators were convicted of first degree murder. The three deemed most culpable, Michael Klause, Max Matern, and Friedrich Bröde were sentenced to death. Their co-defendants received sentences ranging from nine months to fifteen years incarceration at hard labor. Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation. Bröde hanged himself in his cell. As a result, only Matern was left to be executed by beheading on 22 May 1935.
Matern was subsequently glorified as a martyr by KPD and East German propaganda. Ziemer was officially killed in action while fighting on the Republican-side during the Spanish Civil War. Mielke, however, would not face trial for the murders until 1993.
Career in Soviet intelligence
The Great Terror
Although Moscow's German Communist community was decimated during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Mielke survived and was promoted.
In a handwritten autobiography prepared after World War II, Mielke recalled, "During my stay in the S.U. (Soviet Union), I participated in all Party discussions of the K.P.D. and also in the problems concerning the establishment of socialism and in the trials against the traitors and enemies of the S.U."
Among the German communists executed as a result of these "discussions" were Mielke's former mentors Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger.
Mielke further recalled, "I was a guest on the honor grandstand of Red Square during the May Day and October Revolution parades. I became acquainted with many comrades of the Federation of World Communist Parties and the War Council of the Special Commission of the Comintern. I will never forget my meeting with Comrade Dimitrov, the Chairman of the Comintern, whom I served as an aide together with another comrade. I saw Comrade Stalin during all demonstrations at Red Square, especially when I stood on the grandstand. I mention these meetings because all these comrades are our models and teachers for our work."
During his time in the USSR, Mielke also developed a lifelong reverence for Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Polish aristocrat who founded the Soviet secret police. Mielke also began an equally permanent habit of calling himself a Chekist.
In a citation written decades later, Mielke described his philosophy of life, "The Chekist is the political combatant. He is the loyal son of... the workers' class. He stands at the head of the battle to strengthen the power of our workers' and peasants' state."
Spanish Civil War
From 1936 to 1939, Mielke served in Spain as an operative of the Servicio de Investigación Militar, the political police of the Second Spanish Republic. While attached to the staff of, "veteran GRU agent," and future Stasi minister Wilhelm Zaisser, Mielke used the alias Fritz Leissner. Bernd Kaufmann, the director of the Stasi's espionage school later said, "The Soviets trusted Mielke implicitly. He earned his spurs in Spain."
At the time, the S.I.M. was heavily staffed by agents of the Soviet NKVD, whose Spanish rezident was General Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and International Brigade commanders than on fighting Franco. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics."
In a 1991 interview, Walter Janka, a fellow German communist exile and company commander in the International Brigade, recalled his encounters with Mielke. During the winter of 1936, Janka was summoned by the SIM and interrogated by Mielke. Mielke demanded to know why Janka had voluntarily traveled to Spain rather than being assigned there by the Party. When he told Mielke to get lost, the SIM demoted Janka to the ranks and then expelled him from the International Brigade. Years later, Janka recalled, "While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists."
Upon the defeat of the Spanish Republic, Mielke fled across the Pyrenees Mountains to France, where he was interned at Camp de Rivesaltes, Pyrénées-Orientales. Mielke, however, managed to send a message to exiled KPD members and, in May 1939, escaped to Belgium. Although the Public Prosecutor of Berlin learned of Mielke's presence and filed for his extradition, the Belgian Government refused to comply, regarding the assassinations of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as "a political crime."
The NKVD and the SIM's witch hunt for both real and imagined anti-Stalinists had serious consequences. It horrified numerous formerly pro-Soviet Westerners who had been witnesses, including John Dos Passos, Arthur Koestler and George Orwell, and caused them to permanently turn against the USSR.
Mielke's belief that anti-Soviet Marxists had collaborated with Franco and stabbed the Republic in the back continued to shape his attitudes for the rest of his life. In a 1982 speech before a group of senior Stasi officers, he said, "We are not immune from villains among us. If I knew of any already, they wouldn't live past tomorrow. Short shrift. It's because I'm a Humanist, that I'm of this view."
In the same speech, Mielke also said, "All this blithering over to execute or not to execute, for the death penalty or against—all rot, Comrades. Execute! And, when necessary, without a court judgment."
World War II
During World War II, Mielke's movements remain mysterious. In a biography written after the war, he claimed to have infiltrated Organisation Todt under the alias Richard Hebel, but historian John O. Koehler considers this unlikely.
Koehler admits, however, "Mielke's exploits must have been substantial. By war's end, he had been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War First Class, and twice with the Order of Lenin. It is likely that he served as an NKVD agent, at least part of the time with guerrilla units behind German lines, for he knew all the partisan songs by heart and sang them in faultless Russian."
Occupied Germany
Komissariat-5
In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.
That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."
On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No. 2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services.
In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke disclosed—truthfully—his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, and—mistakenly or misleadingly—that for this he had been tried in absentia, found guilty, and sentenced to death. In actuality, Mielke's "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried". He admitted—truthfully—fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed—falsely—that he had been released from the French internment camps and had worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston". Furthermore, Mielke concealed his past and contemporaneous involvement with the NKVD, NKGB, and the Nazi Organisation Todt (which he asserted he'd infiltrated).
According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets. Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers. But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."
On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany.
According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan. In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a "new Gestapo." Furthermore, Abakumov, like Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked." Notwithstanding Abakumov's objections, however, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately. It is possible, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers' lack of fluency in the German language was engendering massive popular resentment.
Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head. Mielke was installed as his deputy.
According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police. Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons. Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party. Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision. The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them. Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."
According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees. Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers. In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary rule of law."
According to Edward N. Peterson, "Not surprisingly, K-5 acquired a reputation as bad as that of Stalin's secret police and worse than that of the Gestapo. At least with the Nazis, albeit fanatically racist, their victims did not suddenly disappear into the GULAG."
The Amalgamation
Despite the K-5's mass arrests of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Zone, the number of SPD members continued to grow. By March 1946, SPD members outnumbered KPD members by more than 100,000. Fearing that they would lose the elections scheduled for the autumn, the leadership of the KPD asked for and received Stalin's permission to merge the two parties. When the SPD's leadership agreed only to schedule a vote for the rank and file to decide, permission was denied by the Soviet occupation authorities. The K-5 then began mass arrests of SPD members who refused to support the merger.
On 22 April 1946, the remaining leaders of the SPD in the Soviet Zone announced that they had united with the KPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SPD in the western zones of Occupied Germany responded by forming the SPD East Bureau in order to support and finance those Social Democrats who refused to accept the merger. Those who joined or worked with the East Bureau were, however, in serious danger of arrest by the K-5 and trial by Soviet military tribunals. By 1950, more than 5,000 SPD members and sympathisers had been imprisoned in the Soviet Zone or transferred to the GULAG. More than 400 were either executed or died during their imprisonments.
John Koehler has written that, prior to the spring of 1946, many Germans in the Soviet Zone, "merely shrugged at the wave of arrests, believing that the victims were former Nazi officials and war criminals." But then came the mass arrests of Social Democrats who opposed the merger, who, "were joined by people who had been denounced for making anti-communist or anti-Soviet remarks, among their number hundreds who were as young as fourteen years. Although these arrests were made by Germans purporting to be officials of the criminal police, the existence of the K-5 political police eventually was exposed. Mielke, meanwhile, had risen to the post of vice-president of the German Administration for Interior Affairs – the equivalent of the NKVD – and continued his manipulations from behind the scenes."
Investigation
In January 1947, two retired Berlin policemen recognized Mielke at an official function. Informing the head of the criminal police in West Berlin, the policemen demanded that Mielke be arrested and prosecuted for the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. Wilhelm Kühnast, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin, was immediately informed and ordered a search of the Kammergericht archives. To his astonishment, the files of the 1931 murders had survived the wartime bombing of Germany. Finding ample evidence of Mielke's involvement, Kühnast ordered the arrest of the communist policeman.
According to John Koehler, "At that time, the city administration, including the police, was under the control of the Allied Control Commission, which consisted of U.S., British, French, and Soviet military officers. All actions by city officials, including the judiciary, were to be reported to the Commission. The Soviet representative alerted the MGB. Action was swift. Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, who had replaced Zhukov, protested, and his representatives at the Commission launched a vicious campaign to discredit Kühnast."
The Soviet representatives falsely claimed that Kühnast, a jurist with an impeccable anti-Nazi record, had been an official of Roland Freisler's People's Court. Taking the Soviets at their word, the Western Allies removed Kühnast from his position and placed him under house arrest. During the Berlin airlift, Kühnast fled from his home in East Berlin and was granted political asylum in the American Zone.
Meanwhile, the Soviet authorities confiscated all documents relating to the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. According to Koehler, "The Soviets handed the court records to Mielke. Instead of destroying the incriminating papers, he locked them in his private safe, where they were found when his home was searched in 1990. They were used against him in his trial for murder."
Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission
In 1948, Mielke was appointed as security chief of the German Economic Commission (), the precursor to the future East German government.
Mielke's task was to investigate the theft and sale of state property on the black market. He was also charged with intercepting the growing number of refugees fleeing to the French, British, and American Zones.
Those his security forces caught while attempting to defect were used as slave labor in the uranium mines that were providing raw material for the Soviet atomic bomb project.
German Democratic Republic
Independence
In 1949, the Soviet Military Administration ceded its legal functions to the newly created German Democratic Republic.
On 14 January 1950, Marshal Vasili Chuikov announced that all Soviet "internment camps" on German soil had been closed. Soon after, the DWK was absorbed into the newly created Ministry for State Security. In keeping with earlier syllabic abbreviations along the same lines (see OrPo, KriPo, and GeStaPo) East Germans immediately dubbed it the "Stasi" (from Staatssicherheit). With the approval of the Soviets, Mielke's commanding officer from Spain and in the K5, Wilhelm Zaisser, was appointed as the Stasi's head. Mielke was appointed to his staff with the rank of State Secretary. Mielke was also granted a seat in the SED's ruling Politburo.
According to John Koehler, "In the five years since the end of World War II, the Soviets and their vassals had arrested between 170,000 and 180,000 Germans. Some 160,000 had passed through the concentration camps, and of these about 65,000 had died, 36,000 had been shipped to the Soviet Gulag, and another 46,000 had been freed."
In 1949, as a response to the remilitarization of East Germany and the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Portugal formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. In 1950, as a response to the outbreak of the Korean War, West Germany was also permitted to join NATO, which was then upgraded into a military alliance.
According to Koehler, however, "As the Cold War intensified, living conditions in Soviet-occupied East Germany showed little improvement beyond the postwar level of bare subsistence. The new government of the DDR – a mere puppet of the Kremlin – relied more and more on the Stasi to quell discontent among factory workers and farmers. Ulbricht, claiming that the social unrest was fomented by capitalist agents, once ordered Mielke to personally visit one large plant and 'arrest four or five such agents' as an example to the others. The Stasi deputy 'discovered' the agents in record time."
Field show trials
Also in 1949, Noel Field, an American citizen who had spied for the NKVD from inside the U.S. State Department, the Office of Strategic Services, and the CIA, fled from his posting in Switzerland to Communist Czechoslovakia after his cover was blown by fellow mole Whittaker Chambers. On 11 May 1949, the Czechoslovakian secret police, or StB, in obedience to a direct order from KGB chief Lavrenti Beria, arrested Field in Prague. Field was then handed over to the Hungarian ÁVO. After his interrogation in Budapest, Fields was used as a witness at show trials of senior Soviet Bloc Communists who, like László Rajk and Rudolf Slánský, stood accused of having spied for the United States. The real reason for the trials was to replace homegrown Communists in Eastern Europe with those who would be blindly loyal to Joseph Stalin and to blame the division of Germany on the intrigues of U.S. intelligence.
At the Rajk show trial, the prosecutor declared, "Noel Field, one of the leaders of American espionage, specialized in recruiting spies from among left-wing elements."
In August 1950, six senior SED members, including Willi Kreikemeyer, the director of Deutsche Reichsbahn and head of Berliner Rundfunk, were accused of "special connections with Noel Field, the American spy." All were either imprisoned or shot.
John Koehler writes, "Similar purges were conducted in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, where Field appeared as a witness in show trials that resulted in some death sentences. The Soviets simply distrusted all Communists who had sought exile in the West. All the while, Mielke remained untouched and continued to serve as the deputy secret police chief. His survival reinforced the belief that he had spent the war years in the Soviet Union instead of France and Belgium as he had claimed in the 1945 questionnaire."
In June 1950, Erica Wallach, Noel Field's adopted daughter, decided to search for him. From Paris, she telephoned Leo Bauer, the editor-in-chief of Berliner Rundfunk. The call was monitored by agents of the Soviet Ministry for Internal Affairs, and Bauer's handler instructed him to invite Mrs. Wallach to East Berlin, where she was immediately arrested. Mielke personally interrogated her and, at one point, offered Mrs. Wallach immediate release if she named the members of her fictitious spy network. She was condemned to death by a Soviet military tribunal in East Berlin and shipped to the Lubianka prison in Moscow for her execution. After Joseph Stalin's death in on 5 March 1953, Erica Wallach's sentence was reduced to hard labor in Vorkuta, a region of the Gulag located above the Arctic Circle. She was released during the Khrushchev thaw in October 1955. At first, she was unable to join her husband and daughters in the U.S. because of the U.S. State Department's concern over her former membership in the Communist Party of Germany. It took the personal intervention of CIA Director Allen Dulles to reunite Erica Wallach with her family in 1957. Wallach's memoir of her experiences, Light at Midnight, was published in 1967.
Death of Stalin
After Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin died inside his Kuntsevo Dacha on 5 March 1953, the Central Committee of the East German Socialist Unity Party met in a special session and eulogized the dictator as the "great friend of Germany who was always an advisor of and help to our people."
Two months later, on 5 May 1953, the SED's General Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, and the rest of the leadership increased work quotas by 10%. They also decided to rename Chemnitz Karl-Marx-Stadt and to institute the Order of Karl Marx as the GDR's highest award.
Two weeks later, Mielke accused "a group of Party officials" of "plotting against the leadership", which "resulted in more expulsions from the Politburo and the Central Committee."
East German uprising of 1953
Discontent among factory workers about a 10% increase of work quotas without a corresponding wage hike boiled over. On 16 June 1953, nearly one hundred construction workers gathered before work for a protest meeting at Stalinallee, in East Berlin. Words spread rapidly to other construction sites and hundreds of men and women joined the rally, which marched to the House of Ministries. The protesters chanted slogans for five hours, demanding to speak to Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl. Only Heavy Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann and Professor Robert Havemann, president of the GDR Peace Council, emerged. Their speech, however, was answered with jeers and the Ministers retreated into the heavily armed building. The regular and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei were summoned from their barracks, but made no move to attack the protesters, who returned to Stalinallee, where a general strike was called.
Following West Germany's Federal Minister for All-German Questions Jakob Kaiser's admonition in a late night broadcast to East Germans to shy away from provocations, RIAS, starting with its 11 pm news broadcast, and from then on in hourly intermissions, repeated the workers' demand to continue the strike the next day, calling specifically for all East Berliners to participate in a demo at 7am on the 17th at Strausberger Platz.
The following day, 17 June 1953, more that 100,000 protesters took to the streets of East Berlin. More than 400,000 protesters also took to the streets in other cities and towns throughout the German Democratic Republic. Everywhere, the demands were the same: free elections by secret ballot.
Outside of Berlin, the main centres of the protests included the industrial region around Halle, Merseburg, and Bitterfeld, as well as middle-size towns like Jena, Görlitz, and Brandenburg. No more than 25,000 people participated in strikes and demonstrations in Leipzig, but there were 32,000 in Magdeburg, 43,000 in Dresden, 53,000 in Potsdam – and in Halle, a figure close to 100,000.
In West Berlin, the American radio station RIAS and several other West German stations reported on the protests and on plans for a general strike. As East Germans listened to the broadcasts, 267,000 workers at State-owned plants in 304 cities and towns joined the general strike. In 24 towns, outraged East Germans stormed the Stasi's prisons and freed between 2,000 and 3,000 political prisoners.
In response to orders, the Soviet Occupation Forces, the Stasi and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei went on the attack. Bloody street battles ensued and hundreds of policemen defected to the side of the protesters. Both police and Stasi stations were overrun and some government offices were sacked. The Party leadership retreated into a fortified compound in the Pankow district of East Berlin.
At noon, the Soviet authorities terminated all tram and metro traffic into the Eastern sector and all but closed the sector borders to West Berlin to prevent more demonstrators from reaching the city centre. An hour later, they declared martial law in East Berlin.
The repression took place outside East Berlin police HQ – where Soviet tanks opened fire on "the insurgents".
According to John Koehler, "... by late afternoon, Soviet tanks accompanied by Infantry and MVD troops had rolled into East Berlin and other cities in the Soviet Zone. This made the people even angrier. At Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, which bordered on the American Sector, irate protesters ignored machine gun fire and the menacing barrels of tank guns. They ripped cobblestones from the streets and hurled them at the tanks."
Fighting between the Red Army (and later GDR police) and the demonstrators persisted into the afternoon and night. In some cases, the tanks and the soldiers fired directly into the crowds.
Overnight, the Soviets (and the Stasi) started to arrest hundreds of people. Ultimately, up to 10,000 people were detained and at least 20, probably as many as 40, people were executed, including Red Army soldiers who refused to obey orders. With the SED leadership effectively paralysed at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, control of the city passed to the Soviets.
In honor of the uprising, West Germany established 17 June as a national holiday, called Day of German Unity. The extension of the Unter den Linden boulevard to the west of the Brandenburg Gate, formerly called Charlottenburger Chaussee, was also renamed Straße des 17. Juni ("17 June Street") in honor of the uprising.
According to John Koehler, "Provisional prison camps were set up to hold the thousands of Stasi victims. Nearly 1,500 persons were sentenced in secret trials to long prison terms. On 24 June, Mielke issued a terse announcement that one Stasi officer, nineteen demonstrators, and two bystanders had been killed during the uprising. He did not say how many were victims of official lynching. The numbers of the wounded were given as 191 policemen, 126 demonstrators, and 61 bystanders."
Also according to Koehler, "Calm returned to the streets of the Soviet Zone, yet escapes to the West continued at a high rate. Of the 331,390 who fled in 1953, 8,000 were members of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the barracked people's police units, which were actually the secret cadre of the future East German Army. Also among the escapees were 2,718 members and candidates of the SED, the ruling Party."
The Khrushchev thaw
Purges
Alarmed by the uprising, Lavrenty Beria, the First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, personally travelled from Moscow to East Berlin. He conferred with Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser and with Mielke, his deputy, both of whom he had known since the early 1930s. During both conversations, Beria demanded to know why the Stasi had failed to recognize the extreme discontent of the population and inform the Party leadership, which could then have prevented the uprising by taking extremely repressive measures in advance. Both Zaisser and Mielke answered Beria's questions circumspectly, and were accordingly left in their posts.
In response to the uprising, Beria decided to replace several hundred MVD officers, including Major General Ivan Fadeykin, the MVD resident of East Germany. The Stasi, according to John Koehler, "generally remained untouched except for the arrests and dismissals, for dereliction of duty, of a handful of officers in the provinces. One high-ranking Stasi officer shot himself."
Following Beria's return to Moscow, however, he was arrested on 26 June 1953, in a coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Beria was tried on charges of 357 counts of rape and high treason. He was sentenced to death and shot by Red Army Colonel-General Pavel Batitsky on 23 December 1953.
In an interview to Neues Deutschland, the official party newspaper of East Germany, on 30 June 1953, the Party's Minister of Justice, Max Fechner, declared that, "illegal arrests," had been made and that being a member of a strike committee or suspicion of being a ringleader was not in itself grounds for arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, when the East German Politburo met on 8 July, it seemed that Ulbricht would be deposed as Party General Secretary. Zaisser conceded that the whole Politburo was responsible for the "accelerated construction of socialism" and of the subsequent fallout. But he also added that to leave Ulbricht as Premier, "would be opposed catastrophic for the New Course".
By the end of the meeting, only two Politburo members still supported Ulbricht's leadership: Free German Youth League chief Erich Honecker and Party Control Commission Chairman Hermann Matern. Ulbricht only managed to forestall a decision then and there with a promise to make a statement at the forthcoming 15th SED CC Plenum, scheduled for later that month.
Meanwhile, Mielke informed a Party commission looking for scapegoats that his boss, Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser, was calling for secret negotiations with West Germany and that, "he believed the Soviet Union would abandon the DDR."
By late July, Ulbricht was completely certain that he had the support of the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Therefore, he expelled his main opponents, Zaisser, Hernstadt and Ackermann, from the Politburo, and thus strengthened his position further.
SED Minister of Justice Max Fechner was personally arrested by Mielke and replaced by Hilde Benjamin, who was known to East German citizens as "Red Hilde", "The Red Freisler," and as, "The Red Guillotine," for her role as a judge in the SED's show trials.
Fechner was convicted of being, "an enemy of the Party and the State," and served three years in Bautzen Prison.
Wilhelm Zaisser was replaced as head of the Stasi by Ernst Wollweber and Mielke remained on staff as his deputy.
Tenure as Stasi head
Mielke headed the Stasi from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There was, under the East German system, no provision for parliamentary oversight. However, starting in 1971 Mielke was required to provide a detailed intelligence briefing to party secretary Erich Honecker each Tuesday, directly following the weekly Politburo meeting. (Before 1971, under Walter Ulbricht, Mielke was not involved in routine intelligence briefings to the leadership which, instead, were provided directly to Ulbricht by Intelligence Chief Markus Wolf.)
Internal discipline
During his tenure, Mielke enforced "political and personal discipline reminiscent of the early French Foreign Legion". New recruits were required to take a solemn oath pledging "to fight alongside the state security organs of all socialist countries against all enemies of socialism" on pain of "the severest punishment under the Republic's laws and the contempt of the workers." Recruits were also required to sign a security pledge vowing never to make unauthorized visits to any "capitalist countries" and to report on any members of their families who did so.
Violations of the oath resulted in expulsion from the Stasi and blacklisting from all but the most menial jobs. Serious violations were tried before secret tribunals and led an estimated 200 Stasi agents to be shot. Colonel Rainer Wiegand once said, "There was only one way to leave the MfS without being haunted for the rest of your life. You either retired or you died."
Domestic activities
Under Erich Mielke's leadership, the Stasi employed 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 civilian informants () (IMs). East Germans coined a term to describe the Stasi's pervasive surveillance of the population "All-Covered" (). For this reason, Anna Funder has referred to East Germany as, "the most perfected surveillance state of all time."
According to John Koehler, "...the Stasi's tentacles probed every aspect of life. Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei...In turn, the police officer was the Stasi's man. If a relative or friend came to stay overnight, it was reported. Schools, universities and hospitals were infiltrated from top to bottom. German academe was shocked to learn that Heinrich Fink, professor of theology and vice-chancellor of East Berlin's Humboldt University, had been a Stasi informer since 1968. After Fink's Stasi connections came to light, he was summarily fired. Doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, and sports figures were co-opted by Stasi officers, as were waiters and hotel personnel. Tapping about 100,000 telephone lines in East Germany and West Berlin around the clock was the job of 2,000 officers... Churchmen, including high officials of both Protestant and Catholic denominations, were recruited en masse as secret informants. Their offices and confessionals were infested with eavesdropping devices. Even the director of Leipzig's famous Thomas Church choir, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, was forced to resign when he was unmasked as a Spitzel, the people's pejorative for a Stasi informant."
In an interview with journalist Anna Funder, an ex-Stasi officer recalled, "Most often, people we approached would inform for us. It was very rare that they would not. However, sometimes we felt that we might need to know where their weak points were, just in case. For example, if we wanted a pastor, we'd find out if he'd had an affair, or had a drinking problem—things that we could use as leverage. Mostly though, people said yes."
On Mielke's orders, and with his full knowledge, Stasi officers also engaged in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, brutal harassment of political dissidents, torture, and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens.
In a 1991 interview, Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said, "The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people. The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million."
Activities abroad
During Mielke's tenure, the Stasi's operations beyond East Germany were overseen by Markus Wolf and the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (MfS-HVA).
Mielke and Wolf provided money, training, and surveillance equipment to help build pro-Soviet secret police forces in Fidel Castro's Cuba, Baathist Syria, Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua, Mengistu Haile Mariam's Ethiopia, Idi Amin's Uganda, Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, and South Yemen.
After the opening of Stasi archives, it was revealed that West Germany was riddled with MfS-HVA moles. In what John Koehler has dubbed, "The Invisible Invasion", some West German citizens collaborated out of Marxist beliefs, but others were recruited through blackmail, greed, career frustrations, or sexual favors from Stasi operatives.
Another tactic was for Stasi military advisers assigned to African and Middle Eastern countries to request the arrest of West German tourists. Local police would then turn the prisoner over to the Stasi agent, who would offer the West German a choice between espionage or incarceration.
Senior politicians from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union were exposed and, when still alive, prosecuted.
Mielke and Wolf also seriously compromised West Germany's police departments, foreign and domestic intelligence services, diplomatic corps, military-industrial complex, and journalistic profession.
The Stasi compromised the United States military and diplomatic presence in West Germany.
The most damaging American to spy for the Stasi was United States Army Sergeant James Hall III, who volunteered his services to Soviet and East German intelligence in November 1981.
Sergeant Hall sold the Stasi 13,088 pages of classified documents, including detailed information about Project Trojan, a worldwide electronic network with the ability to pinpoint armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft by recording their signal emissions during wartime and the complete National SIGINT Requirements List (NSRL), a 4258-page document about NSA operations at home and abroad.
In 1988, Sergeant Hall was tricked into confessing his espionage career to an undercover FBI Special Agent named Dmitri Droujinsky, a Russian-American who was posing as an agent of the KGB. When news of Sergeant Hall's arrest became public, one Washington intelligence official called the breach, "the Army's Walker Case."
Collusion with Nazism
Beginning in 1960, Mielke and Wolf used false flag recruitment to secretly organize and finance Neo-Nazi organizations, which they then instructed to vandalize Jewish religious and cultural sites throughout West Germany. During the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann, Stasi agents sent letters to West German Neo-Nazis and Waffen-SS veterans, urging them to speak out and to raise money for Eichmann's defense attorney. This was done in order to lend credibility to Communist propaganda about the allegedly Fascist and neo-Nazi orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to German historian Michael Wolffsohn, "There is no doubt that in the 1960s as now, there were Nazis who were unreconstructed, unchangeable and evil, but without the help of East Germany, these Nazis were incapable of a national, coordinated campaign. That was true of right-wing extremist criminals in the 1980s as well. The East German Communists used anything they could against West Germany, including the... fears by Western countries and Jews that a new Nazism could be growing in West Germany. There is... evidence that the East Germans continued to use Anti-Semitism as a tool against West Germany in the 1970s and perhaps right up until 1989."
In a 1991 interview with John Koehler, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said of the Stasi, "They not only terrorized their own people worse than the Gestapo, but the government was the most Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israeli in the entire Eastern Bloc. They did nothing to help the West in tracking down Nazi criminals; they ignored all requests from West German judicial authorities for assistance. We have just discovered shelves of files on Nazis stretching over four miles. Now we also know how the Stasi used those files. They blackmailed Nazi criminals who fled abroad after the war into spying for them. What's more, the Stasi trained terrorists from all over the world."
Support for paramilitary and terrorist groups
During a 1979 visit to the GDR by senior PLO member Salah Khalaf, Mielke said, "We are paying great attention to the Palestine resistance and the other revolutionary forces fighting against the policies of the United States and against the provocations of the Israeli aggressor. Together with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, we will do everything to support this just battle."
With this in mind, Mielke ordered the Stasi to finance, arm, and train, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, Mielke's ties to violent paramilitary groups were overseen by Markus Wolf and Department Three of the MfS-HVA. Members of the West German Baader-Meinhoff Group, the Chilean Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware, insurgent tactics, and, "the leadership role of the Party." Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Nidal, and Black September.
Other Stasi agents worked as military advisers to Soviet-backed African guerrilla organizations and the governments they later formed. They included the Namibian SWAPO and the Angolan MPLA during the South African Border War, the FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence and civil war, and Robert Mugabe's ZANLA during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Venezuelan-born PLO terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Black September leader Abu Daoud during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972 Munich massacre and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.
During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly blackmailed a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that the La Belle bombing and other terrorist attacks against American and West German citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.
According to John Koehler, "Murder, kidnapping, extortion, bank robbery, and arson were felonies under the East German criminal code. However, if these offenses were committed under the banner of the 'anti-imperialist struggle,' the communist system would look the other way. Moreover, it had assigned the Stasi to make sure that terrorists were properly trained for murder and sowing mayhem. There was no limits to the East German regime's involvement with terrorism, so long as it could be ideologically justified."
The Peaceful Revolution
According to John Koehler, "Increasingly concerned over the growing popular opposition, Stasi Minister Mielke early in 1989 ordered the creation of a special elite unit for crushing disturbances. Its personnel were carefully selected members of the counterespionage and counterterrorism directorate. They were equipped with special batons similar to electric cattle prods but much more powerful. In a secret speech to top-ranking Stasi officers on 29 June, Mielke warned that, 'hostile opposing forces and groups have already achieved a measure of power and are using all methods to achieve a change in the balance of power. Former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand told me he was horrified when Mielke compared the situation with that of China two months earlier. Chinese students in Beijing had begun massive protests in April and in May, during a student demonstration in Tiananmen Square, security troops had opened fire on them killing hundreds. 'Mielke said our situation was comparable and we had to be ready to counter it with all means and methods,' Wiegand recalled. 'Mielke said that the Chinese leadership had succeeded in smothering the protests before the situation got out of hand.'"
Despite Mielke's attempts to suppress them, East Germany's protesters grew more emboldened with every arrest.
40th anniversary of the GDR
As the fortieth anniversary of the GDR approached, Mielke ordered, "We must stop the internal enemy. At the least hint of a disturbance of the celebration, isolate and arrest them."
One former Stasi Major recalled, "We mixed inconspicuously with the demonstrators, accompanied by our IMs. Hundreds of us stood at the sides of the street in order to stop any activity before it got started. We barely got any sleep toward the end. Never did I sense that the people were afraid of the MfS. The Stasi was more afraid of the people than the people were of them."
According to Koehler, "Despite the unrest, the regime celebrated its fortieth with a huge, pompous ceremony in Berlin on 7 October, while tens of thousands of outside the ornate building of the State Council. The People's Police cordons were utterly ineffectual. As Stasi Minister Erich Mielke drove up and was greeted by General Günter Kratsch, the counterintelligence chief, Mielke screamed at police: "Club those pigs into submission!" () The police ignored Mielke's ranting.
As more and more East Germans were arrested for protesting the 40th anniversary celebrations, many of them sang The Internationale in Vopo and Stasi custody to imply that they, rather than their captors, were the real working class and the real revolutionaries.
According to Anna Funder, "There was a sea of red flags, a torchlight procession, and tanks. The old men on the podium wore light-grey suits studded with medals. Mikhail Gorbachev stood next to Honecker, but he looked uncomfortable among the much older Germans. He had come to tell them that it was over, to convince the leadership to adopt his reformist policies. He had spoken openly about the danger of not 'responding to reality.' He pointedly told the Politburo that, 'life punishes those who come too late.' Honecker and Mielke ignored him, just as they ignored the crowds when they chanted, "Gorby, help us! Gorby, help us!"
Plan X
On 8 October 1989, Mielke and Honecker ordered the Stasi to implement "Plan X"—the SED's plan to arrest and indefinitely detain 85,939 East Germans during a state of emergency. According to John Koehler, Plan X had been in preparation since 1979 and was, "a carbon copy of how the Nazi concentration camps got their start after Hitler came to power in 1933."
By 1984, 23 sites had been selected for "isolation and internment camps." Those who were to be imprisoned in them ran into six categories; including anyone who had ever been under surveillance for anti-state activities, including all members of peace movements which were not under Stasi control.
According to Anna Funder, "The plans contained exact provisions for the use of all available prisons and camps, and when those were full for the conversion of other buildings: Nazi detention centers, schools, hospitals, and factory holiday hostels. Every detail was foreseen, from where the doorbell was located on the house of each person to be arrested to the adequate supply of barbed wire and the rules of dress and etiquette in the camps..."
However, when Mielke sent the orders, codenamed "Shield" (), to each local Stasi precinct to begin the planned arrests, he was not obeyed. Terrified of an East German version of the mass lynchings of Hungarian secret police agents during the 1956 Revolution, Stasi agents throughout the GDR fortified their office-buildings and barricaded themselves inside.
Toppling Honecker
Even as orders were going out to implement Plan X, Mielke had already thrown his support behind the anti-Honecker faction in the SED's Politburo. Although he was of the same generation as Honecker and had matured in an environment where following orders was the rule, he was sober enough and politically savvy enough to realize this approach no longer worked. During a session on 10 October 1989, Mielke delivered a report attacking Honecker's desire to violently suppress the demonstrations rather than offer concessions.
In what Edward N. Peterson has called "a remarkable disclaimer of responsibility for the violence," Mielke declared that Honecker's orders to him "were built on false situation judgments." He added that Honecker's commands on 7 and 8 October "were false and undifferentiated condemnations of those who think differently. Despite this evaluation, there was never any instructions to use violence against persons. There is nothing in our basic principles to consider a demonstration as part of a possible counterrevolutionary coup."
Mielke also claimed that "the Party judged the situation falsely. We tried to tell them the true situation, but enough was not done." Mielke argued in favor of solving the demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel."
On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents who were loyal to him were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with tanks," and tried to impress upon Honecker that it was "the end".
After the vote to oust Honecker passed, Mielke "got nasty," and accused Honecker of corruption. Honecker responded that Mielke should not open his mouth so much. Mielke responded by putting the last nail into Honecker's coffin. He announced that the MfS had a file on the now-ousted leader. It contained proof of Honecker's corrupt business practices, sexual activities, and how, as a member of the underground Communist Party of Germany during the Nazi years, he had been arrested by the Gestapo and had named names.
To the shock of both the Politburo and the Stasi, Krenz's first televised addresses failed to win popular support. Despite his assurances that the SED was at last ready to embrace Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, Krenz's approval ratings remained extremely low.
Former Politburo member Günter Schabowski later recalled, "We made a palace revolution without offering a real alternative... We had not quickly and thoroughly enough whittled away from Stalin's methods."
Defeat
On 7 November 1989, Mielke resigned, along with eleven out of eighteen members of the SED's Council of Ministers, in response to the increasing disintegration of the GDR.
Two days later, Schabowski announced on television that the east–west border was open without restriction.
According to Anna Funder, there was panic at Stasi Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg, "Stasi officers were instructed to destroy files, starting with the most incriminating–those naming westerners who spied for them, and those that concerned deaths. They shredded the files until the paper shredders overheated and shorted out. Among other shortages in the East, there was a shredder shortage, so they had to send agents out under cover to West Berlin to buy more. In Building 8 alone, the citizens' movement found over a hundred burnt out shredders. When they ran out of working shredders from the West and could not procure more they began using scissors to cut the documents by hand.
According to William F. Buckley, Jr., "In the weeks after 9 November, Stasi offices were stormed in various cities around East Germany. Stasi commissars in three of those cities committed suicide. But not one was lynched or executed."
Televised humiliation
On 13 November 1989, Mielke was summoned to deliver a briefing about the protests to the GDR parliament, or Volkskammer. Formerly a "rubber stamp parliament," the disintegration of the SED's power had allowed the Volkskammer to begin exercising real authority over the GDR. Therefore, Mielke, as the head of the Stasi (known as the "shield and sword of the [SED] party"), was summoned before the newly empowered parliament to justify his position in government.
As his speech was broadcast live, Mielke began by using overly bombastic, flag-waving language, saying "We have, comrades, dear assembly members, an extraordinarily high amount of contact with all working people" (). To his shock, the Volkskammer responded with boos, whistles, and catcalls.
His face grief-stricken and pale, Mielke then tried to defuse the situation, "Yes, we have such contact, let me tell you-let me tell you why. I am not afraid to stand here and to give you an unbiased answer" (). Mielke continued, speaking of the "triumph" of the socialist economy, continuing all the while to address the members of the Volkskammer as "Comrades" (). In response, Volkskammer member Dietmar Czok of the Christian Democratic Union, rose from his seat and raised his hand. The Volkskammer's president, Günther Maleuda, interrupted Mielke and urged Czok to speak.
With his voice dripping with contempt, Czok told Mielke, "As a point of order, I will not tell you this again. There are more people sitting in this Chamber than just your Comrades!" (). In response, many in the Volkskammer burst into applause, cheers, and shouts of "We are not your Comrades!" ()
Trying to appear magnanimous, Mielke responded, "This is a natural, Humanistic question! This is just a question of formality." (), leading to further shouts of displeasure from the members of the Volkskammer. In a last ditch effort, Mielke "raised his arms like an evangelist," and cried, "I love all – all Humanity! I really do! I set myself before you!" ()
Everyone in the room, including staunch SED members, burst out laughing. Then Mielke started to cry. John Koehler later wrote, "Mielke was finished."
Mielke's address to the Volkskammer remains the most famous broadcast in the history of German television. Anna Funder has written, "When they think of Mielke, East Germans like to think of this."
The Fall
On 17 November 1989, the Volkskammer renamed the MfS the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit (AfNS – Office for National Security). The following day, Mielke's tenure in office ended when the Volkskammer appointed Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz as the new director of the AfNS.
On 1 December 1989, the Volkskammer nullified the clause of the GDR constitution that enshrined the SED's "leading role" in the government and formally ending Communist rule in East Germany. Two days later, the SED announced that Mielke's party membership had been permanently revoked. Years later, he lamented, "Millions have died for nothing. Everything we fought for – it has all amounted to nothing." He also said, "If the party had given me the task, then there would perhaps still be a GDR today. On that you can rely."
Prosecution
Indictments
On 7 December 1989, Erich Mielke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for embezzlement of public funds in order to improve his hunting estate. He was charged with "Damaging the People's Economy" (Schädigung der Volkswirtschaft). On 7 January 1990, he was further charged with high treason and conspiring with Erich Honecker to bug the telephones and open the mail of every one of East Germany's citizens.
Meanwhile, the Federal Constitutional Court announced that Mielke had also been indicted for having ordered two terrorist attacks by the Baader-Meinhoff Group against United States military personnel who were stationed on West German soil. The first was the car bomb attack against the United States Air Force at Ramstein Air Base on 31 August 1981. The second was the attempted murder with an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket of United States Army General Frederick Kroesen, his wife, and the West German police officer who was driving their armored Mercedes at Heidelberg on 15 September 1981.
After German reunification in October 1990, Mielke was also indicted for ordering the shootings of defectors at the Berlin Wall. He was also charged with misuse of office, breach of trust, and incitement to pervert the course of justice.
Bülowplatz trial
In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the 1931 first degree murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the transcripts from the 1934 trial of his co-conspirators, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke revealed that his role in, "the Bülowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing to Moscow from the Weimar Republic in 1931. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the documents for the purpose of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified that Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bülowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965.
During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plötzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution.
After twenty months of one-and-a-half-hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. At his sentencing, Mielke started to cry. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Imprisonment
Mielke was then put on trial for ordering the shootings of East Germans who were trying to defect to the West. In November 1994, the presiding judge adjourned the proceedings, ruling that Mielke was not mentally competent to stand trial.
During his incarceration, at JVA Moabit corrections officers supplied Mielke with a red telephone like the one in his office at Stasi Headquarters. Although it was not connected to the outside world, Mielke enjoyed having imaginary conversations with non-existent Stasi agents. His other favorite pastime was watching game shows on television.
In 1995, parole officers and Mielke's attorneys argued that he was "totally confused" and obtained his release. At 87 years of age, Erich Mielke was Germany's oldest prison inmate and had been incarcerated for 1,904 days. Days before his release, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin announced that he was "not interested in chasing an 87-year-old man anymore" and that all further prosecution of Mielke had been indefinitely suspended.
According to Koehler, "[Mielke's] bank account, which held more than 300,000 Marks (about US$187,500), was confiscated. Before his arrest in 1989, the most feared man in East Germany had lived in a luxurious home with access to an indoor pool. In addition, he owned a palatial hunting villa, complete with a movie theater, trophy room, 60 servants, and a 60 square kilometers hunting preserve. After he was released from prison Mielke was obliged to move into a two-room, 55-square-meter flat. Like all Stasi pensioners, he would henceforth have to live on 802 marks (about US$512) a month."
Death
Erich Mielke died on 21 May 2000, aged 92, in a Berlin nursing home. After being cremated at the crematorium in Meissen, an urn containing Mielke's ashes was buried in an unmarked grave at the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. An estimated 100 people reportedly attended the funeral. Erich Mielke's grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes. Within hours of his funeral, the flowers and wreaths left at Mielke's grave were ripped to shreds by persons unknown.
Legacy
Writing in 2003, Australian journalist Anna Funder declared, "The name Mielke has now come to mean 'Stasi.' Victims are dubiously honored to find his signature in their files: on plans for someone to be observed 'with all possible methods', on commands for arrest, for kidnapping, instructions to judges for sentencing, orders for 'liquidation'. The honor is dubious because... he signed so many."
In 2012, the museum at the former Stasi headquarters opened Mielke's office as a permanent exhibit. Soon after, The Guardian correspondent Tam Eastley visited the exhibit and numerous sites in Berlin connected to Mielke's life, times, and legacy. When she visited Mielke's grave, Eastley found that it had become a shrine for adherents of Ostalgie.
Personal life
Erich Mielke was a fitness enthusiast, a non-smoker, and drank very little. He was a keen hunter and owned a large area of ground where he would hunt animals with other East German and visiting Soviet officials.
During the late 1940s, when Mielke was working as security chief of the DWK, he began a relationship with Gertrud Mueller, a seamstress. On 18 December 1948, shortly after the birth of their son Frank Mielke, Erich and Gertrud married in a civil ceremony.
According to the newspaper Bild, the Mielkes adopted an orphaned girl named Ingrid, who was born in 1950. Like her adopted brother Frank, Ingrid Mielke attended the Wilhelm Pieck School. She ultimately became a captain in the Stasi and married a Stasi Lieutenant named Norbert Knappe. As of 1999, the Knappes had both refused to grant an interview to Bild reporters.
In popular culture
Erich Mielke has appeared as a character in both films and novels set in the GDR.
Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita (2000), which focuses on Stasi collusion with the West German far-left terrorist organization Rote Armee Fraktion. In conversation with fictional Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke), Mielke (Dietrich Körner) expresses admiration for the RAF's campaign against the United States, West Germany, and the State of Israel, which he compares with his own activities against the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. The RAF members are then brought to a training camp, where Stasi agents instruct them in the use of grenade launchers and other kinds of military hardware. Mielke's name is never disclosed and Agent Hull addresses him only as, "Comrade General." ()
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (2006), which focuses on the Stasi's surveillance and repression of the East German population. In the film, a previously loyal GDR playwright named Georg Dreymann (Sebastian Koch) publishes an anonymous article in the West German magazine Der Spiegel which accuses East Germany's Minister of Culture of having persecuted a blacklisted stage director until he hanged himself. Soon after the article goes to press, Mielke's voice is heard over the telephone giving a dressing down to fictional Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur). Addressed only as "Genosse Armeegeneral" (Mielke was the only person to ever hold that rank in the Stasi), Mielke threatens to throw Grubitz in front of a firing squad if he fails to identify and arrest the article's author.
In Philip Kerr's novel Field Grey (2010), Mielke first appears in 1931 Berlin, when protagonist Bernie Gunther saves him from being murdered by Nazi Brownshirts. The novel then flashes forward to 1954, when Gunther is recruited into a CIA plot to abduct Mielke from East Berlin.
Honours and awards
Mielke received a large number of awards and commemorative medals from organisations within the German Democratic Republic and from allied states. A more complete list is available (in German) at Liste der Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Erich Mielke.
Awards of the German Democratic Republic
Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (7 October 1954)
Six Orders of Karl Marx (28 December 1957, 20 November 1973, 1 December 1975, 28 December 1977, 28 June 1982, 28 December 1982)
Twice Hero of Labour of the GDR (5 October 1964, 24 February 1968)
Twice Hero of the GDR (1 December 1975, 28 December 1982)
Banner of Labour (8 May 1960)
Medal for Exemplary Border Service (26 April 1956)
Medal for Faithful Service in the National People's Army;
Bronze (7 October 1957)
Silver (8 February 1959)
Gold (1 July 1960)
Gold for 20 years service (8 February 1965)
Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (6 September 1958)
Gold Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (1 March 1957)
Scharnhorst Order, twice (25 September 1979, 7 October 1984)
Awards of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union (25 December 1987)
Four Orders of Lenin (12 June 1973, 28 December 1982, 1 April 1985, 28 December 1987)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (6 May 1970)
Four Orders of the Red Banner (23 October 1958, 5 February 1968, 28 December 1977, February 1980)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Soviet Militia" (20 December 1967)
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" (1970)
Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR" (6 January 1970)
Order of the October Revolution (February 1975)
Other states
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 28 December 1982)
Order of Friendship (Czechoslovakia) (28 December 1982)
Order of the Red Star (Czechoslovakia) (16 November 1970)
References
Further reading
Buckley, Jr., William F. (2004), The Fall of the Berlin Wall, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Funder, Anna (2003), Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books, London.
Kuchel, Dany (2011) "Le Glaive et le Bouclier", une histoire de la Stasi en France.
Otto, Wilfriede, Erich Mielke, Biographie: Aufstieg und Fall eines Tschekisten. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2000, .
Peterson, Edward N. (2002). The Secret Police and the Revolution: The Fall of the German Democratic Republic, Praeger Publications, Westport, Connecticut. London.
Pickard, Ralph (2007). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide. Frontline Historical Publishing.
Pickard, Ralph (2012). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II. Frontline Historical Publication.
1907 births
2000 deaths
Politicians from Berlin
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Government ministers of East Germany
Members of the 3rd Volkskammer
Members of the 4th Volkskammer
Members of the 5th Volkskammer
Members of the 6th Volkskammer
Members of the 7th Volkskammer
Members of the 8th Volkskammer
Members of the 9th Volkskammer
East German spies
German Comintern people
German emigrants to the Soviet Union
German politicians convicted of crimes
Köllnisches Gymnasium alumni
German people convicted of murdering police officers
International Brigades personnel
German people of the Spanish Civil War
German police officers convicted of murder
German spies for the Soviet Union
Great Purge perpetrators
Interwar-period spies
NKVD officers
Murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck
Perpetrators of political repression in the Second Spanish Republic
People convicted of murder by Germany
Prisoners and detainees of Germany
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SV Dynamo
Collaborators with the Soviet Union
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Recipients of the Scharnhorst Order
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Recipients of the Banner of Labor
Foreign Heroes of the Soviet Union
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner
Recipients of the Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"
Recipients of the Order of Georgi Dimitrov
20th-century German criminals
People from Mitte
German mass murderers
Criminals from Berlin
German military personnel of World War II | true | [
"Dolores Della Penna (December 13, 1954 – July 12, 1972) was a school girl from Philadelphia who was tortured, murdered by dismemberment, and beheaded in the Kensington neighborhood in July, 1972.\n\nDisappearance\nShortly before midnight on July 11, 1972, Della Penna was abducted from her home in Philadelphia. Witnesses later informed the police that they had seen her beaten and dragged, while she was unconscious, into a car. Della Penna's torso and arms were later located in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Her legs were found in adjacent Manchester Township, New Jersey. Her head was never recovered and her murder remains unsolved.\n\nInvestigation and aftermath \nHer fingertips had been severed from her hands to prevent the police from identifying her. Their reports state that Della Penna was killed by drug dealers who thought that her boyfriend had stolen drugs from them. The crime remains unsolved, and is hotly debated online.\n\nSee also\nCrime in Philadelphia\nList of murdered American children\nList of solved missing person cases\nList of unsolved murders\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nGory Killing Of '72 Solved, Sources Say Arrests Sought In Case That Obsessed Police, The Philadelphia Inquirer (July 10, 1996)\nGruesome killing remains unsolved, The Philadelphia Inquirer (April 13, 2003)\n\n1970s missing person cases\n1972 murders in the United States\nJuly 1972 events in the United States\nJuly 1972 crimes\n1970s in Philadelphia\nCrimes in Philadelphia\nDeaths by person in the United States\nIncidents of violence against girls\nMissing person cases in Pennsylvania\nRapes in the United States\nUnsolved murders in the United States\nFemale murder victims\nAmerican torture victims\nMurdered American children\nPeople murdered in Pennsylvania\nKensington, Philadelphia\nHistory of women in Pennsylvania",
"Les disparus de l'Isère (literally \"The Disappeared of the Isère\") is the collective name given to between nine and twelve disappearances of children in the French département of Isère between 1983 and 1996. Some children were murdered, one was attacked, but survived and others have never been found. Only three of the cases (which themselves consist of two separate, unrelated cases) have been solved.\n\nVictims \n Philippe Pignot, age 13, disappeared 25 May 1980 in La Morte-sur-Isère, never found.\n Ludovic Janvier, age 6, disappeared 17 March 1983 in Saint-Martin-d'Hères, never found.\n Grégory Dubrulle, age 7, disappeared 9 July 1983 in Grenoble, found alive the next day with head injuries in a landfill site in Pommiers-la-Placette.\n Bones of an unidentified child who had been dead for at least several months and possibly several years – found 23 May 1985 in the Vercors Cave System.\n Anissa Ouadi, age 5, disappeared 25 June 1985 in Grenoble, found strangled and drowned in Beauvoir dam 13 days later.\n Charazed Bendouiou, age 10, disappeared 8 July 1987 in Bourgoin-Jallieu, never found.\n Nathalie Boyer, age 15, disappeared 2 August 1988 in Villefontaine, found murdered in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier.\n Fabrice Ladoux, age 12, disappeared 13 January 1989 in Grenoble, found murdered three days later, sexually attacked and with a head wound, in Quaix-en-Chartreuse in the Chartreuse Mountains.\n Rachid Bouzian,* age 8, disappeared 3 August 1990 in Échirolles, found murdered the next day. A suspect was apprehended later that month.\n Sarah Siad,* age 6, disappeared 16 April 1991 in Voreppe, found murdered.\n Léo Balley, age 6, disappeared 19 July 1996 on the massif du Taillefer, never found.\n Saïda Berch,* age 10, disappeared 24 November 1996 in Voreppe, found murdered.\n\nInvestigations \nIn the spring of 2008, the authorities created a unit called \"Mineurs 38\" (\"Minors 38\" – 38 being the French departmental code for the Isère), comprising several investigators charged with reexamining all the cases.\n\nSolved cases \n The murder of Rachid Bouzian was solved shortly after the event. On 23 August 1990, a man who had taken part in the abduction was arrested, and accused his brother (who had by then fled abroad) of instigating the crime. The former was found guilty of abduction and murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison.\n The murders of Sarah Siad (1991) and Saïda Berch (1996) were solved thanks to DNA profiling. On 25 July 2013, a man (who had been 15 years old at the time of the first murder) was investigated after traces of his DNA turned up at both of the different places where the two bodies were found. The man's profile was on the FNAEG, the French national DNA database, due to having previously been arrested for driving under the influence and driving without insurance.\n\nSee also\nList of fugitives from justice who disappeared\n\nReferences\n\n1980s in France\n1980s missing person cases\n1990s in France\n1990s missing person cases\nFormerly missing people\nIsère\nMissing people\nMissing person cases in France\nMurdered French children\nSerial murders in France\nUnidentified serial killers"
]
|
[
"Erich Mielke",
"Bulowplatz trial",
"When did the trial take place?",
"1992,",
"What was the verdict?",
"convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.",
"Who was the first person murdered?",
"Captains Anlauf and Lenck"
]
| C_5879ec3395ef473987bcbbff52d1eee2_1 | Who was the victim of the attempted murder? | 4 | Who was the victim of the attempted murder in relation to the 1992 Bulowplatz trial? | Erich Mielke | In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the first degree murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the 1934 trial transcripts, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke had admitted that, "the Bulowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing Germany. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the files for purposes of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified about how Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bulowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965. During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plotzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (German: "Ich mochte in mein Bett zuruck."). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution. After twenty months of one-and-a-half hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century." CANNOTANSWER | Senior Sergeant Willig. | Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
A native of Berlin and a second-generation member of the Communist Party of Germany, Mielke was one of two triggermen in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. After learning that a witness had survived, Mielke escaped arrest by fleeing to the Soviet Union, where the NKVD recruited him. He was one of the key figures in the decimation of Moscow's German Communists during the Great Purge as well as in the persecution of suspected anti-Stalinists in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany, which he helped organize into a Marxist-Leninist satellite state under the Socialist Unity Party (SED), later becoming head of the Stasi. According to historian Jack Koehler, he was "the longest serving secret police chief in the Soviet Bloc".
The Stasi under Mielke has been called by historian Edward Peterson the "most pervasive police state apparatus ever to exist on German soil". In a 1993 interview, Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal has said that, if one considers only the oppression of their own people, the Stasi under Mielke was "much, much worse than the Gestapo".
During the 1950s and 1960s Mielke led the process of forcibly forming collectivised farms from East Germany's family-owned farms, which sent a flood of refugees to West Germany. In response, Mielke oversaw the construction (1961) of the Berlin Wall and co-signed orders to shoot fatally all East Germans who attempted to leave the country. He also oversaw the establishment of pro-Soviet police states and paramilitary insurgencies in Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
In addition to his role as head of the Stasi, Mielke was also an Army General in the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee), and a member of the SED's ruling Politburo. Dubbed "The Master of Fear" () by the West German press, Mielke was one of the most powerful and most hated men in East Germany.
After German reunification in 1990, Mielke was arrested (1991), prosecuted (1992), convicted, and incarcerated (1993) for the 1931 murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. Released from prison early due to ill health in 1995, he died in a Berlin nursing home in 2000.
Early life
Erich Mielke was born in a tenement in Berlin-Wedding, Brandenburg, on 28 December 1907. During the First World War, the neighborhood was known as "Red Wedding" due to many residents' Marxist militancy. In a handwritten biography written for the Soviet secret police, Mielke described his father as "a poor, uneducated woodworker," and said that his mother died in 1911. Both were, he said, members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After his remarriage to "a seamstress," the elder Mielke and his new wife joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and remained members when it was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). His son Erich claimed "My younger brother Kurt and two sisters were Communist sympathisers."
Despite his family's poverty, Erich Mielke was academically gifted enough to be awarded a free scholarship in the prestigious Köllnisches Gymnasium, but was expelled on 19 February 1929, for being "unable to meet the great demands of this school." While attending the Gymnasium, Mielke joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1925, and worked as a reporter for the communist newspaper Rote Fahne from 1928 to 1931.
During the Weimar Republic, the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and was seen as the "leading party" of the communist movement outside the Soviet Union. Under Ernst Thälmann's leadership, the KPD was completely obedient to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the Party was both funded and controlled by the Comintern in Moscow.
Until the end of the Republic, the KPD viewed the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which dominated German politics between 1918 and 1931, as their mortal enemy. In keeping with Stalin's policy towards social democracy, the KPD considered all SPD members to be "social fascists". The KPD also believed that all other political parties were "fascist" and regarded itself as "the only anti-fascist Party" in Germany. Nevertheless, the KPD closely collaborated with the Nazi Party during the early 1930s and both Parties intended to replace the democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic with a totalitarian single party state.
Soon after joining the Party, Mielke joined the KPD's paramilitary wing, or Parteiselbstschutz ("Party Self Defense Unit"). At the time, the Parteiselbstschutz in Berlin was commanded by KPD Reichstag Representatives Hans Kippenberger and Heinz Neumann.
According to John Koehler, "Mielke was a special protege of Kippenberger's having taken to his paramilitary training with the enthusiasm of a Prussian Junker. World War I veterans taught the novices how to handle pistols, rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades. This clandestine training was conducted in the sparsely populated, pastoral countryside surrounding Berlin. Mielke also pleased Kippenberger by being an exceptional student in classes on the arts of conspiratorial behavior and espionage, taught by comrades who had studied at the secret M-school of the GRU in Moscow."
According to John Koehler, members of the Parteiselbstschutz "served as bouncers at Party meetings and specialized in cracking heads during street battles with political enemies." Besides the ruling SPD and its paramilitary Reichsbanner forces, the arch-enemies of the Parteiselbstschutz were the Stahlhelm, which was the armed wing of the Monarchist German National People's Party (DVNP), Trotskyites, and "radical nationalist parties."
According to Koehler, the KPD's Selbstschutz men "always carried a Stahlrute, two steel springs that telescoped into a tube seventeen centimeters long, which when extended became a deadly, 35-centimeter weapon. Not to be outdone by the Nazis, these street-fighters were often armed with pistols as well."
In a 1931 biography written for the Cadre Division of the Comintern, Mielke recalled, "We took care of all kinds of work; terror acts, protecting illegal demonstrations and meetings, arms-trafficking, etc. The last work, which was accomplished by a Comrade and myself, was the Bülowplatz Affair" ().
Bülowplatz murders
Planning
During the last days of the Weimar Republic, the KPD had a policy of assassinating two Berlin police officers in retaliation for every KPD member killed by the police.
On 2 August 1931, KPD Members of the Reichstag Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger received a dressing down from Walter Ulbricht, the Party's leader in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Enraged by police interference and by Neumann and Kippenberger's failure to follow the policy, Ulbricht stated, "At home in Saxony we would have done something about the police a long time ago. Here in Berlin we will not fool around much longer. Soon we will hit the police in the head."
Enraged by Ulbricht's words, Kippenberger and Neumann decided to assassinate Paul Anlauf, the 42-year-old Captain of the Berlin Police's Seventh Precinct. Captain Anlauf, a widower with three daughters, had been nicknamed "Schweinebacke", or "Pig Face" by the KPD.
According to historian John Koehler, "Of all the policemen in strife-torn Berlin, the reds hated Anlauf the most. His precinct included the area around KPD headquarters, which made it the most dangerous in the city. The captain almost always led the riot squads that broke up illegal rallies of the Communist Party."
On the morning of Sunday 9 August 1931, Kippenberger and Neumann gave a last briefing to the hit-team in a room at the Lassant beer hall. Mielke and Erich Ziemer were selected as the shooters. During the meeting, Max Matern gave a Luger pistol to fellow lookout Max Thunert and said, "Now we're getting serious. We're going to give Schweinebacke something to remember us by."
Kippenberger then asked Mielke and Ziemer, "Are you sure that you are ready to shoot Schweinebacke?" Mielke responded that he had seen Anlauf many times during police searches of Party Headquarters. Kippenberger then instructed them to wait at a nearby beer hall which would permit them to overlook the entire Bülow-Platz. He further reminded them that Anlauf was accompanied everywhere by Senior Sergeant Max Willig, whom the KPD had nicknamed, "Hussar".
Kippenberger concluded, "When you spot Schweinebacke and Hussar, you take care of them." Mielke and Ziemer were informed that, after the assassinations were completed, a diversion would assist in their escape. They were then to return to their homes and await further instructions.
That evening, Anlauf was lured to Bülow-Platz by a violent rally demanding the dissolution of the Prussian Parliament.
According to Koehler, "As was often the case when it came to battling the dominant SPD, the KPD and the Nazis had combined forces during the pre-plebiscite campaign. At one point in this particular campaign, Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels even shared a speaker's platform with KPD agitator Walter Ulbricht. Both parties wanted the parliament dissolved because they were hoping that new elections would oust the SPD, the sworn enemy of all radicals. That fact explained why the atmosphere was particularly volatile this Sunday."
Murder at the Babylon Cinema
At eight o'clock that evening, Mielke and Ziemer waited in a doorway as Anlauf, Willig, and Captain Franz Lenck walked toward the Babylon Cinema, which was located at the corner of Bülowplatz and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. As they reached the door of the movie house, the policemen heard someone scream, "Schweinebacke!"
As Anlauf turned toward the sound, Mielke and Ziemer opened fire at point blank range. Willig was wounded in the left arm and the stomach. However, he managed to draw his Luger pistol and fired a full magazine at the assailants. Lenck was shot in the chest and fell dead in front of the entrance. Willig crawled over and cradled the head of Anlauf, who had taken two bullets in the neck.
Meanwhile, Mielke and Ziemer made their escape by running into the theater and out an emergency exit. They tossed their pistols over a fence, where they were later found by Homicide Detectives from the elite Mordkommission. Mielke and Ziemer then returned to their homes.
According to Koehler, "Back at Bülowplatz, the killings had triggered a major police action. At least a thousand officers poured into the square, and a bloody street battle ensued. Rocks and bricks were hurled from the rooftops. Communist gunmen fired indiscriminately from the roofs of surrounding apartment houses. As darkness fell, police searchlights illuminated the buildings. Using megaphones, officers shouted, "Clear the streets! Move away from the windows! We are returning fire!" By now the rabble had fled the square, but shooting continued as riot squads combed the tenements, arresting hundreds of residents suspected of having fired weapons. The battle lasted until one o'clock the next morning. In addition to the two police officers, the casualties included one Communist who died of a gunshot wound and seventeen others who were seriously wounded."
Anlauf's wife had died three weeks earlier of kidney failure. The murder of Anlauf thus left their three daughters as orphans. Their oldest daughter was forced to rush her planned wedding in order to keep her sisters from being put in an orphanage. Lenck was survived by his wife. Willig was hospitalized for 14 weeks, but made a full recovery and returned to active duty. In recognition for Willig's courage, the Berlin Police promoted him to Lieutenant.
After the murders, the act was celebrated at the Lichtenberger Hof, a favorite beer hall of the Rotfrontkämpferbund, where Mielke boasted: "Today we celebrate a job that I pulled!" ()
Fugitive
According to Koehler, "Kippenberger was alarmed when word reached him that Sergeant Willig had survived the shooting. Not knowing whether the sergeant could talk and identify the attackers, Kippenberger was taking no chances. He directed a runner to summon Mielke and Ziemer to his apartment at 74 Bellermannstrasse, only a few minutes walk from where the two lived. When the assassins arrived, Kippenberger told them the news and ordered them to leave Berlin at once. The parliamentarian's wife Thea, an unemployed schoolteacher and as staunch a Communist Party member as her husband, shepherded the young murderers to the Belgian border. Agents of the Communist International (Comintern) in the port city of Antwerp supplied them with money and forged passports. Aboard a merchant ship, they sailed for Leningrad. When their ship docked, they were met by another Comintern representative, who escorted them to Moscow."
Beginning in 1932, Mielke attended the Comintern's Military Political school under the alias Paul Bach. He later graduated from the Lenin School shortly before being recruited into the OGPU.
Trial
According to Koehler, "In mid-March 1933, while attending the Lenin School, Mielke received word from his OGPU sponsors that Berlin police had arrested Max Thunert, one of the conspirators in the Anlauf and Lenck murders. Within days, fifteen other members of the assassination team were in custody. Mielke had to wait six more months before the details of the police action against his Berlin comrades reached Moscow. On 14 September 1933, Berlin newspapers reported that all fifteen had confessed to their roles in the murders. Arrest warrants were issued for ten others who had fled, including Mielke, Ziemer, Ulbricht, Kippenberger, and Neumann."
Koehler also stated, "Defenders of Mielke later claimed that confessions had been obtained under torture by the Nazi Gestapo. However, all suspects were in the custody of the regular Berlin city criminal investigation bureau, most of whose detectives were SPD members. Some of the suspects had been nabbed by Nazi SA men and probably beaten before they were turned over to police. In the 1993 trial of Mielke, the court gave the defense the benefit of the doubt and threw out a number of suspect confessions."
On 19 June 1934, the 15 conspirators were convicted of first degree murder. The three deemed most culpable, Michael Klause, Max Matern, and Friedrich Bröde were sentenced to death. Their co-defendants received sentences ranging from nine months to fifteen years incarceration at hard labor. Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation. Bröde hanged himself in his cell. As a result, only Matern was left to be executed by beheading on 22 May 1935.
Matern was subsequently glorified as a martyr by KPD and East German propaganda. Ziemer was officially killed in action while fighting on the Republican-side during the Spanish Civil War. Mielke, however, would not face trial for the murders until 1993.
Career in Soviet intelligence
The Great Terror
Although Moscow's German Communist community was decimated during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Mielke survived and was promoted.
In a handwritten autobiography prepared after World War II, Mielke recalled, "During my stay in the S.U. (Soviet Union), I participated in all Party discussions of the K.P.D. and also in the problems concerning the establishment of socialism and in the trials against the traitors and enemies of the S.U."
Among the German communists executed as a result of these "discussions" were Mielke's former mentors Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger.
Mielke further recalled, "I was a guest on the honor grandstand of Red Square during the May Day and October Revolution parades. I became acquainted with many comrades of the Federation of World Communist Parties and the War Council of the Special Commission of the Comintern. I will never forget my meeting with Comrade Dimitrov, the Chairman of the Comintern, whom I served as an aide together with another comrade. I saw Comrade Stalin during all demonstrations at Red Square, especially when I stood on the grandstand. I mention these meetings because all these comrades are our models and teachers for our work."
During his time in the USSR, Mielke also developed a lifelong reverence for Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Polish aristocrat who founded the Soviet secret police. Mielke also began an equally permanent habit of calling himself a Chekist.
In a citation written decades later, Mielke described his philosophy of life, "The Chekist is the political combatant. He is the loyal son of... the workers' class. He stands at the head of the battle to strengthen the power of our workers' and peasants' state."
Spanish Civil War
From 1936 to 1939, Mielke served in Spain as an operative of the Servicio de Investigación Militar, the political police of the Second Spanish Republic. While attached to the staff of, "veteran GRU agent," and future Stasi minister Wilhelm Zaisser, Mielke used the alias Fritz Leissner. Bernd Kaufmann, the director of the Stasi's espionage school later said, "The Soviets trusted Mielke implicitly. He earned his spurs in Spain."
At the time, the S.I.M. was heavily staffed by agents of the Soviet NKVD, whose Spanish rezident was General Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and International Brigade commanders than on fighting Franco. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics."
In a 1991 interview, Walter Janka, a fellow German communist exile and company commander in the International Brigade, recalled his encounters with Mielke. During the winter of 1936, Janka was summoned by the SIM and interrogated by Mielke. Mielke demanded to know why Janka had voluntarily traveled to Spain rather than being assigned there by the Party. When he told Mielke to get lost, the SIM demoted Janka to the ranks and then expelled him from the International Brigade. Years later, Janka recalled, "While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists."
Upon the defeat of the Spanish Republic, Mielke fled across the Pyrenees Mountains to France, where he was interned at Camp de Rivesaltes, Pyrénées-Orientales. Mielke, however, managed to send a message to exiled KPD members and, in May 1939, escaped to Belgium. Although the Public Prosecutor of Berlin learned of Mielke's presence and filed for his extradition, the Belgian Government refused to comply, regarding the assassinations of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as "a political crime."
The NKVD and the SIM's witch hunt for both real and imagined anti-Stalinists had serious consequences. It horrified numerous formerly pro-Soviet Westerners who had been witnesses, including John Dos Passos, Arthur Koestler and George Orwell, and caused them to permanently turn against the USSR.
Mielke's belief that anti-Soviet Marxists had collaborated with Franco and stabbed the Republic in the back continued to shape his attitudes for the rest of his life. In a 1982 speech before a group of senior Stasi officers, he said, "We are not immune from villains among us. If I knew of any already, they wouldn't live past tomorrow. Short shrift. It's because I'm a Humanist, that I'm of this view."
In the same speech, Mielke also said, "All this blithering over to execute or not to execute, for the death penalty or against—all rot, Comrades. Execute! And, when necessary, without a court judgment."
World War II
During World War II, Mielke's movements remain mysterious. In a biography written after the war, he claimed to have infiltrated Organisation Todt under the alias Richard Hebel, but historian John O. Koehler considers this unlikely.
Koehler admits, however, "Mielke's exploits must have been substantial. By war's end, he had been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War First Class, and twice with the Order of Lenin. It is likely that he served as an NKVD agent, at least part of the time with guerrilla units behind German lines, for he knew all the partisan songs by heart and sang them in faultless Russian."
Occupied Germany
Komissariat-5
In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.
That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."
On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No. 2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services.
In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke disclosed—truthfully—his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, and—mistakenly or misleadingly—that for this he had been tried in absentia, found guilty, and sentenced to death. In actuality, Mielke's "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried". He admitted—truthfully—fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed—falsely—that he had been released from the French internment camps and had worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston". Furthermore, Mielke concealed his past and contemporaneous involvement with the NKVD, NKGB, and the Nazi Organisation Todt (which he asserted he'd infiltrated).
According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets. Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers. But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."
On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany.
According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan. In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a "new Gestapo." Furthermore, Abakumov, like Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked." Notwithstanding Abakumov's objections, however, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately. It is possible, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers' lack of fluency in the German language was engendering massive popular resentment.
Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head. Mielke was installed as his deputy.
According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police. Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons. Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party. Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision. The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them. Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."
According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees. Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers. In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary rule of law."
According to Edward N. Peterson, "Not surprisingly, K-5 acquired a reputation as bad as that of Stalin's secret police and worse than that of the Gestapo. At least with the Nazis, albeit fanatically racist, their victims did not suddenly disappear into the GULAG."
The Amalgamation
Despite the K-5's mass arrests of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Zone, the number of SPD members continued to grow. By March 1946, SPD members outnumbered KPD members by more than 100,000. Fearing that they would lose the elections scheduled for the autumn, the leadership of the KPD asked for and received Stalin's permission to merge the two parties. When the SPD's leadership agreed only to schedule a vote for the rank and file to decide, permission was denied by the Soviet occupation authorities. The K-5 then began mass arrests of SPD members who refused to support the merger.
On 22 April 1946, the remaining leaders of the SPD in the Soviet Zone announced that they had united with the KPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SPD in the western zones of Occupied Germany responded by forming the SPD East Bureau in order to support and finance those Social Democrats who refused to accept the merger. Those who joined or worked with the East Bureau were, however, in serious danger of arrest by the K-5 and trial by Soviet military tribunals. By 1950, more than 5,000 SPD members and sympathisers had been imprisoned in the Soviet Zone or transferred to the GULAG. More than 400 were either executed or died during their imprisonments.
John Koehler has written that, prior to the spring of 1946, many Germans in the Soviet Zone, "merely shrugged at the wave of arrests, believing that the victims were former Nazi officials and war criminals." But then came the mass arrests of Social Democrats who opposed the merger, who, "were joined by people who had been denounced for making anti-communist or anti-Soviet remarks, among their number hundreds who were as young as fourteen years. Although these arrests were made by Germans purporting to be officials of the criminal police, the existence of the K-5 political police eventually was exposed. Mielke, meanwhile, had risen to the post of vice-president of the German Administration for Interior Affairs – the equivalent of the NKVD – and continued his manipulations from behind the scenes."
Investigation
In January 1947, two retired Berlin policemen recognized Mielke at an official function. Informing the head of the criminal police in West Berlin, the policemen demanded that Mielke be arrested and prosecuted for the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. Wilhelm Kühnast, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin, was immediately informed and ordered a search of the Kammergericht archives. To his astonishment, the files of the 1931 murders had survived the wartime bombing of Germany. Finding ample evidence of Mielke's involvement, Kühnast ordered the arrest of the communist policeman.
According to John Koehler, "At that time, the city administration, including the police, was under the control of the Allied Control Commission, which consisted of U.S., British, French, and Soviet military officers. All actions by city officials, including the judiciary, were to be reported to the Commission. The Soviet representative alerted the MGB. Action was swift. Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, who had replaced Zhukov, protested, and his representatives at the Commission launched a vicious campaign to discredit Kühnast."
The Soviet representatives falsely claimed that Kühnast, a jurist with an impeccable anti-Nazi record, had been an official of Roland Freisler's People's Court. Taking the Soviets at their word, the Western Allies removed Kühnast from his position and placed him under house arrest. During the Berlin airlift, Kühnast fled from his home in East Berlin and was granted political asylum in the American Zone.
Meanwhile, the Soviet authorities confiscated all documents relating to the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. According to Koehler, "The Soviets handed the court records to Mielke. Instead of destroying the incriminating papers, he locked them in his private safe, where they were found when his home was searched in 1990. They were used against him in his trial for murder."
Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission
In 1948, Mielke was appointed as security chief of the German Economic Commission (), the precursor to the future East German government.
Mielke's task was to investigate the theft and sale of state property on the black market. He was also charged with intercepting the growing number of refugees fleeing to the French, British, and American Zones.
Those his security forces caught while attempting to defect were used as slave labor in the uranium mines that were providing raw material for the Soviet atomic bomb project.
German Democratic Republic
Independence
In 1949, the Soviet Military Administration ceded its legal functions to the newly created German Democratic Republic.
On 14 January 1950, Marshal Vasili Chuikov announced that all Soviet "internment camps" on German soil had been closed. Soon after, the DWK was absorbed into the newly created Ministry for State Security. In keeping with earlier syllabic abbreviations along the same lines (see OrPo, KriPo, and GeStaPo) East Germans immediately dubbed it the "Stasi" (from Staatssicherheit). With the approval of the Soviets, Mielke's commanding officer from Spain and in the K5, Wilhelm Zaisser, was appointed as the Stasi's head. Mielke was appointed to his staff with the rank of State Secretary. Mielke was also granted a seat in the SED's ruling Politburo.
According to John Koehler, "In the five years since the end of World War II, the Soviets and their vassals had arrested between 170,000 and 180,000 Germans. Some 160,000 had passed through the concentration camps, and of these about 65,000 had died, 36,000 had been shipped to the Soviet Gulag, and another 46,000 had been freed."
In 1949, as a response to the remilitarization of East Germany and the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Portugal formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. In 1950, as a response to the outbreak of the Korean War, West Germany was also permitted to join NATO, which was then upgraded into a military alliance.
According to Koehler, however, "As the Cold War intensified, living conditions in Soviet-occupied East Germany showed little improvement beyond the postwar level of bare subsistence. The new government of the DDR – a mere puppet of the Kremlin – relied more and more on the Stasi to quell discontent among factory workers and farmers. Ulbricht, claiming that the social unrest was fomented by capitalist agents, once ordered Mielke to personally visit one large plant and 'arrest four or five such agents' as an example to the others. The Stasi deputy 'discovered' the agents in record time."
Field show trials
Also in 1949, Noel Field, an American citizen who had spied for the NKVD from inside the U.S. State Department, the Office of Strategic Services, and the CIA, fled from his posting in Switzerland to Communist Czechoslovakia after his cover was blown by fellow mole Whittaker Chambers. On 11 May 1949, the Czechoslovakian secret police, or StB, in obedience to a direct order from KGB chief Lavrenti Beria, arrested Field in Prague. Field was then handed over to the Hungarian ÁVO. After his interrogation in Budapest, Fields was used as a witness at show trials of senior Soviet Bloc Communists who, like László Rajk and Rudolf Slánský, stood accused of having spied for the United States. The real reason for the trials was to replace homegrown Communists in Eastern Europe with those who would be blindly loyal to Joseph Stalin and to blame the division of Germany on the intrigues of U.S. intelligence.
At the Rajk show trial, the prosecutor declared, "Noel Field, one of the leaders of American espionage, specialized in recruiting spies from among left-wing elements."
In August 1950, six senior SED members, including Willi Kreikemeyer, the director of Deutsche Reichsbahn and head of Berliner Rundfunk, were accused of "special connections with Noel Field, the American spy." All were either imprisoned or shot.
John Koehler writes, "Similar purges were conducted in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, where Field appeared as a witness in show trials that resulted in some death sentences. The Soviets simply distrusted all Communists who had sought exile in the West. All the while, Mielke remained untouched and continued to serve as the deputy secret police chief. His survival reinforced the belief that he had spent the war years in the Soviet Union instead of France and Belgium as he had claimed in the 1945 questionnaire."
In June 1950, Erica Wallach, Noel Field's adopted daughter, decided to search for him. From Paris, she telephoned Leo Bauer, the editor-in-chief of Berliner Rundfunk. The call was monitored by agents of the Soviet Ministry for Internal Affairs, and Bauer's handler instructed him to invite Mrs. Wallach to East Berlin, where she was immediately arrested. Mielke personally interrogated her and, at one point, offered Mrs. Wallach immediate release if she named the members of her fictitious spy network. She was condemned to death by a Soviet military tribunal in East Berlin and shipped to the Lubianka prison in Moscow for her execution. After Joseph Stalin's death in on 5 March 1953, Erica Wallach's sentence was reduced to hard labor in Vorkuta, a region of the Gulag located above the Arctic Circle. She was released during the Khrushchev thaw in October 1955. At first, she was unable to join her husband and daughters in the U.S. because of the U.S. State Department's concern over her former membership in the Communist Party of Germany. It took the personal intervention of CIA Director Allen Dulles to reunite Erica Wallach with her family in 1957. Wallach's memoir of her experiences, Light at Midnight, was published in 1967.
Death of Stalin
After Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin died inside his Kuntsevo Dacha on 5 March 1953, the Central Committee of the East German Socialist Unity Party met in a special session and eulogized the dictator as the "great friend of Germany who was always an advisor of and help to our people."
Two months later, on 5 May 1953, the SED's General Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, and the rest of the leadership increased work quotas by 10%. They also decided to rename Chemnitz Karl-Marx-Stadt and to institute the Order of Karl Marx as the GDR's highest award.
Two weeks later, Mielke accused "a group of Party officials" of "plotting against the leadership", which "resulted in more expulsions from the Politburo and the Central Committee."
East German uprising of 1953
Discontent among factory workers about a 10% increase of work quotas without a corresponding wage hike boiled over. On 16 June 1953, nearly one hundred construction workers gathered before work for a protest meeting at Stalinallee, in East Berlin. Words spread rapidly to other construction sites and hundreds of men and women joined the rally, which marched to the House of Ministries. The protesters chanted slogans for five hours, demanding to speak to Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl. Only Heavy Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann and Professor Robert Havemann, president of the GDR Peace Council, emerged. Their speech, however, was answered with jeers and the Ministers retreated into the heavily armed building. The regular and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei were summoned from their barracks, but made no move to attack the protesters, who returned to Stalinallee, where a general strike was called.
Following West Germany's Federal Minister for All-German Questions Jakob Kaiser's admonition in a late night broadcast to East Germans to shy away from provocations, RIAS, starting with its 11 pm news broadcast, and from then on in hourly intermissions, repeated the workers' demand to continue the strike the next day, calling specifically for all East Berliners to participate in a demo at 7am on the 17th at Strausberger Platz.
The following day, 17 June 1953, more that 100,000 protesters took to the streets of East Berlin. More than 400,000 protesters also took to the streets in other cities and towns throughout the German Democratic Republic. Everywhere, the demands were the same: free elections by secret ballot.
Outside of Berlin, the main centres of the protests included the industrial region around Halle, Merseburg, and Bitterfeld, as well as middle-size towns like Jena, Görlitz, and Brandenburg. No more than 25,000 people participated in strikes and demonstrations in Leipzig, but there were 32,000 in Magdeburg, 43,000 in Dresden, 53,000 in Potsdam – and in Halle, a figure close to 100,000.
In West Berlin, the American radio station RIAS and several other West German stations reported on the protests and on plans for a general strike. As East Germans listened to the broadcasts, 267,000 workers at State-owned plants in 304 cities and towns joined the general strike. In 24 towns, outraged East Germans stormed the Stasi's prisons and freed between 2,000 and 3,000 political prisoners.
In response to orders, the Soviet Occupation Forces, the Stasi and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei went on the attack. Bloody street battles ensued and hundreds of policemen defected to the side of the protesters. Both police and Stasi stations were overrun and some government offices were sacked. The Party leadership retreated into a fortified compound in the Pankow district of East Berlin.
At noon, the Soviet authorities terminated all tram and metro traffic into the Eastern sector and all but closed the sector borders to West Berlin to prevent more demonstrators from reaching the city centre. An hour later, they declared martial law in East Berlin.
The repression took place outside East Berlin police HQ – where Soviet tanks opened fire on "the insurgents".
According to John Koehler, "... by late afternoon, Soviet tanks accompanied by Infantry and MVD troops had rolled into East Berlin and other cities in the Soviet Zone. This made the people even angrier. At Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, which bordered on the American Sector, irate protesters ignored machine gun fire and the menacing barrels of tank guns. They ripped cobblestones from the streets and hurled them at the tanks."
Fighting between the Red Army (and later GDR police) and the demonstrators persisted into the afternoon and night. In some cases, the tanks and the soldiers fired directly into the crowds.
Overnight, the Soviets (and the Stasi) started to arrest hundreds of people. Ultimately, up to 10,000 people were detained and at least 20, probably as many as 40, people were executed, including Red Army soldiers who refused to obey orders. With the SED leadership effectively paralysed at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, control of the city passed to the Soviets.
In honor of the uprising, West Germany established 17 June as a national holiday, called Day of German Unity. The extension of the Unter den Linden boulevard to the west of the Brandenburg Gate, formerly called Charlottenburger Chaussee, was also renamed Straße des 17. Juni ("17 June Street") in honor of the uprising.
According to John Koehler, "Provisional prison camps were set up to hold the thousands of Stasi victims. Nearly 1,500 persons were sentenced in secret trials to long prison terms. On 24 June, Mielke issued a terse announcement that one Stasi officer, nineteen demonstrators, and two bystanders had been killed during the uprising. He did not say how many were victims of official lynching. The numbers of the wounded were given as 191 policemen, 126 demonstrators, and 61 bystanders."
Also according to Koehler, "Calm returned to the streets of the Soviet Zone, yet escapes to the West continued at a high rate. Of the 331,390 who fled in 1953, 8,000 were members of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the barracked people's police units, which were actually the secret cadre of the future East German Army. Also among the escapees were 2,718 members and candidates of the SED, the ruling Party."
The Khrushchev thaw
Purges
Alarmed by the uprising, Lavrenty Beria, the First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, personally travelled from Moscow to East Berlin. He conferred with Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser and with Mielke, his deputy, both of whom he had known since the early 1930s. During both conversations, Beria demanded to know why the Stasi had failed to recognize the extreme discontent of the population and inform the Party leadership, which could then have prevented the uprising by taking extremely repressive measures in advance. Both Zaisser and Mielke answered Beria's questions circumspectly, and were accordingly left in their posts.
In response to the uprising, Beria decided to replace several hundred MVD officers, including Major General Ivan Fadeykin, the MVD resident of East Germany. The Stasi, according to John Koehler, "generally remained untouched except for the arrests and dismissals, for dereliction of duty, of a handful of officers in the provinces. One high-ranking Stasi officer shot himself."
Following Beria's return to Moscow, however, he was arrested on 26 June 1953, in a coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Beria was tried on charges of 357 counts of rape and high treason. He was sentenced to death and shot by Red Army Colonel-General Pavel Batitsky on 23 December 1953.
In an interview to Neues Deutschland, the official party newspaper of East Germany, on 30 June 1953, the Party's Minister of Justice, Max Fechner, declared that, "illegal arrests," had been made and that being a member of a strike committee or suspicion of being a ringleader was not in itself grounds for arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, when the East German Politburo met on 8 July, it seemed that Ulbricht would be deposed as Party General Secretary. Zaisser conceded that the whole Politburo was responsible for the "accelerated construction of socialism" and of the subsequent fallout. But he also added that to leave Ulbricht as Premier, "would be opposed catastrophic for the New Course".
By the end of the meeting, only two Politburo members still supported Ulbricht's leadership: Free German Youth League chief Erich Honecker and Party Control Commission Chairman Hermann Matern. Ulbricht only managed to forestall a decision then and there with a promise to make a statement at the forthcoming 15th SED CC Plenum, scheduled for later that month.
Meanwhile, Mielke informed a Party commission looking for scapegoats that his boss, Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser, was calling for secret negotiations with West Germany and that, "he believed the Soviet Union would abandon the DDR."
By late July, Ulbricht was completely certain that he had the support of the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Therefore, he expelled his main opponents, Zaisser, Hernstadt and Ackermann, from the Politburo, and thus strengthened his position further.
SED Minister of Justice Max Fechner was personally arrested by Mielke and replaced by Hilde Benjamin, who was known to East German citizens as "Red Hilde", "The Red Freisler," and as, "The Red Guillotine," for her role as a judge in the SED's show trials.
Fechner was convicted of being, "an enemy of the Party and the State," and served three years in Bautzen Prison.
Wilhelm Zaisser was replaced as head of the Stasi by Ernst Wollweber and Mielke remained on staff as his deputy.
Tenure as Stasi head
Mielke headed the Stasi from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There was, under the East German system, no provision for parliamentary oversight. However, starting in 1971 Mielke was required to provide a detailed intelligence briefing to party secretary Erich Honecker each Tuesday, directly following the weekly Politburo meeting. (Before 1971, under Walter Ulbricht, Mielke was not involved in routine intelligence briefings to the leadership which, instead, were provided directly to Ulbricht by Intelligence Chief Markus Wolf.)
Internal discipline
During his tenure, Mielke enforced "political and personal discipline reminiscent of the early French Foreign Legion". New recruits were required to take a solemn oath pledging "to fight alongside the state security organs of all socialist countries against all enemies of socialism" on pain of "the severest punishment under the Republic's laws and the contempt of the workers." Recruits were also required to sign a security pledge vowing never to make unauthorized visits to any "capitalist countries" and to report on any members of their families who did so.
Violations of the oath resulted in expulsion from the Stasi and blacklisting from all but the most menial jobs. Serious violations were tried before secret tribunals and led an estimated 200 Stasi agents to be shot. Colonel Rainer Wiegand once said, "There was only one way to leave the MfS without being haunted for the rest of your life. You either retired or you died."
Domestic activities
Under Erich Mielke's leadership, the Stasi employed 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 civilian informants () (IMs). East Germans coined a term to describe the Stasi's pervasive surveillance of the population "All-Covered" (). For this reason, Anna Funder has referred to East Germany as, "the most perfected surveillance state of all time."
According to John Koehler, "...the Stasi's tentacles probed every aspect of life. Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei...In turn, the police officer was the Stasi's man. If a relative or friend came to stay overnight, it was reported. Schools, universities and hospitals were infiltrated from top to bottom. German academe was shocked to learn that Heinrich Fink, professor of theology and vice-chancellor of East Berlin's Humboldt University, had been a Stasi informer since 1968. After Fink's Stasi connections came to light, he was summarily fired. Doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, and sports figures were co-opted by Stasi officers, as were waiters and hotel personnel. Tapping about 100,000 telephone lines in East Germany and West Berlin around the clock was the job of 2,000 officers... Churchmen, including high officials of both Protestant and Catholic denominations, were recruited en masse as secret informants. Their offices and confessionals were infested with eavesdropping devices. Even the director of Leipzig's famous Thomas Church choir, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, was forced to resign when he was unmasked as a Spitzel, the people's pejorative for a Stasi informant."
In an interview with journalist Anna Funder, an ex-Stasi officer recalled, "Most often, people we approached would inform for us. It was very rare that they would not. However, sometimes we felt that we might need to know where their weak points were, just in case. For example, if we wanted a pastor, we'd find out if he'd had an affair, or had a drinking problem—things that we could use as leverage. Mostly though, people said yes."
On Mielke's orders, and with his full knowledge, Stasi officers also engaged in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, brutal harassment of political dissidents, torture, and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens.
In a 1991 interview, Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said, "The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people. The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million."
Activities abroad
During Mielke's tenure, the Stasi's operations beyond East Germany were overseen by Markus Wolf and the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (MfS-HVA).
Mielke and Wolf provided money, training, and surveillance equipment to help build pro-Soviet secret police forces in Fidel Castro's Cuba, Baathist Syria, Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua, Mengistu Haile Mariam's Ethiopia, Idi Amin's Uganda, Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, and South Yemen.
After the opening of Stasi archives, it was revealed that West Germany was riddled with MfS-HVA moles. In what John Koehler has dubbed, "The Invisible Invasion", some West German citizens collaborated out of Marxist beliefs, but others were recruited through blackmail, greed, career frustrations, or sexual favors from Stasi operatives.
Another tactic was for Stasi military advisers assigned to African and Middle Eastern countries to request the arrest of West German tourists. Local police would then turn the prisoner over to the Stasi agent, who would offer the West German a choice between espionage or incarceration.
Senior politicians from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union were exposed and, when still alive, prosecuted.
Mielke and Wolf also seriously compromised West Germany's police departments, foreign and domestic intelligence services, diplomatic corps, military-industrial complex, and journalistic profession.
The Stasi compromised the United States military and diplomatic presence in West Germany.
The most damaging American to spy for the Stasi was United States Army Sergeant James Hall III, who volunteered his services to Soviet and East German intelligence in November 1981.
Sergeant Hall sold the Stasi 13,088 pages of classified documents, including detailed information about Project Trojan, a worldwide electronic network with the ability to pinpoint armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft by recording their signal emissions during wartime and the complete National SIGINT Requirements List (NSRL), a 4258-page document about NSA operations at home and abroad.
In 1988, Sergeant Hall was tricked into confessing his espionage career to an undercover FBI Special Agent named Dmitri Droujinsky, a Russian-American who was posing as an agent of the KGB. When news of Sergeant Hall's arrest became public, one Washington intelligence official called the breach, "the Army's Walker Case."
Collusion with Nazism
Beginning in 1960, Mielke and Wolf used false flag recruitment to secretly organize and finance Neo-Nazi organizations, which they then instructed to vandalize Jewish religious and cultural sites throughout West Germany. During the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann, Stasi agents sent letters to West German Neo-Nazis and Waffen-SS veterans, urging them to speak out and to raise money for Eichmann's defense attorney. This was done in order to lend credibility to Communist propaganda about the allegedly Fascist and neo-Nazi orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to German historian Michael Wolffsohn, "There is no doubt that in the 1960s as now, there were Nazis who were unreconstructed, unchangeable and evil, but without the help of East Germany, these Nazis were incapable of a national, coordinated campaign. That was true of right-wing extremist criminals in the 1980s as well. The East German Communists used anything they could against West Germany, including the... fears by Western countries and Jews that a new Nazism could be growing in West Germany. There is... evidence that the East Germans continued to use Anti-Semitism as a tool against West Germany in the 1970s and perhaps right up until 1989."
In a 1991 interview with John Koehler, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said of the Stasi, "They not only terrorized their own people worse than the Gestapo, but the government was the most Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israeli in the entire Eastern Bloc. They did nothing to help the West in tracking down Nazi criminals; they ignored all requests from West German judicial authorities for assistance. We have just discovered shelves of files on Nazis stretching over four miles. Now we also know how the Stasi used those files. They blackmailed Nazi criminals who fled abroad after the war into spying for them. What's more, the Stasi trained terrorists from all over the world."
Support for paramilitary and terrorist groups
During a 1979 visit to the GDR by senior PLO member Salah Khalaf, Mielke said, "We are paying great attention to the Palestine resistance and the other revolutionary forces fighting against the policies of the United States and against the provocations of the Israeli aggressor. Together with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, we will do everything to support this just battle."
With this in mind, Mielke ordered the Stasi to finance, arm, and train, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, Mielke's ties to violent paramilitary groups were overseen by Markus Wolf and Department Three of the MfS-HVA. Members of the West German Baader-Meinhoff Group, the Chilean Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware, insurgent tactics, and, "the leadership role of the Party." Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Nidal, and Black September.
Other Stasi agents worked as military advisers to Soviet-backed African guerrilla organizations and the governments they later formed. They included the Namibian SWAPO and the Angolan MPLA during the South African Border War, the FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence and civil war, and Robert Mugabe's ZANLA during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Venezuelan-born PLO terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Black September leader Abu Daoud during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972 Munich massacre and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.
During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly blackmailed a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that the La Belle bombing and other terrorist attacks against American and West German citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.
According to John Koehler, "Murder, kidnapping, extortion, bank robbery, and arson were felonies under the East German criminal code. However, if these offenses were committed under the banner of the 'anti-imperialist struggle,' the communist system would look the other way. Moreover, it had assigned the Stasi to make sure that terrorists were properly trained for murder and sowing mayhem. There was no limits to the East German regime's involvement with terrorism, so long as it could be ideologically justified."
The Peaceful Revolution
According to John Koehler, "Increasingly concerned over the growing popular opposition, Stasi Minister Mielke early in 1989 ordered the creation of a special elite unit for crushing disturbances. Its personnel were carefully selected members of the counterespionage and counterterrorism directorate. They were equipped with special batons similar to electric cattle prods but much more powerful. In a secret speech to top-ranking Stasi officers on 29 June, Mielke warned that, 'hostile opposing forces and groups have already achieved a measure of power and are using all methods to achieve a change in the balance of power. Former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand told me he was horrified when Mielke compared the situation with that of China two months earlier. Chinese students in Beijing had begun massive protests in April and in May, during a student demonstration in Tiananmen Square, security troops had opened fire on them killing hundreds. 'Mielke said our situation was comparable and we had to be ready to counter it with all means and methods,' Wiegand recalled. 'Mielke said that the Chinese leadership had succeeded in smothering the protests before the situation got out of hand.'"
Despite Mielke's attempts to suppress them, East Germany's protesters grew more emboldened with every arrest.
40th anniversary of the GDR
As the fortieth anniversary of the GDR approached, Mielke ordered, "We must stop the internal enemy. At the least hint of a disturbance of the celebration, isolate and arrest them."
One former Stasi Major recalled, "We mixed inconspicuously with the demonstrators, accompanied by our IMs. Hundreds of us stood at the sides of the street in order to stop any activity before it got started. We barely got any sleep toward the end. Never did I sense that the people were afraid of the MfS. The Stasi was more afraid of the people than the people were of them."
According to Koehler, "Despite the unrest, the regime celebrated its fortieth with a huge, pompous ceremony in Berlin on 7 October, while tens of thousands of outside the ornate building of the State Council. The People's Police cordons were utterly ineffectual. As Stasi Minister Erich Mielke drove up and was greeted by General Günter Kratsch, the counterintelligence chief, Mielke screamed at police: "Club those pigs into submission!" () The police ignored Mielke's ranting.
As more and more East Germans were arrested for protesting the 40th anniversary celebrations, many of them sang The Internationale in Vopo and Stasi custody to imply that they, rather than their captors, were the real working class and the real revolutionaries.
According to Anna Funder, "There was a sea of red flags, a torchlight procession, and tanks. The old men on the podium wore light-grey suits studded with medals. Mikhail Gorbachev stood next to Honecker, but he looked uncomfortable among the much older Germans. He had come to tell them that it was over, to convince the leadership to adopt his reformist policies. He had spoken openly about the danger of not 'responding to reality.' He pointedly told the Politburo that, 'life punishes those who come too late.' Honecker and Mielke ignored him, just as they ignored the crowds when they chanted, "Gorby, help us! Gorby, help us!"
Plan X
On 8 October 1989, Mielke and Honecker ordered the Stasi to implement "Plan X"—the SED's plan to arrest and indefinitely detain 85,939 East Germans during a state of emergency. According to John Koehler, Plan X had been in preparation since 1979 and was, "a carbon copy of how the Nazi concentration camps got their start after Hitler came to power in 1933."
By 1984, 23 sites had been selected for "isolation and internment camps." Those who were to be imprisoned in them ran into six categories; including anyone who had ever been under surveillance for anti-state activities, including all members of peace movements which were not under Stasi control.
According to Anna Funder, "The plans contained exact provisions for the use of all available prisons and camps, and when those were full for the conversion of other buildings: Nazi detention centers, schools, hospitals, and factory holiday hostels. Every detail was foreseen, from where the doorbell was located on the house of each person to be arrested to the adequate supply of barbed wire and the rules of dress and etiquette in the camps..."
However, when Mielke sent the orders, codenamed "Shield" (), to each local Stasi precinct to begin the planned arrests, he was not obeyed. Terrified of an East German version of the mass lynchings of Hungarian secret police agents during the 1956 Revolution, Stasi agents throughout the GDR fortified their office-buildings and barricaded themselves inside.
Toppling Honecker
Even as orders were going out to implement Plan X, Mielke had already thrown his support behind the anti-Honecker faction in the SED's Politburo. Although he was of the same generation as Honecker and had matured in an environment where following orders was the rule, he was sober enough and politically savvy enough to realize this approach no longer worked. During a session on 10 October 1989, Mielke delivered a report attacking Honecker's desire to violently suppress the demonstrations rather than offer concessions.
In what Edward N. Peterson has called "a remarkable disclaimer of responsibility for the violence," Mielke declared that Honecker's orders to him "were built on false situation judgments." He added that Honecker's commands on 7 and 8 October "were false and undifferentiated condemnations of those who think differently. Despite this evaluation, there was never any instructions to use violence against persons. There is nothing in our basic principles to consider a demonstration as part of a possible counterrevolutionary coup."
Mielke also claimed that "the Party judged the situation falsely. We tried to tell them the true situation, but enough was not done." Mielke argued in favor of solving the demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel."
On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents who were loyal to him were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with tanks," and tried to impress upon Honecker that it was "the end".
After the vote to oust Honecker passed, Mielke "got nasty," and accused Honecker of corruption. Honecker responded that Mielke should not open his mouth so much. Mielke responded by putting the last nail into Honecker's coffin. He announced that the MfS had a file on the now-ousted leader. It contained proof of Honecker's corrupt business practices, sexual activities, and how, as a member of the underground Communist Party of Germany during the Nazi years, he had been arrested by the Gestapo and had named names.
To the shock of both the Politburo and the Stasi, Krenz's first televised addresses failed to win popular support. Despite his assurances that the SED was at last ready to embrace Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, Krenz's approval ratings remained extremely low.
Former Politburo member Günter Schabowski later recalled, "We made a palace revolution without offering a real alternative... We had not quickly and thoroughly enough whittled away from Stalin's methods."
Defeat
On 7 November 1989, Mielke resigned, along with eleven out of eighteen members of the SED's Council of Ministers, in response to the increasing disintegration of the GDR.
Two days later, Schabowski announced on television that the east–west border was open without restriction.
According to Anna Funder, there was panic at Stasi Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg, "Stasi officers were instructed to destroy files, starting with the most incriminating–those naming westerners who spied for them, and those that concerned deaths. They shredded the files until the paper shredders overheated and shorted out. Among other shortages in the East, there was a shredder shortage, so they had to send agents out under cover to West Berlin to buy more. In Building 8 alone, the citizens' movement found over a hundred burnt out shredders. When they ran out of working shredders from the West and could not procure more they began using scissors to cut the documents by hand.
According to William F. Buckley, Jr., "In the weeks after 9 November, Stasi offices were stormed in various cities around East Germany. Stasi commissars in three of those cities committed suicide. But not one was lynched or executed."
Televised humiliation
On 13 November 1989, Mielke was summoned to deliver a briefing about the protests to the GDR parliament, or Volkskammer. Formerly a "rubber stamp parliament," the disintegration of the SED's power had allowed the Volkskammer to begin exercising real authority over the GDR. Therefore, Mielke, as the head of the Stasi (known as the "shield and sword of the [SED] party"), was summoned before the newly empowered parliament to justify his position in government.
As his speech was broadcast live, Mielke began by using overly bombastic, flag-waving language, saying "We have, comrades, dear assembly members, an extraordinarily high amount of contact with all working people" (). To his shock, the Volkskammer responded with boos, whistles, and catcalls.
His face grief-stricken and pale, Mielke then tried to defuse the situation, "Yes, we have such contact, let me tell you-let me tell you why. I am not afraid to stand here and to give you an unbiased answer" (). Mielke continued, speaking of the "triumph" of the socialist economy, continuing all the while to address the members of the Volkskammer as "Comrades" (). In response, Volkskammer member Dietmar Czok of the Christian Democratic Union, rose from his seat and raised his hand. The Volkskammer's president, Günther Maleuda, interrupted Mielke and urged Czok to speak.
With his voice dripping with contempt, Czok told Mielke, "As a point of order, I will not tell you this again. There are more people sitting in this Chamber than just your Comrades!" (). In response, many in the Volkskammer burst into applause, cheers, and shouts of "We are not your Comrades!" ()
Trying to appear magnanimous, Mielke responded, "This is a natural, Humanistic question! This is just a question of formality." (), leading to further shouts of displeasure from the members of the Volkskammer. In a last ditch effort, Mielke "raised his arms like an evangelist," and cried, "I love all – all Humanity! I really do! I set myself before you!" ()
Everyone in the room, including staunch SED members, burst out laughing. Then Mielke started to cry. John Koehler later wrote, "Mielke was finished."
Mielke's address to the Volkskammer remains the most famous broadcast in the history of German television. Anna Funder has written, "When they think of Mielke, East Germans like to think of this."
The Fall
On 17 November 1989, the Volkskammer renamed the MfS the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit (AfNS – Office for National Security). The following day, Mielke's tenure in office ended when the Volkskammer appointed Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz as the new director of the AfNS.
On 1 December 1989, the Volkskammer nullified the clause of the GDR constitution that enshrined the SED's "leading role" in the government and formally ending Communist rule in East Germany. Two days later, the SED announced that Mielke's party membership had been permanently revoked. Years later, he lamented, "Millions have died for nothing. Everything we fought for – it has all amounted to nothing." He also said, "If the party had given me the task, then there would perhaps still be a GDR today. On that you can rely."
Prosecution
Indictments
On 7 December 1989, Erich Mielke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for embezzlement of public funds in order to improve his hunting estate. He was charged with "Damaging the People's Economy" (Schädigung der Volkswirtschaft). On 7 January 1990, he was further charged with high treason and conspiring with Erich Honecker to bug the telephones and open the mail of every one of East Germany's citizens.
Meanwhile, the Federal Constitutional Court announced that Mielke had also been indicted for having ordered two terrorist attacks by the Baader-Meinhoff Group against United States military personnel who were stationed on West German soil. The first was the car bomb attack against the United States Air Force at Ramstein Air Base on 31 August 1981. The second was the attempted murder with an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket of United States Army General Frederick Kroesen, his wife, and the West German police officer who was driving their armored Mercedes at Heidelberg on 15 September 1981.
After German reunification in October 1990, Mielke was also indicted for ordering the shootings of defectors at the Berlin Wall. He was also charged with misuse of office, breach of trust, and incitement to pervert the course of justice.
Bülowplatz trial
In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the 1931 first degree murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the transcripts from the 1934 trial of his co-conspirators, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke revealed that his role in, "the Bülowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing to Moscow from the Weimar Republic in 1931. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the documents for the purpose of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified that Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bülowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965.
During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plötzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution.
After twenty months of one-and-a-half-hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. At his sentencing, Mielke started to cry. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Imprisonment
Mielke was then put on trial for ordering the shootings of East Germans who were trying to defect to the West. In November 1994, the presiding judge adjourned the proceedings, ruling that Mielke was not mentally competent to stand trial.
During his incarceration, at JVA Moabit corrections officers supplied Mielke with a red telephone like the one in his office at Stasi Headquarters. Although it was not connected to the outside world, Mielke enjoyed having imaginary conversations with non-existent Stasi agents. His other favorite pastime was watching game shows on television.
In 1995, parole officers and Mielke's attorneys argued that he was "totally confused" and obtained his release. At 87 years of age, Erich Mielke was Germany's oldest prison inmate and had been incarcerated for 1,904 days. Days before his release, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin announced that he was "not interested in chasing an 87-year-old man anymore" and that all further prosecution of Mielke had been indefinitely suspended.
According to Koehler, "[Mielke's] bank account, which held more than 300,000 Marks (about US$187,500), was confiscated. Before his arrest in 1989, the most feared man in East Germany had lived in a luxurious home with access to an indoor pool. In addition, he owned a palatial hunting villa, complete with a movie theater, trophy room, 60 servants, and a 60 square kilometers hunting preserve. After he was released from prison Mielke was obliged to move into a two-room, 55-square-meter flat. Like all Stasi pensioners, he would henceforth have to live on 802 marks (about US$512) a month."
Death
Erich Mielke died on 21 May 2000, aged 92, in a Berlin nursing home. After being cremated at the crematorium in Meissen, an urn containing Mielke's ashes was buried in an unmarked grave at the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. An estimated 100 people reportedly attended the funeral. Erich Mielke's grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes. Within hours of his funeral, the flowers and wreaths left at Mielke's grave were ripped to shreds by persons unknown.
Legacy
Writing in 2003, Australian journalist Anna Funder declared, "The name Mielke has now come to mean 'Stasi.' Victims are dubiously honored to find his signature in their files: on plans for someone to be observed 'with all possible methods', on commands for arrest, for kidnapping, instructions to judges for sentencing, orders for 'liquidation'. The honor is dubious because... he signed so many."
In 2012, the museum at the former Stasi headquarters opened Mielke's office as a permanent exhibit. Soon after, The Guardian correspondent Tam Eastley visited the exhibit and numerous sites in Berlin connected to Mielke's life, times, and legacy. When she visited Mielke's grave, Eastley found that it had become a shrine for adherents of Ostalgie.
Personal life
Erich Mielke was a fitness enthusiast, a non-smoker, and drank very little. He was a keen hunter and owned a large area of ground where he would hunt animals with other East German and visiting Soviet officials.
During the late 1940s, when Mielke was working as security chief of the DWK, he began a relationship with Gertrud Mueller, a seamstress. On 18 December 1948, shortly after the birth of their son Frank Mielke, Erich and Gertrud married in a civil ceremony.
According to the newspaper Bild, the Mielkes adopted an orphaned girl named Ingrid, who was born in 1950. Like her adopted brother Frank, Ingrid Mielke attended the Wilhelm Pieck School. She ultimately became a captain in the Stasi and married a Stasi Lieutenant named Norbert Knappe. As of 1999, the Knappes had both refused to grant an interview to Bild reporters.
In popular culture
Erich Mielke has appeared as a character in both films and novels set in the GDR.
Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita (2000), which focuses on Stasi collusion with the West German far-left terrorist organization Rote Armee Fraktion. In conversation with fictional Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke), Mielke (Dietrich Körner) expresses admiration for the RAF's campaign against the United States, West Germany, and the State of Israel, which he compares with his own activities against the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. The RAF members are then brought to a training camp, where Stasi agents instruct them in the use of grenade launchers and other kinds of military hardware. Mielke's name is never disclosed and Agent Hull addresses him only as, "Comrade General." ()
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (2006), which focuses on the Stasi's surveillance and repression of the East German population. In the film, a previously loyal GDR playwright named Georg Dreymann (Sebastian Koch) publishes an anonymous article in the West German magazine Der Spiegel which accuses East Germany's Minister of Culture of having persecuted a blacklisted stage director until he hanged himself. Soon after the article goes to press, Mielke's voice is heard over the telephone giving a dressing down to fictional Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur). Addressed only as "Genosse Armeegeneral" (Mielke was the only person to ever hold that rank in the Stasi), Mielke threatens to throw Grubitz in front of a firing squad if he fails to identify and arrest the article's author.
In Philip Kerr's novel Field Grey (2010), Mielke first appears in 1931 Berlin, when protagonist Bernie Gunther saves him from being murdered by Nazi Brownshirts. The novel then flashes forward to 1954, when Gunther is recruited into a CIA plot to abduct Mielke from East Berlin.
Honours and awards
Mielke received a large number of awards and commemorative medals from organisations within the German Democratic Republic and from allied states. A more complete list is available (in German) at Liste der Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Erich Mielke.
Awards of the German Democratic Republic
Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (7 October 1954)
Six Orders of Karl Marx (28 December 1957, 20 November 1973, 1 December 1975, 28 December 1977, 28 June 1982, 28 December 1982)
Twice Hero of Labour of the GDR (5 October 1964, 24 February 1968)
Twice Hero of the GDR (1 December 1975, 28 December 1982)
Banner of Labour (8 May 1960)
Medal for Exemplary Border Service (26 April 1956)
Medal for Faithful Service in the National People's Army;
Bronze (7 October 1957)
Silver (8 February 1959)
Gold (1 July 1960)
Gold for 20 years service (8 February 1965)
Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (6 September 1958)
Gold Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (1 March 1957)
Scharnhorst Order, twice (25 September 1979, 7 October 1984)
Awards of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union (25 December 1987)
Four Orders of Lenin (12 June 1973, 28 December 1982, 1 April 1985, 28 December 1987)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (6 May 1970)
Four Orders of the Red Banner (23 October 1958, 5 February 1968, 28 December 1977, February 1980)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Soviet Militia" (20 December 1967)
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" (1970)
Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR" (6 January 1970)
Order of the October Revolution (February 1975)
Other states
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 28 December 1982)
Order of Friendship (Czechoslovakia) (28 December 1982)
Order of the Red Star (Czechoslovakia) (16 November 1970)
References
Further reading
Buckley, Jr., William F. (2004), The Fall of the Berlin Wall, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Funder, Anna (2003), Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books, London.
Kuchel, Dany (2011) "Le Glaive et le Bouclier", une histoire de la Stasi en France.
Otto, Wilfriede, Erich Mielke, Biographie: Aufstieg und Fall eines Tschekisten. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2000, .
Peterson, Edward N. (2002). The Secret Police and the Revolution: The Fall of the German Democratic Republic, Praeger Publications, Westport, Connecticut. London.
Pickard, Ralph (2007). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide. Frontline Historical Publishing.
Pickard, Ralph (2012). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II. Frontline Historical Publication.
1907 births
2000 deaths
Politicians from Berlin
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Government ministers of East Germany
Members of the 3rd Volkskammer
Members of the 4th Volkskammer
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East German spies
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20th-century German criminals
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German military personnel of World War II | true | [
"Khalil Wheeler-Weaver (born April 20, 1996) is an American serial killer. An Orange, New Jersey resident, Wheeler-Weaver lured his victims using dating apps and murdered three women and attempted to kill a fourth between August 2016 and November 2016. One of the victim's friends created a fake account and lured Wheeler-Weaver to a meeting before notifying police. After a jury found him guilty in 2019, he was convicted of three counts of murder and desecration of human remains, attempted murder, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated arson and kidnapping, and was sentenced to 160 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 140 years. Wheeler-Weaver maintained his innocence, claiming he was framed.\n\nVictims \n Robin Daphne Michele West (19): strangled, set on fire\n Sarah Butler (20): strangled\n Joanne Browne (33): asphyxiated\n\nTiffany Taylor, who woke up in the middle of an attack, was Wheeler-Weaver's sole surviving victim.\n\nSee also\n List of serial killers in the United States\n\nReferences \n\nLiving people\nAmerican serial killers\nMale serial killers\nAmerican people convicted of attempted murder\nAmerican people convicted of murder\nAmerican people convicted of arson\nAmerican people convicted of kidnapping\nCriminals from New Jersey\nAmerican rapists\nPeople from Orange, New Jersey\nViolence against women in the United States\n2016 murders in the United States\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"State v. Mitchell, 170 Mo. 633, 71 S.W. 175 (1902), is a precedent-setting decision of the Supreme Court of Missouri which is part of the body of case law involving the prosecution of failed attempts to commit a crime. In United States law, cases involving failed criminal attempts can bring up interesting legal issues of whether the crime was unsuccessful due to factual impossibility or to legal impossibility.\n\nBackground \nMistakes of fact have rarely been an adequate defense at common law. In the United States, 37 states have ruled out mistake of fact as a defense to charges of attempt. Mistakes of law have proved a more successful defense.\n\nMistakes of fact\nA \"factual\" impossibility occurs when, at the time of the attempt, the facts make the intended crime impossible to commit, even though the defendant is unaware of this when the attempt is made. In People v. Lee Kong, 95 Cal. 666, 30 P. 800 (1892), a case from the Supreme Court of California, the defendant was found guilty of attempted murder for shooting at a hole in the roof, believing his victim to be there, and indeed, where his victim had been only moments before but was not at the time of the shooting. Another case involving the defense of factual impossibility is the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania's decision in Commonwealth v. Johnson, 167 A. 344, 348 (Pa. 1933), in which a wife intended to put arsenic in her husband's coffee but by mistake added the customary sugar instead. Later, she felt repentant and confessed her acts to the police. She was arrested, tried, and convicted of attempted murder. In United States v. Thomas, 13 U.S.C.M.A. 278 (1962), the United States Court of Military Appeals held that men who believed they were raping a drunken, unconscious woman were guilty of attempted rape, even though the woman was actually dead at the time the sexual intercourse took place.\n\nMistakes of law \nAn act that is considered legally impossible to commit is traditionally considered a valid defense for a person prosecuted for a criminal attempt. An attempt is considered to be a \"legal\" impossibility when the defendant has completed all of his intended acts, but those acts fail to fulfill all the required common law elements of a crime. Mistake of law has proved a successful defense. An example of a legally failed attempt is a person who shoots a tree stump; that person can not be prosecuted for attempted murder as there is no manifest intent to kill by shooting a stump. The underlying rationale is that attempting to do what is not a crime is not attempting to commit a crime. \n\nHowever, \"legal\" and \"factual\" mistakes are not mutually exclusive. A borderline case is that of a person who shot a stuffed deer, thinking it was alive. That person was originally convicted for attempting to kill a protected animal out of season, but in a debatable reversal, an appellate judge threw out the conviction on the basis that it is no crime to shoot a stuffed deer out of season.\n\nFacts of the case \nIn Mitchell, the defendant fired shots into a room at night where his intended victim usually slept, intending to murder the victim. One bullet struck the victim's usual pillow. But the defendant did not know that the victim was sleeping elsewhere that particular night. Using these circumstances (that the bed was empty), the defendant pleaded not guilty on the grounds that the intended crime was factually impossible to commit, as there was no victim in the room into which he fired. \n\nAt trial, the defendant was found guilty of attempted murder. The fact that the intended crime was impossible for the defendant to commit was not considered a defense for the charge of attempting to commit a felony, in this case murder.\n\nThe defendant then appealed his judgment of conviction and sentence.\n\nDecision \nOn appeal, the Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed Mitchell's conviction and sentence, holding that the objective itself was criminal in nature and only a circumstance unknown to the defendant prevented its completion. The court held that a person who shoots into the bed of another person on purpose, believing that person to be in the bed, is guilty of attempted murder. The court ruled that \"when the consequences sought by a defendant are forbidden by law as criminal, it is not defense that the defendant could not succeed in reaching his goal because of circumstances unknown to him.\"\n\nSignificance \nThis case is part of a body of law developed in the United States on the issue of how to handle attempt cases. In most United States jurisdictions, the defense that the act was a factual impossibility is not a valid defense. A case similar to this one is State v. Moretti 52 N.M. 182, 244 A.2d 499 (1968), in which the defendant agreed to perform a (then illegal) abortion upon a female undercover officer. Although the female police officer was not pregnant, the Supreme Court of New Mexico upheld the conviction:\n\nWith few exceptions, all cases in which an attempt to commit a felony was impossible to carry out because the defendant was mistaken in fact have been categorized as factually impossible and the conviction was upheld on appeal.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nAttempt - Impossibility Unavailable as a Defense\n\nMissouri state case law\nU.S. state criminal case law\n1902 in United States case law\n1902 in Missouri\nLaw articles needing an infobox\nAttempt"
]
|
[
"Erich Mielke",
"Bulowplatz trial",
"When did the trial take place?",
"1992,",
"What was the verdict?",
"convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.",
"Who was the first person murdered?",
"Captains Anlauf and Lenck",
"Who was the victim of the attempted murder?",
"Senior Sergeant Willig."
]
| C_5879ec3395ef473987bcbbff52d1eee2_1 | Did he know the murder victims? | 5 | Did Erich Mielke know the murder victims in relation to the 1992 Bulowplatz trial? | Erich Mielke | In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the first degree murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the 1934 trial transcripts, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke had admitted that, "the Bulowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing Germany. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the files for purposes of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified about how Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bulowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965. During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plotzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (German: "Ich mochte in mein Bett zuruck."). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution. After twenty months of one-and-a-half hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century." CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
A native of Berlin and a second-generation member of the Communist Party of Germany, Mielke was one of two triggermen in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. After learning that a witness had survived, Mielke escaped arrest by fleeing to the Soviet Union, where the NKVD recruited him. He was one of the key figures in the decimation of Moscow's German Communists during the Great Purge as well as in the persecution of suspected anti-Stalinists in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany, which he helped organize into a Marxist-Leninist satellite state under the Socialist Unity Party (SED), later becoming head of the Stasi. According to historian Jack Koehler, he was "the longest serving secret police chief in the Soviet Bloc".
The Stasi under Mielke has been called by historian Edward Peterson the "most pervasive police state apparatus ever to exist on German soil". In a 1993 interview, Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal has said that, if one considers only the oppression of their own people, the Stasi under Mielke was "much, much worse than the Gestapo".
During the 1950s and 1960s Mielke led the process of forcibly forming collectivised farms from East Germany's family-owned farms, which sent a flood of refugees to West Germany. In response, Mielke oversaw the construction (1961) of the Berlin Wall and co-signed orders to shoot fatally all East Germans who attempted to leave the country. He also oversaw the establishment of pro-Soviet police states and paramilitary insurgencies in Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
In addition to his role as head of the Stasi, Mielke was also an Army General in the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee), and a member of the SED's ruling Politburo. Dubbed "The Master of Fear" () by the West German press, Mielke was one of the most powerful and most hated men in East Germany.
After German reunification in 1990, Mielke was arrested (1991), prosecuted (1992), convicted, and incarcerated (1993) for the 1931 murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. Released from prison early due to ill health in 1995, he died in a Berlin nursing home in 2000.
Early life
Erich Mielke was born in a tenement in Berlin-Wedding, Brandenburg, on 28 December 1907. During the First World War, the neighborhood was known as "Red Wedding" due to many residents' Marxist militancy. In a handwritten biography written for the Soviet secret police, Mielke described his father as "a poor, uneducated woodworker," and said that his mother died in 1911. Both were, he said, members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After his remarriage to "a seamstress," the elder Mielke and his new wife joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and remained members when it was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). His son Erich claimed "My younger brother Kurt and two sisters were Communist sympathisers."
Despite his family's poverty, Erich Mielke was academically gifted enough to be awarded a free scholarship in the prestigious Köllnisches Gymnasium, but was expelled on 19 February 1929, for being "unable to meet the great demands of this school." While attending the Gymnasium, Mielke joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1925, and worked as a reporter for the communist newspaper Rote Fahne from 1928 to 1931.
During the Weimar Republic, the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and was seen as the "leading party" of the communist movement outside the Soviet Union. Under Ernst Thälmann's leadership, the KPD was completely obedient to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the Party was both funded and controlled by the Comintern in Moscow.
Until the end of the Republic, the KPD viewed the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which dominated German politics between 1918 and 1931, as their mortal enemy. In keeping with Stalin's policy towards social democracy, the KPD considered all SPD members to be "social fascists". The KPD also believed that all other political parties were "fascist" and regarded itself as "the only anti-fascist Party" in Germany. Nevertheless, the KPD closely collaborated with the Nazi Party during the early 1930s and both Parties intended to replace the democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic with a totalitarian single party state.
Soon after joining the Party, Mielke joined the KPD's paramilitary wing, or Parteiselbstschutz ("Party Self Defense Unit"). At the time, the Parteiselbstschutz in Berlin was commanded by KPD Reichstag Representatives Hans Kippenberger and Heinz Neumann.
According to John Koehler, "Mielke was a special protege of Kippenberger's having taken to his paramilitary training with the enthusiasm of a Prussian Junker. World War I veterans taught the novices how to handle pistols, rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades. This clandestine training was conducted in the sparsely populated, pastoral countryside surrounding Berlin. Mielke also pleased Kippenberger by being an exceptional student in classes on the arts of conspiratorial behavior and espionage, taught by comrades who had studied at the secret M-school of the GRU in Moscow."
According to John Koehler, members of the Parteiselbstschutz "served as bouncers at Party meetings and specialized in cracking heads during street battles with political enemies." Besides the ruling SPD and its paramilitary Reichsbanner forces, the arch-enemies of the Parteiselbstschutz were the Stahlhelm, which was the armed wing of the Monarchist German National People's Party (DVNP), Trotskyites, and "radical nationalist parties."
According to Koehler, the KPD's Selbstschutz men "always carried a Stahlrute, two steel springs that telescoped into a tube seventeen centimeters long, which when extended became a deadly, 35-centimeter weapon. Not to be outdone by the Nazis, these street-fighters were often armed with pistols as well."
In a 1931 biography written for the Cadre Division of the Comintern, Mielke recalled, "We took care of all kinds of work; terror acts, protecting illegal demonstrations and meetings, arms-trafficking, etc. The last work, which was accomplished by a Comrade and myself, was the Bülowplatz Affair" ().
Bülowplatz murders
Planning
During the last days of the Weimar Republic, the KPD had a policy of assassinating two Berlin police officers in retaliation for every KPD member killed by the police.
On 2 August 1931, KPD Members of the Reichstag Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger received a dressing down from Walter Ulbricht, the Party's leader in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Enraged by police interference and by Neumann and Kippenberger's failure to follow the policy, Ulbricht stated, "At home in Saxony we would have done something about the police a long time ago. Here in Berlin we will not fool around much longer. Soon we will hit the police in the head."
Enraged by Ulbricht's words, Kippenberger and Neumann decided to assassinate Paul Anlauf, the 42-year-old Captain of the Berlin Police's Seventh Precinct. Captain Anlauf, a widower with three daughters, had been nicknamed "Schweinebacke", or "Pig Face" by the KPD.
According to historian John Koehler, "Of all the policemen in strife-torn Berlin, the reds hated Anlauf the most. His precinct included the area around KPD headquarters, which made it the most dangerous in the city. The captain almost always led the riot squads that broke up illegal rallies of the Communist Party."
On the morning of Sunday 9 August 1931, Kippenberger and Neumann gave a last briefing to the hit-team in a room at the Lassant beer hall. Mielke and Erich Ziemer were selected as the shooters. During the meeting, Max Matern gave a Luger pistol to fellow lookout Max Thunert and said, "Now we're getting serious. We're going to give Schweinebacke something to remember us by."
Kippenberger then asked Mielke and Ziemer, "Are you sure that you are ready to shoot Schweinebacke?" Mielke responded that he had seen Anlauf many times during police searches of Party Headquarters. Kippenberger then instructed them to wait at a nearby beer hall which would permit them to overlook the entire Bülow-Platz. He further reminded them that Anlauf was accompanied everywhere by Senior Sergeant Max Willig, whom the KPD had nicknamed, "Hussar".
Kippenberger concluded, "When you spot Schweinebacke and Hussar, you take care of them." Mielke and Ziemer were informed that, after the assassinations were completed, a diversion would assist in their escape. They were then to return to their homes and await further instructions.
That evening, Anlauf was lured to Bülow-Platz by a violent rally demanding the dissolution of the Prussian Parliament.
According to Koehler, "As was often the case when it came to battling the dominant SPD, the KPD and the Nazis had combined forces during the pre-plebiscite campaign. At one point in this particular campaign, Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels even shared a speaker's platform with KPD agitator Walter Ulbricht. Both parties wanted the parliament dissolved because they were hoping that new elections would oust the SPD, the sworn enemy of all radicals. That fact explained why the atmosphere was particularly volatile this Sunday."
Murder at the Babylon Cinema
At eight o'clock that evening, Mielke and Ziemer waited in a doorway as Anlauf, Willig, and Captain Franz Lenck walked toward the Babylon Cinema, which was located at the corner of Bülowplatz and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. As they reached the door of the movie house, the policemen heard someone scream, "Schweinebacke!"
As Anlauf turned toward the sound, Mielke and Ziemer opened fire at point blank range. Willig was wounded in the left arm and the stomach. However, he managed to draw his Luger pistol and fired a full magazine at the assailants. Lenck was shot in the chest and fell dead in front of the entrance. Willig crawled over and cradled the head of Anlauf, who had taken two bullets in the neck.
Meanwhile, Mielke and Ziemer made their escape by running into the theater and out an emergency exit. They tossed their pistols over a fence, where they were later found by Homicide Detectives from the elite Mordkommission. Mielke and Ziemer then returned to their homes.
According to Koehler, "Back at Bülowplatz, the killings had triggered a major police action. At least a thousand officers poured into the square, and a bloody street battle ensued. Rocks and bricks were hurled from the rooftops. Communist gunmen fired indiscriminately from the roofs of surrounding apartment houses. As darkness fell, police searchlights illuminated the buildings. Using megaphones, officers shouted, "Clear the streets! Move away from the windows! We are returning fire!" By now the rabble had fled the square, but shooting continued as riot squads combed the tenements, arresting hundreds of residents suspected of having fired weapons. The battle lasted until one o'clock the next morning. In addition to the two police officers, the casualties included one Communist who died of a gunshot wound and seventeen others who were seriously wounded."
Anlauf's wife had died three weeks earlier of kidney failure. The murder of Anlauf thus left their three daughters as orphans. Their oldest daughter was forced to rush her planned wedding in order to keep her sisters from being put in an orphanage. Lenck was survived by his wife. Willig was hospitalized for 14 weeks, but made a full recovery and returned to active duty. In recognition for Willig's courage, the Berlin Police promoted him to Lieutenant.
After the murders, the act was celebrated at the Lichtenberger Hof, a favorite beer hall of the Rotfrontkämpferbund, where Mielke boasted: "Today we celebrate a job that I pulled!" ()
Fugitive
According to Koehler, "Kippenberger was alarmed when word reached him that Sergeant Willig had survived the shooting. Not knowing whether the sergeant could talk and identify the attackers, Kippenberger was taking no chances. He directed a runner to summon Mielke and Ziemer to his apartment at 74 Bellermannstrasse, only a few minutes walk from where the two lived. When the assassins arrived, Kippenberger told them the news and ordered them to leave Berlin at once. The parliamentarian's wife Thea, an unemployed schoolteacher and as staunch a Communist Party member as her husband, shepherded the young murderers to the Belgian border. Agents of the Communist International (Comintern) in the port city of Antwerp supplied them with money and forged passports. Aboard a merchant ship, they sailed for Leningrad. When their ship docked, they were met by another Comintern representative, who escorted them to Moscow."
Beginning in 1932, Mielke attended the Comintern's Military Political school under the alias Paul Bach. He later graduated from the Lenin School shortly before being recruited into the OGPU.
Trial
According to Koehler, "In mid-March 1933, while attending the Lenin School, Mielke received word from his OGPU sponsors that Berlin police had arrested Max Thunert, one of the conspirators in the Anlauf and Lenck murders. Within days, fifteen other members of the assassination team were in custody. Mielke had to wait six more months before the details of the police action against his Berlin comrades reached Moscow. On 14 September 1933, Berlin newspapers reported that all fifteen had confessed to their roles in the murders. Arrest warrants were issued for ten others who had fled, including Mielke, Ziemer, Ulbricht, Kippenberger, and Neumann."
Koehler also stated, "Defenders of Mielke later claimed that confessions had been obtained under torture by the Nazi Gestapo. However, all suspects were in the custody of the regular Berlin city criminal investigation bureau, most of whose detectives were SPD members. Some of the suspects had been nabbed by Nazi SA men and probably beaten before they were turned over to police. In the 1993 trial of Mielke, the court gave the defense the benefit of the doubt and threw out a number of suspect confessions."
On 19 June 1934, the 15 conspirators were convicted of first degree murder. The three deemed most culpable, Michael Klause, Max Matern, and Friedrich Bröde were sentenced to death. Their co-defendants received sentences ranging from nine months to fifteen years incarceration at hard labor. Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation. Bröde hanged himself in his cell. As a result, only Matern was left to be executed by beheading on 22 May 1935.
Matern was subsequently glorified as a martyr by KPD and East German propaganda. Ziemer was officially killed in action while fighting on the Republican-side during the Spanish Civil War. Mielke, however, would not face trial for the murders until 1993.
Career in Soviet intelligence
The Great Terror
Although Moscow's German Communist community was decimated during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Mielke survived and was promoted.
In a handwritten autobiography prepared after World War II, Mielke recalled, "During my stay in the S.U. (Soviet Union), I participated in all Party discussions of the K.P.D. and also in the problems concerning the establishment of socialism and in the trials against the traitors and enemies of the S.U."
Among the German communists executed as a result of these "discussions" were Mielke's former mentors Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger.
Mielke further recalled, "I was a guest on the honor grandstand of Red Square during the May Day and October Revolution parades. I became acquainted with many comrades of the Federation of World Communist Parties and the War Council of the Special Commission of the Comintern. I will never forget my meeting with Comrade Dimitrov, the Chairman of the Comintern, whom I served as an aide together with another comrade. I saw Comrade Stalin during all demonstrations at Red Square, especially when I stood on the grandstand. I mention these meetings because all these comrades are our models and teachers for our work."
During his time in the USSR, Mielke also developed a lifelong reverence for Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Polish aristocrat who founded the Soviet secret police. Mielke also began an equally permanent habit of calling himself a Chekist.
In a citation written decades later, Mielke described his philosophy of life, "The Chekist is the political combatant. He is the loyal son of... the workers' class. He stands at the head of the battle to strengthen the power of our workers' and peasants' state."
Spanish Civil War
From 1936 to 1939, Mielke served in Spain as an operative of the Servicio de Investigación Militar, the political police of the Second Spanish Republic. While attached to the staff of, "veteran GRU agent," and future Stasi minister Wilhelm Zaisser, Mielke used the alias Fritz Leissner. Bernd Kaufmann, the director of the Stasi's espionage school later said, "The Soviets trusted Mielke implicitly. He earned his spurs in Spain."
At the time, the S.I.M. was heavily staffed by agents of the Soviet NKVD, whose Spanish rezident was General Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and International Brigade commanders than on fighting Franco. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics."
In a 1991 interview, Walter Janka, a fellow German communist exile and company commander in the International Brigade, recalled his encounters with Mielke. During the winter of 1936, Janka was summoned by the SIM and interrogated by Mielke. Mielke demanded to know why Janka had voluntarily traveled to Spain rather than being assigned there by the Party. When he told Mielke to get lost, the SIM demoted Janka to the ranks and then expelled him from the International Brigade. Years later, Janka recalled, "While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists."
Upon the defeat of the Spanish Republic, Mielke fled across the Pyrenees Mountains to France, where he was interned at Camp de Rivesaltes, Pyrénées-Orientales. Mielke, however, managed to send a message to exiled KPD members and, in May 1939, escaped to Belgium. Although the Public Prosecutor of Berlin learned of Mielke's presence and filed for his extradition, the Belgian Government refused to comply, regarding the assassinations of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as "a political crime."
The NKVD and the SIM's witch hunt for both real and imagined anti-Stalinists had serious consequences. It horrified numerous formerly pro-Soviet Westerners who had been witnesses, including John Dos Passos, Arthur Koestler and George Orwell, and caused them to permanently turn against the USSR.
Mielke's belief that anti-Soviet Marxists had collaborated with Franco and stabbed the Republic in the back continued to shape his attitudes for the rest of his life. In a 1982 speech before a group of senior Stasi officers, he said, "We are not immune from villains among us. If I knew of any already, they wouldn't live past tomorrow. Short shrift. It's because I'm a Humanist, that I'm of this view."
In the same speech, Mielke also said, "All this blithering over to execute or not to execute, for the death penalty or against—all rot, Comrades. Execute! And, when necessary, without a court judgment."
World War II
During World War II, Mielke's movements remain mysterious. In a biography written after the war, he claimed to have infiltrated Organisation Todt under the alias Richard Hebel, but historian John O. Koehler considers this unlikely.
Koehler admits, however, "Mielke's exploits must have been substantial. By war's end, he had been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War First Class, and twice with the Order of Lenin. It is likely that he served as an NKVD agent, at least part of the time with guerrilla units behind German lines, for he knew all the partisan songs by heart and sang them in faultless Russian."
Occupied Germany
Komissariat-5
In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.
That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."
On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No. 2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services.
In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke disclosed—truthfully—his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, and—mistakenly or misleadingly—that for this he had been tried in absentia, found guilty, and sentenced to death. In actuality, Mielke's "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried". He admitted—truthfully—fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed—falsely—that he had been released from the French internment camps and had worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston". Furthermore, Mielke concealed his past and contemporaneous involvement with the NKVD, NKGB, and the Nazi Organisation Todt (which he asserted he'd infiltrated).
According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets. Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers. But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."
On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany.
According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan. In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a "new Gestapo." Furthermore, Abakumov, like Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked." Notwithstanding Abakumov's objections, however, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately. It is possible, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers' lack of fluency in the German language was engendering massive popular resentment.
Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head. Mielke was installed as his deputy.
According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police. Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons. Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party. Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision. The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them. Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."
According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees. Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers. In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary rule of law."
According to Edward N. Peterson, "Not surprisingly, K-5 acquired a reputation as bad as that of Stalin's secret police and worse than that of the Gestapo. At least with the Nazis, albeit fanatically racist, their victims did not suddenly disappear into the GULAG."
The Amalgamation
Despite the K-5's mass arrests of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Zone, the number of SPD members continued to grow. By March 1946, SPD members outnumbered KPD members by more than 100,000. Fearing that they would lose the elections scheduled for the autumn, the leadership of the KPD asked for and received Stalin's permission to merge the two parties. When the SPD's leadership agreed only to schedule a vote for the rank and file to decide, permission was denied by the Soviet occupation authorities. The K-5 then began mass arrests of SPD members who refused to support the merger.
On 22 April 1946, the remaining leaders of the SPD in the Soviet Zone announced that they had united with the KPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SPD in the western zones of Occupied Germany responded by forming the SPD East Bureau in order to support and finance those Social Democrats who refused to accept the merger. Those who joined or worked with the East Bureau were, however, in serious danger of arrest by the K-5 and trial by Soviet military tribunals. By 1950, more than 5,000 SPD members and sympathisers had been imprisoned in the Soviet Zone or transferred to the GULAG. More than 400 were either executed or died during their imprisonments.
John Koehler has written that, prior to the spring of 1946, many Germans in the Soviet Zone, "merely shrugged at the wave of arrests, believing that the victims were former Nazi officials and war criminals." But then came the mass arrests of Social Democrats who opposed the merger, who, "were joined by people who had been denounced for making anti-communist or anti-Soviet remarks, among their number hundreds who were as young as fourteen years. Although these arrests were made by Germans purporting to be officials of the criminal police, the existence of the K-5 political police eventually was exposed. Mielke, meanwhile, had risen to the post of vice-president of the German Administration for Interior Affairs – the equivalent of the NKVD – and continued his manipulations from behind the scenes."
Investigation
In January 1947, two retired Berlin policemen recognized Mielke at an official function. Informing the head of the criminal police in West Berlin, the policemen demanded that Mielke be arrested and prosecuted for the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. Wilhelm Kühnast, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin, was immediately informed and ordered a search of the Kammergericht archives. To his astonishment, the files of the 1931 murders had survived the wartime bombing of Germany. Finding ample evidence of Mielke's involvement, Kühnast ordered the arrest of the communist policeman.
According to John Koehler, "At that time, the city administration, including the police, was under the control of the Allied Control Commission, which consisted of U.S., British, French, and Soviet military officers. All actions by city officials, including the judiciary, were to be reported to the Commission. The Soviet representative alerted the MGB. Action was swift. Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, who had replaced Zhukov, protested, and his representatives at the Commission launched a vicious campaign to discredit Kühnast."
The Soviet representatives falsely claimed that Kühnast, a jurist with an impeccable anti-Nazi record, had been an official of Roland Freisler's People's Court. Taking the Soviets at their word, the Western Allies removed Kühnast from his position and placed him under house arrest. During the Berlin airlift, Kühnast fled from his home in East Berlin and was granted political asylum in the American Zone.
Meanwhile, the Soviet authorities confiscated all documents relating to the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. According to Koehler, "The Soviets handed the court records to Mielke. Instead of destroying the incriminating papers, he locked them in his private safe, where they were found when his home was searched in 1990. They were used against him in his trial for murder."
Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission
In 1948, Mielke was appointed as security chief of the German Economic Commission (), the precursor to the future East German government.
Mielke's task was to investigate the theft and sale of state property on the black market. He was also charged with intercepting the growing number of refugees fleeing to the French, British, and American Zones.
Those his security forces caught while attempting to defect were used as slave labor in the uranium mines that were providing raw material for the Soviet atomic bomb project.
German Democratic Republic
Independence
In 1949, the Soviet Military Administration ceded its legal functions to the newly created German Democratic Republic.
On 14 January 1950, Marshal Vasili Chuikov announced that all Soviet "internment camps" on German soil had been closed. Soon after, the DWK was absorbed into the newly created Ministry for State Security. In keeping with earlier syllabic abbreviations along the same lines (see OrPo, KriPo, and GeStaPo) East Germans immediately dubbed it the "Stasi" (from Staatssicherheit). With the approval of the Soviets, Mielke's commanding officer from Spain and in the K5, Wilhelm Zaisser, was appointed as the Stasi's head. Mielke was appointed to his staff with the rank of State Secretary. Mielke was also granted a seat in the SED's ruling Politburo.
According to John Koehler, "In the five years since the end of World War II, the Soviets and their vassals had arrested between 170,000 and 180,000 Germans. Some 160,000 had passed through the concentration camps, and of these about 65,000 had died, 36,000 had been shipped to the Soviet Gulag, and another 46,000 had been freed."
In 1949, as a response to the remilitarization of East Germany and the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Portugal formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. In 1950, as a response to the outbreak of the Korean War, West Germany was also permitted to join NATO, which was then upgraded into a military alliance.
According to Koehler, however, "As the Cold War intensified, living conditions in Soviet-occupied East Germany showed little improvement beyond the postwar level of bare subsistence. The new government of the DDR – a mere puppet of the Kremlin – relied more and more on the Stasi to quell discontent among factory workers and farmers. Ulbricht, claiming that the social unrest was fomented by capitalist agents, once ordered Mielke to personally visit one large plant and 'arrest four or five such agents' as an example to the others. The Stasi deputy 'discovered' the agents in record time."
Field show trials
Also in 1949, Noel Field, an American citizen who had spied for the NKVD from inside the U.S. State Department, the Office of Strategic Services, and the CIA, fled from his posting in Switzerland to Communist Czechoslovakia after his cover was blown by fellow mole Whittaker Chambers. On 11 May 1949, the Czechoslovakian secret police, or StB, in obedience to a direct order from KGB chief Lavrenti Beria, arrested Field in Prague. Field was then handed over to the Hungarian ÁVO. After his interrogation in Budapest, Fields was used as a witness at show trials of senior Soviet Bloc Communists who, like László Rajk and Rudolf Slánský, stood accused of having spied for the United States. The real reason for the trials was to replace homegrown Communists in Eastern Europe with those who would be blindly loyal to Joseph Stalin and to blame the division of Germany on the intrigues of U.S. intelligence.
At the Rajk show trial, the prosecutor declared, "Noel Field, one of the leaders of American espionage, specialized in recruiting spies from among left-wing elements."
In August 1950, six senior SED members, including Willi Kreikemeyer, the director of Deutsche Reichsbahn and head of Berliner Rundfunk, were accused of "special connections with Noel Field, the American spy." All were either imprisoned or shot.
John Koehler writes, "Similar purges were conducted in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, where Field appeared as a witness in show trials that resulted in some death sentences. The Soviets simply distrusted all Communists who had sought exile in the West. All the while, Mielke remained untouched and continued to serve as the deputy secret police chief. His survival reinforced the belief that he had spent the war years in the Soviet Union instead of France and Belgium as he had claimed in the 1945 questionnaire."
In June 1950, Erica Wallach, Noel Field's adopted daughter, decided to search for him. From Paris, she telephoned Leo Bauer, the editor-in-chief of Berliner Rundfunk. The call was monitored by agents of the Soviet Ministry for Internal Affairs, and Bauer's handler instructed him to invite Mrs. Wallach to East Berlin, where she was immediately arrested. Mielke personally interrogated her and, at one point, offered Mrs. Wallach immediate release if she named the members of her fictitious spy network. She was condemned to death by a Soviet military tribunal in East Berlin and shipped to the Lubianka prison in Moscow for her execution. After Joseph Stalin's death in on 5 March 1953, Erica Wallach's sentence was reduced to hard labor in Vorkuta, a region of the Gulag located above the Arctic Circle. She was released during the Khrushchev thaw in October 1955. At first, she was unable to join her husband and daughters in the U.S. because of the U.S. State Department's concern over her former membership in the Communist Party of Germany. It took the personal intervention of CIA Director Allen Dulles to reunite Erica Wallach with her family in 1957. Wallach's memoir of her experiences, Light at Midnight, was published in 1967.
Death of Stalin
After Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin died inside his Kuntsevo Dacha on 5 March 1953, the Central Committee of the East German Socialist Unity Party met in a special session and eulogized the dictator as the "great friend of Germany who was always an advisor of and help to our people."
Two months later, on 5 May 1953, the SED's General Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, and the rest of the leadership increased work quotas by 10%. They also decided to rename Chemnitz Karl-Marx-Stadt and to institute the Order of Karl Marx as the GDR's highest award.
Two weeks later, Mielke accused "a group of Party officials" of "plotting against the leadership", which "resulted in more expulsions from the Politburo and the Central Committee."
East German uprising of 1953
Discontent among factory workers about a 10% increase of work quotas without a corresponding wage hike boiled over. On 16 June 1953, nearly one hundred construction workers gathered before work for a protest meeting at Stalinallee, in East Berlin. Words spread rapidly to other construction sites and hundreds of men and women joined the rally, which marched to the House of Ministries. The protesters chanted slogans for five hours, demanding to speak to Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl. Only Heavy Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann and Professor Robert Havemann, president of the GDR Peace Council, emerged. Their speech, however, was answered with jeers and the Ministers retreated into the heavily armed building. The regular and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei were summoned from their barracks, but made no move to attack the protesters, who returned to Stalinallee, where a general strike was called.
Following West Germany's Federal Minister for All-German Questions Jakob Kaiser's admonition in a late night broadcast to East Germans to shy away from provocations, RIAS, starting with its 11 pm news broadcast, and from then on in hourly intermissions, repeated the workers' demand to continue the strike the next day, calling specifically for all East Berliners to participate in a demo at 7am on the 17th at Strausberger Platz.
The following day, 17 June 1953, more that 100,000 protesters took to the streets of East Berlin. More than 400,000 protesters also took to the streets in other cities and towns throughout the German Democratic Republic. Everywhere, the demands were the same: free elections by secret ballot.
Outside of Berlin, the main centres of the protests included the industrial region around Halle, Merseburg, and Bitterfeld, as well as middle-size towns like Jena, Görlitz, and Brandenburg. No more than 25,000 people participated in strikes and demonstrations in Leipzig, but there were 32,000 in Magdeburg, 43,000 in Dresden, 53,000 in Potsdam – and in Halle, a figure close to 100,000.
In West Berlin, the American radio station RIAS and several other West German stations reported on the protests and on plans for a general strike. As East Germans listened to the broadcasts, 267,000 workers at State-owned plants in 304 cities and towns joined the general strike. In 24 towns, outraged East Germans stormed the Stasi's prisons and freed between 2,000 and 3,000 political prisoners.
In response to orders, the Soviet Occupation Forces, the Stasi and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei went on the attack. Bloody street battles ensued and hundreds of policemen defected to the side of the protesters. Both police and Stasi stations were overrun and some government offices were sacked. The Party leadership retreated into a fortified compound in the Pankow district of East Berlin.
At noon, the Soviet authorities terminated all tram and metro traffic into the Eastern sector and all but closed the sector borders to West Berlin to prevent more demonstrators from reaching the city centre. An hour later, they declared martial law in East Berlin.
The repression took place outside East Berlin police HQ – where Soviet tanks opened fire on "the insurgents".
According to John Koehler, "... by late afternoon, Soviet tanks accompanied by Infantry and MVD troops had rolled into East Berlin and other cities in the Soviet Zone. This made the people even angrier. At Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, which bordered on the American Sector, irate protesters ignored machine gun fire and the menacing barrels of tank guns. They ripped cobblestones from the streets and hurled them at the tanks."
Fighting between the Red Army (and later GDR police) and the demonstrators persisted into the afternoon and night. In some cases, the tanks and the soldiers fired directly into the crowds.
Overnight, the Soviets (and the Stasi) started to arrest hundreds of people. Ultimately, up to 10,000 people were detained and at least 20, probably as many as 40, people were executed, including Red Army soldiers who refused to obey orders. With the SED leadership effectively paralysed at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, control of the city passed to the Soviets.
In honor of the uprising, West Germany established 17 June as a national holiday, called Day of German Unity. The extension of the Unter den Linden boulevard to the west of the Brandenburg Gate, formerly called Charlottenburger Chaussee, was also renamed Straße des 17. Juni ("17 June Street") in honor of the uprising.
According to John Koehler, "Provisional prison camps were set up to hold the thousands of Stasi victims. Nearly 1,500 persons were sentenced in secret trials to long prison terms. On 24 June, Mielke issued a terse announcement that one Stasi officer, nineteen demonstrators, and two bystanders had been killed during the uprising. He did not say how many were victims of official lynching. The numbers of the wounded were given as 191 policemen, 126 demonstrators, and 61 bystanders."
Also according to Koehler, "Calm returned to the streets of the Soviet Zone, yet escapes to the West continued at a high rate. Of the 331,390 who fled in 1953, 8,000 were members of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the barracked people's police units, which were actually the secret cadre of the future East German Army. Also among the escapees were 2,718 members and candidates of the SED, the ruling Party."
The Khrushchev thaw
Purges
Alarmed by the uprising, Lavrenty Beria, the First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, personally travelled from Moscow to East Berlin. He conferred with Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser and with Mielke, his deputy, both of whom he had known since the early 1930s. During both conversations, Beria demanded to know why the Stasi had failed to recognize the extreme discontent of the population and inform the Party leadership, which could then have prevented the uprising by taking extremely repressive measures in advance. Both Zaisser and Mielke answered Beria's questions circumspectly, and were accordingly left in their posts.
In response to the uprising, Beria decided to replace several hundred MVD officers, including Major General Ivan Fadeykin, the MVD resident of East Germany. The Stasi, according to John Koehler, "generally remained untouched except for the arrests and dismissals, for dereliction of duty, of a handful of officers in the provinces. One high-ranking Stasi officer shot himself."
Following Beria's return to Moscow, however, he was arrested on 26 June 1953, in a coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Beria was tried on charges of 357 counts of rape and high treason. He was sentenced to death and shot by Red Army Colonel-General Pavel Batitsky on 23 December 1953.
In an interview to Neues Deutschland, the official party newspaper of East Germany, on 30 June 1953, the Party's Minister of Justice, Max Fechner, declared that, "illegal arrests," had been made and that being a member of a strike committee or suspicion of being a ringleader was not in itself grounds for arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, when the East German Politburo met on 8 July, it seemed that Ulbricht would be deposed as Party General Secretary. Zaisser conceded that the whole Politburo was responsible for the "accelerated construction of socialism" and of the subsequent fallout. But he also added that to leave Ulbricht as Premier, "would be opposed catastrophic for the New Course".
By the end of the meeting, only two Politburo members still supported Ulbricht's leadership: Free German Youth League chief Erich Honecker and Party Control Commission Chairman Hermann Matern. Ulbricht only managed to forestall a decision then and there with a promise to make a statement at the forthcoming 15th SED CC Plenum, scheduled for later that month.
Meanwhile, Mielke informed a Party commission looking for scapegoats that his boss, Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser, was calling for secret negotiations with West Germany and that, "he believed the Soviet Union would abandon the DDR."
By late July, Ulbricht was completely certain that he had the support of the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Therefore, he expelled his main opponents, Zaisser, Hernstadt and Ackermann, from the Politburo, and thus strengthened his position further.
SED Minister of Justice Max Fechner was personally arrested by Mielke and replaced by Hilde Benjamin, who was known to East German citizens as "Red Hilde", "The Red Freisler," and as, "The Red Guillotine," for her role as a judge in the SED's show trials.
Fechner was convicted of being, "an enemy of the Party and the State," and served three years in Bautzen Prison.
Wilhelm Zaisser was replaced as head of the Stasi by Ernst Wollweber and Mielke remained on staff as his deputy.
Tenure as Stasi head
Mielke headed the Stasi from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There was, under the East German system, no provision for parliamentary oversight. However, starting in 1971 Mielke was required to provide a detailed intelligence briefing to party secretary Erich Honecker each Tuesday, directly following the weekly Politburo meeting. (Before 1971, under Walter Ulbricht, Mielke was not involved in routine intelligence briefings to the leadership which, instead, were provided directly to Ulbricht by Intelligence Chief Markus Wolf.)
Internal discipline
During his tenure, Mielke enforced "political and personal discipline reminiscent of the early French Foreign Legion". New recruits were required to take a solemn oath pledging "to fight alongside the state security organs of all socialist countries against all enemies of socialism" on pain of "the severest punishment under the Republic's laws and the contempt of the workers." Recruits were also required to sign a security pledge vowing never to make unauthorized visits to any "capitalist countries" and to report on any members of their families who did so.
Violations of the oath resulted in expulsion from the Stasi and blacklisting from all but the most menial jobs. Serious violations were tried before secret tribunals and led an estimated 200 Stasi agents to be shot. Colonel Rainer Wiegand once said, "There was only one way to leave the MfS without being haunted for the rest of your life. You either retired or you died."
Domestic activities
Under Erich Mielke's leadership, the Stasi employed 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 civilian informants () (IMs). East Germans coined a term to describe the Stasi's pervasive surveillance of the population "All-Covered" (). For this reason, Anna Funder has referred to East Germany as, "the most perfected surveillance state of all time."
According to John Koehler, "...the Stasi's tentacles probed every aspect of life. Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei...In turn, the police officer was the Stasi's man. If a relative or friend came to stay overnight, it was reported. Schools, universities and hospitals were infiltrated from top to bottom. German academe was shocked to learn that Heinrich Fink, professor of theology and vice-chancellor of East Berlin's Humboldt University, had been a Stasi informer since 1968. After Fink's Stasi connections came to light, he was summarily fired. Doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, and sports figures were co-opted by Stasi officers, as were waiters and hotel personnel. Tapping about 100,000 telephone lines in East Germany and West Berlin around the clock was the job of 2,000 officers... Churchmen, including high officials of both Protestant and Catholic denominations, were recruited en masse as secret informants. Their offices and confessionals were infested with eavesdropping devices. Even the director of Leipzig's famous Thomas Church choir, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, was forced to resign when he was unmasked as a Spitzel, the people's pejorative for a Stasi informant."
In an interview with journalist Anna Funder, an ex-Stasi officer recalled, "Most often, people we approached would inform for us. It was very rare that they would not. However, sometimes we felt that we might need to know where their weak points were, just in case. For example, if we wanted a pastor, we'd find out if he'd had an affair, or had a drinking problem—things that we could use as leverage. Mostly though, people said yes."
On Mielke's orders, and with his full knowledge, Stasi officers also engaged in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, brutal harassment of political dissidents, torture, and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens.
In a 1991 interview, Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said, "The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people. The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million."
Activities abroad
During Mielke's tenure, the Stasi's operations beyond East Germany were overseen by Markus Wolf and the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (MfS-HVA).
Mielke and Wolf provided money, training, and surveillance equipment to help build pro-Soviet secret police forces in Fidel Castro's Cuba, Baathist Syria, Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua, Mengistu Haile Mariam's Ethiopia, Idi Amin's Uganda, Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, and South Yemen.
After the opening of Stasi archives, it was revealed that West Germany was riddled with MfS-HVA moles. In what John Koehler has dubbed, "The Invisible Invasion", some West German citizens collaborated out of Marxist beliefs, but others were recruited through blackmail, greed, career frustrations, or sexual favors from Stasi operatives.
Another tactic was for Stasi military advisers assigned to African and Middle Eastern countries to request the arrest of West German tourists. Local police would then turn the prisoner over to the Stasi agent, who would offer the West German a choice between espionage or incarceration.
Senior politicians from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union were exposed and, when still alive, prosecuted.
Mielke and Wolf also seriously compromised West Germany's police departments, foreign and domestic intelligence services, diplomatic corps, military-industrial complex, and journalistic profession.
The Stasi compromised the United States military and diplomatic presence in West Germany.
The most damaging American to spy for the Stasi was United States Army Sergeant James Hall III, who volunteered his services to Soviet and East German intelligence in November 1981.
Sergeant Hall sold the Stasi 13,088 pages of classified documents, including detailed information about Project Trojan, a worldwide electronic network with the ability to pinpoint armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft by recording their signal emissions during wartime and the complete National SIGINT Requirements List (NSRL), a 4258-page document about NSA operations at home and abroad.
In 1988, Sergeant Hall was tricked into confessing his espionage career to an undercover FBI Special Agent named Dmitri Droujinsky, a Russian-American who was posing as an agent of the KGB. When news of Sergeant Hall's arrest became public, one Washington intelligence official called the breach, "the Army's Walker Case."
Collusion with Nazism
Beginning in 1960, Mielke and Wolf used false flag recruitment to secretly organize and finance Neo-Nazi organizations, which they then instructed to vandalize Jewish religious and cultural sites throughout West Germany. During the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann, Stasi agents sent letters to West German Neo-Nazis and Waffen-SS veterans, urging them to speak out and to raise money for Eichmann's defense attorney. This was done in order to lend credibility to Communist propaganda about the allegedly Fascist and neo-Nazi orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to German historian Michael Wolffsohn, "There is no doubt that in the 1960s as now, there were Nazis who were unreconstructed, unchangeable and evil, but without the help of East Germany, these Nazis were incapable of a national, coordinated campaign. That was true of right-wing extremist criminals in the 1980s as well. The East German Communists used anything they could against West Germany, including the... fears by Western countries and Jews that a new Nazism could be growing in West Germany. There is... evidence that the East Germans continued to use Anti-Semitism as a tool against West Germany in the 1970s and perhaps right up until 1989."
In a 1991 interview with John Koehler, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said of the Stasi, "They not only terrorized their own people worse than the Gestapo, but the government was the most Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israeli in the entire Eastern Bloc. They did nothing to help the West in tracking down Nazi criminals; they ignored all requests from West German judicial authorities for assistance. We have just discovered shelves of files on Nazis stretching over four miles. Now we also know how the Stasi used those files. They blackmailed Nazi criminals who fled abroad after the war into spying for them. What's more, the Stasi trained terrorists from all over the world."
Support for paramilitary and terrorist groups
During a 1979 visit to the GDR by senior PLO member Salah Khalaf, Mielke said, "We are paying great attention to the Palestine resistance and the other revolutionary forces fighting against the policies of the United States and against the provocations of the Israeli aggressor. Together with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, we will do everything to support this just battle."
With this in mind, Mielke ordered the Stasi to finance, arm, and train, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, Mielke's ties to violent paramilitary groups were overseen by Markus Wolf and Department Three of the MfS-HVA. Members of the West German Baader-Meinhoff Group, the Chilean Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware, insurgent tactics, and, "the leadership role of the Party." Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Nidal, and Black September.
Other Stasi agents worked as military advisers to Soviet-backed African guerrilla organizations and the governments they later formed. They included the Namibian SWAPO and the Angolan MPLA during the South African Border War, the FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence and civil war, and Robert Mugabe's ZANLA during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Venezuelan-born PLO terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Black September leader Abu Daoud during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972 Munich massacre and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.
During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly blackmailed a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that the La Belle bombing and other terrorist attacks against American and West German citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.
According to John Koehler, "Murder, kidnapping, extortion, bank robbery, and arson were felonies under the East German criminal code. However, if these offenses were committed under the banner of the 'anti-imperialist struggle,' the communist system would look the other way. Moreover, it had assigned the Stasi to make sure that terrorists were properly trained for murder and sowing mayhem. There was no limits to the East German regime's involvement with terrorism, so long as it could be ideologically justified."
The Peaceful Revolution
According to John Koehler, "Increasingly concerned over the growing popular opposition, Stasi Minister Mielke early in 1989 ordered the creation of a special elite unit for crushing disturbances. Its personnel were carefully selected members of the counterespionage and counterterrorism directorate. They were equipped with special batons similar to electric cattle prods but much more powerful. In a secret speech to top-ranking Stasi officers on 29 June, Mielke warned that, 'hostile opposing forces and groups have already achieved a measure of power and are using all methods to achieve a change in the balance of power. Former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand told me he was horrified when Mielke compared the situation with that of China two months earlier. Chinese students in Beijing had begun massive protests in April and in May, during a student demonstration in Tiananmen Square, security troops had opened fire on them killing hundreds. 'Mielke said our situation was comparable and we had to be ready to counter it with all means and methods,' Wiegand recalled. 'Mielke said that the Chinese leadership had succeeded in smothering the protests before the situation got out of hand.'"
Despite Mielke's attempts to suppress them, East Germany's protesters grew more emboldened with every arrest.
40th anniversary of the GDR
As the fortieth anniversary of the GDR approached, Mielke ordered, "We must stop the internal enemy. At the least hint of a disturbance of the celebration, isolate and arrest them."
One former Stasi Major recalled, "We mixed inconspicuously with the demonstrators, accompanied by our IMs. Hundreds of us stood at the sides of the street in order to stop any activity before it got started. We barely got any sleep toward the end. Never did I sense that the people were afraid of the MfS. The Stasi was more afraid of the people than the people were of them."
According to Koehler, "Despite the unrest, the regime celebrated its fortieth with a huge, pompous ceremony in Berlin on 7 October, while tens of thousands of outside the ornate building of the State Council. The People's Police cordons were utterly ineffectual. As Stasi Minister Erich Mielke drove up and was greeted by General Günter Kratsch, the counterintelligence chief, Mielke screamed at police: "Club those pigs into submission!" () The police ignored Mielke's ranting.
As more and more East Germans were arrested for protesting the 40th anniversary celebrations, many of them sang The Internationale in Vopo and Stasi custody to imply that they, rather than their captors, were the real working class and the real revolutionaries.
According to Anna Funder, "There was a sea of red flags, a torchlight procession, and tanks. The old men on the podium wore light-grey suits studded with medals. Mikhail Gorbachev stood next to Honecker, but he looked uncomfortable among the much older Germans. He had come to tell them that it was over, to convince the leadership to adopt his reformist policies. He had spoken openly about the danger of not 'responding to reality.' He pointedly told the Politburo that, 'life punishes those who come too late.' Honecker and Mielke ignored him, just as they ignored the crowds when they chanted, "Gorby, help us! Gorby, help us!"
Plan X
On 8 October 1989, Mielke and Honecker ordered the Stasi to implement "Plan X"—the SED's plan to arrest and indefinitely detain 85,939 East Germans during a state of emergency. According to John Koehler, Plan X had been in preparation since 1979 and was, "a carbon copy of how the Nazi concentration camps got their start after Hitler came to power in 1933."
By 1984, 23 sites had been selected for "isolation and internment camps." Those who were to be imprisoned in them ran into six categories; including anyone who had ever been under surveillance for anti-state activities, including all members of peace movements which were not under Stasi control.
According to Anna Funder, "The plans contained exact provisions for the use of all available prisons and camps, and when those were full for the conversion of other buildings: Nazi detention centers, schools, hospitals, and factory holiday hostels. Every detail was foreseen, from where the doorbell was located on the house of each person to be arrested to the adequate supply of barbed wire and the rules of dress and etiquette in the camps..."
However, when Mielke sent the orders, codenamed "Shield" (), to each local Stasi precinct to begin the planned arrests, he was not obeyed. Terrified of an East German version of the mass lynchings of Hungarian secret police agents during the 1956 Revolution, Stasi agents throughout the GDR fortified their office-buildings and barricaded themselves inside.
Toppling Honecker
Even as orders were going out to implement Plan X, Mielke had already thrown his support behind the anti-Honecker faction in the SED's Politburo. Although he was of the same generation as Honecker and had matured in an environment where following orders was the rule, he was sober enough and politically savvy enough to realize this approach no longer worked. During a session on 10 October 1989, Mielke delivered a report attacking Honecker's desire to violently suppress the demonstrations rather than offer concessions.
In what Edward N. Peterson has called "a remarkable disclaimer of responsibility for the violence," Mielke declared that Honecker's orders to him "were built on false situation judgments." He added that Honecker's commands on 7 and 8 October "were false and undifferentiated condemnations of those who think differently. Despite this evaluation, there was never any instructions to use violence against persons. There is nothing in our basic principles to consider a demonstration as part of a possible counterrevolutionary coup."
Mielke also claimed that "the Party judged the situation falsely. We tried to tell them the true situation, but enough was not done." Mielke argued in favor of solving the demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel."
On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents who were loyal to him were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with tanks," and tried to impress upon Honecker that it was "the end".
After the vote to oust Honecker passed, Mielke "got nasty," and accused Honecker of corruption. Honecker responded that Mielke should not open his mouth so much. Mielke responded by putting the last nail into Honecker's coffin. He announced that the MfS had a file on the now-ousted leader. It contained proof of Honecker's corrupt business practices, sexual activities, and how, as a member of the underground Communist Party of Germany during the Nazi years, he had been arrested by the Gestapo and had named names.
To the shock of both the Politburo and the Stasi, Krenz's first televised addresses failed to win popular support. Despite his assurances that the SED was at last ready to embrace Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, Krenz's approval ratings remained extremely low.
Former Politburo member Günter Schabowski later recalled, "We made a palace revolution without offering a real alternative... We had not quickly and thoroughly enough whittled away from Stalin's methods."
Defeat
On 7 November 1989, Mielke resigned, along with eleven out of eighteen members of the SED's Council of Ministers, in response to the increasing disintegration of the GDR.
Two days later, Schabowski announced on television that the east–west border was open without restriction.
According to Anna Funder, there was panic at Stasi Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg, "Stasi officers were instructed to destroy files, starting with the most incriminating–those naming westerners who spied for them, and those that concerned deaths. They shredded the files until the paper shredders overheated and shorted out. Among other shortages in the East, there was a shredder shortage, so they had to send agents out under cover to West Berlin to buy more. In Building 8 alone, the citizens' movement found over a hundred burnt out shredders. When they ran out of working shredders from the West and could not procure more they began using scissors to cut the documents by hand.
According to William F. Buckley, Jr., "In the weeks after 9 November, Stasi offices were stormed in various cities around East Germany. Stasi commissars in three of those cities committed suicide. But not one was lynched or executed."
Televised humiliation
On 13 November 1989, Mielke was summoned to deliver a briefing about the protests to the GDR parliament, or Volkskammer. Formerly a "rubber stamp parliament," the disintegration of the SED's power had allowed the Volkskammer to begin exercising real authority over the GDR. Therefore, Mielke, as the head of the Stasi (known as the "shield and sword of the [SED] party"), was summoned before the newly empowered parliament to justify his position in government.
As his speech was broadcast live, Mielke began by using overly bombastic, flag-waving language, saying "We have, comrades, dear assembly members, an extraordinarily high amount of contact with all working people" (). To his shock, the Volkskammer responded with boos, whistles, and catcalls.
His face grief-stricken and pale, Mielke then tried to defuse the situation, "Yes, we have such contact, let me tell you-let me tell you why. I am not afraid to stand here and to give you an unbiased answer" (). Mielke continued, speaking of the "triumph" of the socialist economy, continuing all the while to address the members of the Volkskammer as "Comrades" (). In response, Volkskammer member Dietmar Czok of the Christian Democratic Union, rose from his seat and raised his hand. The Volkskammer's president, Günther Maleuda, interrupted Mielke and urged Czok to speak.
With his voice dripping with contempt, Czok told Mielke, "As a point of order, I will not tell you this again. There are more people sitting in this Chamber than just your Comrades!" (). In response, many in the Volkskammer burst into applause, cheers, and shouts of "We are not your Comrades!" ()
Trying to appear magnanimous, Mielke responded, "This is a natural, Humanistic question! This is just a question of formality." (), leading to further shouts of displeasure from the members of the Volkskammer. In a last ditch effort, Mielke "raised his arms like an evangelist," and cried, "I love all – all Humanity! I really do! I set myself before you!" ()
Everyone in the room, including staunch SED members, burst out laughing. Then Mielke started to cry. John Koehler later wrote, "Mielke was finished."
Mielke's address to the Volkskammer remains the most famous broadcast in the history of German television. Anna Funder has written, "When they think of Mielke, East Germans like to think of this."
The Fall
On 17 November 1989, the Volkskammer renamed the MfS the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit (AfNS – Office for National Security). The following day, Mielke's tenure in office ended when the Volkskammer appointed Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz as the new director of the AfNS.
On 1 December 1989, the Volkskammer nullified the clause of the GDR constitution that enshrined the SED's "leading role" in the government and formally ending Communist rule in East Germany. Two days later, the SED announced that Mielke's party membership had been permanently revoked. Years later, he lamented, "Millions have died for nothing. Everything we fought for – it has all amounted to nothing." He also said, "If the party had given me the task, then there would perhaps still be a GDR today. On that you can rely."
Prosecution
Indictments
On 7 December 1989, Erich Mielke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for embezzlement of public funds in order to improve his hunting estate. He was charged with "Damaging the People's Economy" (Schädigung der Volkswirtschaft). On 7 January 1990, he was further charged with high treason and conspiring with Erich Honecker to bug the telephones and open the mail of every one of East Germany's citizens.
Meanwhile, the Federal Constitutional Court announced that Mielke had also been indicted for having ordered two terrorist attacks by the Baader-Meinhoff Group against United States military personnel who were stationed on West German soil. The first was the car bomb attack against the United States Air Force at Ramstein Air Base on 31 August 1981. The second was the attempted murder with an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket of United States Army General Frederick Kroesen, his wife, and the West German police officer who was driving their armored Mercedes at Heidelberg on 15 September 1981.
After German reunification in October 1990, Mielke was also indicted for ordering the shootings of defectors at the Berlin Wall. He was also charged with misuse of office, breach of trust, and incitement to pervert the course of justice.
Bülowplatz trial
In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the 1931 first degree murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the transcripts from the 1934 trial of his co-conspirators, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke revealed that his role in, "the Bülowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing to Moscow from the Weimar Republic in 1931. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the documents for the purpose of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified that Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bülowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965.
During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plötzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution.
After twenty months of one-and-a-half-hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. At his sentencing, Mielke started to cry. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Imprisonment
Mielke was then put on trial for ordering the shootings of East Germans who were trying to defect to the West. In November 1994, the presiding judge adjourned the proceedings, ruling that Mielke was not mentally competent to stand trial.
During his incarceration, at JVA Moabit corrections officers supplied Mielke with a red telephone like the one in his office at Stasi Headquarters. Although it was not connected to the outside world, Mielke enjoyed having imaginary conversations with non-existent Stasi agents. His other favorite pastime was watching game shows on television.
In 1995, parole officers and Mielke's attorneys argued that he was "totally confused" and obtained his release. At 87 years of age, Erich Mielke was Germany's oldest prison inmate and had been incarcerated for 1,904 days. Days before his release, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin announced that he was "not interested in chasing an 87-year-old man anymore" and that all further prosecution of Mielke had been indefinitely suspended.
According to Koehler, "[Mielke's] bank account, which held more than 300,000 Marks (about US$187,500), was confiscated. Before his arrest in 1989, the most feared man in East Germany had lived in a luxurious home with access to an indoor pool. In addition, he owned a palatial hunting villa, complete with a movie theater, trophy room, 60 servants, and a 60 square kilometers hunting preserve. After he was released from prison Mielke was obliged to move into a two-room, 55-square-meter flat. Like all Stasi pensioners, he would henceforth have to live on 802 marks (about US$512) a month."
Death
Erich Mielke died on 21 May 2000, aged 92, in a Berlin nursing home. After being cremated at the crematorium in Meissen, an urn containing Mielke's ashes was buried in an unmarked grave at the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. An estimated 100 people reportedly attended the funeral. Erich Mielke's grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes. Within hours of his funeral, the flowers and wreaths left at Mielke's grave were ripped to shreds by persons unknown.
Legacy
Writing in 2003, Australian journalist Anna Funder declared, "The name Mielke has now come to mean 'Stasi.' Victims are dubiously honored to find his signature in their files: on plans for someone to be observed 'with all possible methods', on commands for arrest, for kidnapping, instructions to judges for sentencing, orders for 'liquidation'. The honor is dubious because... he signed so many."
In 2012, the museum at the former Stasi headquarters opened Mielke's office as a permanent exhibit. Soon after, The Guardian correspondent Tam Eastley visited the exhibit and numerous sites in Berlin connected to Mielke's life, times, and legacy. When she visited Mielke's grave, Eastley found that it had become a shrine for adherents of Ostalgie.
Personal life
Erich Mielke was a fitness enthusiast, a non-smoker, and drank very little. He was a keen hunter and owned a large area of ground where he would hunt animals with other East German and visiting Soviet officials.
During the late 1940s, when Mielke was working as security chief of the DWK, he began a relationship with Gertrud Mueller, a seamstress. On 18 December 1948, shortly after the birth of their son Frank Mielke, Erich and Gertrud married in a civil ceremony.
According to the newspaper Bild, the Mielkes adopted an orphaned girl named Ingrid, who was born in 1950. Like her adopted brother Frank, Ingrid Mielke attended the Wilhelm Pieck School. She ultimately became a captain in the Stasi and married a Stasi Lieutenant named Norbert Knappe. As of 1999, the Knappes had both refused to grant an interview to Bild reporters.
In popular culture
Erich Mielke has appeared as a character in both films and novels set in the GDR.
Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita (2000), which focuses on Stasi collusion with the West German far-left terrorist organization Rote Armee Fraktion. In conversation with fictional Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke), Mielke (Dietrich Körner) expresses admiration for the RAF's campaign against the United States, West Germany, and the State of Israel, which he compares with his own activities against the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. The RAF members are then brought to a training camp, where Stasi agents instruct them in the use of grenade launchers and other kinds of military hardware. Mielke's name is never disclosed and Agent Hull addresses him only as, "Comrade General." ()
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (2006), which focuses on the Stasi's surveillance and repression of the East German population. In the film, a previously loyal GDR playwright named Georg Dreymann (Sebastian Koch) publishes an anonymous article in the West German magazine Der Spiegel which accuses East Germany's Minister of Culture of having persecuted a blacklisted stage director until he hanged himself. Soon after the article goes to press, Mielke's voice is heard over the telephone giving a dressing down to fictional Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur). Addressed only as "Genosse Armeegeneral" (Mielke was the only person to ever hold that rank in the Stasi), Mielke threatens to throw Grubitz in front of a firing squad if he fails to identify and arrest the article's author.
In Philip Kerr's novel Field Grey (2010), Mielke first appears in 1931 Berlin, when protagonist Bernie Gunther saves him from being murdered by Nazi Brownshirts. The novel then flashes forward to 1954, when Gunther is recruited into a CIA plot to abduct Mielke from East Berlin.
Honours and awards
Mielke received a large number of awards and commemorative medals from organisations within the German Democratic Republic and from allied states. A more complete list is available (in German) at Liste der Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Erich Mielke.
Awards of the German Democratic Republic
Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (7 October 1954)
Six Orders of Karl Marx (28 December 1957, 20 November 1973, 1 December 1975, 28 December 1977, 28 June 1982, 28 December 1982)
Twice Hero of Labour of the GDR (5 October 1964, 24 February 1968)
Twice Hero of the GDR (1 December 1975, 28 December 1982)
Banner of Labour (8 May 1960)
Medal for Exemplary Border Service (26 April 1956)
Medal for Faithful Service in the National People's Army;
Bronze (7 October 1957)
Silver (8 February 1959)
Gold (1 July 1960)
Gold for 20 years service (8 February 1965)
Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (6 September 1958)
Gold Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (1 March 1957)
Scharnhorst Order, twice (25 September 1979, 7 October 1984)
Awards of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union (25 December 1987)
Four Orders of Lenin (12 June 1973, 28 December 1982, 1 April 1985, 28 December 1987)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (6 May 1970)
Four Orders of the Red Banner (23 October 1958, 5 February 1968, 28 December 1977, February 1980)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Soviet Militia" (20 December 1967)
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" (1970)
Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR" (6 January 1970)
Order of the October Revolution (February 1975)
Other states
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 28 December 1982)
Order of Friendship (Czechoslovakia) (28 December 1982)
Order of the Red Star (Czechoslovakia) (16 November 1970)
References
Further reading
Buckley, Jr., William F. (2004), The Fall of the Berlin Wall, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Funder, Anna (2003), Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books, London.
Kuchel, Dany (2011) "Le Glaive et le Bouclier", une histoire de la Stasi en France.
Otto, Wilfriede, Erich Mielke, Biographie: Aufstieg und Fall eines Tschekisten. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2000, .
Peterson, Edward N. (2002). The Secret Police and the Revolution: The Fall of the German Democratic Republic, Praeger Publications, Westport, Connecticut. London.
Pickard, Ralph (2007). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide. Frontline Historical Publishing.
Pickard, Ralph (2012). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II. Frontline Historical Publication.
1907 births
2000 deaths
Politicians from Berlin
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Government ministers of East Germany
Members of the 3rd Volkskammer
Members of the 4th Volkskammer
Members of the 5th Volkskammer
Members of the 6th Volkskammer
Members of the 7th Volkskammer
Members of the 8th Volkskammer
Members of the 9th Volkskammer
East German spies
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Great Purge perpetrators
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Murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck
Perpetrators of political repression in the Second Spanish Republic
People convicted of murder by Germany
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SV Dynamo
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Recipients of the Banner of Labor
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Recipients of the Order of Georgi Dimitrov
20th-century German criminals
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German military personnel of World War II | false | [
"The murder of Kimberly Cates was a thrill killing that attracted national attention due to the brutality of the killers' crimes, the randomness by which the home was chosen with intent to murder everyone inside it (the victims and perpetrators did not know each other prior to the home invasion), the apparent lack of remorse of murderer Steven Spader, and the ages of the thrill killers when they committed murder.\n\nOn October 4, 2009, 17-year-old Spader and 19-year-old Christopher Gribble murdered Kimberly Cates (age 42) and severely maimed her 11-year-old daughter Jaimie during a home invasion in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire. Both victims were assaulted with a machete. Spader admitted to hacking Kimberley Cates to death with 36 blows to the head and torso.\n\nA former Boy Scout, Spader was a high school dropout who passed the GED high school equivalency exam. Spader had formed a club he called \"The Disciples of Destruction\" shortly before the murder, to whom he recruited his confederates. Spader designed a logo with the initials D.O.D. Spader told his recruits that the home invasion was to be a rite of \"initiation\" for club members.\n\nBoth Spader and Gribble were sentenced to life in prison, while three other accomplices are also serving prison sentences.\n\nBecause of the U.S. Supreme Court's Miller v. Alabama 2012 ruling that circumscribed the sentencing of minors to life sentences, both Spader and Gribble were granted resentencing hearings. Apparently content with his life sentence, Spader informed his attorneys during an April 2013 resentencing hearing that he did not want a reduction in sentence, describing himself as \"the most sick and twisted person you'll ever meet\". He did not appear at the hearing.\n\nThe State of New Hampshire claimed that Spader lacked remorse, considering it \"unnecessary\" and a form of weakness, and likely would commit more crimes upon release from prison.\n\nHis sentence of life plus 76 years was upheld. In May 2013, the New Hampshire Supreme Court allowed Spader to drop the appeal of his conviction. His appellate attorney told the press that Spader did not want to appeal for \"personal and moral reasons\". Spader was moved to a New Jersey prison in February 2014 and subsequently sustained injuries in a prison fight.\nIn October 2014, Gribble sought a reduction in his sentence based on his young age; the court did not rule immediately.\n\nThe murder led to the New Hampshire legislature expanding the crimes punishable by the death penalty to include murder during a home invasion. The state later repealed the penalty on May 30, 2019, after state senators overrode a veto by Governor Chris Sununu. Prisoners who were convicted of capital murders committed before that date did not have their sentences commuted to life in prison, as the abolishment was not retroactive. Michael Addison is the only person remaining on death row in New Hampshire.\n\nSee also \n Capital punishment in New Hampshire\n\nReferences \n\n2009 in New Hampshire\n2009 murders in the United States\nPeople murdered in New Hampshire\nDeaths by person in the United States\nMont Vernon, New Hampshire\nOctober 2009 crimes\nOctober 2009 events in the United States\nFemale murder victims\nDeaths by blade weapons\nMurder committed by minors",
"Alex Meschisvili was an 11-year-old boy from Veria, Greece. He disappeared on 3 February 2006. On 3 June 2006, the Greek press reported that five children aged 13 years of age admitted to having hit and killed the 11-year-old, only to bury his body in the open space of a private building that was ready to be demolished. The murder was the first known case of a child's murder by teenagers in the crime history of Greece.\n\nMurder case\nOn 3 February, Alex had not come home after going out in a basketball field to play with some of his friends. His parents started asking around and later reported him missing. The five children he was playing with pleaded that they did not know anything at the time.\n \nFour months later, and after tips from kids attending the same school as Alex, the police called the children back in for questioning, one at a time, and compared their alibis. The children each told different stories, so the police continued questioning them. Finally, the children cracked and each individually confirmed the place where they had buried the body of Alex. As of 2017, investigators are still looking for the body.\n\nOn June 4th, 2006, the children recanted their earlier statement, saying they were bullied into admitting guilt by the police.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Murdered by kids his own age - Shock from the discovery (Greek)\n Article from the BBC\n Parent's blog (in Greek)\n Information about that in nikosgranturismo5 blog\n\n1995 births\n2006 deaths\n2006 murders in Europe\n2006 crimes in Greece\n2000s murders in Greece\n2000s missing person cases\nFebruary 2006 events in Europe\nFebruary 2006 crimes\nPeople from Veria\nGreek murder victims\nMale murder victims\nPeople murdered in Greece\nMurdered Greek children\nDeaths by person in Europe\nIncidents of violence against boys"
]
|
[
"Erich Mielke",
"Bulowplatz trial",
"When did the trial take place?",
"1992,",
"What was the verdict?",
"convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.",
"Who was the first person murdered?",
"Captains Anlauf and Lenck",
"Who was the victim of the attempted murder?",
"Senior Sergeant Willig.",
"Did he know the murder victims?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_5879ec3395ef473987bcbbff52d1eee2_1 | How long did trial last? | 6 | How long did the 1992 Bulowplatz trial last? | Erich Mielke | In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the first degree murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the 1934 trial transcripts, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke had admitted that, "the Bulowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing Germany. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the files for purposes of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified about how Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bulowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965. During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plotzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (German: "Ich mochte in mein Bett zuruck."). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution. After twenty months of one-and-a-half hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century." CANNOTANSWER | twenty months | Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
A native of Berlin and a second-generation member of the Communist Party of Germany, Mielke was one of two triggermen in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. After learning that a witness had survived, Mielke escaped arrest by fleeing to the Soviet Union, where the NKVD recruited him. He was one of the key figures in the decimation of Moscow's German Communists during the Great Purge as well as in the persecution of suspected anti-Stalinists in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany, which he helped organize into a Marxist-Leninist satellite state under the Socialist Unity Party (SED), later becoming head of the Stasi. According to historian Jack Koehler, he was "the longest serving secret police chief in the Soviet Bloc".
The Stasi under Mielke has been called by historian Edward Peterson the "most pervasive police state apparatus ever to exist on German soil". In a 1993 interview, Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal has said that, if one considers only the oppression of their own people, the Stasi under Mielke was "much, much worse than the Gestapo".
During the 1950s and 1960s Mielke led the process of forcibly forming collectivised farms from East Germany's family-owned farms, which sent a flood of refugees to West Germany. In response, Mielke oversaw the construction (1961) of the Berlin Wall and co-signed orders to shoot fatally all East Germans who attempted to leave the country. He also oversaw the establishment of pro-Soviet police states and paramilitary insurgencies in Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
In addition to his role as head of the Stasi, Mielke was also an Army General in the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee), and a member of the SED's ruling Politburo. Dubbed "The Master of Fear" () by the West German press, Mielke was one of the most powerful and most hated men in East Germany.
After German reunification in 1990, Mielke was arrested (1991), prosecuted (1992), convicted, and incarcerated (1993) for the 1931 murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. Released from prison early due to ill health in 1995, he died in a Berlin nursing home in 2000.
Early life
Erich Mielke was born in a tenement in Berlin-Wedding, Brandenburg, on 28 December 1907. During the First World War, the neighborhood was known as "Red Wedding" due to many residents' Marxist militancy. In a handwritten biography written for the Soviet secret police, Mielke described his father as "a poor, uneducated woodworker," and said that his mother died in 1911. Both were, he said, members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After his remarriage to "a seamstress," the elder Mielke and his new wife joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and remained members when it was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). His son Erich claimed "My younger brother Kurt and two sisters were Communist sympathisers."
Despite his family's poverty, Erich Mielke was academically gifted enough to be awarded a free scholarship in the prestigious Köllnisches Gymnasium, but was expelled on 19 February 1929, for being "unable to meet the great demands of this school." While attending the Gymnasium, Mielke joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1925, and worked as a reporter for the communist newspaper Rote Fahne from 1928 to 1931.
During the Weimar Republic, the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and was seen as the "leading party" of the communist movement outside the Soviet Union. Under Ernst Thälmann's leadership, the KPD was completely obedient to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the Party was both funded and controlled by the Comintern in Moscow.
Until the end of the Republic, the KPD viewed the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which dominated German politics between 1918 and 1931, as their mortal enemy. In keeping with Stalin's policy towards social democracy, the KPD considered all SPD members to be "social fascists". The KPD also believed that all other political parties were "fascist" and regarded itself as "the only anti-fascist Party" in Germany. Nevertheless, the KPD closely collaborated with the Nazi Party during the early 1930s and both Parties intended to replace the democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic with a totalitarian single party state.
Soon after joining the Party, Mielke joined the KPD's paramilitary wing, or Parteiselbstschutz ("Party Self Defense Unit"). At the time, the Parteiselbstschutz in Berlin was commanded by KPD Reichstag Representatives Hans Kippenberger and Heinz Neumann.
According to John Koehler, "Mielke was a special protege of Kippenberger's having taken to his paramilitary training with the enthusiasm of a Prussian Junker. World War I veterans taught the novices how to handle pistols, rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades. This clandestine training was conducted in the sparsely populated, pastoral countryside surrounding Berlin. Mielke also pleased Kippenberger by being an exceptional student in classes on the arts of conspiratorial behavior and espionage, taught by comrades who had studied at the secret M-school of the GRU in Moscow."
According to John Koehler, members of the Parteiselbstschutz "served as bouncers at Party meetings and specialized in cracking heads during street battles with political enemies." Besides the ruling SPD and its paramilitary Reichsbanner forces, the arch-enemies of the Parteiselbstschutz were the Stahlhelm, which was the armed wing of the Monarchist German National People's Party (DVNP), Trotskyites, and "radical nationalist parties."
According to Koehler, the KPD's Selbstschutz men "always carried a Stahlrute, two steel springs that telescoped into a tube seventeen centimeters long, which when extended became a deadly, 35-centimeter weapon. Not to be outdone by the Nazis, these street-fighters were often armed with pistols as well."
In a 1931 biography written for the Cadre Division of the Comintern, Mielke recalled, "We took care of all kinds of work; terror acts, protecting illegal demonstrations and meetings, arms-trafficking, etc. The last work, which was accomplished by a Comrade and myself, was the Bülowplatz Affair" ().
Bülowplatz murders
Planning
During the last days of the Weimar Republic, the KPD had a policy of assassinating two Berlin police officers in retaliation for every KPD member killed by the police.
On 2 August 1931, KPD Members of the Reichstag Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger received a dressing down from Walter Ulbricht, the Party's leader in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Enraged by police interference and by Neumann and Kippenberger's failure to follow the policy, Ulbricht stated, "At home in Saxony we would have done something about the police a long time ago. Here in Berlin we will not fool around much longer. Soon we will hit the police in the head."
Enraged by Ulbricht's words, Kippenberger and Neumann decided to assassinate Paul Anlauf, the 42-year-old Captain of the Berlin Police's Seventh Precinct. Captain Anlauf, a widower with three daughters, had been nicknamed "Schweinebacke", or "Pig Face" by the KPD.
According to historian John Koehler, "Of all the policemen in strife-torn Berlin, the reds hated Anlauf the most. His precinct included the area around KPD headquarters, which made it the most dangerous in the city. The captain almost always led the riot squads that broke up illegal rallies of the Communist Party."
On the morning of Sunday 9 August 1931, Kippenberger and Neumann gave a last briefing to the hit-team in a room at the Lassant beer hall. Mielke and Erich Ziemer were selected as the shooters. During the meeting, Max Matern gave a Luger pistol to fellow lookout Max Thunert and said, "Now we're getting serious. We're going to give Schweinebacke something to remember us by."
Kippenberger then asked Mielke and Ziemer, "Are you sure that you are ready to shoot Schweinebacke?" Mielke responded that he had seen Anlauf many times during police searches of Party Headquarters. Kippenberger then instructed them to wait at a nearby beer hall which would permit them to overlook the entire Bülow-Platz. He further reminded them that Anlauf was accompanied everywhere by Senior Sergeant Max Willig, whom the KPD had nicknamed, "Hussar".
Kippenberger concluded, "When you spot Schweinebacke and Hussar, you take care of them." Mielke and Ziemer were informed that, after the assassinations were completed, a diversion would assist in their escape. They were then to return to their homes and await further instructions.
That evening, Anlauf was lured to Bülow-Platz by a violent rally demanding the dissolution of the Prussian Parliament.
According to Koehler, "As was often the case when it came to battling the dominant SPD, the KPD and the Nazis had combined forces during the pre-plebiscite campaign. At one point in this particular campaign, Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels even shared a speaker's platform with KPD agitator Walter Ulbricht. Both parties wanted the parliament dissolved because they were hoping that new elections would oust the SPD, the sworn enemy of all radicals. That fact explained why the atmosphere was particularly volatile this Sunday."
Murder at the Babylon Cinema
At eight o'clock that evening, Mielke and Ziemer waited in a doorway as Anlauf, Willig, and Captain Franz Lenck walked toward the Babylon Cinema, which was located at the corner of Bülowplatz and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. As they reached the door of the movie house, the policemen heard someone scream, "Schweinebacke!"
As Anlauf turned toward the sound, Mielke and Ziemer opened fire at point blank range. Willig was wounded in the left arm and the stomach. However, he managed to draw his Luger pistol and fired a full magazine at the assailants. Lenck was shot in the chest and fell dead in front of the entrance. Willig crawled over and cradled the head of Anlauf, who had taken two bullets in the neck.
Meanwhile, Mielke and Ziemer made their escape by running into the theater and out an emergency exit. They tossed their pistols over a fence, where they were later found by Homicide Detectives from the elite Mordkommission. Mielke and Ziemer then returned to their homes.
According to Koehler, "Back at Bülowplatz, the killings had triggered a major police action. At least a thousand officers poured into the square, and a bloody street battle ensued. Rocks and bricks were hurled from the rooftops. Communist gunmen fired indiscriminately from the roofs of surrounding apartment houses. As darkness fell, police searchlights illuminated the buildings. Using megaphones, officers shouted, "Clear the streets! Move away from the windows! We are returning fire!" By now the rabble had fled the square, but shooting continued as riot squads combed the tenements, arresting hundreds of residents suspected of having fired weapons. The battle lasted until one o'clock the next morning. In addition to the two police officers, the casualties included one Communist who died of a gunshot wound and seventeen others who were seriously wounded."
Anlauf's wife had died three weeks earlier of kidney failure. The murder of Anlauf thus left their three daughters as orphans. Their oldest daughter was forced to rush her planned wedding in order to keep her sisters from being put in an orphanage. Lenck was survived by his wife. Willig was hospitalized for 14 weeks, but made a full recovery and returned to active duty. In recognition for Willig's courage, the Berlin Police promoted him to Lieutenant.
After the murders, the act was celebrated at the Lichtenberger Hof, a favorite beer hall of the Rotfrontkämpferbund, where Mielke boasted: "Today we celebrate a job that I pulled!" ()
Fugitive
According to Koehler, "Kippenberger was alarmed when word reached him that Sergeant Willig had survived the shooting. Not knowing whether the sergeant could talk and identify the attackers, Kippenberger was taking no chances. He directed a runner to summon Mielke and Ziemer to his apartment at 74 Bellermannstrasse, only a few minutes walk from where the two lived. When the assassins arrived, Kippenberger told them the news and ordered them to leave Berlin at once. The parliamentarian's wife Thea, an unemployed schoolteacher and as staunch a Communist Party member as her husband, shepherded the young murderers to the Belgian border. Agents of the Communist International (Comintern) in the port city of Antwerp supplied them with money and forged passports. Aboard a merchant ship, they sailed for Leningrad. When their ship docked, they were met by another Comintern representative, who escorted them to Moscow."
Beginning in 1932, Mielke attended the Comintern's Military Political school under the alias Paul Bach. He later graduated from the Lenin School shortly before being recruited into the OGPU.
Trial
According to Koehler, "In mid-March 1933, while attending the Lenin School, Mielke received word from his OGPU sponsors that Berlin police had arrested Max Thunert, one of the conspirators in the Anlauf and Lenck murders. Within days, fifteen other members of the assassination team were in custody. Mielke had to wait six more months before the details of the police action against his Berlin comrades reached Moscow. On 14 September 1933, Berlin newspapers reported that all fifteen had confessed to their roles in the murders. Arrest warrants were issued for ten others who had fled, including Mielke, Ziemer, Ulbricht, Kippenberger, and Neumann."
Koehler also stated, "Defenders of Mielke later claimed that confessions had been obtained under torture by the Nazi Gestapo. However, all suspects were in the custody of the regular Berlin city criminal investigation bureau, most of whose detectives were SPD members. Some of the suspects had been nabbed by Nazi SA men and probably beaten before they were turned over to police. In the 1993 trial of Mielke, the court gave the defense the benefit of the doubt and threw out a number of suspect confessions."
On 19 June 1934, the 15 conspirators were convicted of first degree murder. The three deemed most culpable, Michael Klause, Max Matern, and Friedrich Bröde were sentenced to death. Their co-defendants received sentences ranging from nine months to fifteen years incarceration at hard labor. Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation. Bröde hanged himself in his cell. As a result, only Matern was left to be executed by beheading on 22 May 1935.
Matern was subsequently glorified as a martyr by KPD and East German propaganda. Ziemer was officially killed in action while fighting on the Republican-side during the Spanish Civil War. Mielke, however, would not face trial for the murders until 1993.
Career in Soviet intelligence
The Great Terror
Although Moscow's German Communist community was decimated during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Mielke survived and was promoted.
In a handwritten autobiography prepared after World War II, Mielke recalled, "During my stay in the S.U. (Soviet Union), I participated in all Party discussions of the K.P.D. and also in the problems concerning the establishment of socialism and in the trials against the traitors and enemies of the S.U."
Among the German communists executed as a result of these "discussions" were Mielke's former mentors Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger.
Mielke further recalled, "I was a guest on the honor grandstand of Red Square during the May Day and October Revolution parades. I became acquainted with many comrades of the Federation of World Communist Parties and the War Council of the Special Commission of the Comintern. I will never forget my meeting with Comrade Dimitrov, the Chairman of the Comintern, whom I served as an aide together with another comrade. I saw Comrade Stalin during all demonstrations at Red Square, especially when I stood on the grandstand. I mention these meetings because all these comrades are our models and teachers for our work."
During his time in the USSR, Mielke also developed a lifelong reverence for Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Polish aristocrat who founded the Soviet secret police. Mielke also began an equally permanent habit of calling himself a Chekist.
In a citation written decades later, Mielke described his philosophy of life, "The Chekist is the political combatant. He is the loyal son of... the workers' class. He stands at the head of the battle to strengthen the power of our workers' and peasants' state."
Spanish Civil War
From 1936 to 1939, Mielke served in Spain as an operative of the Servicio de Investigación Militar, the political police of the Second Spanish Republic. While attached to the staff of, "veteran GRU agent," and future Stasi minister Wilhelm Zaisser, Mielke used the alias Fritz Leissner. Bernd Kaufmann, the director of the Stasi's espionage school later said, "The Soviets trusted Mielke implicitly. He earned his spurs in Spain."
At the time, the S.I.M. was heavily staffed by agents of the Soviet NKVD, whose Spanish rezident was General Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and International Brigade commanders than on fighting Franco. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics."
In a 1991 interview, Walter Janka, a fellow German communist exile and company commander in the International Brigade, recalled his encounters with Mielke. During the winter of 1936, Janka was summoned by the SIM and interrogated by Mielke. Mielke demanded to know why Janka had voluntarily traveled to Spain rather than being assigned there by the Party. When he told Mielke to get lost, the SIM demoted Janka to the ranks and then expelled him from the International Brigade. Years later, Janka recalled, "While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists."
Upon the defeat of the Spanish Republic, Mielke fled across the Pyrenees Mountains to France, where he was interned at Camp de Rivesaltes, Pyrénées-Orientales. Mielke, however, managed to send a message to exiled KPD members and, in May 1939, escaped to Belgium. Although the Public Prosecutor of Berlin learned of Mielke's presence and filed for his extradition, the Belgian Government refused to comply, regarding the assassinations of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as "a political crime."
The NKVD and the SIM's witch hunt for both real and imagined anti-Stalinists had serious consequences. It horrified numerous formerly pro-Soviet Westerners who had been witnesses, including John Dos Passos, Arthur Koestler and George Orwell, and caused them to permanently turn against the USSR.
Mielke's belief that anti-Soviet Marxists had collaborated with Franco and stabbed the Republic in the back continued to shape his attitudes for the rest of his life. In a 1982 speech before a group of senior Stasi officers, he said, "We are not immune from villains among us. If I knew of any already, they wouldn't live past tomorrow. Short shrift. It's because I'm a Humanist, that I'm of this view."
In the same speech, Mielke also said, "All this blithering over to execute or not to execute, for the death penalty or against—all rot, Comrades. Execute! And, when necessary, without a court judgment."
World War II
During World War II, Mielke's movements remain mysterious. In a biography written after the war, he claimed to have infiltrated Organisation Todt under the alias Richard Hebel, but historian John O. Koehler considers this unlikely.
Koehler admits, however, "Mielke's exploits must have been substantial. By war's end, he had been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War First Class, and twice with the Order of Lenin. It is likely that he served as an NKVD agent, at least part of the time with guerrilla units behind German lines, for he knew all the partisan songs by heart and sang them in faultless Russian."
Occupied Germany
Komissariat-5
In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.
That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."
On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No. 2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services.
In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke disclosed—truthfully—his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, and—mistakenly or misleadingly—that for this he had been tried in absentia, found guilty, and sentenced to death. In actuality, Mielke's "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried". He admitted—truthfully—fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed—falsely—that he had been released from the French internment camps and had worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston". Furthermore, Mielke concealed his past and contemporaneous involvement with the NKVD, NKGB, and the Nazi Organisation Todt (which he asserted he'd infiltrated).
According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets. Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers. But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."
On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany.
According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan. In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a "new Gestapo." Furthermore, Abakumov, like Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked." Notwithstanding Abakumov's objections, however, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately. It is possible, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers' lack of fluency in the German language was engendering massive popular resentment.
Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head. Mielke was installed as his deputy.
According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police. Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons. Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party. Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision. The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them. Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."
According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees. Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers. In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary rule of law."
According to Edward N. Peterson, "Not surprisingly, K-5 acquired a reputation as bad as that of Stalin's secret police and worse than that of the Gestapo. At least with the Nazis, albeit fanatically racist, their victims did not suddenly disappear into the GULAG."
The Amalgamation
Despite the K-5's mass arrests of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Zone, the number of SPD members continued to grow. By March 1946, SPD members outnumbered KPD members by more than 100,000. Fearing that they would lose the elections scheduled for the autumn, the leadership of the KPD asked for and received Stalin's permission to merge the two parties. When the SPD's leadership agreed only to schedule a vote for the rank and file to decide, permission was denied by the Soviet occupation authorities. The K-5 then began mass arrests of SPD members who refused to support the merger.
On 22 April 1946, the remaining leaders of the SPD in the Soviet Zone announced that they had united with the KPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SPD in the western zones of Occupied Germany responded by forming the SPD East Bureau in order to support and finance those Social Democrats who refused to accept the merger. Those who joined or worked with the East Bureau were, however, in serious danger of arrest by the K-5 and trial by Soviet military tribunals. By 1950, more than 5,000 SPD members and sympathisers had been imprisoned in the Soviet Zone or transferred to the GULAG. More than 400 were either executed or died during their imprisonments.
John Koehler has written that, prior to the spring of 1946, many Germans in the Soviet Zone, "merely shrugged at the wave of arrests, believing that the victims were former Nazi officials and war criminals." But then came the mass arrests of Social Democrats who opposed the merger, who, "were joined by people who had been denounced for making anti-communist or anti-Soviet remarks, among their number hundreds who were as young as fourteen years. Although these arrests were made by Germans purporting to be officials of the criminal police, the existence of the K-5 political police eventually was exposed. Mielke, meanwhile, had risen to the post of vice-president of the German Administration for Interior Affairs – the equivalent of the NKVD – and continued his manipulations from behind the scenes."
Investigation
In January 1947, two retired Berlin policemen recognized Mielke at an official function. Informing the head of the criminal police in West Berlin, the policemen demanded that Mielke be arrested and prosecuted for the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. Wilhelm Kühnast, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin, was immediately informed and ordered a search of the Kammergericht archives. To his astonishment, the files of the 1931 murders had survived the wartime bombing of Germany. Finding ample evidence of Mielke's involvement, Kühnast ordered the arrest of the communist policeman.
According to John Koehler, "At that time, the city administration, including the police, was under the control of the Allied Control Commission, which consisted of U.S., British, French, and Soviet military officers. All actions by city officials, including the judiciary, were to be reported to the Commission. The Soviet representative alerted the MGB. Action was swift. Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, who had replaced Zhukov, protested, and his representatives at the Commission launched a vicious campaign to discredit Kühnast."
The Soviet representatives falsely claimed that Kühnast, a jurist with an impeccable anti-Nazi record, had been an official of Roland Freisler's People's Court. Taking the Soviets at their word, the Western Allies removed Kühnast from his position and placed him under house arrest. During the Berlin airlift, Kühnast fled from his home in East Berlin and was granted political asylum in the American Zone.
Meanwhile, the Soviet authorities confiscated all documents relating to the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. According to Koehler, "The Soviets handed the court records to Mielke. Instead of destroying the incriminating papers, he locked them in his private safe, where they were found when his home was searched in 1990. They were used against him in his trial for murder."
Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission
In 1948, Mielke was appointed as security chief of the German Economic Commission (), the precursor to the future East German government.
Mielke's task was to investigate the theft and sale of state property on the black market. He was also charged with intercepting the growing number of refugees fleeing to the French, British, and American Zones.
Those his security forces caught while attempting to defect were used as slave labor in the uranium mines that were providing raw material for the Soviet atomic bomb project.
German Democratic Republic
Independence
In 1949, the Soviet Military Administration ceded its legal functions to the newly created German Democratic Republic.
On 14 January 1950, Marshal Vasili Chuikov announced that all Soviet "internment camps" on German soil had been closed. Soon after, the DWK was absorbed into the newly created Ministry for State Security. In keeping with earlier syllabic abbreviations along the same lines (see OrPo, KriPo, and GeStaPo) East Germans immediately dubbed it the "Stasi" (from Staatssicherheit). With the approval of the Soviets, Mielke's commanding officer from Spain and in the K5, Wilhelm Zaisser, was appointed as the Stasi's head. Mielke was appointed to his staff with the rank of State Secretary. Mielke was also granted a seat in the SED's ruling Politburo.
According to John Koehler, "In the five years since the end of World War II, the Soviets and their vassals had arrested between 170,000 and 180,000 Germans. Some 160,000 had passed through the concentration camps, and of these about 65,000 had died, 36,000 had been shipped to the Soviet Gulag, and another 46,000 had been freed."
In 1949, as a response to the remilitarization of East Germany and the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Portugal formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. In 1950, as a response to the outbreak of the Korean War, West Germany was also permitted to join NATO, which was then upgraded into a military alliance.
According to Koehler, however, "As the Cold War intensified, living conditions in Soviet-occupied East Germany showed little improvement beyond the postwar level of bare subsistence. The new government of the DDR – a mere puppet of the Kremlin – relied more and more on the Stasi to quell discontent among factory workers and farmers. Ulbricht, claiming that the social unrest was fomented by capitalist agents, once ordered Mielke to personally visit one large plant and 'arrest four or five such agents' as an example to the others. The Stasi deputy 'discovered' the agents in record time."
Field show trials
Also in 1949, Noel Field, an American citizen who had spied for the NKVD from inside the U.S. State Department, the Office of Strategic Services, and the CIA, fled from his posting in Switzerland to Communist Czechoslovakia after his cover was blown by fellow mole Whittaker Chambers. On 11 May 1949, the Czechoslovakian secret police, or StB, in obedience to a direct order from KGB chief Lavrenti Beria, arrested Field in Prague. Field was then handed over to the Hungarian ÁVO. After his interrogation in Budapest, Fields was used as a witness at show trials of senior Soviet Bloc Communists who, like László Rajk and Rudolf Slánský, stood accused of having spied for the United States. The real reason for the trials was to replace homegrown Communists in Eastern Europe with those who would be blindly loyal to Joseph Stalin and to blame the division of Germany on the intrigues of U.S. intelligence.
At the Rajk show trial, the prosecutor declared, "Noel Field, one of the leaders of American espionage, specialized in recruiting spies from among left-wing elements."
In August 1950, six senior SED members, including Willi Kreikemeyer, the director of Deutsche Reichsbahn and head of Berliner Rundfunk, were accused of "special connections with Noel Field, the American spy." All were either imprisoned or shot.
John Koehler writes, "Similar purges were conducted in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, where Field appeared as a witness in show trials that resulted in some death sentences. The Soviets simply distrusted all Communists who had sought exile in the West. All the while, Mielke remained untouched and continued to serve as the deputy secret police chief. His survival reinforced the belief that he had spent the war years in the Soviet Union instead of France and Belgium as he had claimed in the 1945 questionnaire."
In June 1950, Erica Wallach, Noel Field's adopted daughter, decided to search for him. From Paris, she telephoned Leo Bauer, the editor-in-chief of Berliner Rundfunk. The call was monitored by agents of the Soviet Ministry for Internal Affairs, and Bauer's handler instructed him to invite Mrs. Wallach to East Berlin, where she was immediately arrested. Mielke personally interrogated her and, at one point, offered Mrs. Wallach immediate release if she named the members of her fictitious spy network. She was condemned to death by a Soviet military tribunal in East Berlin and shipped to the Lubianka prison in Moscow for her execution. After Joseph Stalin's death in on 5 March 1953, Erica Wallach's sentence was reduced to hard labor in Vorkuta, a region of the Gulag located above the Arctic Circle. She was released during the Khrushchev thaw in October 1955. At first, she was unable to join her husband and daughters in the U.S. because of the U.S. State Department's concern over her former membership in the Communist Party of Germany. It took the personal intervention of CIA Director Allen Dulles to reunite Erica Wallach with her family in 1957. Wallach's memoir of her experiences, Light at Midnight, was published in 1967.
Death of Stalin
After Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin died inside his Kuntsevo Dacha on 5 March 1953, the Central Committee of the East German Socialist Unity Party met in a special session and eulogized the dictator as the "great friend of Germany who was always an advisor of and help to our people."
Two months later, on 5 May 1953, the SED's General Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, and the rest of the leadership increased work quotas by 10%. They also decided to rename Chemnitz Karl-Marx-Stadt and to institute the Order of Karl Marx as the GDR's highest award.
Two weeks later, Mielke accused "a group of Party officials" of "plotting against the leadership", which "resulted in more expulsions from the Politburo and the Central Committee."
East German uprising of 1953
Discontent among factory workers about a 10% increase of work quotas without a corresponding wage hike boiled over. On 16 June 1953, nearly one hundred construction workers gathered before work for a protest meeting at Stalinallee, in East Berlin. Words spread rapidly to other construction sites and hundreds of men and women joined the rally, which marched to the House of Ministries. The protesters chanted slogans for five hours, demanding to speak to Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl. Only Heavy Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann and Professor Robert Havemann, president of the GDR Peace Council, emerged. Their speech, however, was answered with jeers and the Ministers retreated into the heavily armed building. The regular and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei were summoned from their barracks, but made no move to attack the protesters, who returned to Stalinallee, where a general strike was called.
Following West Germany's Federal Minister for All-German Questions Jakob Kaiser's admonition in a late night broadcast to East Germans to shy away from provocations, RIAS, starting with its 11 pm news broadcast, and from then on in hourly intermissions, repeated the workers' demand to continue the strike the next day, calling specifically for all East Berliners to participate in a demo at 7am on the 17th at Strausberger Platz.
The following day, 17 June 1953, more that 100,000 protesters took to the streets of East Berlin. More than 400,000 protesters also took to the streets in other cities and towns throughout the German Democratic Republic. Everywhere, the demands were the same: free elections by secret ballot.
Outside of Berlin, the main centres of the protests included the industrial region around Halle, Merseburg, and Bitterfeld, as well as middle-size towns like Jena, Görlitz, and Brandenburg. No more than 25,000 people participated in strikes and demonstrations in Leipzig, but there were 32,000 in Magdeburg, 43,000 in Dresden, 53,000 in Potsdam – and in Halle, a figure close to 100,000.
In West Berlin, the American radio station RIAS and several other West German stations reported on the protests and on plans for a general strike. As East Germans listened to the broadcasts, 267,000 workers at State-owned plants in 304 cities and towns joined the general strike. In 24 towns, outraged East Germans stormed the Stasi's prisons and freed between 2,000 and 3,000 political prisoners.
In response to orders, the Soviet Occupation Forces, the Stasi and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei went on the attack. Bloody street battles ensued and hundreds of policemen defected to the side of the protesters. Both police and Stasi stations were overrun and some government offices were sacked. The Party leadership retreated into a fortified compound in the Pankow district of East Berlin.
At noon, the Soviet authorities terminated all tram and metro traffic into the Eastern sector and all but closed the sector borders to West Berlin to prevent more demonstrators from reaching the city centre. An hour later, they declared martial law in East Berlin.
The repression took place outside East Berlin police HQ – where Soviet tanks opened fire on "the insurgents".
According to John Koehler, "... by late afternoon, Soviet tanks accompanied by Infantry and MVD troops had rolled into East Berlin and other cities in the Soviet Zone. This made the people even angrier. At Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, which bordered on the American Sector, irate protesters ignored machine gun fire and the menacing barrels of tank guns. They ripped cobblestones from the streets and hurled them at the tanks."
Fighting between the Red Army (and later GDR police) and the demonstrators persisted into the afternoon and night. In some cases, the tanks and the soldiers fired directly into the crowds.
Overnight, the Soviets (and the Stasi) started to arrest hundreds of people. Ultimately, up to 10,000 people were detained and at least 20, probably as many as 40, people were executed, including Red Army soldiers who refused to obey orders. With the SED leadership effectively paralysed at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, control of the city passed to the Soviets.
In honor of the uprising, West Germany established 17 June as a national holiday, called Day of German Unity. The extension of the Unter den Linden boulevard to the west of the Brandenburg Gate, formerly called Charlottenburger Chaussee, was also renamed Straße des 17. Juni ("17 June Street") in honor of the uprising.
According to John Koehler, "Provisional prison camps were set up to hold the thousands of Stasi victims. Nearly 1,500 persons were sentenced in secret trials to long prison terms. On 24 June, Mielke issued a terse announcement that one Stasi officer, nineteen demonstrators, and two bystanders had been killed during the uprising. He did not say how many were victims of official lynching. The numbers of the wounded were given as 191 policemen, 126 demonstrators, and 61 bystanders."
Also according to Koehler, "Calm returned to the streets of the Soviet Zone, yet escapes to the West continued at a high rate. Of the 331,390 who fled in 1953, 8,000 were members of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the barracked people's police units, which were actually the secret cadre of the future East German Army. Also among the escapees were 2,718 members and candidates of the SED, the ruling Party."
The Khrushchev thaw
Purges
Alarmed by the uprising, Lavrenty Beria, the First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, personally travelled from Moscow to East Berlin. He conferred with Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser and with Mielke, his deputy, both of whom he had known since the early 1930s. During both conversations, Beria demanded to know why the Stasi had failed to recognize the extreme discontent of the population and inform the Party leadership, which could then have prevented the uprising by taking extremely repressive measures in advance. Both Zaisser and Mielke answered Beria's questions circumspectly, and were accordingly left in their posts.
In response to the uprising, Beria decided to replace several hundred MVD officers, including Major General Ivan Fadeykin, the MVD resident of East Germany. The Stasi, according to John Koehler, "generally remained untouched except for the arrests and dismissals, for dereliction of duty, of a handful of officers in the provinces. One high-ranking Stasi officer shot himself."
Following Beria's return to Moscow, however, he was arrested on 26 June 1953, in a coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Beria was tried on charges of 357 counts of rape and high treason. He was sentenced to death and shot by Red Army Colonel-General Pavel Batitsky on 23 December 1953.
In an interview to Neues Deutschland, the official party newspaper of East Germany, on 30 June 1953, the Party's Minister of Justice, Max Fechner, declared that, "illegal arrests," had been made and that being a member of a strike committee or suspicion of being a ringleader was not in itself grounds for arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, when the East German Politburo met on 8 July, it seemed that Ulbricht would be deposed as Party General Secretary. Zaisser conceded that the whole Politburo was responsible for the "accelerated construction of socialism" and of the subsequent fallout. But he also added that to leave Ulbricht as Premier, "would be opposed catastrophic for the New Course".
By the end of the meeting, only two Politburo members still supported Ulbricht's leadership: Free German Youth League chief Erich Honecker and Party Control Commission Chairman Hermann Matern. Ulbricht only managed to forestall a decision then and there with a promise to make a statement at the forthcoming 15th SED CC Plenum, scheduled for later that month.
Meanwhile, Mielke informed a Party commission looking for scapegoats that his boss, Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser, was calling for secret negotiations with West Germany and that, "he believed the Soviet Union would abandon the DDR."
By late July, Ulbricht was completely certain that he had the support of the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Therefore, he expelled his main opponents, Zaisser, Hernstadt and Ackermann, from the Politburo, and thus strengthened his position further.
SED Minister of Justice Max Fechner was personally arrested by Mielke and replaced by Hilde Benjamin, who was known to East German citizens as "Red Hilde", "The Red Freisler," and as, "The Red Guillotine," for her role as a judge in the SED's show trials.
Fechner was convicted of being, "an enemy of the Party and the State," and served three years in Bautzen Prison.
Wilhelm Zaisser was replaced as head of the Stasi by Ernst Wollweber and Mielke remained on staff as his deputy.
Tenure as Stasi head
Mielke headed the Stasi from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There was, under the East German system, no provision for parliamentary oversight. However, starting in 1971 Mielke was required to provide a detailed intelligence briefing to party secretary Erich Honecker each Tuesday, directly following the weekly Politburo meeting. (Before 1971, under Walter Ulbricht, Mielke was not involved in routine intelligence briefings to the leadership which, instead, were provided directly to Ulbricht by Intelligence Chief Markus Wolf.)
Internal discipline
During his tenure, Mielke enforced "political and personal discipline reminiscent of the early French Foreign Legion". New recruits were required to take a solemn oath pledging "to fight alongside the state security organs of all socialist countries against all enemies of socialism" on pain of "the severest punishment under the Republic's laws and the contempt of the workers." Recruits were also required to sign a security pledge vowing never to make unauthorized visits to any "capitalist countries" and to report on any members of their families who did so.
Violations of the oath resulted in expulsion from the Stasi and blacklisting from all but the most menial jobs. Serious violations were tried before secret tribunals and led an estimated 200 Stasi agents to be shot. Colonel Rainer Wiegand once said, "There was only one way to leave the MfS without being haunted for the rest of your life. You either retired or you died."
Domestic activities
Under Erich Mielke's leadership, the Stasi employed 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 civilian informants () (IMs). East Germans coined a term to describe the Stasi's pervasive surveillance of the population "All-Covered" (). For this reason, Anna Funder has referred to East Germany as, "the most perfected surveillance state of all time."
According to John Koehler, "...the Stasi's tentacles probed every aspect of life. Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei...In turn, the police officer was the Stasi's man. If a relative or friend came to stay overnight, it was reported. Schools, universities and hospitals were infiltrated from top to bottom. German academe was shocked to learn that Heinrich Fink, professor of theology and vice-chancellor of East Berlin's Humboldt University, had been a Stasi informer since 1968. After Fink's Stasi connections came to light, he was summarily fired. Doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, and sports figures were co-opted by Stasi officers, as were waiters and hotel personnel. Tapping about 100,000 telephone lines in East Germany and West Berlin around the clock was the job of 2,000 officers... Churchmen, including high officials of both Protestant and Catholic denominations, were recruited en masse as secret informants. Their offices and confessionals were infested with eavesdropping devices. Even the director of Leipzig's famous Thomas Church choir, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, was forced to resign when he was unmasked as a Spitzel, the people's pejorative for a Stasi informant."
In an interview with journalist Anna Funder, an ex-Stasi officer recalled, "Most often, people we approached would inform for us. It was very rare that they would not. However, sometimes we felt that we might need to know where their weak points were, just in case. For example, if we wanted a pastor, we'd find out if he'd had an affair, or had a drinking problem—things that we could use as leverage. Mostly though, people said yes."
On Mielke's orders, and with his full knowledge, Stasi officers also engaged in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, brutal harassment of political dissidents, torture, and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens.
In a 1991 interview, Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said, "The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people. The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million."
Activities abroad
During Mielke's tenure, the Stasi's operations beyond East Germany were overseen by Markus Wolf and the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (MfS-HVA).
Mielke and Wolf provided money, training, and surveillance equipment to help build pro-Soviet secret police forces in Fidel Castro's Cuba, Baathist Syria, Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua, Mengistu Haile Mariam's Ethiopia, Idi Amin's Uganda, Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, and South Yemen.
After the opening of Stasi archives, it was revealed that West Germany was riddled with MfS-HVA moles. In what John Koehler has dubbed, "The Invisible Invasion", some West German citizens collaborated out of Marxist beliefs, but others were recruited through blackmail, greed, career frustrations, or sexual favors from Stasi operatives.
Another tactic was for Stasi military advisers assigned to African and Middle Eastern countries to request the arrest of West German tourists. Local police would then turn the prisoner over to the Stasi agent, who would offer the West German a choice between espionage or incarceration.
Senior politicians from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union were exposed and, when still alive, prosecuted.
Mielke and Wolf also seriously compromised West Germany's police departments, foreign and domestic intelligence services, diplomatic corps, military-industrial complex, and journalistic profession.
The Stasi compromised the United States military and diplomatic presence in West Germany.
The most damaging American to spy for the Stasi was United States Army Sergeant James Hall III, who volunteered his services to Soviet and East German intelligence in November 1981.
Sergeant Hall sold the Stasi 13,088 pages of classified documents, including detailed information about Project Trojan, a worldwide electronic network with the ability to pinpoint armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft by recording their signal emissions during wartime and the complete National SIGINT Requirements List (NSRL), a 4258-page document about NSA operations at home and abroad.
In 1988, Sergeant Hall was tricked into confessing his espionage career to an undercover FBI Special Agent named Dmitri Droujinsky, a Russian-American who was posing as an agent of the KGB. When news of Sergeant Hall's arrest became public, one Washington intelligence official called the breach, "the Army's Walker Case."
Collusion with Nazism
Beginning in 1960, Mielke and Wolf used false flag recruitment to secretly organize and finance Neo-Nazi organizations, which they then instructed to vandalize Jewish religious and cultural sites throughout West Germany. During the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann, Stasi agents sent letters to West German Neo-Nazis and Waffen-SS veterans, urging them to speak out and to raise money for Eichmann's defense attorney. This was done in order to lend credibility to Communist propaganda about the allegedly Fascist and neo-Nazi orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to German historian Michael Wolffsohn, "There is no doubt that in the 1960s as now, there were Nazis who were unreconstructed, unchangeable and evil, but without the help of East Germany, these Nazis were incapable of a national, coordinated campaign. That was true of right-wing extremist criminals in the 1980s as well. The East German Communists used anything they could against West Germany, including the... fears by Western countries and Jews that a new Nazism could be growing in West Germany. There is... evidence that the East Germans continued to use Anti-Semitism as a tool against West Germany in the 1970s and perhaps right up until 1989."
In a 1991 interview with John Koehler, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said of the Stasi, "They not only terrorized their own people worse than the Gestapo, but the government was the most Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israeli in the entire Eastern Bloc. They did nothing to help the West in tracking down Nazi criminals; they ignored all requests from West German judicial authorities for assistance. We have just discovered shelves of files on Nazis stretching over four miles. Now we also know how the Stasi used those files. They blackmailed Nazi criminals who fled abroad after the war into spying for them. What's more, the Stasi trained terrorists from all over the world."
Support for paramilitary and terrorist groups
During a 1979 visit to the GDR by senior PLO member Salah Khalaf, Mielke said, "We are paying great attention to the Palestine resistance and the other revolutionary forces fighting against the policies of the United States and against the provocations of the Israeli aggressor. Together with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, we will do everything to support this just battle."
With this in mind, Mielke ordered the Stasi to finance, arm, and train, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, Mielke's ties to violent paramilitary groups were overseen by Markus Wolf and Department Three of the MfS-HVA. Members of the West German Baader-Meinhoff Group, the Chilean Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware, insurgent tactics, and, "the leadership role of the Party." Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Nidal, and Black September.
Other Stasi agents worked as military advisers to Soviet-backed African guerrilla organizations and the governments they later formed. They included the Namibian SWAPO and the Angolan MPLA during the South African Border War, the FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence and civil war, and Robert Mugabe's ZANLA during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Venezuelan-born PLO terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Black September leader Abu Daoud during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972 Munich massacre and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.
During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly blackmailed a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that the La Belle bombing and other terrorist attacks against American and West German citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.
According to John Koehler, "Murder, kidnapping, extortion, bank robbery, and arson were felonies under the East German criminal code. However, if these offenses were committed under the banner of the 'anti-imperialist struggle,' the communist system would look the other way. Moreover, it had assigned the Stasi to make sure that terrorists were properly trained for murder and sowing mayhem. There was no limits to the East German regime's involvement with terrorism, so long as it could be ideologically justified."
The Peaceful Revolution
According to John Koehler, "Increasingly concerned over the growing popular opposition, Stasi Minister Mielke early in 1989 ordered the creation of a special elite unit for crushing disturbances. Its personnel were carefully selected members of the counterespionage and counterterrorism directorate. They were equipped with special batons similar to electric cattle prods but much more powerful. In a secret speech to top-ranking Stasi officers on 29 June, Mielke warned that, 'hostile opposing forces and groups have already achieved a measure of power and are using all methods to achieve a change in the balance of power. Former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand told me he was horrified when Mielke compared the situation with that of China two months earlier. Chinese students in Beijing had begun massive protests in April and in May, during a student demonstration in Tiananmen Square, security troops had opened fire on them killing hundreds. 'Mielke said our situation was comparable and we had to be ready to counter it with all means and methods,' Wiegand recalled. 'Mielke said that the Chinese leadership had succeeded in smothering the protests before the situation got out of hand.'"
Despite Mielke's attempts to suppress them, East Germany's protesters grew more emboldened with every arrest.
40th anniversary of the GDR
As the fortieth anniversary of the GDR approached, Mielke ordered, "We must stop the internal enemy. At the least hint of a disturbance of the celebration, isolate and arrest them."
One former Stasi Major recalled, "We mixed inconspicuously with the demonstrators, accompanied by our IMs. Hundreds of us stood at the sides of the street in order to stop any activity before it got started. We barely got any sleep toward the end. Never did I sense that the people were afraid of the MfS. The Stasi was more afraid of the people than the people were of them."
According to Koehler, "Despite the unrest, the regime celebrated its fortieth with a huge, pompous ceremony in Berlin on 7 October, while tens of thousands of outside the ornate building of the State Council. The People's Police cordons were utterly ineffectual. As Stasi Minister Erich Mielke drove up and was greeted by General Günter Kratsch, the counterintelligence chief, Mielke screamed at police: "Club those pigs into submission!" () The police ignored Mielke's ranting.
As more and more East Germans were arrested for protesting the 40th anniversary celebrations, many of them sang The Internationale in Vopo and Stasi custody to imply that they, rather than their captors, were the real working class and the real revolutionaries.
According to Anna Funder, "There was a sea of red flags, a torchlight procession, and tanks. The old men on the podium wore light-grey suits studded with medals. Mikhail Gorbachev stood next to Honecker, but he looked uncomfortable among the much older Germans. He had come to tell them that it was over, to convince the leadership to adopt his reformist policies. He had spoken openly about the danger of not 'responding to reality.' He pointedly told the Politburo that, 'life punishes those who come too late.' Honecker and Mielke ignored him, just as they ignored the crowds when they chanted, "Gorby, help us! Gorby, help us!"
Plan X
On 8 October 1989, Mielke and Honecker ordered the Stasi to implement "Plan X"—the SED's plan to arrest and indefinitely detain 85,939 East Germans during a state of emergency. According to John Koehler, Plan X had been in preparation since 1979 and was, "a carbon copy of how the Nazi concentration camps got their start after Hitler came to power in 1933."
By 1984, 23 sites had been selected for "isolation and internment camps." Those who were to be imprisoned in them ran into six categories; including anyone who had ever been under surveillance for anti-state activities, including all members of peace movements which were not under Stasi control.
According to Anna Funder, "The plans contained exact provisions for the use of all available prisons and camps, and when those were full for the conversion of other buildings: Nazi detention centers, schools, hospitals, and factory holiday hostels. Every detail was foreseen, from where the doorbell was located on the house of each person to be arrested to the adequate supply of barbed wire and the rules of dress and etiquette in the camps..."
However, when Mielke sent the orders, codenamed "Shield" (), to each local Stasi precinct to begin the planned arrests, he was not obeyed. Terrified of an East German version of the mass lynchings of Hungarian secret police agents during the 1956 Revolution, Stasi agents throughout the GDR fortified their office-buildings and barricaded themselves inside.
Toppling Honecker
Even as orders were going out to implement Plan X, Mielke had already thrown his support behind the anti-Honecker faction in the SED's Politburo. Although he was of the same generation as Honecker and had matured in an environment where following orders was the rule, he was sober enough and politically savvy enough to realize this approach no longer worked. During a session on 10 October 1989, Mielke delivered a report attacking Honecker's desire to violently suppress the demonstrations rather than offer concessions.
In what Edward N. Peterson has called "a remarkable disclaimer of responsibility for the violence," Mielke declared that Honecker's orders to him "were built on false situation judgments." He added that Honecker's commands on 7 and 8 October "were false and undifferentiated condemnations of those who think differently. Despite this evaluation, there was never any instructions to use violence against persons. There is nothing in our basic principles to consider a demonstration as part of a possible counterrevolutionary coup."
Mielke also claimed that "the Party judged the situation falsely. We tried to tell them the true situation, but enough was not done." Mielke argued in favor of solving the demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel."
On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents who were loyal to him were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with tanks," and tried to impress upon Honecker that it was "the end".
After the vote to oust Honecker passed, Mielke "got nasty," and accused Honecker of corruption. Honecker responded that Mielke should not open his mouth so much. Mielke responded by putting the last nail into Honecker's coffin. He announced that the MfS had a file on the now-ousted leader. It contained proof of Honecker's corrupt business practices, sexual activities, and how, as a member of the underground Communist Party of Germany during the Nazi years, he had been arrested by the Gestapo and had named names.
To the shock of both the Politburo and the Stasi, Krenz's first televised addresses failed to win popular support. Despite his assurances that the SED was at last ready to embrace Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, Krenz's approval ratings remained extremely low.
Former Politburo member Günter Schabowski later recalled, "We made a palace revolution without offering a real alternative... We had not quickly and thoroughly enough whittled away from Stalin's methods."
Defeat
On 7 November 1989, Mielke resigned, along with eleven out of eighteen members of the SED's Council of Ministers, in response to the increasing disintegration of the GDR.
Two days later, Schabowski announced on television that the east–west border was open without restriction.
According to Anna Funder, there was panic at Stasi Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg, "Stasi officers were instructed to destroy files, starting with the most incriminating–those naming westerners who spied for them, and those that concerned deaths. They shredded the files until the paper shredders overheated and shorted out. Among other shortages in the East, there was a shredder shortage, so they had to send agents out under cover to West Berlin to buy more. In Building 8 alone, the citizens' movement found over a hundred burnt out shredders. When they ran out of working shredders from the West and could not procure more they began using scissors to cut the documents by hand.
According to William F. Buckley, Jr., "In the weeks after 9 November, Stasi offices were stormed in various cities around East Germany. Stasi commissars in three of those cities committed suicide. But not one was lynched or executed."
Televised humiliation
On 13 November 1989, Mielke was summoned to deliver a briefing about the protests to the GDR parliament, or Volkskammer. Formerly a "rubber stamp parliament," the disintegration of the SED's power had allowed the Volkskammer to begin exercising real authority over the GDR. Therefore, Mielke, as the head of the Stasi (known as the "shield and sword of the [SED] party"), was summoned before the newly empowered parliament to justify his position in government.
As his speech was broadcast live, Mielke began by using overly bombastic, flag-waving language, saying "We have, comrades, dear assembly members, an extraordinarily high amount of contact with all working people" (). To his shock, the Volkskammer responded with boos, whistles, and catcalls.
His face grief-stricken and pale, Mielke then tried to defuse the situation, "Yes, we have such contact, let me tell you-let me tell you why. I am not afraid to stand here and to give you an unbiased answer" (). Mielke continued, speaking of the "triumph" of the socialist economy, continuing all the while to address the members of the Volkskammer as "Comrades" (). In response, Volkskammer member Dietmar Czok of the Christian Democratic Union, rose from his seat and raised his hand. The Volkskammer's president, Günther Maleuda, interrupted Mielke and urged Czok to speak.
With his voice dripping with contempt, Czok told Mielke, "As a point of order, I will not tell you this again. There are more people sitting in this Chamber than just your Comrades!" (). In response, many in the Volkskammer burst into applause, cheers, and shouts of "We are not your Comrades!" ()
Trying to appear magnanimous, Mielke responded, "This is a natural, Humanistic question! This is just a question of formality." (), leading to further shouts of displeasure from the members of the Volkskammer. In a last ditch effort, Mielke "raised his arms like an evangelist," and cried, "I love all – all Humanity! I really do! I set myself before you!" ()
Everyone in the room, including staunch SED members, burst out laughing. Then Mielke started to cry. John Koehler later wrote, "Mielke was finished."
Mielke's address to the Volkskammer remains the most famous broadcast in the history of German television. Anna Funder has written, "When they think of Mielke, East Germans like to think of this."
The Fall
On 17 November 1989, the Volkskammer renamed the MfS the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit (AfNS – Office for National Security). The following day, Mielke's tenure in office ended when the Volkskammer appointed Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz as the new director of the AfNS.
On 1 December 1989, the Volkskammer nullified the clause of the GDR constitution that enshrined the SED's "leading role" in the government and formally ending Communist rule in East Germany. Two days later, the SED announced that Mielke's party membership had been permanently revoked. Years later, he lamented, "Millions have died for nothing. Everything we fought for – it has all amounted to nothing." He also said, "If the party had given me the task, then there would perhaps still be a GDR today. On that you can rely."
Prosecution
Indictments
On 7 December 1989, Erich Mielke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for embezzlement of public funds in order to improve his hunting estate. He was charged with "Damaging the People's Economy" (Schädigung der Volkswirtschaft). On 7 January 1990, he was further charged with high treason and conspiring with Erich Honecker to bug the telephones and open the mail of every one of East Germany's citizens.
Meanwhile, the Federal Constitutional Court announced that Mielke had also been indicted for having ordered two terrorist attacks by the Baader-Meinhoff Group against United States military personnel who were stationed on West German soil. The first was the car bomb attack against the United States Air Force at Ramstein Air Base on 31 August 1981. The second was the attempted murder with an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket of United States Army General Frederick Kroesen, his wife, and the West German police officer who was driving their armored Mercedes at Heidelberg on 15 September 1981.
After German reunification in October 1990, Mielke was also indicted for ordering the shootings of defectors at the Berlin Wall. He was also charged with misuse of office, breach of trust, and incitement to pervert the course of justice.
Bülowplatz trial
In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the 1931 first degree murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the transcripts from the 1934 trial of his co-conspirators, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke revealed that his role in, "the Bülowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing to Moscow from the Weimar Republic in 1931. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the documents for the purpose of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified that Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bülowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965.
During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plötzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution.
After twenty months of one-and-a-half-hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. At his sentencing, Mielke started to cry. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Imprisonment
Mielke was then put on trial for ordering the shootings of East Germans who were trying to defect to the West. In November 1994, the presiding judge adjourned the proceedings, ruling that Mielke was not mentally competent to stand trial.
During his incarceration, at JVA Moabit corrections officers supplied Mielke with a red telephone like the one in his office at Stasi Headquarters. Although it was not connected to the outside world, Mielke enjoyed having imaginary conversations with non-existent Stasi agents. His other favorite pastime was watching game shows on television.
In 1995, parole officers and Mielke's attorneys argued that he was "totally confused" and obtained his release. At 87 years of age, Erich Mielke was Germany's oldest prison inmate and had been incarcerated for 1,904 days. Days before his release, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin announced that he was "not interested in chasing an 87-year-old man anymore" and that all further prosecution of Mielke had been indefinitely suspended.
According to Koehler, "[Mielke's] bank account, which held more than 300,000 Marks (about US$187,500), was confiscated. Before his arrest in 1989, the most feared man in East Germany had lived in a luxurious home with access to an indoor pool. In addition, he owned a palatial hunting villa, complete with a movie theater, trophy room, 60 servants, and a 60 square kilometers hunting preserve. After he was released from prison Mielke was obliged to move into a two-room, 55-square-meter flat. Like all Stasi pensioners, he would henceforth have to live on 802 marks (about US$512) a month."
Death
Erich Mielke died on 21 May 2000, aged 92, in a Berlin nursing home. After being cremated at the crematorium in Meissen, an urn containing Mielke's ashes was buried in an unmarked grave at the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. An estimated 100 people reportedly attended the funeral. Erich Mielke's grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes. Within hours of his funeral, the flowers and wreaths left at Mielke's grave were ripped to shreds by persons unknown.
Legacy
Writing in 2003, Australian journalist Anna Funder declared, "The name Mielke has now come to mean 'Stasi.' Victims are dubiously honored to find his signature in their files: on plans for someone to be observed 'with all possible methods', on commands for arrest, for kidnapping, instructions to judges for sentencing, orders for 'liquidation'. The honor is dubious because... he signed so many."
In 2012, the museum at the former Stasi headquarters opened Mielke's office as a permanent exhibit. Soon after, The Guardian correspondent Tam Eastley visited the exhibit and numerous sites in Berlin connected to Mielke's life, times, and legacy. When she visited Mielke's grave, Eastley found that it had become a shrine for adherents of Ostalgie.
Personal life
Erich Mielke was a fitness enthusiast, a non-smoker, and drank very little. He was a keen hunter and owned a large area of ground where he would hunt animals with other East German and visiting Soviet officials.
During the late 1940s, when Mielke was working as security chief of the DWK, he began a relationship with Gertrud Mueller, a seamstress. On 18 December 1948, shortly after the birth of their son Frank Mielke, Erich and Gertrud married in a civil ceremony.
According to the newspaper Bild, the Mielkes adopted an orphaned girl named Ingrid, who was born in 1950. Like her adopted brother Frank, Ingrid Mielke attended the Wilhelm Pieck School. She ultimately became a captain in the Stasi and married a Stasi Lieutenant named Norbert Knappe. As of 1999, the Knappes had both refused to grant an interview to Bild reporters.
In popular culture
Erich Mielke has appeared as a character in both films and novels set in the GDR.
Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita (2000), which focuses on Stasi collusion with the West German far-left terrorist organization Rote Armee Fraktion. In conversation with fictional Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke), Mielke (Dietrich Körner) expresses admiration for the RAF's campaign against the United States, West Germany, and the State of Israel, which he compares with his own activities against the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. The RAF members are then brought to a training camp, where Stasi agents instruct them in the use of grenade launchers and other kinds of military hardware. Mielke's name is never disclosed and Agent Hull addresses him only as, "Comrade General." ()
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (2006), which focuses on the Stasi's surveillance and repression of the East German population. In the film, a previously loyal GDR playwright named Georg Dreymann (Sebastian Koch) publishes an anonymous article in the West German magazine Der Spiegel which accuses East Germany's Minister of Culture of having persecuted a blacklisted stage director until he hanged himself. Soon after the article goes to press, Mielke's voice is heard over the telephone giving a dressing down to fictional Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur). Addressed only as "Genosse Armeegeneral" (Mielke was the only person to ever hold that rank in the Stasi), Mielke threatens to throw Grubitz in front of a firing squad if he fails to identify and arrest the article's author.
In Philip Kerr's novel Field Grey (2010), Mielke first appears in 1931 Berlin, when protagonist Bernie Gunther saves him from being murdered by Nazi Brownshirts. The novel then flashes forward to 1954, when Gunther is recruited into a CIA plot to abduct Mielke from East Berlin.
Honours and awards
Mielke received a large number of awards and commemorative medals from organisations within the German Democratic Republic and from allied states. A more complete list is available (in German) at Liste der Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Erich Mielke.
Awards of the German Democratic Republic
Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (7 October 1954)
Six Orders of Karl Marx (28 December 1957, 20 November 1973, 1 December 1975, 28 December 1977, 28 June 1982, 28 December 1982)
Twice Hero of Labour of the GDR (5 October 1964, 24 February 1968)
Twice Hero of the GDR (1 December 1975, 28 December 1982)
Banner of Labour (8 May 1960)
Medal for Exemplary Border Service (26 April 1956)
Medal for Faithful Service in the National People's Army;
Bronze (7 October 1957)
Silver (8 February 1959)
Gold (1 July 1960)
Gold for 20 years service (8 February 1965)
Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (6 September 1958)
Gold Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (1 March 1957)
Scharnhorst Order, twice (25 September 1979, 7 October 1984)
Awards of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union (25 December 1987)
Four Orders of Lenin (12 June 1973, 28 December 1982, 1 April 1985, 28 December 1987)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (6 May 1970)
Four Orders of the Red Banner (23 October 1958, 5 February 1968, 28 December 1977, February 1980)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Soviet Militia" (20 December 1967)
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" (1970)
Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR" (6 January 1970)
Order of the October Revolution (February 1975)
Other states
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 28 December 1982)
Order of Friendship (Czechoslovakia) (28 December 1982)
Order of the Red Star (Czechoslovakia) (16 November 1970)
References
Further reading
Buckley, Jr., William F. (2004), The Fall of the Berlin Wall, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Funder, Anna (2003), Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books, London.
Kuchel, Dany (2011) "Le Glaive et le Bouclier", une histoire de la Stasi en France.
Otto, Wilfriede, Erich Mielke, Biographie: Aufstieg und Fall eines Tschekisten. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2000, .
Peterson, Edward N. (2002). The Secret Police and the Revolution: The Fall of the German Democratic Republic, Praeger Publications, Westport, Connecticut. London.
Pickard, Ralph (2007). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide. Frontline Historical Publishing.
Pickard, Ralph (2012). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II. Frontline Historical Publication.
1907 births
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German military personnel of World War II | true | [
"Jamaica competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR. 18 competitors, 11 men and 7 women, took part in 15 events in 2 sports. The Russian alphabet and Japan's participation in the American-led boycott of the games placed it last before the host nation in the Parade of Nations.\n\nMedalists\n\nBronze\n Don Quarrie — Athletics, Men's 200 metres\n Merlene Ottey-Page — Athletics, Women's 200 metres\n David Weller — Cycling, Men's 1.000 metres Time Trial\n\nAthletics\n\nMen's 100 metres\nDon Quarrie\n Heat — 10.37\n Quarterfinals — 10.29\n Semifinals — 10.55 (→ did not advance)\n\nMen's 800 metres\nOwen Hamilton\n Heat — 1:49.3 \n Semifinals — 1:47.6 (→ did not advance)\n\nMen's 4x400 metres Relay\n Derrick Peynado, Colin Bradford, Ian Stapleton, and Bert Cameron\n Heat — did not finish (→ did not advance)\n\nMen's High Jump\nDesmond Morris\n Qualification — 2.10 m (→ did not advance)\n\nWomen's 100 metres\n Rosie Allwood\n Heat — 11.68\n Quarterfinals — 11.69 (→ did not advance)\n\n Lelieth Hodges\n Heat — 11.79 (→ did not advance)\n\nWomen's Long Jump\n Dorothy Scott\n Qualifying Round — 5.83 m (→ did not advance, 17th place)\n\nCycling\n\nTwo cyclists represented Jamaica in 1980. David Weller won bronze in the 1000m time trial event.\n\nIndividual road race\n Peter Aldridge\n\n1000m time trial\n David Weller\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial Olympic Reports\nInternational Olympic Committee results database\n\nNations at the 1980 Summer Olympics\n1980 Summer Olympics\n1980 in Jamaican sport",
"The Women's Individual Time Trial at the 1995 World Cycling Championships was held on Wednesday October 4, 1995, in Tunja / Duitama, Colombia, over a total distance of 26.1 kilometres. There were a total number of 44 competitors, with one rider who did not reach the finish line and four non-starters.\n\nThe women's individual time trial (ITT) was added to the world championships last year (1994). It replaces the team time trial.\n\nFinal classification\n\nSee also\nCycling at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's time trial\n\nReferences\ncyclingnews\n\nWomen's Time Trial\nUCI Road World Championships – Women's time trial\nUCI"
]
|
[
"Erich Mielke",
"Bulowplatz trial",
"When did the trial take place?",
"1992,",
"What was the verdict?",
"convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.",
"Who was the first person murdered?",
"Captains Anlauf and Lenck",
"Who was the victim of the attempted murder?",
"Senior Sergeant Willig.",
"Did he know the murder victims?",
"I don't know.",
"How long did trial last?",
"twenty months"
]
| C_5879ec3395ef473987bcbbff52d1eee2_1 | What year did the trial end? | 7 | What year did the Bulowplatz trial end? | Erich Mielke | In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the first degree murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the 1934 trial transcripts, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke had admitted that, "the Bulowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing Germany. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the files for purposes of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified about how Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bulowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965. During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plotzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (German: "Ich mochte in mein Bett zuruck."). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution. After twenty months of one-and-a-half hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century." CANNOTANSWER | 1993, | Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
A native of Berlin and a second-generation member of the Communist Party of Germany, Mielke was one of two triggermen in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. After learning that a witness had survived, Mielke escaped arrest by fleeing to the Soviet Union, where the NKVD recruited him. He was one of the key figures in the decimation of Moscow's German Communists during the Great Purge as well as in the persecution of suspected anti-Stalinists in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany, which he helped organize into a Marxist-Leninist satellite state under the Socialist Unity Party (SED), later becoming head of the Stasi. According to historian Jack Koehler, he was "the longest serving secret police chief in the Soviet Bloc".
The Stasi under Mielke has been called by historian Edward Peterson the "most pervasive police state apparatus ever to exist on German soil". In a 1993 interview, Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal has said that, if one considers only the oppression of their own people, the Stasi under Mielke was "much, much worse than the Gestapo".
During the 1950s and 1960s Mielke led the process of forcibly forming collectivised farms from East Germany's family-owned farms, which sent a flood of refugees to West Germany. In response, Mielke oversaw the construction (1961) of the Berlin Wall and co-signed orders to shoot fatally all East Germans who attempted to leave the country. He also oversaw the establishment of pro-Soviet police states and paramilitary insurgencies in Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
In addition to his role as head of the Stasi, Mielke was also an Army General in the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee), and a member of the SED's ruling Politburo. Dubbed "The Master of Fear" () by the West German press, Mielke was one of the most powerful and most hated men in East Germany.
After German reunification in 1990, Mielke was arrested (1991), prosecuted (1992), convicted, and incarcerated (1993) for the 1931 murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. Released from prison early due to ill health in 1995, he died in a Berlin nursing home in 2000.
Early life
Erich Mielke was born in a tenement in Berlin-Wedding, Brandenburg, on 28 December 1907. During the First World War, the neighborhood was known as "Red Wedding" due to many residents' Marxist militancy. In a handwritten biography written for the Soviet secret police, Mielke described his father as "a poor, uneducated woodworker," and said that his mother died in 1911. Both were, he said, members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After his remarriage to "a seamstress," the elder Mielke and his new wife joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and remained members when it was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). His son Erich claimed "My younger brother Kurt and two sisters were Communist sympathisers."
Despite his family's poverty, Erich Mielke was academically gifted enough to be awarded a free scholarship in the prestigious Köllnisches Gymnasium, but was expelled on 19 February 1929, for being "unable to meet the great demands of this school." While attending the Gymnasium, Mielke joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1925, and worked as a reporter for the communist newspaper Rote Fahne from 1928 to 1931.
During the Weimar Republic, the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and was seen as the "leading party" of the communist movement outside the Soviet Union. Under Ernst Thälmann's leadership, the KPD was completely obedient to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the Party was both funded and controlled by the Comintern in Moscow.
Until the end of the Republic, the KPD viewed the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which dominated German politics between 1918 and 1931, as their mortal enemy. In keeping with Stalin's policy towards social democracy, the KPD considered all SPD members to be "social fascists". The KPD also believed that all other political parties were "fascist" and regarded itself as "the only anti-fascist Party" in Germany. Nevertheless, the KPD closely collaborated with the Nazi Party during the early 1930s and both Parties intended to replace the democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic with a totalitarian single party state.
Soon after joining the Party, Mielke joined the KPD's paramilitary wing, or Parteiselbstschutz ("Party Self Defense Unit"). At the time, the Parteiselbstschutz in Berlin was commanded by KPD Reichstag Representatives Hans Kippenberger and Heinz Neumann.
According to John Koehler, "Mielke was a special protege of Kippenberger's having taken to his paramilitary training with the enthusiasm of a Prussian Junker. World War I veterans taught the novices how to handle pistols, rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades. This clandestine training was conducted in the sparsely populated, pastoral countryside surrounding Berlin. Mielke also pleased Kippenberger by being an exceptional student in classes on the arts of conspiratorial behavior and espionage, taught by comrades who had studied at the secret M-school of the GRU in Moscow."
According to John Koehler, members of the Parteiselbstschutz "served as bouncers at Party meetings and specialized in cracking heads during street battles with political enemies." Besides the ruling SPD and its paramilitary Reichsbanner forces, the arch-enemies of the Parteiselbstschutz were the Stahlhelm, which was the armed wing of the Monarchist German National People's Party (DVNP), Trotskyites, and "radical nationalist parties."
According to Koehler, the KPD's Selbstschutz men "always carried a Stahlrute, two steel springs that telescoped into a tube seventeen centimeters long, which when extended became a deadly, 35-centimeter weapon. Not to be outdone by the Nazis, these street-fighters were often armed with pistols as well."
In a 1931 biography written for the Cadre Division of the Comintern, Mielke recalled, "We took care of all kinds of work; terror acts, protecting illegal demonstrations and meetings, arms-trafficking, etc. The last work, which was accomplished by a Comrade and myself, was the Bülowplatz Affair" ().
Bülowplatz murders
Planning
During the last days of the Weimar Republic, the KPD had a policy of assassinating two Berlin police officers in retaliation for every KPD member killed by the police.
On 2 August 1931, KPD Members of the Reichstag Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger received a dressing down from Walter Ulbricht, the Party's leader in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Enraged by police interference and by Neumann and Kippenberger's failure to follow the policy, Ulbricht stated, "At home in Saxony we would have done something about the police a long time ago. Here in Berlin we will not fool around much longer. Soon we will hit the police in the head."
Enraged by Ulbricht's words, Kippenberger and Neumann decided to assassinate Paul Anlauf, the 42-year-old Captain of the Berlin Police's Seventh Precinct. Captain Anlauf, a widower with three daughters, had been nicknamed "Schweinebacke", or "Pig Face" by the KPD.
According to historian John Koehler, "Of all the policemen in strife-torn Berlin, the reds hated Anlauf the most. His precinct included the area around KPD headquarters, which made it the most dangerous in the city. The captain almost always led the riot squads that broke up illegal rallies of the Communist Party."
On the morning of Sunday 9 August 1931, Kippenberger and Neumann gave a last briefing to the hit-team in a room at the Lassant beer hall. Mielke and Erich Ziemer were selected as the shooters. During the meeting, Max Matern gave a Luger pistol to fellow lookout Max Thunert and said, "Now we're getting serious. We're going to give Schweinebacke something to remember us by."
Kippenberger then asked Mielke and Ziemer, "Are you sure that you are ready to shoot Schweinebacke?" Mielke responded that he had seen Anlauf many times during police searches of Party Headquarters. Kippenberger then instructed them to wait at a nearby beer hall which would permit them to overlook the entire Bülow-Platz. He further reminded them that Anlauf was accompanied everywhere by Senior Sergeant Max Willig, whom the KPD had nicknamed, "Hussar".
Kippenberger concluded, "When you spot Schweinebacke and Hussar, you take care of them." Mielke and Ziemer were informed that, after the assassinations were completed, a diversion would assist in their escape. They were then to return to their homes and await further instructions.
That evening, Anlauf was lured to Bülow-Platz by a violent rally demanding the dissolution of the Prussian Parliament.
According to Koehler, "As was often the case when it came to battling the dominant SPD, the KPD and the Nazis had combined forces during the pre-plebiscite campaign. At one point in this particular campaign, Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels even shared a speaker's platform with KPD agitator Walter Ulbricht. Both parties wanted the parliament dissolved because they were hoping that new elections would oust the SPD, the sworn enemy of all radicals. That fact explained why the atmosphere was particularly volatile this Sunday."
Murder at the Babylon Cinema
At eight o'clock that evening, Mielke and Ziemer waited in a doorway as Anlauf, Willig, and Captain Franz Lenck walked toward the Babylon Cinema, which was located at the corner of Bülowplatz and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. As they reached the door of the movie house, the policemen heard someone scream, "Schweinebacke!"
As Anlauf turned toward the sound, Mielke and Ziemer opened fire at point blank range. Willig was wounded in the left arm and the stomach. However, he managed to draw his Luger pistol and fired a full magazine at the assailants. Lenck was shot in the chest and fell dead in front of the entrance. Willig crawled over and cradled the head of Anlauf, who had taken two bullets in the neck.
Meanwhile, Mielke and Ziemer made their escape by running into the theater and out an emergency exit. They tossed their pistols over a fence, where they were later found by Homicide Detectives from the elite Mordkommission. Mielke and Ziemer then returned to their homes.
According to Koehler, "Back at Bülowplatz, the killings had triggered a major police action. At least a thousand officers poured into the square, and a bloody street battle ensued. Rocks and bricks were hurled from the rooftops. Communist gunmen fired indiscriminately from the roofs of surrounding apartment houses. As darkness fell, police searchlights illuminated the buildings. Using megaphones, officers shouted, "Clear the streets! Move away from the windows! We are returning fire!" By now the rabble had fled the square, but shooting continued as riot squads combed the tenements, arresting hundreds of residents suspected of having fired weapons. The battle lasted until one o'clock the next morning. In addition to the two police officers, the casualties included one Communist who died of a gunshot wound and seventeen others who were seriously wounded."
Anlauf's wife had died three weeks earlier of kidney failure. The murder of Anlauf thus left their three daughters as orphans. Their oldest daughter was forced to rush her planned wedding in order to keep her sisters from being put in an orphanage. Lenck was survived by his wife. Willig was hospitalized for 14 weeks, but made a full recovery and returned to active duty. In recognition for Willig's courage, the Berlin Police promoted him to Lieutenant.
After the murders, the act was celebrated at the Lichtenberger Hof, a favorite beer hall of the Rotfrontkämpferbund, where Mielke boasted: "Today we celebrate a job that I pulled!" ()
Fugitive
According to Koehler, "Kippenberger was alarmed when word reached him that Sergeant Willig had survived the shooting. Not knowing whether the sergeant could talk and identify the attackers, Kippenberger was taking no chances. He directed a runner to summon Mielke and Ziemer to his apartment at 74 Bellermannstrasse, only a few minutes walk from where the two lived. When the assassins arrived, Kippenberger told them the news and ordered them to leave Berlin at once. The parliamentarian's wife Thea, an unemployed schoolteacher and as staunch a Communist Party member as her husband, shepherded the young murderers to the Belgian border. Agents of the Communist International (Comintern) in the port city of Antwerp supplied them with money and forged passports. Aboard a merchant ship, they sailed for Leningrad. When their ship docked, they were met by another Comintern representative, who escorted them to Moscow."
Beginning in 1932, Mielke attended the Comintern's Military Political school under the alias Paul Bach. He later graduated from the Lenin School shortly before being recruited into the OGPU.
Trial
According to Koehler, "In mid-March 1933, while attending the Lenin School, Mielke received word from his OGPU sponsors that Berlin police had arrested Max Thunert, one of the conspirators in the Anlauf and Lenck murders. Within days, fifteen other members of the assassination team were in custody. Mielke had to wait six more months before the details of the police action against his Berlin comrades reached Moscow. On 14 September 1933, Berlin newspapers reported that all fifteen had confessed to their roles in the murders. Arrest warrants were issued for ten others who had fled, including Mielke, Ziemer, Ulbricht, Kippenberger, and Neumann."
Koehler also stated, "Defenders of Mielke later claimed that confessions had been obtained under torture by the Nazi Gestapo. However, all suspects were in the custody of the regular Berlin city criminal investigation bureau, most of whose detectives were SPD members. Some of the suspects had been nabbed by Nazi SA men and probably beaten before they were turned over to police. In the 1993 trial of Mielke, the court gave the defense the benefit of the doubt and threw out a number of suspect confessions."
On 19 June 1934, the 15 conspirators were convicted of first degree murder. The three deemed most culpable, Michael Klause, Max Matern, and Friedrich Bröde were sentenced to death. Their co-defendants received sentences ranging from nine months to fifteen years incarceration at hard labor. Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation. Bröde hanged himself in his cell. As a result, only Matern was left to be executed by beheading on 22 May 1935.
Matern was subsequently glorified as a martyr by KPD and East German propaganda. Ziemer was officially killed in action while fighting on the Republican-side during the Spanish Civil War. Mielke, however, would not face trial for the murders until 1993.
Career in Soviet intelligence
The Great Terror
Although Moscow's German Communist community was decimated during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Mielke survived and was promoted.
In a handwritten autobiography prepared after World War II, Mielke recalled, "During my stay in the S.U. (Soviet Union), I participated in all Party discussions of the K.P.D. and also in the problems concerning the establishment of socialism and in the trials against the traitors and enemies of the S.U."
Among the German communists executed as a result of these "discussions" were Mielke's former mentors Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger.
Mielke further recalled, "I was a guest on the honor grandstand of Red Square during the May Day and October Revolution parades. I became acquainted with many comrades of the Federation of World Communist Parties and the War Council of the Special Commission of the Comintern. I will never forget my meeting with Comrade Dimitrov, the Chairman of the Comintern, whom I served as an aide together with another comrade. I saw Comrade Stalin during all demonstrations at Red Square, especially when I stood on the grandstand. I mention these meetings because all these comrades are our models and teachers for our work."
During his time in the USSR, Mielke also developed a lifelong reverence for Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Polish aristocrat who founded the Soviet secret police. Mielke also began an equally permanent habit of calling himself a Chekist.
In a citation written decades later, Mielke described his philosophy of life, "The Chekist is the political combatant. He is the loyal son of... the workers' class. He stands at the head of the battle to strengthen the power of our workers' and peasants' state."
Spanish Civil War
From 1936 to 1939, Mielke served in Spain as an operative of the Servicio de Investigación Militar, the political police of the Second Spanish Republic. While attached to the staff of, "veteran GRU agent," and future Stasi minister Wilhelm Zaisser, Mielke used the alias Fritz Leissner. Bernd Kaufmann, the director of the Stasi's espionage school later said, "The Soviets trusted Mielke implicitly. He earned his spurs in Spain."
At the time, the S.I.M. was heavily staffed by agents of the Soviet NKVD, whose Spanish rezident was General Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and International Brigade commanders than on fighting Franco. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics."
In a 1991 interview, Walter Janka, a fellow German communist exile and company commander in the International Brigade, recalled his encounters with Mielke. During the winter of 1936, Janka was summoned by the SIM and interrogated by Mielke. Mielke demanded to know why Janka had voluntarily traveled to Spain rather than being assigned there by the Party. When he told Mielke to get lost, the SIM demoted Janka to the ranks and then expelled him from the International Brigade. Years later, Janka recalled, "While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists."
Upon the defeat of the Spanish Republic, Mielke fled across the Pyrenees Mountains to France, where he was interned at Camp de Rivesaltes, Pyrénées-Orientales. Mielke, however, managed to send a message to exiled KPD members and, in May 1939, escaped to Belgium. Although the Public Prosecutor of Berlin learned of Mielke's presence and filed for his extradition, the Belgian Government refused to comply, regarding the assassinations of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as "a political crime."
The NKVD and the SIM's witch hunt for both real and imagined anti-Stalinists had serious consequences. It horrified numerous formerly pro-Soviet Westerners who had been witnesses, including John Dos Passos, Arthur Koestler and George Orwell, and caused them to permanently turn against the USSR.
Mielke's belief that anti-Soviet Marxists had collaborated with Franco and stabbed the Republic in the back continued to shape his attitudes for the rest of his life. In a 1982 speech before a group of senior Stasi officers, he said, "We are not immune from villains among us. If I knew of any already, they wouldn't live past tomorrow. Short shrift. It's because I'm a Humanist, that I'm of this view."
In the same speech, Mielke also said, "All this blithering over to execute or not to execute, for the death penalty or against—all rot, Comrades. Execute! And, when necessary, without a court judgment."
World War II
During World War II, Mielke's movements remain mysterious. In a biography written after the war, he claimed to have infiltrated Organisation Todt under the alias Richard Hebel, but historian John O. Koehler considers this unlikely.
Koehler admits, however, "Mielke's exploits must have been substantial. By war's end, he had been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War First Class, and twice with the Order of Lenin. It is likely that he served as an NKVD agent, at least part of the time with guerrilla units behind German lines, for he knew all the partisan songs by heart and sang them in faultless Russian."
Occupied Germany
Komissariat-5
In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.
That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."
On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No. 2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services.
In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke disclosed—truthfully—his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, and—mistakenly or misleadingly—that for this he had been tried in absentia, found guilty, and sentenced to death. In actuality, Mielke's "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried". He admitted—truthfully—fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed—falsely—that he had been released from the French internment camps and had worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston". Furthermore, Mielke concealed his past and contemporaneous involvement with the NKVD, NKGB, and the Nazi Organisation Todt (which he asserted he'd infiltrated).
According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets. Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers. But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."
On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany.
According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan. In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a "new Gestapo." Furthermore, Abakumov, like Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked." Notwithstanding Abakumov's objections, however, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately. It is possible, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers' lack of fluency in the German language was engendering massive popular resentment.
Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head. Mielke was installed as his deputy.
According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police. Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons. Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party. Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision. The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them. Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."
According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees. Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers. In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary rule of law."
According to Edward N. Peterson, "Not surprisingly, K-5 acquired a reputation as bad as that of Stalin's secret police and worse than that of the Gestapo. At least with the Nazis, albeit fanatically racist, their victims did not suddenly disappear into the GULAG."
The Amalgamation
Despite the K-5's mass arrests of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Zone, the number of SPD members continued to grow. By March 1946, SPD members outnumbered KPD members by more than 100,000. Fearing that they would lose the elections scheduled for the autumn, the leadership of the KPD asked for and received Stalin's permission to merge the two parties. When the SPD's leadership agreed only to schedule a vote for the rank and file to decide, permission was denied by the Soviet occupation authorities. The K-5 then began mass arrests of SPD members who refused to support the merger.
On 22 April 1946, the remaining leaders of the SPD in the Soviet Zone announced that they had united with the KPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SPD in the western zones of Occupied Germany responded by forming the SPD East Bureau in order to support and finance those Social Democrats who refused to accept the merger. Those who joined or worked with the East Bureau were, however, in serious danger of arrest by the K-5 and trial by Soviet military tribunals. By 1950, more than 5,000 SPD members and sympathisers had been imprisoned in the Soviet Zone or transferred to the GULAG. More than 400 were either executed or died during their imprisonments.
John Koehler has written that, prior to the spring of 1946, many Germans in the Soviet Zone, "merely shrugged at the wave of arrests, believing that the victims were former Nazi officials and war criminals." But then came the mass arrests of Social Democrats who opposed the merger, who, "were joined by people who had been denounced for making anti-communist or anti-Soviet remarks, among their number hundreds who were as young as fourteen years. Although these arrests were made by Germans purporting to be officials of the criminal police, the existence of the K-5 political police eventually was exposed. Mielke, meanwhile, had risen to the post of vice-president of the German Administration for Interior Affairs – the equivalent of the NKVD – and continued his manipulations from behind the scenes."
Investigation
In January 1947, two retired Berlin policemen recognized Mielke at an official function. Informing the head of the criminal police in West Berlin, the policemen demanded that Mielke be arrested and prosecuted for the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. Wilhelm Kühnast, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin, was immediately informed and ordered a search of the Kammergericht archives. To his astonishment, the files of the 1931 murders had survived the wartime bombing of Germany. Finding ample evidence of Mielke's involvement, Kühnast ordered the arrest of the communist policeman.
According to John Koehler, "At that time, the city administration, including the police, was under the control of the Allied Control Commission, which consisted of U.S., British, French, and Soviet military officers. All actions by city officials, including the judiciary, were to be reported to the Commission. The Soviet representative alerted the MGB. Action was swift. Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, who had replaced Zhukov, protested, and his representatives at the Commission launched a vicious campaign to discredit Kühnast."
The Soviet representatives falsely claimed that Kühnast, a jurist with an impeccable anti-Nazi record, had been an official of Roland Freisler's People's Court. Taking the Soviets at their word, the Western Allies removed Kühnast from his position and placed him under house arrest. During the Berlin airlift, Kühnast fled from his home in East Berlin and was granted political asylum in the American Zone.
Meanwhile, the Soviet authorities confiscated all documents relating to the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. According to Koehler, "The Soviets handed the court records to Mielke. Instead of destroying the incriminating papers, he locked them in his private safe, where they were found when his home was searched in 1990. They were used against him in his trial for murder."
Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission
In 1948, Mielke was appointed as security chief of the German Economic Commission (), the precursor to the future East German government.
Mielke's task was to investigate the theft and sale of state property on the black market. He was also charged with intercepting the growing number of refugees fleeing to the French, British, and American Zones.
Those his security forces caught while attempting to defect were used as slave labor in the uranium mines that were providing raw material for the Soviet atomic bomb project.
German Democratic Republic
Independence
In 1949, the Soviet Military Administration ceded its legal functions to the newly created German Democratic Republic.
On 14 January 1950, Marshal Vasili Chuikov announced that all Soviet "internment camps" on German soil had been closed. Soon after, the DWK was absorbed into the newly created Ministry for State Security. In keeping with earlier syllabic abbreviations along the same lines (see OrPo, KriPo, and GeStaPo) East Germans immediately dubbed it the "Stasi" (from Staatssicherheit). With the approval of the Soviets, Mielke's commanding officer from Spain and in the K5, Wilhelm Zaisser, was appointed as the Stasi's head. Mielke was appointed to his staff with the rank of State Secretary. Mielke was also granted a seat in the SED's ruling Politburo.
According to John Koehler, "In the five years since the end of World War II, the Soviets and their vassals had arrested between 170,000 and 180,000 Germans. Some 160,000 had passed through the concentration camps, and of these about 65,000 had died, 36,000 had been shipped to the Soviet Gulag, and another 46,000 had been freed."
In 1949, as a response to the remilitarization of East Germany and the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Portugal formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. In 1950, as a response to the outbreak of the Korean War, West Germany was also permitted to join NATO, which was then upgraded into a military alliance.
According to Koehler, however, "As the Cold War intensified, living conditions in Soviet-occupied East Germany showed little improvement beyond the postwar level of bare subsistence. The new government of the DDR – a mere puppet of the Kremlin – relied more and more on the Stasi to quell discontent among factory workers and farmers. Ulbricht, claiming that the social unrest was fomented by capitalist agents, once ordered Mielke to personally visit one large plant and 'arrest four or five such agents' as an example to the others. The Stasi deputy 'discovered' the agents in record time."
Field show trials
Also in 1949, Noel Field, an American citizen who had spied for the NKVD from inside the U.S. State Department, the Office of Strategic Services, and the CIA, fled from his posting in Switzerland to Communist Czechoslovakia after his cover was blown by fellow mole Whittaker Chambers. On 11 May 1949, the Czechoslovakian secret police, or StB, in obedience to a direct order from KGB chief Lavrenti Beria, arrested Field in Prague. Field was then handed over to the Hungarian ÁVO. After his interrogation in Budapest, Fields was used as a witness at show trials of senior Soviet Bloc Communists who, like László Rajk and Rudolf Slánský, stood accused of having spied for the United States. The real reason for the trials was to replace homegrown Communists in Eastern Europe with those who would be blindly loyal to Joseph Stalin and to blame the division of Germany on the intrigues of U.S. intelligence.
At the Rajk show trial, the prosecutor declared, "Noel Field, one of the leaders of American espionage, specialized in recruiting spies from among left-wing elements."
In August 1950, six senior SED members, including Willi Kreikemeyer, the director of Deutsche Reichsbahn and head of Berliner Rundfunk, were accused of "special connections with Noel Field, the American spy." All were either imprisoned or shot.
John Koehler writes, "Similar purges were conducted in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, where Field appeared as a witness in show trials that resulted in some death sentences. The Soviets simply distrusted all Communists who had sought exile in the West. All the while, Mielke remained untouched and continued to serve as the deputy secret police chief. His survival reinforced the belief that he had spent the war years in the Soviet Union instead of France and Belgium as he had claimed in the 1945 questionnaire."
In June 1950, Erica Wallach, Noel Field's adopted daughter, decided to search for him. From Paris, she telephoned Leo Bauer, the editor-in-chief of Berliner Rundfunk. The call was monitored by agents of the Soviet Ministry for Internal Affairs, and Bauer's handler instructed him to invite Mrs. Wallach to East Berlin, where she was immediately arrested. Mielke personally interrogated her and, at one point, offered Mrs. Wallach immediate release if she named the members of her fictitious spy network. She was condemned to death by a Soviet military tribunal in East Berlin and shipped to the Lubianka prison in Moscow for her execution. After Joseph Stalin's death in on 5 March 1953, Erica Wallach's sentence was reduced to hard labor in Vorkuta, a region of the Gulag located above the Arctic Circle. She was released during the Khrushchev thaw in October 1955. At first, she was unable to join her husband and daughters in the U.S. because of the U.S. State Department's concern over her former membership in the Communist Party of Germany. It took the personal intervention of CIA Director Allen Dulles to reunite Erica Wallach with her family in 1957. Wallach's memoir of her experiences, Light at Midnight, was published in 1967.
Death of Stalin
After Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin died inside his Kuntsevo Dacha on 5 March 1953, the Central Committee of the East German Socialist Unity Party met in a special session and eulogized the dictator as the "great friend of Germany who was always an advisor of and help to our people."
Two months later, on 5 May 1953, the SED's General Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, and the rest of the leadership increased work quotas by 10%. They also decided to rename Chemnitz Karl-Marx-Stadt and to institute the Order of Karl Marx as the GDR's highest award.
Two weeks later, Mielke accused "a group of Party officials" of "plotting against the leadership", which "resulted in more expulsions from the Politburo and the Central Committee."
East German uprising of 1953
Discontent among factory workers about a 10% increase of work quotas without a corresponding wage hike boiled over. On 16 June 1953, nearly one hundred construction workers gathered before work for a protest meeting at Stalinallee, in East Berlin. Words spread rapidly to other construction sites and hundreds of men and women joined the rally, which marched to the House of Ministries. The protesters chanted slogans for five hours, demanding to speak to Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl. Only Heavy Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann and Professor Robert Havemann, president of the GDR Peace Council, emerged. Their speech, however, was answered with jeers and the Ministers retreated into the heavily armed building. The regular and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei were summoned from their barracks, but made no move to attack the protesters, who returned to Stalinallee, where a general strike was called.
Following West Germany's Federal Minister for All-German Questions Jakob Kaiser's admonition in a late night broadcast to East Germans to shy away from provocations, RIAS, starting with its 11 pm news broadcast, and from then on in hourly intermissions, repeated the workers' demand to continue the strike the next day, calling specifically for all East Berliners to participate in a demo at 7am on the 17th at Strausberger Platz.
The following day, 17 June 1953, more that 100,000 protesters took to the streets of East Berlin. More than 400,000 protesters also took to the streets in other cities and towns throughout the German Democratic Republic. Everywhere, the demands were the same: free elections by secret ballot.
Outside of Berlin, the main centres of the protests included the industrial region around Halle, Merseburg, and Bitterfeld, as well as middle-size towns like Jena, Görlitz, and Brandenburg. No more than 25,000 people participated in strikes and demonstrations in Leipzig, but there were 32,000 in Magdeburg, 43,000 in Dresden, 53,000 in Potsdam – and in Halle, a figure close to 100,000.
In West Berlin, the American radio station RIAS and several other West German stations reported on the protests and on plans for a general strike. As East Germans listened to the broadcasts, 267,000 workers at State-owned plants in 304 cities and towns joined the general strike. In 24 towns, outraged East Germans stormed the Stasi's prisons and freed between 2,000 and 3,000 political prisoners.
In response to orders, the Soviet Occupation Forces, the Stasi and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei went on the attack. Bloody street battles ensued and hundreds of policemen defected to the side of the protesters. Both police and Stasi stations were overrun and some government offices were sacked. The Party leadership retreated into a fortified compound in the Pankow district of East Berlin.
At noon, the Soviet authorities terminated all tram and metro traffic into the Eastern sector and all but closed the sector borders to West Berlin to prevent more demonstrators from reaching the city centre. An hour later, they declared martial law in East Berlin.
The repression took place outside East Berlin police HQ – where Soviet tanks opened fire on "the insurgents".
According to John Koehler, "... by late afternoon, Soviet tanks accompanied by Infantry and MVD troops had rolled into East Berlin and other cities in the Soviet Zone. This made the people even angrier. At Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, which bordered on the American Sector, irate protesters ignored machine gun fire and the menacing barrels of tank guns. They ripped cobblestones from the streets and hurled them at the tanks."
Fighting between the Red Army (and later GDR police) and the demonstrators persisted into the afternoon and night. In some cases, the tanks and the soldiers fired directly into the crowds.
Overnight, the Soviets (and the Stasi) started to arrest hundreds of people. Ultimately, up to 10,000 people were detained and at least 20, probably as many as 40, people were executed, including Red Army soldiers who refused to obey orders. With the SED leadership effectively paralysed at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, control of the city passed to the Soviets.
In honor of the uprising, West Germany established 17 June as a national holiday, called Day of German Unity. The extension of the Unter den Linden boulevard to the west of the Brandenburg Gate, formerly called Charlottenburger Chaussee, was also renamed Straße des 17. Juni ("17 June Street") in honor of the uprising.
According to John Koehler, "Provisional prison camps were set up to hold the thousands of Stasi victims. Nearly 1,500 persons were sentenced in secret trials to long prison terms. On 24 June, Mielke issued a terse announcement that one Stasi officer, nineteen demonstrators, and two bystanders had been killed during the uprising. He did not say how many were victims of official lynching. The numbers of the wounded were given as 191 policemen, 126 demonstrators, and 61 bystanders."
Also according to Koehler, "Calm returned to the streets of the Soviet Zone, yet escapes to the West continued at a high rate. Of the 331,390 who fled in 1953, 8,000 were members of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the barracked people's police units, which were actually the secret cadre of the future East German Army. Also among the escapees were 2,718 members and candidates of the SED, the ruling Party."
The Khrushchev thaw
Purges
Alarmed by the uprising, Lavrenty Beria, the First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, personally travelled from Moscow to East Berlin. He conferred with Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser and with Mielke, his deputy, both of whom he had known since the early 1930s. During both conversations, Beria demanded to know why the Stasi had failed to recognize the extreme discontent of the population and inform the Party leadership, which could then have prevented the uprising by taking extremely repressive measures in advance. Both Zaisser and Mielke answered Beria's questions circumspectly, and were accordingly left in their posts.
In response to the uprising, Beria decided to replace several hundred MVD officers, including Major General Ivan Fadeykin, the MVD resident of East Germany. The Stasi, according to John Koehler, "generally remained untouched except for the arrests and dismissals, for dereliction of duty, of a handful of officers in the provinces. One high-ranking Stasi officer shot himself."
Following Beria's return to Moscow, however, he was arrested on 26 June 1953, in a coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Beria was tried on charges of 357 counts of rape and high treason. He was sentenced to death and shot by Red Army Colonel-General Pavel Batitsky on 23 December 1953.
In an interview to Neues Deutschland, the official party newspaper of East Germany, on 30 June 1953, the Party's Minister of Justice, Max Fechner, declared that, "illegal arrests," had been made and that being a member of a strike committee or suspicion of being a ringleader was not in itself grounds for arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, when the East German Politburo met on 8 July, it seemed that Ulbricht would be deposed as Party General Secretary. Zaisser conceded that the whole Politburo was responsible for the "accelerated construction of socialism" and of the subsequent fallout. But he also added that to leave Ulbricht as Premier, "would be opposed catastrophic for the New Course".
By the end of the meeting, only two Politburo members still supported Ulbricht's leadership: Free German Youth League chief Erich Honecker and Party Control Commission Chairman Hermann Matern. Ulbricht only managed to forestall a decision then and there with a promise to make a statement at the forthcoming 15th SED CC Plenum, scheduled for later that month.
Meanwhile, Mielke informed a Party commission looking for scapegoats that his boss, Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser, was calling for secret negotiations with West Germany and that, "he believed the Soviet Union would abandon the DDR."
By late July, Ulbricht was completely certain that he had the support of the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Therefore, he expelled his main opponents, Zaisser, Hernstadt and Ackermann, from the Politburo, and thus strengthened his position further.
SED Minister of Justice Max Fechner was personally arrested by Mielke and replaced by Hilde Benjamin, who was known to East German citizens as "Red Hilde", "The Red Freisler," and as, "The Red Guillotine," for her role as a judge in the SED's show trials.
Fechner was convicted of being, "an enemy of the Party and the State," and served three years in Bautzen Prison.
Wilhelm Zaisser was replaced as head of the Stasi by Ernst Wollweber and Mielke remained on staff as his deputy.
Tenure as Stasi head
Mielke headed the Stasi from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There was, under the East German system, no provision for parliamentary oversight. However, starting in 1971 Mielke was required to provide a detailed intelligence briefing to party secretary Erich Honecker each Tuesday, directly following the weekly Politburo meeting. (Before 1971, under Walter Ulbricht, Mielke was not involved in routine intelligence briefings to the leadership which, instead, were provided directly to Ulbricht by Intelligence Chief Markus Wolf.)
Internal discipline
During his tenure, Mielke enforced "political and personal discipline reminiscent of the early French Foreign Legion". New recruits were required to take a solemn oath pledging "to fight alongside the state security organs of all socialist countries against all enemies of socialism" on pain of "the severest punishment under the Republic's laws and the contempt of the workers." Recruits were also required to sign a security pledge vowing never to make unauthorized visits to any "capitalist countries" and to report on any members of their families who did so.
Violations of the oath resulted in expulsion from the Stasi and blacklisting from all but the most menial jobs. Serious violations were tried before secret tribunals and led an estimated 200 Stasi agents to be shot. Colonel Rainer Wiegand once said, "There was only one way to leave the MfS without being haunted for the rest of your life. You either retired or you died."
Domestic activities
Under Erich Mielke's leadership, the Stasi employed 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 civilian informants () (IMs). East Germans coined a term to describe the Stasi's pervasive surveillance of the population "All-Covered" (). For this reason, Anna Funder has referred to East Germany as, "the most perfected surveillance state of all time."
According to John Koehler, "...the Stasi's tentacles probed every aspect of life. Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei...In turn, the police officer was the Stasi's man. If a relative or friend came to stay overnight, it was reported. Schools, universities and hospitals were infiltrated from top to bottom. German academe was shocked to learn that Heinrich Fink, professor of theology and vice-chancellor of East Berlin's Humboldt University, had been a Stasi informer since 1968. After Fink's Stasi connections came to light, he was summarily fired. Doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, and sports figures were co-opted by Stasi officers, as were waiters and hotel personnel. Tapping about 100,000 telephone lines in East Germany and West Berlin around the clock was the job of 2,000 officers... Churchmen, including high officials of both Protestant and Catholic denominations, were recruited en masse as secret informants. Their offices and confessionals were infested with eavesdropping devices. Even the director of Leipzig's famous Thomas Church choir, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, was forced to resign when he was unmasked as a Spitzel, the people's pejorative for a Stasi informant."
In an interview with journalist Anna Funder, an ex-Stasi officer recalled, "Most often, people we approached would inform for us. It was very rare that they would not. However, sometimes we felt that we might need to know where their weak points were, just in case. For example, if we wanted a pastor, we'd find out if he'd had an affair, or had a drinking problem—things that we could use as leverage. Mostly though, people said yes."
On Mielke's orders, and with his full knowledge, Stasi officers also engaged in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, brutal harassment of political dissidents, torture, and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens.
In a 1991 interview, Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said, "The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people. The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million."
Activities abroad
During Mielke's tenure, the Stasi's operations beyond East Germany were overseen by Markus Wolf and the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (MfS-HVA).
Mielke and Wolf provided money, training, and surveillance equipment to help build pro-Soviet secret police forces in Fidel Castro's Cuba, Baathist Syria, Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua, Mengistu Haile Mariam's Ethiopia, Idi Amin's Uganda, Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, and South Yemen.
After the opening of Stasi archives, it was revealed that West Germany was riddled with MfS-HVA moles. In what John Koehler has dubbed, "The Invisible Invasion", some West German citizens collaborated out of Marxist beliefs, but others were recruited through blackmail, greed, career frustrations, or sexual favors from Stasi operatives.
Another tactic was for Stasi military advisers assigned to African and Middle Eastern countries to request the arrest of West German tourists. Local police would then turn the prisoner over to the Stasi agent, who would offer the West German a choice between espionage or incarceration.
Senior politicians from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union were exposed and, when still alive, prosecuted.
Mielke and Wolf also seriously compromised West Germany's police departments, foreign and domestic intelligence services, diplomatic corps, military-industrial complex, and journalistic profession.
The Stasi compromised the United States military and diplomatic presence in West Germany.
The most damaging American to spy for the Stasi was United States Army Sergeant James Hall III, who volunteered his services to Soviet and East German intelligence in November 1981.
Sergeant Hall sold the Stasi 13,088 pages of classified documents, including detailed information about Project Trojan, a worldwide electronic network with the ability to pinpoint armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft by recording their signal emissions during wartime and the complete National SIGINT Requirements List (NSRL), a 4258-page document about NSA operations at home and abroad.
In 1988, Sergeant Hall was tricked into confessing his espionage career to an undercover FBI Special Agent named Dmitri Droujinsky, a Russian-American who was posing as an agent of the KGB. When news of Sergeant Hall's arrest became public, one Washington intelligence official called the breach, "the Army's Walker Case."
Collusion with Nazism
Beginning in 1960, Mielke and Wolf used false flag recruitment to secretly organize and finance Neo-Nazi organizations, which they then instructed to vandalize Jewish religious and cultural sites throughout West Germany. During the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann, Stasi agents sent letters to West German Neo-Nazis and Waffen-SS veterans, urging them to speak out and to raise money for Eichmann's defense attorney. This was done in order to lend credibility to Communist propaganda about the allegedly Fascist and neo-Nazi orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to German historian Michael Wolffsohn, "There is no doubt that in the 1960s as now, there were Nazis who were unreconstructed, unchangeable and evil, but without the help of East Germany, these Nazis were incapable of a national, coordinated campaign. That was true of right-wing extremist criminals in the 1980s as well. The East German Communists used anything they could against West Germany, including the... fears by Western countries and Jews that a new Nazism could be growing in West Germany. There is... evidence that the East Germans continued to use Anti-Semitism as a tool against West Germany in the 1970s and perhaps right up until 1989."
In a 1991 interview with John Koehler, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said of the Stasi, "They not only terrorized their own people worse than the Gestapo, but the government was the most Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israeli in the entire Eastern Bloc. They did nothing to help the West in tracking down Nazi criminals; they ignored all requests from West German judicial authorities for assistance. We have just discovered shelves of files on Nazis stretching over four miles. Now we also know how the Stasi used those files. They blackmailed Nazi criminals who fled abroad after the war into spying for them. What's more, the Stasi trained terrorists from all over the world."
Support for paramilitary and terrorist groups
During a 1979 visit to the GDR by senior PLO member Salah Khalaf, Mielke said, "We are paying great attention to the Palestine resistance and the other revolutionary forces fighting against the policies of the United States and against the provocations of the Israeli aggressor. Together with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, we will do everything to support this just battle."
With this in mind, Mielke ordered the Stasi to finance, arm, and train, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, Mielke's ties to violent paramilitary groups were overseen by Markus Wolf and Department Three of the MfS-HVA. Members of the West German Baader-Meinhoff Group, the Chilean Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware, insurgent tactics, and, "the leadership role of the Party." Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Nidal, and Black September.
Other Stasi agents worked as military advisers to Soviet-backed African guerrilla organizations and the governments they later formed. They included the Namibian SWAPO and the Angolan MPLA during the South African Border War, the FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence and civil war, and Robert Mugabe's ZANLA during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Venezuelan-born PLO terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Black September leader Abu Daoud during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972 Munich massacre and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.
During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly blackmailed a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that the La Belle bombing and other terrorist attacks against American and West German citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.
According to John Koehler, "Murder, kidnapping, extortion, bank robbery, and arson were felonies under the East German criminal code. However, if these offenses were committed under the banner of the 'anti-imperialist struggle,' the communist system would look the other way. Moreover, it had assigned the Stasi to make sure that terrorists were properly trained for murder and sowing mayhem. There was no limits to the East German regime's involvement with terrorism, so long as it could be ideologically justified."
The Peaceful Revolution
According to John Koehler, "Increasingly concerned over the growing popular opposition, Stasi Minister Mielke early in 1989 ordered the creation of a special elite unit for crushing disturbances. Its personnel were carefully selected members of the counterespionage and counterterrorism directorate. They were equipped with special batons similar to electric cattle prods but much more powerful. In a secret speech to top-ranking Stasi officers on 29 June, Mielke warned that, 'hostile opposing forces and groups have already achieved a measure of power and are using all methods to achieve a change in the balance of power. Former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand told me he was horrified when Mielke compared the situation with that of China two months earlier. Chinese students in Beijing had begun massive protests in April and in May, during a student demonstration in Tiananmen Square, security troops had opened fire on them killing hundreds. 'Mielke said our situation was comparable and we had to be ready to counter it with all means and methods,' Wiegand recalled. 'Mielke said that the Chinese leadership had succeeded in smothering the protests before the situation got out of hand.'"
Despite Mielke's attempts to suppress them, East Germany's protesters grew more emboldened with every arrest.
40th anniversary of the GDR
As the fortieth anniversary of the GDR approached, Mielke ordered, "We must stop the internal enemy. At the least hint of a disturbance of the celebration, isolate and arrest them."
One former Stasi Major recalled, "We mixed inconspicuously with the demonstrators, accompanied by our IMs. Hundreds of us stood at the sides of the street in order to stop any activity before it got started. We barely got any sleep toward the end. Never did I sense that the people were afraid of the MfS. The Stasi was more afraid of the people than the people were of them."
According to Koehler, "Despite the unrest, the regime celebrated its fortieth with a huge, pompous ceremony in Berlin on 7 October, while tens of thousands of outside the ornate building of the State Council. The People's Police cordons were utterly ineffectual. As Stasi Minister Erich Mielke drove up and was greeted by General Günter Kratsch, the counterintelligence chief, Mielke screamed at police: "Club those pigs into submission!" () The police ignored Mielke's ranting.
As more and more East Germans were arrested for protesting the 40th anniversary celebrations, many of them sang The Internationale in Vopo and Stasi custody to imply that they, rather than their captors, were the real working class and the real revolutionaries.
According to Anna Funder, "There was a sea of red flags, a torchlight procession, and tanks. The old men on the podium wore light-grey suits studded with medals. Mikhail Gorbachev stood next to Honecker, but he looked uncomfortable among the much older Germans. He had come to tell them that it was over, to convince the leadership to adopt his reformist policies. He had spoken openly about the danger of not 'responding to reality.' He pointedly told the Politburo that, 'life punishes those who come too late.' Honecker and Mielke ignored him, just as they ignored the crowds when they chanted, "Gorby, help us! Gorby, help us!"
Plan X
On 8 October 1989, Mielke and Honecker ordered the Stasi to implement "Plan X"—the SED's plan to arrest and indefinitely detain 85,939 East Germans during a state of emergency. According to John Koehler, Plan X had been in preparation since 1979 and was, "a carbon copy of how the Nazi concentration camps got their start after Hitler came to power in 1933."
By 1984, 23 sites had been selected for "isolation and internment camps." Those who were to be imprisoned in them ran into six categories; including anyone who had ever been under surveillance for anti-state activities, including all members of peace movements which were not under Stasi control.
According to Anna Funder, "The plans contained exact provisions for the use of all available prisons and camps, and when those were full for the conversion of other buildings: Nazi detention centers, schools, hospitals, and factory holiday hostels. Every detail was foreseen, from where the doorbell was located on the house of each person to be arrested to the adequate supply of barbed wire and the rules of dress and etiquette in the camps..."
However, when Mielke sent the orders, codenamed "Shield" (), to each local Stasi precinct to begin the planned arrests, he was not obeyed. Terrified of an East German version of the mass lynchings of Hungarian secret police agents during the 1956 Revolution, Stasi agents throughout the GDR fortified their office-buildings and barricaded themselves inside.
Toppling Honecker
Even as orders were going out to implement Plan X, Mielke had already thrown his support behind the anti-Honecker faction in the SED's Politburo. Although he was of the same generation as Honecker and had matured in an environment where following orders was the rule, he was sober enough and politically savvy enough to realize this approach no longer worked. During a session on 10 October 1989, Mielke delivered a report attacking Honecker's desire to violently suppress the demonstrations rather than offer concessions.
In what Edward N. Peterson has called "a remarkable disclaimer of responsibility for the violence," Mielke declared that Honecker's orders to him "were built on false situation judgments." He added that Honecker's commands on 7 and 8 October "were false and undifferentiated condemnations of those who think differently. Despite this evaluation, there was never any instructions to use violence against persons. There is nothing in our basic principles to consider a demonstration as part of a possible counterrevolutionary coup."
Mielke also claimed that "the Party judged the situation falsely. We tried to tell them the true situation, but enough was not done." Mielke argued in favor of solving the demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel."
On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents who were loyal to him were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with tanks," and tried to impress upon Honecker that it was "the end".
After the vote to oust Honecker passed, Mielke "got nasty," and accused Honecker of corruption. Honecker responded that Mielke should not open his mouth so much. Mielke responded by putting the last nail into Honecker's coffin. He announced that the MfS had a file on the now-ousted leader. It contained proof of Honecker's corrupt business practices, sexual activities, and how, as a member of the underground Communist Party of Germany during the Nazi years, he had been arrested by the Gestapo and had named names.
To the shock of both the Politburo and the Stasi, Krenz's first televised addresses failed to win popular support. Despite his assurances that the SED was at last ready to embrace Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, Krenz's approval ratings remained extremely low.
Former Politburo member Günter Schabowski later recalled, "We made a palace revolution without offering a real alternative... We had not quickly and thoroughly enough whittled away from Stalin's methods."
Defeat
On 7 November 1989, Mielke resigned, along with eleven out of eighteen members of the SED's Council of Ministers, in response to the increasing disintegration of the GDR.
Two days later, Schabowski announced on television that the east–west border was open without restriction.
According to Anna Funder, there was panic at Stasi Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg, "Stasi officers were instructed to destroy files, starting with the most incriminating–those naming westerners who spied for them, and those that concerned deaths. They shredded the files until the paper shredders overheated and shorted out. Among other shortages in the East, there was a shredder shortage, so they had to send agents out under cover to West Berlin to buy more. In Building 8 alone, the citizens' movement found over a hundred burnt out shredders. When they ran out of working shredders from the West and could not procure more they began using scissors to cut the documents by hand.
According to William F. Buckley, Jr., "In the weeks after 9 November, Stasi offices were stormed in various cities around East Germany. Stasi commissars in three of those cities committed suicide. But not one was lynched or executed."
Televised humiliation
On 13 November 1989, Mielke was summoned to deliver a briefing about the protests to the GDR parliament, or Volkskammer. Formerly a "rubber stamp parliament," the disintegration of the SED's power had allowed the Volkskammer to begin exercising real authority over the GDR. Therefore, Mielke, as the head of the Stasi (known as the "shield and sword of the [SED] party"), was summoned before the newly empowered parliament to justify his position in government.
As his speech was broadcast live, Mielke began by using overly bombastic, flag-waving language, saying "We have, comrades, dear assembly members, an extraordinarily high amount of contact with all working people" (). To his shock, the Volkskammer responded with boos, whistles, and catcalls.
His face grief-stricken and pale, Mielke then tried to defuse the situation, "Yes, we have such contact, let me tell you-let me tell you why. I am not afraid to stand here and to give you an unbiased answer" (). Mielke continued, speaking of the "triumph" of the socialist economy, continuing all the while to address the members of the Volkskammer as "Comrades" (). In response, Volkskammer member Dietmar Czok of the Christian Democratic Union, rose from his seat and raised his hand. The Volkskammer's president, Günther Maleuda, interrupted Mielke and urged Czok to speak.
With his voice dripping with contempt, Czok told Mielke, "As a point of order, I will not tell you this again. There are more people sitting in this Chamber than just your Comrades!" (). In response, many in the Volkskammer burst into applause, cheers, and shouts of "We are not your Comrades!" ()
Trying to appear magnanimous, Mielke responded, "This is a natural, Humanistic question! This is just a question of formality." (), leading to further shouts of displeasure from the members of the Volkskammer. In a last ditch effort, Mielke "raised his arms like an evangelist," and cried, "I love all – all Humanity! I really do! I set myself before you!" ()
Everyone in the room, including staunch SED members, burst out laughing. Then Mielke started to cry. John Koehler later wrote, "Mielke was finished."
Mielke's address to the Volkskammer remains the most famous broadcast in the history of German television. Anna Funder has written, "When they think of Mielke, East Germans like to think of this."
The Fall
On 17 November 1989, the Volkskammer renamed the MfS the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit (AfNS – Office for National Security). The following day, Mielke's tenure in office ended when the Volkskammer appointed Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz as the new director of the AfNS.
On 1 December 1989, the Volkskammer nullified the clause of the GDR constitution that enshrined the SED's "leading role" in the government and formally ending Communist rule in East Germany. Two days later, the SED announced that Mielke's party membership had been permanently revoked. Years later, he lamented, "Millions have died for nothing. Everything we fought for – it has all amounted to nothing." He also said, "If the party had given me the task, then there would perhaps still be a GDR today. On that you can rely."
Prosecution
Indictments
On 7 December 1989, Erich Mielke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for embezzlement of public funds in order to improve his hunting estate. He was charged with "Damaging the People's Economy" (Schädigung der Volkswirtschaft). On 7 January 1990, he was further charged with high treason and conspiring with Erich Honecker to bug the telephones and open the mail of every one of East Germany's citizens.
Meanwhile, the Federal Constitutional Court announced that Mielke had also been indicted for having ordered two terrorist attacks by the Baader-Meinhoff Group against United States military personnel who were stationed on West German soil. The first was the car bomb attack against the United States Air Force at Ramstein Air Base on 31 August 1981. The second was the attempted murder with an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket of United States Army General Frederick Kroesen, his wife, and the West German police officer who was driving their armored Mercedes at Heidelberg on 15 September 1981.
After German reunification in October 1990, Mielke was also indicted for ordering the shootings of defectors at the Berlin Wall. He was also charged with misuse of office, breach of trust, and incitement to pervert the course of justice.
Bülowplatz trial
In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the 1931 first degree murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the transcripts from the 1934 trial of his co-conspirators, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke revealed that his role in, "the Bülowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing to Moscow from the Weimar Republic in 1931. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the documents for the purpose of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified that Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bülowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965.
During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plötzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution.
After twenty months of one-and-a-half-hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. At his sentencing, Mielke started to cry. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Imprisonment
Mielke was then put on trial for ordering the shootings of East Germans who were trying to defect to the West. In November 1994, the presiding judge adjourned the proceedings, ruling that Mielke was not mentally competent to stand trial.
During his incarceration, at JVA Moabit corrections officers supplied Mielke with a red telephone like the one in his office at Stasi Headquarters. Although it was not connected to the outside world, Mielke enjoyed having imaginary conversations with non-existent Stasi agents. His other favorite pastime was watching game shows on television.
In 1995, parole officers and Mielke's attorneys argued that he was "totally confused" and obtained his release. At 87 years of age, Erich Mielke was Germany's oldest prison inmate and had been incarcerated for 1,904 days. Days before his release, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin announced that he was "not interested in chasing an 87-year-old man anymore" and that all further prosecution of Mielke had been indefinitely suspended.
According to Koehler, "[Mielke's] bank account, which held more than 300,000 Marks (about US$187,500), was confiscated. Before his arrest in 1989, the most feared man in East Germany had lived in a luxurious home with access to an indoor pool. In addition, he owned a palatial hunting villa, complete with a movie theater, trophy room, 60 servants, and a 60 square kilometers hunting preserve. After he was released from prison Mielke was obliged to move into a two-room, 55-square-meter flat. Like all Stasi pensioners, he would henceforth have to live on 802 marks (about US$512) a month."
Death
Erich Mielke died on 21 May 2000, aged 92, in a Berlin nursing home. After being cremated at the crematorium in Meissen, an urn containing Mielke's ashes was buried in an unmarked grave at the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. An estimated 100 people reportedly attended the funeral. Erich Mielke's grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes. Within hours of his funeral, the flowers and wreaths left at Mielke's grave were ripped to shreds by persons unknown.
Legacy
Writing in 2003, Australian journalist Anna Funder declared, "The name Mielke has now come to mean 'Stasi.' Victims are dubiously honored to find his signature in their files: on plans for someone to be observed 'with all possible methods', on commands for arrest, for kidnapping, instructions to judges for sentencing, orders for 'liquidation'. The honor is dubious because... he signed so many."
In 2012, the museum at the former Stasi headquarters opened Mielke's office as a permanent exhibit. Soon after, The Guardian correspondent Tam Eastley visited the exhibit and numerous sites in Berlin connected to Mielke's life, times, and legacy. When she visited Mielke's grave, Eastley found that it had become a shrine for adherents of Ostalgie.
Personal life
Erich Mielke was a fitness enthusiast, a non-smoker, and drank very little. He was a keen hunter and owned a large area of ground where he would hunt animals with other East German and visiting Soviet officials.
During the late 1940s, when Mielke was working as security chief of the DWK, he began a relationship with Gertrud Mueller, a seamstress. On 18 December 1948, shortly after the birth of their son Frank Mielke, Erich and Gertrud married in a civil ceremony.
According to the newspaper Bild, the Mielkes adopted an orphaned girl named Ingrid, who was born in 1950. Like her adopted brother Frank, Ingrid Mielke attended the Wilhelm Pieck School. She ultimately became a captain in the Stasi and married a Stasi Lieutenant named Norbert Knappe. As of 1999, the Knappes had both refused to grant an interview to Bild reporters.
In popular culture
Erich Mielke has appeared as a character in both films and novels set in the GDR.
Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita (2000), which focuses on Stasi collusion with the West German far-left terrorist organization Rote Armee Fraktion. In conversation with fictional Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke), Mielke (Dietrich Körner) expresses admiration for the RAF's campaign against the United States, West Germany, and the State of Israel, which he compares with his own activities against the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. The RAF members are then brought to a training camp, where Stasi agents instruct them in the use of grenade launchers and other kinds of military hardware. Mielke's name is never disclosed and Agent Hull addresses him only as, "Comrade General." ()
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (2006), which focuses on the Stasi's surveillance and repression of the East German population. In the film, a previously loyal GDR playwright named Georg Dreymann (Sebastian Koch) publishes an anonymous article in the West German magazine Der Spiegel which accuses East Germany's Minister of Culture of having persecuted a blacklisted stage director until he hanged himself. Soon after the article goes to press, Mielke's voice is heard over the telephone giving a dressing down to fictional Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur). Addressed only as "Genosse Armeegeneral" (Mielke was the only person to ever hold that rank in the Stasi), Mielke threatens to throw Grubitz in front of a firing squad if he fails to identify and arrest the article's author.
In Philip Kerr's novel Field Grey (2010), Mielke first appears in 1931 Berlin, when protagonist Bernie Gunther saves him from being murdered by Nazi Brownshirts. The novel then flashes forward to 1954, when Gunther is recruited into a CIA plot to abduct Mielke from East Berlin.
Honours and awards
Mielke received a large number of awards and commemorative medals from organisations within the German Democratic Republic and from allied states. A more complete list is available (in German) at Liste der Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Erich Mielke.
Awards of the German Democratic Republic
Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (7 October 1954)
Six Orders of Karl Marx (28 December 1957, 20 November 1973, 1 December 1975, 28 December 1977, 28 June 1982, 28 December 1982)
Twice Hero of Labour of the GDR (5 October 1964, 24 February 1968)
Twice Hero of the GDR (1 December 1975, 28 December 1982)
Banner of Labour (8 May 1960)
Medal for Exemplary Border Service (26 April 1956)
Medal for Faithful Service in the National People's Army;
Bronze (7 October 1957)
Silver (8 February 1959)
Gold (1 July 1960)
Gold for 20 years service (8 February 1965)
Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (6 September 1958)
Gold Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (1 March 1957)
Scharnhorst Order, twice (25 September 1979, 7 October 1984)
Awards of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union (25 December 1987)
Four Orders of Lenin (12 June 1973, 28 December 1982, 1 April 1985, 28 December 1987)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (6 May 1970)
Four Orders of the Red Banner (23 October 1958, 5 February 1968, 28 December 1977, February 1980)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Soviet Militia" (20 December 1967)
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" (1970)
Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR" (6 January 1970)
Order of the October Revolution (February 1975)
Other states
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 28 December 1982)
Order of Friendship (Czechoslovakia) (28 December 1982)
Order of the Red Star (Czechoslovakia) (16 November 1970)
References
Further reading
Buckley, Jr., William F. (2004), The Fall of the Berlin Wall, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Funder, Anna (2003), Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books, London.
Kuchel, Dany (2011) "Le Glaive et le Bouclier", une histoire de la Stasi en France.
Otto, Wilfriede, Erich Mielke, Biographie: Aufstieg und Fall eines Tschekisten. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2000, .
Peterson, Edward N. (2002). The Secret Police and the Revolution: The Fall of the German Democratic Republic, Praeger Publications, Westport, Connecticut. London.
Pickard, Ralph (2007). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide. Frontline Historical Publishing.
Pickard, Ralph (2012). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II. Frontline Historical Publication.
1907 births
2000 deaths
Politicians from Berlin
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Government ministers of East Germany
Members of the 3rd Volkskammer
Members of the 4th Volkskammer
Members of the 5th Volkskammer
Members of the 6th Volkskammer
Members of the 7th Volkskammer
Members of the 8th Volkskammer
Members of the 9th Volkskammer
East German spies
German Comintern people
German emigrants to the Soviet Union
German politicians convicted of crimes
Köllnisches Gymnasium alumni
German people convicted of murdering police officers
International Brigades personnel
German people of the Spanish Civil War
German police officers convicted of murder
German spies for the Soviet Union
Great Purge perpetrators
Interwar-period spies
NKVD officers
Murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck
Perpetrators of political repression in the Second Spanish Republic
People convicted of murder by Germany
Prisoners and detainees of Germany
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Collaborators with the Soviet Union
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Recipients of the Banner of Labor
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Recipients of the Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"
Recipients of the Order of Georgi Dimitrov
20th-century German criminals
People from Mitte
German mass murderers
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German military personnel of World War II | true | [
"Niels Scheuneman (born 21 December 1983 in Veendam) is a Dutch professional road bicycle racer.\n\nBiography\nWhen Scheuneman was still a junior, won a silver and a bronze medal in the junior races of the 2001 UCI Road World Championships. In the 2003 UCI Road World Championships, he competed in the U23 category, and finished second in the time trial.\n\nScheuneman transferred in 2004 to the Bodysol team, to become a full professional. The Bodysol team then merged with the Relax team, and the combination competed one lever higher, which did not suit Scheuneman, and he had a bad year. At the end of the year, Scheuneman returned to the team, where he rode as a junior.\n\nIn 2005, Scheuneman rode the 2005 Vuelta a España, his only grand tour so far. During a fall which also hurt Roberto Heras, Scheuneman broke his finger and had to abandon the race.\n\nAt the end of the 2006 season, Scheuneman's contract with ended, and he switched to the team. This team was banned from most races in 2007, so Scheuneman did not race a lot. At the end of the season, he decided to retire from professional racing.\n\nIn 2008, he decided to return to racing, and joined the continental KrolStone team.\n\nPalmares \n\nSource:\n\n2001\n World U19 Road Race Championship\n World U19 Time Trial Championship\n2002\n 1st, Stage 2, Triptyque Ardennais\n 2nd, National U23 Time Trial Championship\n2003\n World U23 Time Trial Championship\n 2nd, National U23 Time Trial Championship\n2004\n 1st, Profronde van Fryslan\n\nReferences\n\n1983 births\nLiving people\nDutch male cyclists\nPeople from Veendam\nUCI Road World Championships cyclists for the Netherlands\nSportspeople from Groningen (province)",
"Under the law of England and Wales regarding insanity and unfitness to plead, once a court has determined that the defendant is subject to a disability that prevents their trial progressing, there may be a \"trial of the facts\" in which the truth of the allegations against the defendant, as opposed to their guilt or innocence of a crime, is to be determined. The court's options are: to order an absolute discharge; a supervision order; or a hospital order (with or without a restriction order).\n\nThe trial is not a criminal trial to determine guilt or otherwise; it is \"limited to ensuring that the interference with the liberty of the defendant consequent upon whatever order might be made following an adverse finding can be justified by reference to what can be proved about what he or she did, even if intention might have been clouded by delusion or other incapacity.\"\n\nReferences\n\nSee also \n Trier of fact\n\nEnglish law\nCriminal procedure"
]
|
[
"Erich Mielke",
"Bulowplatz trial",
"When did the trial take place?",
"1992,",
"What was the verdict?",
"convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.",
"Who was the first person murdered?",
"Captains Anlauf and Lenck",
"Who was the victim of the attempted murder?",
"Senior Sergeant Willig.",
"Did he know the murder victims?",
"I don't know.",
"How long did trial last?",
"twenty months",
"What year did the trial end?",
"1993,"
]
| C_5879ec3395ef473987bcbbff52d1eee2_1 | Who was his lawyer? | 8 | Who was Erich Mielke's lawyer? | Erich Mielke | In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the first degree murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the 1934 trial transcripts, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke had admitted that, "the Bulowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing Germany. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the files for purposes of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified about how Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bulowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965. During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plotzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (German: "Ich mochte in mein Bett zuruck."). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution. After twenty months of one-and-a-half hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century." CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
A native of Berlin and a second-generation member of the Communist Party of Germany, Mielke was one of two triggermen in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. After learning that a witness had survived, Mielke escaped arrest by fleeing to the Soviet Union, where the NKVD recruited him. He was one of the key figures in the decimation of Moscow's German Communists during the Great Purge as well as in the persecution of suspected anti-Stalinists in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany, which he helped organize into a Marxist-Leninist satellite state under the Socialist Unity Party (SED), later becoming head of the Stasi. According to historian Jack Koehler, he was "the longest serving secret police chief in the Soviet Bloc".
The Stasi under Mielke has been called by historian Edward Peterson the "most pervasive police state apparatus ever to exist on German soil". In a 1993 interview, Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal has said that, if one considers only the oppression of their own people, the Stasi under Mielke was "much, much worse than the Gestapo".
During the 1950s and 1960s Mielke led the process of forcibly forming collectivised farms from East Germany's family-owned farms, which sent a flood of refugees to West Germany. In response, Mielke oversaw the construction (1961) of the Berlin Wall and co-signed orders to shoot fatally all East Germans who attempted to leave the country. He also oversaw the establishment of pro-Soviet police states and paramilitary insurgencies in Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
In addition to his role as head of the Stasi, Mielke was also an Army General in the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee), and a member of the SED's ruling Politburo. Dubbed "The Master of Fear" () by the West German press, Mielke was one of the most powerful and most hated men in East Germany.
After German reunification in 1990, Mielke was arrested (1991), prosecuted (1992), convicted, and incarcerated (1993) for the 1931 murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. Released from prison early due to ill health in 1995, he died in a Berlin nursing home in 2000.
Early life
Erich Mielke was born in a tenement in Berlin-Wedding, Brandenburg, on 28 December 1907. During the First World War, the neighborhood was known as "Red Wedding" due to many residents' Marxist militancy. In a handwritten biography written for the Soviet secret police, Mielke described his father as "a poor, uneducated woodworker," and said that his mother died in 1911. Both were, he said, members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After his remarriage to "a seamstress," the elder Mielke and his new wife joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and remained members when it was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). His son Erich claimed "My younger brother Kurt and two sisters were Communist sympathisers."
Despite his family's poverty, Erich Mielke was academically gifted enough to be awarded a free scholarship in the prestigious Köllnisches Gymnasium, but was expelled on 19 February 1929, for being "unable to meet the great demands of this school." While attending the Gymnasium, Mielke joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1925, and worked as a reporter for the communist newspaper Rote Fahne from 1928 to 1931.
During the Weimar Republic, the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and was seen as the "leading party" of the communist movement outside the Soviet Union. Under Ernst Thälmann's leadership, the KPD was completely obedient to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the Party was both funded and controlled by the Comintern in Moscow.
Until the end of the Republic, the KPD viewed the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which dominated German politics between 1918 and 1931, as their mortal enemy. In keeping with Stalin's policy towards social democracy, the KPD considered all SPD members to be "social fascists". The KPD also believed that all other political parties were "fascist" and regarded itself as "the only anti-fascist Party" in Germany. Nevertheless, the KPD closely collaborated with the Nazi Party during the early 1930s and both Parties intended to replace the democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic with a totalitarian single party state.
Soon after joining the Party, Mielke joined the KPD's paramilitary wing, or Parteiselbstschutz ("Party Self Defense Unit"). At the time, the Parteiselbstschutz in Berlin was commanded by KPD Reichstag Representatives Hans Kippenberger and Heinz Neumann.
According to John Koehler, "Mielke was a special protege of Kippenberger's having taken to his paramilitary training with the enthusiasm of a Prussian Junker. World War I veterans taught the novices how to handle pistols, rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades. This clandestine training was conducted in the sparsely populated, pastoral countryside surrounding Berlin. Mielke also pleased Kippenberger by being an exceptional student in classes on the arts of conspiratorial behavior and espionage, taught by comrades who had studied at the secret M-school of the GRU in Moscow."
According to John Koehler, members of the Parteiselbstschutz "served as bouncers at Party meetings and specialized in cracking heads during street battles with political enemies." Besides the ruling SPD and its paramilitary Reichsbanner forces, the arch-enemies of the Parteiselbstschutz were the Stahlhelm, which was the armed wing of the Monarchist German National People's Party (DVNP), Trotskyites, and "radical nationalist parties."
According to Koehler, the KPD's Selbstschutz men "always carried a Stahlrute, two steel springs that telescoped into a tube seventeen centimeters long, which when extended became a deadly, 35-centimeter weapon. Not to be outdone by the Nazis, these street-fighters were often armed with pistols as well."
In a 1931 biography written for the Cadre Division of the Comintern, Mielke recalled, "We took care of all kinds of work; terror acts, protecting illegal demonstrations and meetings, arms-trafficking, etc. The last work, which was accomplished by a Comrade and myself, was the Bülowplatz Affair" ().
Bülowplatz murders
Planning
During the last days of the Weimar Republic, the KPD had a policy of assassinating two Berlin police officers in retaliation for every KPD member killed by the police.
On 2 August 1931, KPD Members of the Reichstag Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger received a dressing down from Walter Ulbricht, the Party's leader in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Enraged by police interference and by Neumann and Kippenberger's failure to follow the policy, Ulbricht stated, "At home in Saxony we would have done something about the police a long time ago. Here in Berlin we will not fool around much longer. Soon we will hit the police in the head."
Enraged by Ulbricht's words, Kippenberger and Neumann decided to assassinate Paul Anlauf, the 42-year-old Captain of the Berlin Police's Seventh Precinct. Captain Anlauf, a widower with three daughters, had been nicknamed "Schweinebacke", or "Pig Face" by the KPD.
According to historian John Koehler, "Of all the policemen in strife-torn Berlin, the reds hated Anlauf the most. His precinct included the area around KPD headquarters, which made it the most dangerous in the city. The captain almost always led the riot squads that broke up illegal rallies of the Communist Party."
On the morning of Sunday 9 August 1931, Kippenberger and Neumann gave a last briefing to the hit-team in a room at the Lassant beer hall. Mielke and Erich Ziemer were selected as the shooters. During the meeting, Max Matern gave a Luger pistol to fellow lookout Max Thunert and said, "Now we're getting serious. We're going to give Schweinebacke something to remember us by."
Kippenberger then asked Mielke and Ziemer, "Are you sure that you are ready to shoot Schweinebacke?" Mielke responded that he had seen Anlauf many times during police searches of Party Headquarters. Kippenberger then instructed them to wait at a nearby beer hall which would permit them to overlook the entire Bülow-Platz. He further reminded them that Anlauf was accompanied everywhere by Senior Sergeant Max Willig, whom the KPD had nicknamed, "Hussar".
Kippenberger concluded, "When you spot Schweinebacke and Hussar, you take care of them." Mielke and Ziemer were informed that, after the assassinations were completed, a diversion would assist in their escape. They were then to return to their homes and await further instructions.
That evening, Anlauf was lured to Bülow-Platz by a violent rally demanding the dissolution of the Prussian Parliament.
According to Koehler, "As was often the case when it came to battling the dominant SPD, the KPD and the Nazis had combined forces during the pre-plebiscite campaign. At one point in this particular campaign, Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels even shared a speaker's platform with KPD agitator Walter Ulbricht. Both parties wanted the parliament dissolved because they were hoping that new elections would oust the SPD, the sworn enemy of all radicals. That fact explained why the atmosphere was particularly volatile this Sunday."
Murder at the Babylon Cinema
At eight o'clock that evening, Mielke and Ziemer waited in a doorway as Anlauf, Willig, and Captain Franz Lenck walked toward the Babylon Cinema, which was located at the corner of Bülowplatz and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. As they reached the door of the movie house, the policemen heard someone scream, "Schweinebacke!"
As Anlauf turned toward the sound, Mielke and Ziemer opened fire at point blank range. Willig was wounded in the left arm and the stomach. However, he managed to draw his Luger pistol and fired a full magazine at the assailants. Lenck was shot in the chest and fell dead in front of the entrance. Willig crawled over and cradled the head of Anlauf, who had taken two bullets in the neck.
Meanwhile, Mielke and Ziemer made their escape by running into the theater and out an emergency exit. They tossed their pistols over a fence, where they were later found by Homicide Detectives from the elite Mordkommission. Mielke and Ziemer then returned to their homes.
According to Koehler, "Back at Bülowplatz, the killings had triggered a major police action. At least a thousand officers poured into the square, and a bloody street battle ensued. Rocks and bricks were hurled from the rooftops. Communist gunmen fired indiscriminately from the roofs of surrounding apartment houses. As darkness fell, police searchlights illuminated the buildings. Using megaphones, officers shouted, "Clear the streets! Move away from the windows! We are returning fire!" By now the rabble had fled the square, but shooting continued as riot squads combed the tenements, arresting hundreds of residents suspected of having fired weapons. The battle lasted until one o'clock the next morning. In addition to the two police officers, the casualties included one Communist who died of a gunshot wound and seventeen others who were seriously wounded."
Anlauf's wife had died three weeks earlier of kidney failure. The murder of Anlauf thus left their three daughters as orphans. Their oldest daughter was forced to rush her planned wedding in order to keep her sisters from being put in an orphanage. Lenck was survived by his wife. Willig was hospitalized for 14 weeks, but made a full recovery and returned to active duty. In recognition for Willig's courage, the Berlin Police promoted him to Lieutenant.
After the murders, the act was celebrated at the Lichtenberger Hof, a favorite beer hall of the Rotfrontkämpferbund, where Mielke boasted: "Today we celebrate a job that I pulled!" ()
Fugitive
According to Koehler, "Kippenberger was alarmed when word reached him that Sergeant Willig had survived the shooting. Not knowing whether the sergeant could talk and identify the attackers, Kippenberger was taking no chances. He directed a runner to summon Mielke and Ziemer to his apartment at 74 Bellermannstrasse, only a few minutes walk from where the two lived. When the assassins arrived, Kippenberger told them the news and ordered them to leave Berlin at once. The parliamentarian's wife Thea, an unemployed schoolteacher and as staunch a Communist Party member as her husband, shepherded the young murderers to the Belgian border. Agents of the Communist International (Comintern) in the port city of Antwerp supplied them with money and forged passports. Aboard a merchant ship, they sailed for Leningrad. When their ship docked, they were met by another Comintern representative, who escorted them to Moscow."
Beginning in 1932, Mielke attended the Comintern's Military Political school under the alias Paul Bach. He later graduated from the Lenin School shortly before being recruited into the OGPU.
Trial
According to Koehler, "In mid-March 1933, while attending the Lenin School, Mielke received word from his OGPU sponsors that Berlin police had arrested Max Thunert, one of the conspirators in the Anlauf and Lenck murders. Within days, fifteen other members of the assassination team were in custody. Mielke had to wait six more months before the details of the police action against his Berlin comrades reached Moscow. On 14 September 1933, Berlin newspapers reported that all fifteen had confessed to their roles in the murders. Arrest warrants were issued for ten others who had fled, including Mielke, Ziemer, Ulbricht, Kippenberger, and Neumann."
Koehler also stated, "Defenders of Mielke later claimed that confessions had been obtained under torture by the Nazi Gestapo. However, all suspects were in the custody of the regular Berlin city criminal investigation bureau, most of whose detectives were SPD members. Some of the suspects had been nabbed by Nazi SA men and probably beaten before they were turned over to police. In the 1993 trial of Mielke, the court gave the defense the benefit of the doubt and threw out a number of suspect confessions."
On 19 June 1934, the 15 conspirators were convicted of first degree murder. The three deemed most culpable, Michael Klause, Max Matern, and Friedrich Bröde were sentenced to death. Their co-defendants received sentences ranging from nine months to fifteen years incarceration at hard labor. Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation. Bröde hanged himself in his cell. As a result, only Matern was left to be executed by beheading on 22 May 1935.
Matern was subsequently glorified as a martyr by KPD and East German propaganda. Ziemer was officially killed in action while fighting on the Republican-side during the Spanish Civil War. Mielke, however, would not face trial for the murders until 1993.
Career in Soviet intelligence
The Great Terror
Although Moscow's German Communist community was decimated during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Mielke survived and was promoted.
In a handwritten autobiography prepared after World War II, Mielke recalled, "During my stay in the S.U. (Soviet Union), I participated in all Party discussions of the K.P.D. and also in the problems concerning the establishment of socialism and in the trials against the traitors and enemies of the S.U."
Among the German communists executed as a result of these "discussions" were Mielke's former mentors Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger.
Mielke further recalled, "I was a guest on the honor grandstand of Red Square during the May Day and October Revolution parades. I became acquainted with many comrades of the Federation of World Communist Parties and the War Council of the Special Commission of the Comintern. I will never forget my meeting with Comrade Dimitrov, the Chairman of the Comintern, whom I served as an aide together with another comrade. I saw Comrade Stalin during all demonstrations at Red Square, especially when I stood on the grandstand. I mention these meetings because all these comrades are our models and teachers for our work."
During his time in the USSR, Mielke also developed a lifelong reverence for Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Polish aristocrat who founded the Soviet secret police. Mielke also began an equally permanent habit of calling himself a Chekist.
In a citation written decades later, Mielke described his philosophy of life, "The Chekist is the political combatant. He is the loyal son of... the workers' class. He stands at the head of the battle to strengthen the power of our workers' and peasants' state."
Spanish Civil War
From 1936 to 1939, Mielke served in Spain as an operative of the Servicio de Investigación Militar, the political police of the Second Spanish Republic. While attached to the staff of, "veteran GRU agent," and future Stasi minister Wilhelm Zaisser, Mielke used the alias Fritz Leissner. Bernd Kaufmann, the director of the Stasi's espionage school later said, "The Soviets trusted Mielke implicitly. He earned his spurs in Spain."
At the time, the S.I.M. was heavily staffed by agents of the Soviet NKVD, whose Spanish rezident was General Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and International Brigade commanders than on fighting Franco. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics."
In a 1991 interview, Walter Janka, a fellow German communist exile and company commander in the International Brigade, recalled his encounters with Mielke. During the winter of 1936, Janka was summoned by the SIM and interrogated by Mielke. Mielke demanded to know why Janka had voluntarily traveled to Spain rather than being assigned there by the Party. When he told Mielke to get lost, the SIM demoted Janka to the ranks and then expelled him from the International Brigade. Years later, Janka recalled, "While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists."
Upon the defeat of the Spanish Republic, Mielke fled across the Pyrenees Mountains to France, where he was interned at Camp de Rivesaltes, Pyrénées-Orientales. Mielke, however, managed to send a message to exiled KPD members and, in May 1939, escaped to Belgium. Although the Public Prosecutor of Berlin learned of Mielke's presence and filed for his extradition, the Belgian Government refused to comply, regarding the assassinations of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as "a political crime."
The NKVD and the SIM's witch hunt for both real and imagined anti-Stalinists had serious consequences. It horrified numerous formerly pro-Soviet Westerners who had been witnesses, including John Dos Passos, Arthur Koestler and George Orwell, and caused them to permanently turn against the USSR.
Mielke's belief that anti-Soviet Marxists had collaborated with Franco and stabbed the Republic in the back continued to shape his attitudes for the rest of his life. In a 1982 speech before a group of senior Stasi officers, he said, "We are not immune from villains among us. If I knew of any already, they wouldn't live past tomorrow. Short shrift. It's because I'm a Humanist, that I'm of this view."
In the same speech, Mielke also said, "All this blithering over to execute or not to execute, for the death penalty or against—all rot, Comrades. Execute! And, when necessary, without a court judgment."
World War II
During World War II, Mielke's movements remain mysterious. In a biography written after the war, he claimed to have infiltrated Organisation Todt under the alias Richard Hebel, but historian John O. Koehler considers this unlikely.
Koehler admits, however, "Mielke's exploits must have been substantial. By war's end, he had been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War First Class, and twice with the Order of Lenin. It is likely that he served as an NKVD agent, at least part of the time with guerrilla units behind German lines, for he knew all the partisan songs by heart and sang them in faultless Russian."
Occupied Germany
Komissariat-5
In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.
That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."
On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No. 2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services.
In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke disclosed—truthfully—his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, and—mistakenly or misleadingly—that for this he had been tried in absentia, found guilty, and sentenced to death. In actuality, Mielke's "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried". He admitted—truthfully—fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed—falsely—that he had been released from the French internment camps and had worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston". Furthermore, Mielke concealed his past and contemporaneous involvement with the NKVD, NKGB, and the Nazi Organisation Todt (which he asserted he'd infiltrated).
According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets. Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers. But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."
On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany.
According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan. In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a "new Gestapo." Furthermore, Abakumov, like Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked." Notwithstanding Abakumov's objections, however, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately. It is possible, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers' lack of fluency in the German language was engendering massive popular resentment.
Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head. Mielke was installed as his deputy.
According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police. Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons. Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party. Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision. The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them. Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."
According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees. Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers. In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary rule of law."
According to Edward N. Peterson, "Not surprisingly, K-5 acquired a reputation as bad as that of Stalin's secret police and worse than that of the Gestapo. At least with the Nazis, albeit fanatically racist, their victims did not suddenly disappear into the GULAG."
The Amalgamation
Despite the K-5's mass arrests of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Zone, the number of SPD members continued to grow. By March 1946, SPD members outnumbered KPD members by more than 100,000. Fearing that they would lose the elections scheduled for the autumn, the leadership of the KPD asked for and received Stalin's permission to merge the two parties. When the SPD's leadership agreed only to schedule a vote for the rank and file to decide, permission was denied by the Soviet occupation authorities. The K-5 then began mass arrests of SPD members who refused to support the merger.
On 22 April 1946, the remaining leaders of the SPD in the Soviet Zone announced that they had united with the KPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SPD in the western zones of Occupied Germany responded by forming the SPD East Bureau in order to support and finance those Social Democrats who refused to accept the merger. Those who joined or worked with the East Bureau were, however, in serious danger of arrest by the K-5 and trial by Soviet military tribunals. By 1950, more than 5,000 SPD members and sympathisers had been imprisoned in the Soviet Zone or transferred to the GULAG. More than 400 were either executed or died during their imprisonments.
John Koehler has written that, prior to the spring of 1946, many Germans in the Soviet Zone, "merely shrugged at the wave of arrests, believing that the victims were former Nazi officials and war criminals." But then came the mass arrests of Social Democrats who opposed the merger, who, "were joined by people who had been denounced for making anti-communist or anti-Soviet remarks, among their number hundreds who were as young as fourteen years. Although these arrests were made by Germans purporting to be officials of the criminal police, the existence of the K-5 political police eventually was exposed. Mielke, meanwhile, had risen to the post of vice-president of the German Administration for Interior Affairs – the equivalent of the NKVD – and continued his manipulations from behind the scenes."
Investigation
In January 1947, two retired Berlin policemen recognized Mielke at an official function. Informing the head of the criminal police in West Berlin, the policemen demanded that Mielke be arrested and prosecuted for the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. Wilhelm Kühnast, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin, was immediately informed and ordered a search of the Kammergericht archives. To his astonishment, the files of the 1931 murders had survived the wartime bombing of Germany. Finding ample evidence of Mielke's involvement, Kühnast ordered the arrest of the communist policeman.
According to John Koehler, "At that time, the city administration, including the police, was under the control of the Allied Control Commission, which consisted of U.S., British, French, and Soviet military officers. All actions by city officials, including the judiciary, were to be reported to the Commission. The Soviet representative alerted the MGB. Action was swift. Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, who had replaced Zhukov, protested, and his representatives at the Commission launched a vicious campaign to discredit Kühnast."
The Soviet representatives falsely claimed that Kühnast, a jurist with an impeccable anti-Nazi record, had been an official of Roland Freisler's People's Court. Taking the Soviets at their word, the Western Allies removed Kühnast from his position and placed him under house arrest. During the Berlin airlift, Kühnast fled from his home in East Berlin and was granted political asylum in the American Zone.
Meanwhile, the Soviet authorities confiscated all documents relating to the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. According to Koehler, "The Soviets handed the court records to Mielke. Instead of destroying the incriminating papers, he locked them in his private safe, where they were found when his home was searched in 1990. They were used against him in his trial for murder."
Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission
In 1948, Mielke was appointed as security chief of the German Economic Commission (), the precursor to the future East German government.
Mielke's task was to investigate the theft and sale of state property on the black market. He was also charged with intercepting the growing number of refugees fleeing to the French, British, and American Zones.
Those his security forces caught while attempting to defect were used as slave labor in the uranium mines that were providing raw material for the Soviet atomic bomb project.
German Democratic Republic
Independence
In 1949, the Soviet Military Administration ceded its legal functions to the newly created German Democratic Republic.
On 14 January 1950, Marshal Vasili Chuikov announced that all Soviet "internment camps" on German soil had been closed. Soon after, the DWK was absorbed into the newly created Ministry for State Security. In keeping with earlier syllabic abbreviations along the same lines (see OrPo, KriPo, and GeStaPo) East Germans immediately dubbed it the "Stasi" (from Staatssicherheit). With the approval of the Soviets, Mielke's commanding officer from Spain and in the K5, Wilhelm Zaisser, was appointed as the Stasi's head. Mielke was appointed to his staff with the rank of State Secretary. Mielke was also granted a seat in the SED's ruling Politburo.
According to John Koehler, "In the five years since the end of World War II, the Soviets and their vassals had arrested between 170,000 and 180,000 Germans. Some 160,000 had passed through the concentration camps, and of these about 65,000 had died, 36,000 had been shipped to the Soviet Gulag, and another 46,000 had been freed."
In 1949, as a response to the remilitarization of East Germany and the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Portugal formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. In 1950, as a response to the outbreak of the Korean War, West Germany was also permitted to join NATO, which was then upgraded into a military alliance.
According to Koehler, however, "As the Cold War intensified, living conditions in Soviet-occupied East Germany showed little improvement beyond the postwar level of bare subsistence. The new government of the DDR – a mere puppet of the Kremlin – relied more and more on the Stasi to quell discontent among factory workers and farmers. Ulbricht, claiming that the social unrest was fomented by capitalist agents, once ordered Mielke to personally visit one large plant and 'arrest four or five such agents' as an example to the others. The Stasi deputy 'discovered' the agents in record time."
Field show trials
Also in 1949, Noel Field, an American citizen who had spied for the NKVD from inside the U.S. State Department, the Office of Strategic Services, and the CIA, fled from his posting in Switzerland to Communist Czechoslovakia after his cover was blown by fellow mole Whittaker Chambers. On 11 May 1949, the Czechoslovakian secret police, or StB, in obedience to a direct order from KGB chief Lavrenti Beria, arrested Field in Prague. Field was then handed over to the Hungarian ÁVO. After his interrogation in Budapest, Fields was used as a witness at show trials of senior Soviet Bloc Communists who, like László Rajk and Rudolf Slánský, stood accused of having spied for the United States. The real reason for the trials was to replace homegrown Communists in Eastern Europe with those who would be blindly loyal to Joseph Stalin and to blame the division of Germany on the intrigues of U.S. intelligence.
At the Rajk show trial, the prosecutor declared, "Noel Field, one of the leaders of American espionage, specialized in recruiting spies from among left-wing elements."
In August 1950, six senior SED members, including Willi Kreikemeyer, the director of Deutsche Reichsbahn and head of Berliner Rundfunk, were accused of "special connections with Noel Field, the American spy." All were either imprisoned or shot.
John Koehler writes, "Similar purges were conducted in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, where Field appeared as a witness in show trials that resulted in some death sentences. The Soviets simply distrusted all Communists who had sought exile in the West. All the while, Mielke remained untouched and continued to serve as the deputy secret police chief. His survival reinforced the belief that he had spent the war years in the Soviet Union instead of France and Belgium as he had claimed in the 1945 questionnaire."
In June 1950, Erica Wallach, Noel Field's adopted daughter, decided to search for him. From Paris, she telephoned Leo Bauer, the editor-in-chief of Berliner Rundfunk. The call was monitored by agents of the Soviet Ministry for Internal Affairs, and Bauer's handler instructed him to invite Mrs. Wallach to East Berlin, where she was immediately arrested. Mielke personally interrogated her and, at one point, offered Mrs. Wallach immediate release if she named the members of her fictitious spy network. She was condemned to death by a Soviet military tribunal in East Berlin and shipped to the Lubianka prison in Moscow for her execution. After Joseph Stalin's death in on 5 March 1953, Erica Wallach's sentence was reduced to hard labor in Vorkuta, a region of the Gulag located above the Arctic Circle. She was released during the Khrushchev thaw in October 1955. At first, she was unable to join her husband and daughters in the U.S. because of the U.S. State Department's concern over her former membership in the Communist Party of Germany. It took the personal intervention of CIA Director Allen Dulles to reunite Erica Wallach with her family in 1957. Wallach's memoir of her experiences, Light at Midnight, was published in 1967.
Death of Stalin
After Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin died inside his Kuntsevo Dacha on 5 March 1953, the Central Committee of the East German Socialist Unity Party met in a special session and eulogized the dictator as the "great friend of Germany who was always an advisor of and help to our people."
Two months later, on 5 May 1953, the SED's General Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, and the rest of the leadership increased work quotas by 10%. They also decided to rename Chemnitz Karl-Marx-Stadt and to institute the Order of Karl Marx as the GDR's highest award.
Two weeks later, Mielke accused "a group of Party officials" of "plotting against the leadership", which "resulted in more expulsions from the Politburo and the Central Committee."
East German uprising of 1953
Discontent among factory workers about a 10% increase of work quotas without a corresponding wage hike boiled over. On 16 June 1953, nearly one hundred construction workers gathered before work for a protest meeting at Stalinallee, in East Berlin. Words spread rapidly to other construction sites and hundreds of men and women joined the rally, which marched to the House of Ministries. The protesters chanted slogans for five hours, demanding to speak to Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl. Only Heavy Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann and Professor Robert Havemann, president of the GDR Peace Council, emerged. Their speech, however, was answered with jeers and the Ministers retreated into the heavily armed building. The regular and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei were summoned from their barracks, but made no move to attack the protesters, who returned to Stalinallee, where a general strike was called.
Following West Germany's Federal Minister for All-German Questions Jakob Kaiser's admonition in a late night broadcast to East Germans to shy away from provocations, RIAS, starting with its 11 pm news broadcast, and from then on in hourly intermissions, repeated the workers' demand to continue the strike the next day, calling specifically for all East Berliners to participate in a demo at 7am on the 17th at Strausberger Platz.
The following day, 17 June 1953, more that 100,000 protesters took to the streets of East Berlin. More than 400,000 protesters also took to the streets in other cities and towns throughout the German Democratic Republic. Everywhere, the demands were the same: free elections by secret ballot.
Outside of Berlin, the main centres of the protests included the industrial region around Halle, Merseburg, and Bitterfeld, as well as middle-size towns like Jena, Görlitz, and Brandenburg. No more than 25,000 people participated in strikes and demonstrations in Leipzig, but there were 32,000 in Magdeburg, 43,000 in Dresden, 53,000 in Potsdam – and in Halle, a figure close to 100,000.
In West Berlin, the American radio station RIAS and several other West German stations reported on the protests and on plans for a general strike. As East Germans listened to the broadcasts, 267,000 workers at State-owned plants in 304 cities and towns joined the general strike. In 24 towns, outraged East Germans stormed the Stasi's prisons and freed between 2,000 and 3,000 political prisoners.
In response to orders, the Soviet Occupation Forces, the Stasi and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei went on the attack. Bloody street battles ensued and hundreds of policemen defected to the side of the protesters. Both police and Stasi stations were overrun and some government offices were sacked. The Party leadership retreated into a fortified compound in the Pankow district of East Berlin.
At noon, the Soviet authorities terminated all tram and metro traffic into the Eastern sector and all but closed the sector borders to West Berlin to prevent more demonstrators from reaching the city centre. An hour later, they declared martial law in East Berlin.
The repression took place outside East Berlin police HQ – where Soviet tanks opened fire on "the insurgents".
According to John Koehler, "... by late afternoon, Soviet tanks accompanied by Infantry and MVD troops had rolled into East Berlin and other cities in the Soviet Zone. This made the people even angrier. At Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, which bordered on the American Sector, irate protesters ignored machine gun fire and the menacing barrels of tank guns. They ripped cobblestones from the streets and hurled them at the tanks."
Fighting between the Red Army (and later GDR police) and the demonstrators persisted into the afternoon and night. In some cases, the tanks and the soldiers fired directly into the crowds.
Overnight, the Soviets (and the Stasi) started to arrest hundreds of people. Ultimately, up to 10,000 people were detained and at least 20, probably as many as 40, people were executed, including Red Army soldiers who refused to obey orders. With the SED leadership effectively paralysed at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, control of the city passed to the Soviets.
In honor of the uprising, West Germany established 17 June as a national holiday, called Day of German Unity. The extension of the Unter den Linden boulevard to the west of the Brandenburg Gate, formerly called Charlottenburger Chaussee, was also renamed Straße des 17. Juni ("17 June Street") in honor of the uprising.
According to John Koehler, "Provisional prison camps were set up to hold the thousands of Stasi victims. Nearly 1,500 persons were sentenced in secret trials to long prison terms. On 24 June, Mielke issued a terse announcement that one Stasi officer, nineteen demonstrators, and two bystanders had been killed during the uprising. He did not say how many were victims of official lynching. The numbers of the wounded were given as 191 policemen, 126 demonstrators, and 61 bystanders."
Also according to Koehler, "Calm returned to the streets of the Soviet Zone, yet escapes to the West continued at a high rate. Of the 331,390 who fled in 1953, 8,000 were members of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the barracked people's police units, which were actually the secret cadre of the future East German Army. Also among the escapees were 2,718 members and candidates of the SED, the ruling Party."
The Khrushchev thaw
Purges
Alarmed by the uprising, Lavrenty Beria, the First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, personally travelled from Moscow to East Berlin. He conferred with Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser and with Mielke, his deputy, both of whom he had known since the early 1930s. During both conversations, Beria demanded to know why the Stasi had failed to recognize the extreme discontent of the population and inform the Party leadership, which could then have prevented the uprising by taking extremely repressive measures in advance. Both Zaisser and Mielke answered Beria's questions circumspectly, and were accordingly left in their posts.
In response to the uprising, Beria decided to replace several hundred MVD officers, including Major General Ivan Fadeykin, the MVD resident of East Germany. The Stasi, according to John Koehler, "generally remained untouched except for the arrests and dismissals, for dereliction of duty, of a handful of officers in the provinces. One high-ranking Stasi officer shot himself."
Following Beria's return to Moscow, however, he was arrested on 26 June 1953, in a coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Beria was tried on charges of 357 counts of rape and high treason. He was sentenced to death and shot by Red Army Colonel-General Pavel Batitsky on 23 December 1953.
In an interview to Neues Deutschland, the official party newspaper of East Germany, on 30 June 1953, the Party's Minister of Justice, Max Fechner, declared that, "illegal arrests," had been made and that being a member of a strike committee or suspicion of being a ringleader was not in itself grounds for arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, when the East German Politburo met on 8 July, it seemed that Ulbricht would be deposed as Party General Secretary. Zaisser conceded that the whole Politburo was responsible for the "accelerated construction of socialism" and of the subsequent fallout. But he also added that to leave Ulbricht as Premier, "would be opposed catastrophic for the New Course".
By the end of the meeting, only two Politburo members still supported Ulbricht's leadership: Free German Youth League chief Erich Honecker and Party Control Commission Chairman Hermann Matern. Ulbricht only managed to forestall a decision then and there with a promise to make a statement at the forthcoming 15th SED CC Plenum, scheduled for later that month.
Meanwhile, Mielke informed a Party commission looking for scapegoats that his boss, Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser, was calling for secret negotiations with West Germany and that, "he believed the Soviet Union would abandon the DDR."
By late July, Ulbricht was completely certain that he had the support of the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Therefore, he expelled his main opponents, Zaisser, Hernstadt and Ackermann, from the Politburo, and thus strengthened his position further.
SED Minister of Justice Max Fechner was personally arrested by Mielke and replaced by Hilde Benjamin, who was known to East German citizens as "Red Hilde", "The Red Freisler," and as, "The Red Guillotine," for her role as a judge in the SED's show trials.
Fechner was convicted of being, "an enemy of the Party and the State," and served three years in Bautzen Prison.
Wilhelm Zaisser was replaced as head of the Stasi by Ernst Wollweber and Mielke remained on staff as his deputy.
Tenure as Stasi head
Mielke headed the Stasi from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There was, under the East German system, no provision for parliamentary oversight. However, starting in 1971 Mielke was required to provide a detailed intelligence briefing to party secretary Erich Honecker each Tuesday, directly following the weekly Politburo meeting. (Before 1971, under Walter Ulbricht, Mielke was not involved in routine intelligence briefings to the leadership which, instead, were provided directly to Ulbricht by Intelligence Chief Markus Wolf.)
Internal discipline
During his tenure, Mielke enforced "political and personal discipline reminiscent of the early French Foreign Legion". New recruits were required to take a solemn oath pledging "to fight alongside the state security organs of all socialist countries against all enemies of socialism" on pain of "the severest punishment under the Republic's laws and the contempt of the workers." Recruits were also required to sign a security pledge vowing never to make unauthorized visits to any "capitalist countries" and to report on any members of their families who did so.
Violations of the oath resulted in expulsion from the Stasi and blacklisting from all but the most menial jobs. Serious violations were tried before secret tribunals and led an estimated 200 Stasi agents to be shot. Colonel Rainer Wiegand once said, "There was only one way to leave the MfS without being haunted for the rest of your life. You either retired or you died."
Domestic activities
Under Erich Mielke's leadership, the Stasi employed 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 civilian informants () (IMs). East Germans coined a term to describe the Stasi's pervasive surveillance of the population "All-Covered" (). For this reason, Anna Funder has referred to East Germany as, "the most perfected surveillance state of all time."
According to John Koehler, "...the Stasi's tentacles probed every aspect of life. Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei...In turn, the police officer was the Stasi's man. If a relative or friend came to stay overnight, it was reported. Schools, universities and hospitals were infiltrated from top to bottom. German academe was shocked to learn that Heinrich Fink, professor of theology and vice-chancellor of East Berlin's Humboldt University, had been a Stasi informer since 1968. After Fink's Stasi connections came to light, he was summarily fired. Doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, and sports figures were co-opted by Stasi officers, as were waiters and hotel personnel. Tapping about 100,000 telephone lines in East Germany and West Berlin around the clock was the job of 2,000 officers... Churchmen, including high officials of both Protestant and Catholic denominations, were recruited en masse as secret informants. Their offices and confessionals were infested with eavesdropping devices. Even the director of Leipzig's famous Thomas Church choir, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, was forced to resign when he was unmasked as a Spitzel, the people's pejorative for a Stasi informant."
In an interview with journalist Anna Funder, an ex-Stasi officer recalled, "Most often, people we approached would inform for us. It was very rare that they would not. However, sometimes we felt that we might need to know where their weak points were, just in case. For example, if we wanted a pastor, we'd find out if he'd had an affair, or had a drinking problem—things that we could use as leverage. Mostly though, people said yes."
On Mielke's orders, and with his full knowledge, Stasi officers also engaged in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, brutal harassment of political dissidents, torture, and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens.
In a 1991 interview, Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said, "The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people. The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million."
Activities abroad
During Mielke's tenure, the Stasi's operations beyond East Germany were overseen by Markus Wolf and the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (MfS-HVA).
Mielke and Wolf provided money, training, and surveillance equipment to help build pro-Soviet secret police forces in Fidel Castro's Cuba, Baathist Syria, Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua, Mengistu Haile Mariam's Ethiopia, Idi Amin's Uganda, Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, and South Yemen.
After the opening of Stasi archives, it was revealed that West Germany was riddled with MfS-HVA moles. In what John Koehler has dubbed, "The Invisible Invasion", some West German citizens collaborated out of Marxist beliefs, but others were recruited through blackmail, greed, career frustrations, or sexual favors from Stasi operatives.
Another tactic was for Stasi military advisers assigned to African and Middle Eastern countries to request the arrest of West German tourists. Local police would then turn the prisoner over to the Stasi agent, who would offer the West German a choice between espionage or incarceration.
Senior politicians from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union were exposed and, when still alive, prosecuted.
Mielke and Wolf also seriously compromised West Germany's police departments, foreign and domestic intelligence services, diplomatic corps, military-industrial complex, and journalistic profession.
The Stasi compromised the United States military and diplomatic presence in West Germany.
The most damaging American to spy for the Stasi was United States Army Sergeant James Hall III, who volunteered his services to Soviet and East German intelligence in November 1981.
Sergeant Hall sold the Stasi 13,088 pages of classified documents, including detailed information about Project Trojan, a worldwide electronic network with the ability to pinpoint armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft by recording their signal emissions during wartime and the complete National SIGINT Requirements List (NSRL), a 4258-page document about NSA operations at home and abroad.
In 1988, Sergeant Hall was tricked into confessing his espionage career to an undercover FBI Special Agent named Dmitri Droujinsky, a Russian-American who was posing as an agent of the KGB. When news of Sergeant Hall's arrest became public, one Washington intelligence official called the breach, "the Army's Walker Case."
Collusion with Nazism
Beginning in 1960, Mielke and Wolf used false flag recruitment to secretly organize and finance Neo-Nazi organizations, which they then instructed to vandalize Jewish religious and cultural sites throughout West Germany. During the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann, Stasi agents sent letters to West German Neo-Nazis and Waffen-SS veterans, urging them to speak out and to raise money for Eichmann's defense attorney. This was done in order to lend credibility to Communist propaganda about the allegedly Fascist and neo-Nazi orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to German historian Michael Wolffsohn, "There is no doubt that in the 1960s as now, there were Nazis who were unreconstructed, unchangeable and evil, but without the help of East Germany, these Nazis were incapable of a national, coordinated campaign. That was true of right-wing extremist criminals in the 1980s as well. The East German Communists used anything they could against West Germany, including the... fears by Western countries and Jews that a new Nazism could be growing in West Germany. There is... evidence that the East Germans continued to use Anti-Semitism as a tool against West Germany in the 1970s and perhaps right up until 1989."
In a 1991 interview with John Koehler, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said of the Stasi, "They not only terrorized their own people worse than the Gestapo, but the government was the most Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israeli in the entire Eastern Bloc. They did nothing to help the West in tracking down Nazi criminals; they ignored all requests from West German judicial authorities for assistance. We have just discovered shelves of files on Nazis stretching over four miles. Now we also know how the Stasi used those files. They blackmailed Nazi criminals who fled abroad after the war into spying for them. What's more, the Stasi trained terrorists from all over the world."
Support for paramilitary and terrorist groups
During a 1979 visit to the GDR by senior PLO member Salah Khalaf, Mielke said, "We are paying great attention to the Palestine resistance and the other revolutionary forces fighting against the policies of the United States and against the provocations of the Israeli aggressor. Together with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, we will do everything to support this just battle."
With this in mind, Mielke ordered the Stasi to finance, arm, and train, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, Mielke's ties to violent paramilitary groups were overseen by Markus Wolf and Department Three of the MfS-HVA. Members of the West German Baader-Meinhoff Group, the Chilean Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware, insurgent tactics, and, "the leadership role of the Party." Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Nidal, and Black September.
Other Stasi agents worked as military advisers to Soviet-backed African guerrilla organizations and the governments they later formed. They included the Namibian SWAPO and the Angolan MPLA during the South African Border War, the FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence and civil war, and Robert Mugabe's ZANLA during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Venezuelan-born PLO terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Black September leader Abu Daoud during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972 Munich massacre and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.
During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly blackmailed a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that the La Belle bombing and other terrorist attacks against American and West German citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.
According to John Koehler, "Murder, kidnapping, extortion, bank robbery, and arson were felonies under the East German criminal code. However, if these offenses were committed under the banner of the 'anti-imperialist struggle,' the communist system would look the other way. Moreover, it had assigned the Stasi to make sure that terrorists were properly trained for murder and sowing mayhem. There was no limits to the East German regime's involvement with terrorism, so long as it could be ideologically justified."
The Peaceful Revolution
According to John Koehler, "Increasingly concerned over the growing popular opposition, Stasi Minister Mielke early in 1989 ordered the creation of a special elite unit for crushing disturbances. Its personnel were carefully selected members of the counterespionage and counterterrorism directorate. They were equipped with special batons similar to electric cattle prods but much more powerful. In a secret speech to top-ranking Stasi officers on 29 June, Mielke warned that, 'hostile opposing forces and groups have already achieved a measure of power and are using all methods to achieve a change in the balance of power. Former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand told me he was horrified when Mielke compared the situation with that of China two months earlier. Chinese students in Beijing had begun massive protests in April and in May, during a student demonstration in Tiananmen Square, security troops had opened fire on them killing hundreds. 'Mielke said our situation was comparable and we had to be ready to counter it with all means and methods,' Wiegand recalled. 'Mielke said that the Chinese leadership had succeeded in smothering the protests before the situation got out of hand.'"
Despite Mielke's attempts to suppress them, East Germany's protesters grew more emboldened with every arrest.
40th anniversary of the GDR
As the fortieth anniversary of the GDR approached, Mielke ordered, "We must stop the internal enemy. At the least hint of a disturbance of the celebration, isolate and arrest them."
One former Stasi Major recalled, "We mixed inconspicuously with the demonstrators, accompanied by our IMs. Hundreds of us stood at the sides of the street in order to stop any activity before it got started. We barely got any sleep toward the end. Never did I sense that the people were afraid of the MfS. The Stasi was more afraid of the people than the people were of them."
According to Koehler, "Despite the unrest, the regime celebrated its fortieth with a huge, pompous ceremony in Berlin on 7 October, while tens of thousands of outside the ornate building of the State Council. The People's Police cordons were utterly ineffectual. As Stasi Minister Erich Mielke drove up and was greeted by General Günter Kratsch, the counterintelligence chief, Mielke screamed at police: "Club those pigs into submission!" () The police ignored Mielke's ranting.
As more and more East Germans were arrested for protesting the 40th anniversary celebrations, many of them sang The Internationale in Vopo and Stasi custody to imply that they, rather than their captors, were the real working class and the real revolutionaries.
According to Anna Funder, "There was a sea of red flags, a torchlight procession, and tanks. The old men on the podium wore light-grey suits studded with medals. Mikhail Gorbachev stood next to Honecker, but he looked uncomfortable among the much older Germans. He had come to tell them that it was over, to convince the leadership to adopt his reformist policies. He had spoken openly about the danger of not 'responding to reality.' He pointedly told the Politburo that, 'life punishes those who come too late.' Honecker and Mielke ignored him, just as they ignored the crowds when they chanted, "Gorby, help us! Gorby, help us!"
Plan X
On 8 October 1989, Mielke and Honecker ordered the Stasi to implement "Plan X"—the SED's plan to arrest and indefinitely detain 85,939 East Germans during a state of emergency. According to John Koehler, Plan X had been in preparation since 1979 and was, "a carbon copy of how the Nazi concentration camps got their start after Hitler came to power in 1933."
By 1984, 23 sites had been selected for "isolation and internment camps." Those who were to be imprisoned in them ran into six categories; including anyone who had ever been under surveillance for anti-state activities, including all members of peace movements which were not under Stasi control.
According to Anna Funder, "The plans contained exact provisions for the use of all available prisons and camps, and when those were full for the conversion of other buildings: Nazi detention centers, schools, hospitals, and factory holiday hostels. Every detail was foreseen, from where the doorbell was located on the house of each person to be arrested to the adequate supply of barbed wire and the rules of dress and etiquette in the camps..."
However, when Mielke sent the orders, codenamed "Shield" (), to each local Stasi precinct to begin the planned arrests, he was not obeyed. Terrified of an East German version of the mass lynchings of Hungarian secret police agents during the 1956 Revolution, Stasi agents throughout the GDR fortified their office-buildings and barricaded themselves inside.
Toppling Honecker
Even as orders were going out to implement Plan X, Mielke had already thrown his support behind the anti-Honecker faction in the SED's Politburo. Although he was of the same generation as Honecker and had matured in an environment where following orders was the rule, he was sober enough and politically savvy enough to realize this approach no longer worked. During a session on 10 October 1989, Mielke delivered a report attacking Honecker's desire to violently suppress the demonstrations rather than offer concessions.
In what Edward N. Peterson has called "a remarkable disclaimer of responsibility for the violence," Mielke declared that Honecker's orders to him "were built on false situation judgments." He added that Honecker's commands on 7 and 8 October "were false and undifferentiated condemnations of those who think differently. Despite this evaluation, there was never any instructions to use violence against persons. There is nothing in our basic principles to consider a demonstration as part of a possible counterrevolutionary coup."
Mielke also claimed that "the Party judged the situation falsely. We tried to tell them the true situation, but enough was not done." Mielke argued in favor of solving the demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel."
On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents who were loyal to him were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with tanks," and tried to impress upon Honecker that it was "the end".
After the vote to oust Honecker passed, Mielke "got nasty," and accused Honecker of corruption. Honecker responded that Mielke should not open his mouth so much. Mielke responded by putting the last nail into Honecker's coffin. He announced that the MfS had a file on the now-ousted leader. It contained proof of Honecker's corrupt business practices, sexual activities, and how, as a member of the underground Communist Party of Germany during the Nazi years, he had been arrested by the Gestapo and had named names.
To the shock of both the Politburo and the Stasi, Krenz's first televised addresses failed to win popular support. Despite his assurances that the SED was at last ready to embrace Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, Krenz's approval ratings remained extremely low.
Former Politburo member Günter Schabowski later recalled, "We made a palace revolution without offering a real alternative... We had not quickly and thoroughly enough whittled away from Stalin's methods."
Defeat
On 7 November 1989, Mielke resigned, along with eleven out of eighteen members of the SED's Council of Ministers, in response to the increasing disintegration of the GDR.
Two days later, Schabowski announced on television that the east–west border was open without restriction.
According to Anna Funder, there was panic at Stasi Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg, "Stasi officers were instructed to destroy files, starting with the most incriminating–those naming westerners who spied for them, and those that concerned deaths. They shredded the files until the paper shredders overheated and shorted out. Among other shortages in the East, there was a shredder shortage, so they had to send agents out under cover to West Berlin to buy more. In Building 8 alone, the citizens' movement found over a hundred burnt out shredders. When they ran out of working shredders from the West and could not procure more they began using scissors to cut the documents by hand.
According to William F. Buckley, Jr., "In the weeks after 9 November, Stasi offices were stormed in various cities around East Germany. Stasi commissars in three of those cities committed suicide. But not one was lynched or executed."
Televised humiliation
On 13 November 1989, Mielke was summoned to deliver a briefing about the protests to the GDR parliament, or Volkskammer. Formerly a "rubber stamp parliament," the disintegration of the SED's power had allowed the Volkskammer to begin exercising real authority over the GDR. Therefore, Mielke, as the head of the Stasi (known as the "shield and sword of the [SED] party"), was summoned before the newly empowered parliament to justify his position in government.
As his speech was broadcast live, Mielke began by using overly bombastic, flag-waving language, saying "We have, comrades, dear assembly members, an extraordinarily high amount of contact with all working people" (). To his shock, the Volkskammer responded with boos, whistles, and catcalls.
His face grief-stricken and pale, Mielke then tried to defuse the situation, "Yes, we have such contact, let me tell you-let me tell you why. I am not afraid to stand here and to give you an unbiased answer" (). Mielke continued, speaking of the "triumph" of the socialist economy, continuing all the while to address the members of the Volkskammer as "Comrades" (). In response, Volkskammer member Dietmar Czok of the Christian Democratic Union, rose from his seat and raised his hand. The Volkskammer's president, Günther Maleuda, interrupted Mielke and urged Czok to speak.
With his voice dripping with contempt, Czok told Mielke, "As a point of order, I will not tell you this again. There are more people sitting in this Chamber than just your Comrades!" (). In response, many in the Volkskammer burst into applause, cheers, and shouts of "We are not your Comrades!" ()
Trying to appear magnanimous, Mielke responded, "This is a natural, Humanistic question! This is just a question of formality." (), leading to further shouts of displeasure from the members of the Volkskammer. In a last ditch effort, Mielke "raised his arms like an evangelist," and cried, "I love all – all Humanity! I really do! I set myself before you!" ()
Everyone in the room, including staunch SED members, burst out laughing. Then Mielke started to cry. John Koehler later wrote, "Mielke was finished."
Mielke's address to the Volkskammer remains the most famous broadcast in the history of German television. Anna Funder has written, "When they think of Mielke, East Germans like to think of this."
The Fall
On 17 November 1989, the Volkskammer renamed the MfS the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit (AfNS – Office for National Security). The following day, Mielke's tenure in office ended when the Volkskammer appointed Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz as the new director of the AfNS.
On 1 December 1989, the Volkskammer nullified the clause of the GDR constitution that enshrined the SED's "leading role" in the government and formally ending Communist rule in East Germany. Two days later, the SED announced that Mielke's party membership had been permanently revoked. Years later, he lamented, "Millions have died for nothing. Everything we fought for – it has all amounted to nothing." He also said, "If the party had given me the task, then there would perhaps still be a GDR today. On that you can rely."
Prosecution
Indictments
On 7 December 1989, Erich Mielke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for embezzlement of public funds in order to improve his hunting estate. He was charged with "Damaging the People's Economy" (Schädigung der Volkswirtschaft). On 7 January 1990, he was further charged with high treason and conspiring with Erich Honecker to bug the telephones and open the mail of every one of East Germany's citizens.
Meanwhile, the Federal Constitutional Court announced that Mielke had also been indicted for having ordered two terrorist attacks by the Baader-Meinhoff Group against United States military personnel who were stationed on West German soil. The first was the car bomb attack against the United States Air Force at Ramstein Air Base on 31 August 1981. The second was the attempted murder with an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket of United States Army General Frederick Kroesen, his wife, and the West German police officer who was driving their armored Mercedes at Heidelberg on 15 September 1981.
After German reunification in October 1990, Mielke was also indicted for ordering the shootings of defectors at the Berlin Wall. He was also charged with misuse of office, breach of trust, and incitement to pervert the course of justice.
Bülowplatz trial
In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the 1931 first degree murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the transcripts from the 1934 trial of his co-conspirators, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke revealed that his role in, "the Bülowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing to Moscow from the Weimar Republic in 1931. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the documents for the purpose of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified that Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bülowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965.
During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plötzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution.
After twenty months of one-and-a-half-hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. At his sentencing, Mielke started to cry. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Imprisonment
Mielke was then put on trial for ordering the shootings of East Germans who were trying to defect to the West. In November 1994, the presiding judge adjourned the proceedings, ruling that Mielke was not mentally competent to stand trial.
During his incarceration, at JVA Moabit corrections officers supplied Mielke with a red telephone like the one in his office at Stasi Headquarters. Although it was not connected to the outside world, Mielke enjoyed having imaginary conversations with non-existent Stasi agents. His other favorite pastime was watching game shows on television.
In 1995, parole officers and Mielke's attorneys argued that he was "totally confused" and obtained his release. At 87 years of age, Erich Mielke was Germany's oldest prison inmate and had been incarcerated for 1,904 days. Days before his release, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin announced that he was "not interested in chasing an 87-year-old man anymore" and that all further prosecution of Mielke had been indefinitely suspended.
According to Koehler, "[Mielke's] bank account, which held more than 300,000 Marks (about US$187,500), was confiscated. Before his arrest in 1989, the most feared man in East Germany had lived in a luxurious home with access to an indoor pool. In addition, he owned a palatial hunting villa, complete with a movie theater, trophy room, 60 servants, and a 60 square kilometers hunting preserve. After he was released from prison Mielke was obliged to move into a two-room, 55-square-meter flat. Like all Stasi pensioners, he would henceforth have to live on 802 marks (about US$512) a month."
Death
Erich Mielke died on 21 May 2000, aged 92, in a Berlin nursing home. After being cremated at the crematorium in Meissen, an urn containing Mielke's ashes was buried in an unmarked grave at the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. An estimated 100 people reportedly attended the funeral. Erich Mielke's grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes. Within hours of his funeral, the flowers and wreaths left at Mielke's grave were ripped to shreds by persons unknown.
Legacy
Writing in 2003, Australian journalist Anna Funder declared, "The name Mielke has now come to mean 'Stasi.' Victims are dubiously honored to find his signature in their files: on plans for someone to be observed 'with all possible methods', on commands for arrest, for kidnapping, instructions to judges for sentencing, orders for 'liquidation'. The honor is dubious because... he signed so many."
In 2012, the museum at the former Stasi headquarters opened Mielke's office as a permanent exhibit. Soon after, The Guardian correspondent Tam Eastley visited the exhibit and numerous sites in Berlin connected to Mielke's life, times, and legacy. When she visited Mielke's grave, Eastley found that it had become a shrine for adherents of Ostalgie.
Personal life
Erich Mielke was a fitness enthusiast, a non-smoker, and drank very little. He was a keen hunter and owned a large area of ground where he would hunt animals with other East German and visiting Soviet officials.
During the late 1940s, when Mielke was working as security chief of the DWK, he began a relationship with Gertrud Mueller, a seamstress. On 18 December 1948, shortly after the birth of their son Frank Mielke, Erich and Gertrud married in a civil ceremony.
According to the newspaper Bild, the Mielkes adopted an orphaned girl named Ingrid, who was born in 1950. Like her adopted brother Frank, Ingrid Mielke attended the Wilhelm Pieck School. She ultimately became a captain in the Stasi and married a Stasi Lieutenant named Norbert Knappe. As of 1999, the Knappes had both refused to grant an interview to Bild reporters.
In popular culture
Erich Mielke has appeared as a character in both films and novels set in the GDR.
Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita (2000), which focuses on Stasi collusion with the West German far-left terrorist organization Rote Armee Fraktion. In conversation with fictional Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke), Mielke (Dietrich Körner) expresses admiration for the RAF's campaign against the United States, West Germany, and the State of Israel, which he compares with his own activities against the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. The RAF members are then brought to a training camp, where Stasi agents instruct them in the use of grenade launchers and other kinds of military hardware. Mielke's name is never disclosed and Agent Hull addresses him only as, "Comrade General." ()
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (2006), which focuses on the Stasi's surveillance and repression of the East German population. In the film, a previously loyal GDR playwright named Georg Dreymann (Sebastian Koch) publishes an anonymous article in the West German magazine Der Spiegel which accuses East Germany's Minister of Culture of having persecuted a blacklisted stage director until he hanged himself. Soon after the article goes to press, Mielke's voice is heard over the telephone giving a dressing down to fictional Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur). Addressed only as "Genosse Armeegeneral" (Mielke was the only person to ever hold that rank in the Stasi), Mielke threatens to throw Grubitz in front of a firing squad if he fails to identify and arrest the article's author.
In Philip Kerr's novel Field Grey (2010), Mielke first appears in 1931 Berlin, when protagonist Bernie Gunther saves him from being murdered by Nazi Brownshirts. The novel then flashes forward to 1954, when Gunther is recruited into a CIA plot to abduct Mielke from East Berlin.
Honours and awards
Mielke received a large number of awards and commemorative medals from organisations within the German Democratic Republic and from allied states. A more complete list is available (in German) at Liste der Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Erich Mielke.
Awards of the German Democratic Republic
Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (7 October 1954)
Six Orders of Karl Marx (28 December 1957, 20 November 1973, 1 December 1975, 28 December 1977, 28 June 1982, 28 December 1982)
Twice Hero of Labour of the GDR (5 October 1964, 24 February 1968)
Twice Hero of the GDR (1 December 1975, 28 December 1982)
Banner of Labour (8 May 1960)
Medal for Exemplary Border Service (26 April 1956)
Medal for Faithful Service in the National People's Army;
Bronze (7 October 1957)
Silver (8 February 1959)
Gold (1 July 1960)
Gold for 20 years service (8 February 1965)
Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (6 September 1958)
Gold Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (1 March 1957)
Scharnhorst Order, twice (25 September 1979, 7 October 1984)
Awards of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union (25 December 1987)
Four Orders of Lenin (12 June 1973, 28 December 1982, 1 April 1985, 28 December 1987)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (6 May 1970)
Four Orders of the Red Banner (23 October 1958, 5 February 1968, 28 December 1977, February 1980)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Soviet Militia" (20 December 1967)
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" (1970)
Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR" (6 January 1970)
Order of the October Revolution (February 1975)
Other states
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 28 December 1982)
Order of Friendship (Czechoslovakia) (28 December 1982)
Order of the Red Star (Czechoslovakia) (16 November 1970)
References
Further reading
Buckley, Jr., William F. (2004), The Fall of the Berlin Wall, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Funder, Anna (2003), Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books, London.
Kuchel, Dany (2011) "Le Glaive et le Bouclier", une histoire de la Stasi en France.
Otto, Wilfriede, Erich Mielke, Biographie: Aufstieg und Fall eines Tschekisten. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2000, .
Peterson, Edward N. (2002). The Secret Police and the Revolution: The Fall of the German Democratic Republic, Praeger Publications, Westport, Connecticut. London.
Pickard, Ralph (2007). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide. Frontline Historical Publishing.
Pickard, Ralph (2012). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II. Frontline Historical Publication.
1907 births
2000 deaths
Politicians from Berlin
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Government ministers of East Germany
Members of the 3rd Volkskammer
Members of the 4th Volkskammer
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Recipients of the Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"
Recipients of the Order of Georgi Dimitrov
20th-century German criminals
People from Mitte
German mass murderers
Criminals from Berlin
German military personnel of World War II | false | [
"Notanish qotil (rus. Неизвестный убийца uzb. Notanish qotil) is a September 16, 2016 Uzbek action film Crime drama action drama thriller film directed by Azmat Axrorov and written by Ahror Nurmuhammat. The film was features an ensemble cast that includes Azamat Axrorov, Shaxzoda Muxamedova, Nurmuxammadxon Xusniddinov, Bekzod Tadjiyev, Anvar Azimov and Baxtiyor Musulmonov.\n\nThe premiere of the film \"Notanish qotil \" was shown on September 16, 2016, in Uzbekistan. The soundtrack of the film was performed by the famous singer Shoxrux.\n\nPlot \nThe young, experienced lawyer was living a normal life. Until his brother died suddenly, the lawyer, who was affected by his brother's death, later learned that his brother had a heart attack because of his drug overdose. He did not believe that his brother had died of drugs. After a while, an unknown person called his brother's phone and found out that there were people selling drugs to his brother and started looking for unknown killers. He catches the drug dealers one by one and finds their boss. The father of the lawyer's beloved daughter turns out to be a drug baron. Upon learning of this, the lawyer forces his beloved daughter to come face to face with her father. The drug lord orders the lawyer to be killed. When the lawyer and the girl meet, the killers, who are ordered to kill the lawyer, kill the lawyer's lover. The lawyer's lover died at the scene. All of the drug lord's work is exposed and the drug lord is imprisoned.\n\nCast \n\n Azamat Axrorov\n Shaxzoda Muxammedova\n Bekzod Todjiev\n Nurmuxammadxon Xusniddinov\n Anvar Azimov\n Baxtiyor Musulmonov\n Karim Babaev\n Baxtiyor Musulmonov\n Sardor Fozilov\n Elbek Fayziev\n Shahboz Toshbadalov\n\nRelease\n\nHome media \nNotanish qotil was released by RizaNova uz on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD on September 16, 2016.\n\nSoundtrack \n\nShoxrux was roped in to compose the original soundtrack and score for Notanish qotil.\n\nIncome \nThe film premiered on September 16, 2016, in Uzbekistan. This film was one of the most watched films in Uzbekistan. In an interview with Darya uz, Azamat Axrorov said that the cost of the film was 180 million soums.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n Notanish qotil trailer mover.uz\n Notanish qotil kinopoisk.ru",
"Maurice Edelbaum (1906–1984) was an American criminal lawyer from New York.\n\nEdelbaum was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was educated in New York City public schools before graduating from Fordham University School of Law in 1928. In 1967, Edelbaum served as a lawyer for Stephen H. Kessler, a former medical student who was found not guilty by reason of insanity after being charged with murdering his mother-in-law. The same year, Edelbaum also was a lawyer for John (Sonny) Franzese, a bank robber in Colombo crime group. Two years later, Edelbaum defended a Tammany Hall leader, De Sapio. Despite his attempt to prove his innocence, De Sapio was found guilty of conspiracy to bribe a water commissioner and extort contracts from Consolidated Edison. His sentence was set to two years in prison. Edelbaum was also notoriously known for his defense of Anthony Provenzano. Eldebaum died on August 10, 1984, in Washington Manor Nursing Home in Hollywood, Florida.\n\nReferences\n\n1906 births\n1984 deaths\nFordham University School of Law alumni\nLawyers from Brooklyn\nLawyers from New York City\n20th-century American lawyers"
]
|
[
"Erich Mielke",
"Bulowplatz trial",
"When did the trial take place?",
"1992,",
"What was the verdict?",
"convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.",
"Who was the first person murdered?",
"Captains Anlauf and Lenck",
"Who was the victim of the attempted murder?",
"Senior Sergeant Willig.",
"Did he know the murder victims?",
"I don't know.",
"How long did trial last?",
"twenty months",
"What year did the trial end?",
"1993,",
"Who was his lawyer?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_5879ec3395ef473987bcbbff52d1eee2_1 | In what city did the trial take place? | 9 | In what city did the Bulowplatz trial take place? | Erich Mielke | In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the first degree murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the 1934 trial transcripts, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke had admitted that, "the Bulowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing Germany. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the files for purposes of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified about how Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bulowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965. During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plotzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (German: "Ich mochte in mein Bett zuruck."). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution. After twenty months of one-and-a-half hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century." CANNOTANSWER | Plotzensee | Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
A native of Berlin and a second-generation member of the Communist Party of Germany, Mielke was one of two triggermen in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. After learning that a witness had survived, Mielke escaped arrest by fleeing to the Soviet Union, where the NKVD recruited him. He was one of the key figures in the decimation of Moscow's German Communists during the Great Purge as well as in the persecution of suspected anti-Stalinists in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany, which he helped organize into a Marxist-Leninist satellite state under the Socialist Unity Party (SED), later becoming head of the Stasi. According to historian Jack Koehler, he was "the longest serving secret police chief in the Soviet Bloc".
The Stasi under Mielke has been called by historian Edward Peterson the "most pervasive police state apparatus ever to exist on German soil". In a 1993 interview, Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal has said that, if one considers only the oppression of their own people, the Stasi under Mielke was "much, much worse than the Gestapo".
During the 1950s and 1960s Mielke led the process of forcibly forming collectivised farms from East Germany's family-owned farms, which sent a flood of refugees to West Germany. In response, Mielke oversaw the construction (1961) of the Berlin Wall and co-signed orders to shoot fatally all East Germans who attempted to leave the country. He also oversaw the establishment of pro-Soviet police states and paramilitary insurgencies in Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
In addition to his role as head of the Stasi, Mielke was also an Army General in the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee), and a member of the SED's ruling Politburo. Dubbed "The Master of Fear" () by the West German press, Mielke was one of the most powerful and most hated men in East Germany.
After German reunification in 1990, Mielke was arrested (1991), prosecuted (1992), convicted, and incarcerated (1993) for the 1931 murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. Released from prison early due to ill health in 1995, he died in a Berlin nursing home in 2000.
Early life
Erich Mielke was born in a tenement in Berlin-Wedding, Brandenburg, on 28 December 1907. During the First World War, the neighborhood was known as "Red Wedding" due to many residents' Marxist militancy. In a handwritten biography written for the Soviet secret police, Mielke described his father as "a poor, uneducated woodworker," and said that his mother died in 1911. Both were, he said, members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After his remarriage to "a seamstress," the elder Mielke and his new wife joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and remained members when it was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). His son Erich claimed "My younger brother Kurt and two sisters were Communist sympathisers."
Despite his family's poverty, Erich Mielke was academically gifted enough to be awarded a free scholarship in the prestigious Köllnisches Gymnasium, but was expelled on 19 February 1929, for being "unable to meet the great demands of this school." While attending the Gymnasium, Mielke joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1925, and worked as a reporter for the communist newspaper Rote Fahne from 1928 to 1931.
During the Weimar Republic, the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and was seen as the "leading party" of the communist movement outside the Soviet Union. Under Ernst Thälmann's leadership, the KPD was completely obedient to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the Party was both funded and controlled by the Comintern in Moscow.
Until the end of the Republic, the KPD viewed the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which dominated German politics between 1918 and 1931, as their mortal enemy. In keeping with Stalin's policy towards social democracy, the KPD considered all SPD members to be "social fascists". The KPD also believed that all other political parties were "fascist" and regarded itself as "the only anti-fascist Party" in Germany. Nevertheless, the KPD closely collaborated with the Nazi Party during the early 1930s and both Parties intended to replace the democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic with a totalitarian single party state.
Soon after joining the Party, Mielke joined the KPD's paramilitary wing, or Parteiselbstschutz ("Party Self Defense Unit"). At the time, the Parteiselbstschutz in Berlin was commanded by KPD Reichstag Representatives Hans Kippenberger and Heinz Neumann.
According to John Koehler, "Mielke was a special protege of Kippenberger's having taken to his paramilitary training with the enthusiasm of a Prussian Junker. World War I veterans taught the novices how to handle pistols, rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades. This clandestine training was conducted in the sparsely populated, pastoral countryside surrounding Berlin. Mielke also pleased Kippenberger by being an exceptional student in classes on the arts of conspiratorial behavior and espionage, taught by comrades who had studied at the secret M-school of the GRU in Moscow."
According to John Koehler, members of the Parteiselbstschutz "served as bouncers at Party meetings and specialized in cracking heads during street battles with political enemies." Besides the ruling SPD and its paramilitary Reichsbanner forces, the arch-enemies of the Parteiselbstschutz were the Stahlhelm, which was the armed wing of the Monarchist German National People's Party (DVNP), Trotskyites, and "radical nationalist parties."
According to Koehler, the KPD's Selbstschutz men "always carried a Stahlrute, two steel springs that telescoped into a tube seventeen centimeters long, which when extended became a deadly, 35-centimeter weapon. Not to be outdone by the Nazis, these street-fighters were often armed with pistols as well."
In a 1931 biography written for the Cadre Division of the Comintern, Mielke recalled, "We took care of all kinds of work; terror acts, protecting illegal demonstrations and meetings, arms-trafficking, etc. The last work, which was accomplished by a Comrade and myself, was the Bülowplatz Affair" ().
Bülowplatz murders
Planning
During the last days of the Weimar Republic, the KPD had a policy of assassinating two Berlin police officers in retaliation for every KPD member killed by the police.
On 2 August 1931, KPD Members of the Reichstag Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger received a dressing down from Walter Ulbricht, the Party's leader in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Enraged by police interference and by Neumann and Kippenberger's failure to follow the policy, Ulbricht stated, "At home in Saxony we would have done something about the police a long time ago. Here in Berlin we will not fool around much longer. Soon we will hit the police in the head."
Enraged by Ulbricht's words, Kippenberger and Neumann decided to assassinate Paul Anlauf, the 42-year-old Captain of the Berlin Police's Seventh Precinct. Captain Anlauf, a widower with three daughters, had been nicknamed "Schweinebacke", or "Pig Face" by the KPD.
According to historian John Koehler, "Of all the policemen in strife-torn Berlin, the reds hated Anlauf the most. His precinct included the area around KPD headquarters, which made it the most dangerous in the city. The captain almost always led the riot squads that broke up illegal rallies of the Communist Party."
On the morning of Sunday 9 August 1931, Kippenberger and Neumann gave a last briefing to the hit-team in a room at the Lassant beer hall. Mielke and Erich Ziemer were selected as the shooters. During the meeting, Max Matern gave a Luger pistol to fellow lookout Max Thunert and said, "Now we're getting serious. We're going to give Schweinebacke something to remember us by."
Kippenberger then asked Mielke and Ziemer, "Are you sure that you are ready to shoot Schweinebacke?" Mielke responded that he had seen Anlauf many times during police searches of Party Headquarters. Kippenberger then instructed them to wait at a nearby beer hall which would permit them to overlook the entire Bülow-Platz. He further reminded them that Anlauf was accompanied everywhere by Senior Sergeant Max Willig, whom the KPD had nicknamed, "Hussar".
Kippenberger concluded, "When you spot Schweinebacke and Hussar, you take care of them." Mielke and Ziemer were informed that, after the assassinations were completed, a diversion would assist in their escape. They were then to return to their homes and await further instructions.
That evening, Anlauf was lured to Bülow-Platz by a violent rally demanding the dissolution of the Prussian Parliament.
According to Koehler, "As was often the case when it came to battling the dominant SPD, the KPD and the Nazis had combined forces during the pre-plebiscite campaign. At one point in this particular campaign, Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels even shared a speaker's platform with KPD agitator Walter Ulbricht. Both parties wanted the parliament dissolved because they were hoping that new elections would oust the SPD, the sworn enemy of all radicals. That fact explained why the atmosphere was particularly volatile this Sunday."
Murder at the Babylon Cinema
At eight o'clock that evening, Mielke and Ziemer waited in a doorway as Anlauf, Willig, and Captain Franz Lenck walked toward the Babylon Cinema, which was located at the corner of Bülowplatz and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. As they reached the door of the movie house, the policemen heard someone scream, "Schweinebacke!"
As Anlauf turned toward the sound, Mielke and Ziemer opened fire at point blank range. Willig was wounded in the left arm and the stomach. However, he managed to draw his Luger pistol and fired a full magazine at the assailants. Lenck was shot in the chest and fell dead in front of the entrance. Willig crawled over and cradled the head of Anlauf, who had taken two bullets in the neck.
Meanwhile, Mielke and Ziemer made their escape by running into the theater and out an emergency exit. They tossed their pistols over a fence, where they were later found by Homicide Detectives from the elite Mordkommission. Mielke and Ziemer then returned to their homes.
According to Koehler, "Back at Bülowplatz, the killings had triggered a major police action. At least a thousand officers poured into the square, and a bloody street battle ensued. Rocks and bricks were hurled from the rooftops. Communist gunmen fired indiscriminately from the roofs of surrounding apartment houses. As darkness fell, police searchlights illuminated the buildings. Using megaphones, officers shouted, "Clear the streets! Move away from the windows! We are returning fire!" By now the rabble had fled the square, but shooting continued as riot squads combed the tenements, arresting hundreds of residents suspected of having fired weapons. The battle lasted until one o'clock the next morning. In addition to the two police officers, the casualties included one Communist who died of a gunshot wound and seventeen others who were seriously wounded."
Anlauf's wife had died three weeks earlier of kidney failure. The murder of Anlauf thus left their three daughters as orphans. Their oldest daughter was forced to rush her planned wedding in order to keep her sisters from being put in an orphanage. Lenck was survived by his wife. Willig was hospitalized for 14 weeks, but made a full recovery and returned to active duty. In recognition for Willig's courage, the Berlin Police promoted him to Lieutenant.
After the murders, the act was celebrated at the Lichtenberger Hof, a favorite beer hall of the Rotfrontkämpferbund, where Mielke boasted: "Today we celebrate a job that I pulled!" ()
Fugitive
According to Koehler, "Kippenberger was alarmed when word reached him that Sergeant Willig had survived the shooting. Not knowing whether the sergeant could talk and identify the attackers, Kippenberger was taking no chances. He directed a runner to summon Mielke and Ziemer to his apartment at 74 Bellermannstrasse, only a few minutes walk from where the two lived. When the assassins arrived, Kippenberger told them the news and ordered them to leave Berlin at once. The parliamentarian's wife Thea, an unemployed schoolteacher and as staunch a Communist Party member as her husband, shepherded the young murderers to the Belgian border. Agents of the Communist International (Comintern) in the port city of Antwerp supplied them with money and forged passports. Aboard a merchant ship, they sailed for Leningrad. When their ship docked, they were met by another Comintern representative, who escorted them to Moscow."
Beginning in 1932, Mielke attended the Comintern's Military Political school under the alias Paul Bach. He later graduated from the Lenin School shortly before being recruited into the OGPU.
Trial
According to Koehler, "In mid-March 1933, while attending the Lenin School, Mielke received word from his OGPU sponsors that Berlin police had arrested Max Thunert, one of the conspirators in the Anlauf and Lenck murders. Within days, fifteen other members of the assassination team were in custody. Mielke had to wait six more months before the details of the police action against his Berlin comrades reached Moscow. On 14 September 1933, Berlin newspapers reported that all fifteen had confessed to their roles in the murders. Arrest warrants were issued for ten others who had fled, including Mielke, Ziemer, Ulbricht, Kippenberger, and Neumann."
Koehler also stated, "Defenders of Mielke later claimed that confessions had been obtained under torture by the Nazi Gestapo. However, all suspects were in the custody of the regular Berlin city criminal investigation bureau, most of whose detectives were SPD members. Some of the suspects had been nabbed by Nazi SA men and probably beaten before they were turned over to police. In the 1993 trial of Mielke, the court gave the defense the benefit of the doubt and threw out a number of suspect confessions."
On 19 June 1934, the 15 conspirators were convicted of first degree murder. The three deemed most culpable, Michael Klause, Max Matern, and Friedrich Bröde were sentenced to death. Their co-defendants received sentences ranging from nine months to fifteen years incarceration at hard labor. Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation. Bröde hanged himself in his cell. As a result, only Matern was left to be executed by beheading on 22 May 1935.
Matern was subsequently glorified as a martyr by KPD and East German propaganda. Ziemer was officially killed in action while fighting on the Republican-side during the Spanish Civil War. Mielke, however, would not face trial for the murders until 1993.
Career in Soviet intelligence
The Great Terror
Although Moscow's German Communist community was decimated during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Mielke survived and was promoted.
In a handwritten autobiography prepared after World War II, Mielke recalled, "During my stay in the S.U. (Soviet Union), I participated in all Party discussions of the K.P.D. and also in the problems concerning the establishment of socialism and in the trials against the traitors and enemies of the S.U."
Among the German communists executed as a result of these "discussions" were Mielke's former mentors Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger.
Mielke further recalled, "I was a guest on the honor grandstand of Red Square during the May Day and October Revolution parades. I became acquainted with many comrades of the Federation of World Communist Parties and the War Council of the Special Commission of the Comintern. I will never forget my meeting with Comrade Dimitrov, the Chairman of the Comintern, whom I served as an aide together with another comrade. I saw Comrade Stalin during all demonstrations at Red Square, especially when I stood on the grandstand. I mention these meetings because all these comrades are our models and teachers for our work."
During his time in the USSR, Mielke also developed a lifelong reverence for Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Polish aristocrat who founded the Soviet secret police. Mielke also began an equally permanent habit of calling himself a Chekist.
In a citation written decades later, Mielke described his philosophy of life, "The Chekist is the political combatant. He is the loyal son of... the workers' class. He stands at the head of the battle to strengthen the power of our workers' and peasants' state."
Spanish Civil War
From 1936 to 1939, Mielke served in Spain as an operative of the Servicio de Investigación Militar, the political police of the Second Spanish Republic. While attached to the staff of, "veteran GRU agent," and future Stasi minister Wilhelm Zaisser, Mielke used the alias Fritz Leissner. Bernd Kaufmann, the director of the Stasi's espionage school later said, "The Soviets trusted Mielke implicitly. He earned his spurs in Spain."
At the time, the S.I.M. was heavily staffed by agents of the Soviet NKVD, whose Spanish rezident was General Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and International Brigade commanders than on fighting Franco. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics."
In a 1991 interview, Walter Janka, a fellow German communist exile and company commander in the International Brigade, recalled his encounters with Mielke. During the winter of 1936, Janka was summoned by the SIM and interrogated by Mielke. Mielke demanded to know why Janka had voluntarily traveled to Spain rather than being assigned there by the Party. When he told Mielke to get lost, the SIM demoted Janka to the ranks and then expelled him from the International Brigade. Years later, Janka recalled, "While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists."
Upon the defeat of the Spanish Republic, Mielke fled across the Pyrenees Mountains to France, where he was interned at Camp de Rivesaltes, Pyrénées-Orientales. Mielke, however, managed to send a message to exiled KPD members and, in May 1939, escaped to Belgium. Although the Public Prosecutor of Berlin learned of Mielke's presence and filed for his extradition, the Belgian Government refused to comply, regarding the assassinations of Captains Anlauf and Lenck as "a political crime."
The NKVD and the SIM's witch hunt for both real and imagined anti-Stalinists had serious consequences. It horrified numerous formerly pro-Soviet Westerners who had been witnesses, including John Dos Passos, Arthur Koestler and George Orwell, and caused them to permanently turn against the USSR.
Mielke's belief that anti-Soviet Marxists had collaborated with Franco and stabbed the Republic in the back continued to shape his attitudes for the rest of his life. In a 1982 speech before a group of senior Stasi officers, he said, "We are not immune from villains among us. If I knew of any already, they wouldn't live past tomorrow. Short shrift. It's because I'm a Humanist, that I'm of this view."
In the same speech, Mielke also said, "All this blithering over to execute or not to execute, for the death penalty or against—all rot, Comrades. Execute! And, when necessary, without a court judgment."
World War II
During World War II, Mielke's movements remain mysterious. In a biography written after the war, he claimed to have infiltrated Organisation Todt under the alias Richard Hebel, but historian John O. Koehler considers this unlikely.
Koehler admits, however, "Mielke's exploits must have been substantial. By war's end, he had been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War First Class, and twice with the Order of Lenin. It is likely that he served as an NKVD agent, at least part of the time with guerrilla units behind German lines, for he knew all the partisan songs by heart and sang them in faultless Russian."
Occupied Germany
Komissariat-5
In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.
That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."
On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No. 2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services.
In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke disclosed—truthfully—his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, and—mistakenly or misleadingly—that for this he had been tried in absentia, found guilty, and sentenced to death. In actuality, Mielke's "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried". He admitted—truthfully—fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed—falsely—that he had been released from the French internment camps and had worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston". Furthermore, Mielke concealed his past and contemporaneous involvement with the NKVD, NKGB, and the Nazi Organisation Todt (which he asserted he'd infiltrated).
According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets. Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers. But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."
On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany.
According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan. In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a "new Gestapo." Furthermore, Abakumov, like Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked." Notwithstanding Abakumov's objections, however, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately. It is possible, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers' lack of fluency in the German language was engendering massive popular resentment.
Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head. Mielke was installed as his deputy.
According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police. Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons. Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party. Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision. The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them. Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."
According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees. Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers. In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary rule of law."
According to Edward N. Peterson, "Not surprisingly, K-5 acquired a reputation as bad as that of Stalin's secret police and worse than that of the Gestapo. At least with the Nazis, albeit fanatically racist, their victims did not suddenly disappear into the GULAG."
The Amalgamation
Despite the K-5's mass arrests of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Zone, the number of SPD members continued to grow. By March 1946, SPD members outnumbered KPD members by more than 100,000. Fearing that they would lose the elections scheduled for the autumn, the leadership of the KPD asked for and received Stalin's permission to merge the two parties. When the SPD's leadership agreed only to schedule a vote for the rank and file to decide, permission was denied by the Soviet occupation authorities. The K-5 then began mass arrests of SPD members who refused to support the merger.
On 22 April 1946, the remaining leaders of the SPD in the Soviet Zone announced that they had united with the KPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SPD in the western zones of Occupied Germany responded by forming the SPD East Bureau in order to support and finance those Social Democrats who refused to accept the merger. Those who joined or worked with the East Bureau were, however, in serious danger of arrest by the K-5 and trial by Soviet military tribunals. By 1950, more than 5,000 SPD members and sympathisers had been imprisoned in the Soviet Zone or transferred to the GULAG. More than 400 were either executed or died during their imprisonments.
John Koehler has written that, prior to the spring of 1946, many Germans in the Soviet Zone, "merely shrugged at the wave of arrests, believing that the victims were former Nazi officials and war criminals." But then came the mass arrests of Social Democrats who opposed the merger, who, "were joined by people who had been denounced for making anti-communist or anti-Soviet remarks, among their number hundreds who were as young as fourteen years. Although these arrests were made by Germans purporting to be officials of the criminal police, the existence of the K-5 political police eventually was exposed. Mielke, meanwhile, had risen to the post of vice-president of the German Administration for Interior Affairs – the equivalent of the NKVD – and continued his manipulations from behind the scenes."
Investigation
In January 1947, two retired Berlin policemen recognized Mielke at an official function. Informing the head of the criminal police in West Berlin, the policemen demanded that Mielke be arrested and prosecuted for the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. Wilhelm Kühnast, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin, was immediately informed and ordered a search of the Kammergericht archives. To his astonishment, the files of the 1931 murders had survived the wartime bombing of Germany. Finding ample evidence of Mielke's involvement, Kühnast ordered the arrest of the communist policeman.
According to John Koehler, "At that time, the city administration, including the police, was under the control of the Allied Control Commission, which consisted of U.S., British, French, and Soviet military officers. All actions by city officials, including the judiciary, were to be reported to the Commission. The Soviet representative alerted the MGB. Action was swift. Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, who had replaced Zhukov, protested, and his representatives at the Commission launched a vicious campaign to discredit Kühnast."
The Soviet representatives falsely claimed that Kühnast, a jurist with an impeccable anti-Nazi record, had been an official of Roland Freisler's People's Court. Taking the Soviets at their word, the Western Allies removed Kühnast from his position and placed him under house arrest. During the Berlin airlift, Kühnast fled from his home in East Berlin and was granted political asylum in the American Zone.
Meanwhile, the Soviet authorities confiscated all documents relating to the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. According to Koehler, "The Soviets handed the court records to Mielke. Instead of destroying the incriminating papers, he locked them in his private safe, where they were found when his home was searched in 1990. They were used against him in his trial for murder."
Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission
In 1948, Mielke was appointed as security chief of the German Economic Commission (), the precursor to the future East German government.
Mielke's task was to investigate the theft and sale of state property on the black market. He was also charged with intercepting the growing number of refugees fleeing to the French, British, and American Zones.
Those his security forces caught while attempting to defect were used as slave labor in the uranium mines that were providing raw material for the Soviet atomic bomb project.
German Democratic Republic
Independence
In 1949, the Soviet Military Administration ceded its legal functions to the newly created German Democratic Republic.
On 14 January 1950, Marshal Vasili Chuikov announced that all Soviet "internment camps" on German soil had been closed. Soon after, the DWK was absorbed into the newly created Ministry for State Security. In keeping with earlier syllabic abbreviations along the same lines (see OrPo, KriPo, and GeStaPo) East Germans immediately dubbed it the "Stasi" (from Staatssicherheit). With the approval of the Soviets, Mielke's commanding officer from Spain and in the K5, Wilhelm Zaisser, was appointed as the Stasi's head. Mielke was appointed to his staff with the rank of State Secretary. Mielke was also granted a seat in the SED's ruling Politburo.
According to John Koehler, "In the five years since the end of World War II, the Soviets and their vassals had arrested between 170,000 and 180,000 Germans. Some 160,000 had passed through the concentration camps, and of these about 65,000 had died, 36,000 had been shipped to the Soviet Gulag, and another 46,000 had been freed."
In 1949, as a response to the remilitarization of East Germany and the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Portugal formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. In 1950, as a response to the outbreak of the Korean War, West Germany was also permitted to join NATO, which was then upgraded into a military alliance.
According to Koehler, however, "As the Cold War intensified, living conditions in Soviet-occupied East Germany showed little improvement beyond the postwar level of bare subsistence. The new government of the DDR – a mere puppet of the Kremlin – relied more and more on the Stasi to quell discontent among factory workers and farmers. Ulbricht, claiming that the social unrest was fomented by capitalist agents, once ordered Mielke to personally visit one large plant and 'arrest four or five such agents' as an example to the others. The Stasi deputy 'discovered' the agents in record time."
Field show trials
Also in 1949, Noel Field, an American citizen who had spied for the NKVD from inside the U.S. State Department, the Office of Strategic Services, and the CIA, fled from his posting in Switzerland to Communist Czechoslovakia after his cover was blown by fellow mole Whittaker Chambers. On 11 May 1949, the Czechoslovakian secret police, or StB, in obedience to a direct order from KGB chief Lavrenti Beria, arrested Field in Prague. Field was then handed over to the Hungarian ÁVO. After his interrogation in Budapest, Fields was used as a witness at show trials of senior Soviet Bloc Communists who, like László Rajk and Rudolf Slánský, stood accused of having spied for the United States. The real reason for the trials was to replace homegrown Communists in Eastern Europe with those who would be blindly loyal to Joseph Stalin and to blame the division of Germany on the intrigues of U.S. intelligence.
At the Rajk show trial, the prosecutor declared, "Noel Field, one of the leaders of American espionage, specialized in recruiting spies from among left-wing elements."
In August 1950, six senior SED members, including Willi Kreikemeyer, the director of Deutsche Reichsbahn and head of Berliner Rundfunk, were accused of "special connections with Noel Field, the American spy." All were either imprisoned or shot.
John Koehler writes, "Similar purges were conducted in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, where Field appeared as a witness in show trials that resulted in some death sentences. The Soviets simply distrusted all Communists who had sought exile in the West. All the while, Mielke remained untouched and continued to serve as the deputy secret police chief. His survival reinforced the belief that he had spent the war years in the Soviet Union instead of France and Belgium as he had claimed in the 1945 questionnaire."
In June 1950, Erica Wallach, Noel Field's adopted daughter, decided to search for him. From Paris, she telephoned Leo Bauer, the editor-in-chief of Berliner Rundfunk. The call was monitored by agents of the Soviet Ministry for Internal Affairs, and Bauer's handler instructed him to invite Mrs. Wallach to East Berlin, where she was immediately arrested. Mielke personally interrogated her and, at one point, offered Mrs. Wallach immediate release if she named the members of her fictitious spy network. She was condemned to death by a Soviet military tribunal in East Berlin and shipped to the Lubianka prison in Moscow for her execution. After Joseph Stalin's death in on 5 March 1953, Erica Wallach's sentence was reduced to hard labor in Vorkuta, a region of the Gulag located above the Arctic Circle. She was released during the Khrushchev thaw in October 1955. At first, she was unable to join her husband and daughters in the U.S. because of the U.S. State Department's concern over her former membership in the Communist Party of Germany. It took the personal intervention of CIA Director Allen Dulles to reunite Erica Wallach with her family in 1957. Wallach's memoir of her experiences, Light at Midnight, was published in 1967.
Death of Stalin
After Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin died inside his Kuntsevo Dacha on 5 March 1953, the Central Committee of the East German Socialist Unity Party met in a special session and eulogized the dictator as the "great friend of Germany who was always an advisor of and help to our people."
Two months later, on 5 May 1953, the SED's General Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, and the rest of the leadership increased work quotas by 10%. They also decided to rename Chemnitz Karl-Marx-Stadt and to institute the Order of Karl Marx as the GDR's highest award.
Two weeks later, Mielke accused "a group of Party officials" of "plotting against the leadership", which "resulted in more expulsions from the Politburo and the Central Committee."
East German uprising of 1953
Discontent among factory workers about a 10% increase of work quotas without a corresponding wage hike boiled over. On 16 June 1953, nearly one hundred construction workers gathered before work for a protest meeting at Stalinallee, in East Berlin. Words spread rapidly to other construction sites and hundreds of men and women joined the rally, which marched to the House of Ministries. The protesters chanted slogans for five hours, demanding to speak to Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl. Only Heavy Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann and Professor Robert Havemann, president of the GDR Peace Council, emerged. Their speech, however, was answered with jeers and the Ministers retreated into the heavily armed building. The regular and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei were summoned from their barracks, but made no move to attack the protesters, who returned to Stalinallee, where a general strike was called.
Following West Germany's Federal Minister for All-German Questions Jakob Kaiser's admonition in a late night broadcast to East Germans to shy away from provocations, RIAS, starting with its 11 pm news broadcast, and from then on in hourly intermissions, repeated the workers' demand to continue the strike the next day, calling specifically for all East Berliners to participate in a demo at 7am on the 17th at Strausberger Platz.
The following day, 17 June 1953, more that 100,000 protesters took to the streets of East Berlin. More than 400,000 protesters also took to the streets in other cities and towns throughout the German Democratic Republic. Everywhere, the demands were the same: free elections by secret ballot.
Outside of Berlin, the main centres of the protests included the industrial region around Halle, Merseburg, and Bitterfeld, as well as middle-size towns like Jena, Görlitz, and Brandenburg. No more than 25,000 people participated in strikes and demonstrations in Leipzig, but there were 32,000 in Magdeburg, 43,000 in Dresden, 53,000 in Potsdam – and in Halle, a figure close to 100,000.
In West Berlin, the American radio station RIAS and several other West German stations reported on the protests and on plans for a general strike. As East Germans listened to the broadcasts, 267,000 workers at State-owned plants in 304 cities and towns joined the general strike. In 24 towns, outraged East Germans stormed the Stasi's prisons and freed between 2,000 and 3,000 political prisoners.
In response to orders, the Soviet Occupation Forces, the Stasi and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei went on the attack. Bloody street battles ensued and hundreds of policemen defected to the side of the protesters. Both police and Stasi stations were overrun and some government offices were sacked. The Party leadership retreated into a fortified compound in the Pankow district of East Berlin.
At noon, the Soviet authorities terminated all tram and metro traffic into the Eastern sector and all but closed the sector borders to West Berlin to prevent more demonstrators from reaching the city centre. An hour later, they declared martial law in East Berlin.
The repression took place outside East Berlin police HQ – where Soviet tanks opened fire on "the insurgents".
According to John Koehler, "... by late afternoon, Soviet tanks accompanied by Infantry and MVD troops had rolled into East Berlin and other cities in the Soviet Zone. This made the people even angrier. At Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, which bordered on the American Sector, irate protesters ignored machine gun fire and the menacing barrels of tank guns. They ripped cobblestones from the streets and hurled them at the tanks."
Fighting between the Red Army (and later GDR police) and the demonstrators persisted into the afternoon and night. In some cases, the tanks and the soldiers fired directly into the crowds.
Overnight, the Soviets (and the Stasi) started to arrest hundreds of people. Ultimately, up to 10,000 people were detained and at least 20, probably as many as 40, people were executed, including Red Army soldiers who refused to obey orders. With the SED leadership effectively paralysed at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, control of the city passed to the Soviets.
In honor of the uprising, West Germany established 17 June as a national holiday, called Day of German Unity. The extension of the Unter den Linden boulevard to the west of the Brandenburg Gate, formerly called Charlottenburger Chaussee, was also renamed Straße des 17. Juni ("17 June Street") in honor of the uprising.
According to John Koehler, "Provisional prison camps were set up to hold the thousands of Stasi victims. Nearly 1,500 persons were sentenced in secret trials to long prison terms. On 24 June, Mielke issued a terse announcement that one Stasi officer, nineteen demonstrators, and two bystanders had been killed during the uprising. He did not say how many were victims of official lynching. The numbers of the wounded were given as 191 policemen, 126 demonstrators, and 61 bystanders."
Also according to Koehler, "Calm returned to the streets of the Soviet Zone, yet escapes to the West continued at a high rate. Of the 331,390 who fled in 1953, 8,000 were members of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the barracked people's police units, which were actually the secret cadre of the future East German Army. Also among the escapees were 2,718 members and candidates of the SED, the ruling Party."
The Khrushchev thaw
Purges
Alarmed by the uprising, Lavrenty Beria, the First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, personally travelled from Moscow to East Berlin. He conferred with Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser and with Mielke, his deputy, both of whom he had known since the early 1930s. During both conversations, Beria demanded to know why the Stasi had failed to recognize the extreme discontent of the population and inform the Party leadership, which could then have prevented the uprising by taking extremely repressive measures in advance. Both Zaisser and Mielke answered Beria's questions circumspectly, and were accordingly left in their posts.
In response to the uprising, Beria decided to replace several hundred MVD officers, including Major General Ivan Fadeykin, the MVD resident of East Germany. The Stasi, according to John Koehler, "generally remained untouched except for the arrests and dismissals, for dereliction of duty, of a handful of officers in the provinces. One high-ranking Stasi officer shot himself."
Following Beria's return to Moscow, however, he was arrested on 26 June 1953, in a coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Beria was tried on charges of 357 counts of rape and high treason. He was sentenced to death and shot by Red Army Colonel-General Pavel Batitsky on 23 December 1953.
In an interview to Neues Deutschland, the official party newspaper of East Germany, on 30 June 1953, the Party's Minister of Justice, Max Fechner, declared that, "illegal arrests," had been made and that being a member of a strike committee or suspicion of being a ringleader was not in itself grounds for arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, when the East German Politburo met on 8 July, it seemed that Ulbricht would be deposed as Party General Secretary. Zaisser conceded that the whole Politburo was responsible for the "accelerated construction of socialism" and of the subsequent fallout. But he also added that to leave Ulbricht as Premier, "would be opposed catastrophic for the New Course".
By the end of the meeting, only two Politburo members still supported Ulbricht's leadership: Free German Youth League chief Erich Honecker and Party Control Commission Chairman Hermann Matern. Ulbricht only managed to forestall a decision then and there with a promise to make a statement at the forthcoming 15th SED CC Plenum, scheduled for later that month.
Meanwhile, Mielke informed a Party commission looking for scapegoats that his boss, Stasi Minister Wilhelm Zaisser, was calling for secret negotiations with West Germany and that, "he believed the Soviet Union would abandon the DDR."
By late July, Ulbricht was completely certain that he had the support of the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Therefore, he expelled his main opponents, Zaisser, Hernstadt and Ackermann, from the Politburo, and thus strengthened his position further.
SED Minister of Justice Max Fechner was personally arrested by Mielke and replaced by Hilde Benjamin, who was known to East German citizens as "Red Hilde", "The Red Freisler," and as, "The Red Guillotine," for her role as a judge in the SED's show trials.
Fechner was convicted of being, "an enemy of the Party and the State," and served three years in Bautzen Prison.
Wilhelm Zaisser was replaced as head of the Stasi by Ernst Wollweber and Mielke remained on staff as his deputy.
Tenure as Stasi head
Mielke headed the Stasi from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There was, under the East German system, no provision for parliamentary oversight. However, starting in 1971 Mielke was required to provide a detailed intelligence briefing to party secretary Erich Honecker each Tuesday, directly following the weekly Politburo meeting. (Before 1971, under Walter Ulbricht, Mielke was not involved in routine intelligence briefings to the leadership which, instead, were provided directly to Ulbricht by Intelligence Chief Markus Wolf.)
Internal discipline
During his tenure, Mielke enforced "political and personal discipline reminiscent of the early French Foreign Legion". New recruits were required to take a solemn oath pledging "to fight alongside the state security organs of all socialist countries against all enemies of socialism" on pain of "the severest punishment under the Republic's laws and the contempt of the workers." Recruits were also required to sign a security pledge vowing never to make unauthorized visits to any "capitalist countries" and to report on any members of their families who did so.
Violations of the oath resulted in expulsion from the Stasi and blacklisting from all but the most menial jobs. Serious violations were tried before secret tribunals and led an estimated 200 Stasi agents to be shot. Colonel Rainer Wiegand once said, "There was only one way to leave the MfS without being haunted for the rest of your life. You either retired or you died."
Domestic activities
Under Erich Mielke's leadership, the Stasi employed 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 civilian informants () (IMs). East Germans coined a term to describe the Stasi's pervasive surveillance of the population "All-Covered" (). For this reason, Anna Funder has referred to East Germany as, "the most perfected surveillance state of all time."
According to John Koehler, "...the Stasi's tentacles probed every aspect of life. Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei...In turn, the police officer was the Stasi's man. If a relative or friend came to stay overnight, it was reported. Schools, universities and hospitals were infiltrated from top to bottom. German academe was shocked to learn that Heinrich Fink, professor of theology and vice-chancellor of East Berlin's Humboldt University, had been a Stasi informer since 1968. After Fink's Stasi connections came to light, he was summarily fired. Doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, and sports figures were co-opted by Stasi officers, as were waiters and hotel personnel. Tapping about 100,000 telephone lines in East Germany and West Berlin around the clock was the job of 2,000 officers... Churchmen, including high officials of both Protestant and Catholic denominations, were recruited en masse as secret informants. Their offices and confessionals were infested with eavesdropping devices. Even the director of Leipzig's famous Thomas Church choir, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, was forced to resign when he was unmasked as a Spitzel, the people's pejorative for a Stasi informant."
In an interview with journalist Anna Funder, an ex-Stasi officer recalled, "Most often, people we approached would inform for us. It was very rare that they would not. However, sometimes we felt that we might need to know where their weak points were, just in case. For example, if we wanted a pastor, we'd find out if he'd had an affair, or had a drinking problem—things that we could use as leverage. Mostly though, people said yes."
On Mielke's orders, and with his full knowledge, Stasi officers also engaged in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, brutal harassment of political dissidents, torture, and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens.
In a 1991 interview, Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said, "The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people. The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million."
Activities abroad
During Mielke's tenure, the Stasi's operations beyond East Germany were overseen by Markus Wolf and the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (MfS-HVA).
Mielke and Wolf provided money, training, and surveillance equipment to help build pro-Soviet secret police forces in Fidel Castro's Cuba, Baathist Syria, Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua, Mengistu Haile Mariam's Ethiopia, Idi Amin's Uganda, Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, and South Yemen.
After the opening of Stasi archives, it was revealed that West Germany was riddled with MfS-HVA moles. In what John Koehler has dubbed, "The Invisible Invasion", some West German citizens collaborated out of Marxist beliefs, but others were recruited through blackmail, greed, career frustrations, or sexual favors from Stasi operatives.
Another tactic was for Stasi military advisers assigned to African and Middle Eastern countries to request the arrest of West German tourists. Local police would then turn the prisoner over to the Stasi agent, who would offer the West German a choice between espionage or incarceration.
Senior politicians from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union were exposed and, when still alive, prosecuted.
Mielke and Wolf also seriously compromised West Germany's police departments, foreign and domestic intelligence services, diplomatic corps, military-industrial complex, and journalistic profession.
The Stasi compromised the United States military and diplomatic presence in West Germany.
The most damaging American to spy for the Stasi was United States Army Sergeant James Hall III, who volunteered his services to Soviet and East German intelligence in November 1981.
Sergeant Hall sold the Stasi 13,088 pages of classified documents, including detailed information about Project Trojan, a worldwide electronic network with the ability to pinpoint armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft by recording their signal emissions during wartime and the complete National SIGINT Requirements List (NSRL), a 4258-page document about NSA operations at home and abroad.
In 1988, Sergeant Hall was tricked into confessing his espionage career to an undercover FBI Special Agent named Dmitri Droujinsky, a Russian-American who was posing as an agent of the KGB. When news of Sergeant Hall's arrest became public, one Washington intelligence official called the breach, "the Army's Walker Case."
Collusion with Nazism
Beginning in 1960, Mielke and Wolf used false flag recruitment to secretly organize and finance Neo-Nazi organizations, which they then instructed to vandalize Jewish religious and cultural sites throughout West Germany. During the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann, Stasi agents sent letters to West German Neo-Nazis and Waffen-SS veterans, urging them to speak out and to raise money for Eichmann's defense attorney. This was done in order to lend credibility to Communist propaganda about the allegedly Fascist and neo-Nazi orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to German historian Michael Wolffsohn, "There is no doubt that in the 1960s as now, there were Nazis who were unreconstructed, unchangeable and evil, but without the help of East Germany, these Nazis were incapable of a national, coordinated campaign. That was true of right-wing extremist criminals in the 1980s as well. The East German Communists used anything they could against West Germany, including the... fears by Western countries and Jews that a new Nazism could be growing in West Germany. There is... evidence that the East Germans continued to use Anti-Semitism as a tool against West Germany in the 1970s and perhaps right up until 1989."
In a 1991 interview with John Koehler, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said of the Stasi, "They not only terrorized their own people worse than the Gestapo, but the government was the most Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israeli in the entire Eastern Bloc. They did nothing to help the West in tracking down Nazi criminals; they ignored all requests from West German judicial authorities for assistance. We have just discovered shelves of files on Nazis stretching over four miles. Now we also know how the Stasi used those files. They blackmailed Nazi criminals who fled abroad after the war into spying for them. What's more, the Stasi trained terrorists from all over the world."
Support for paramilitary and terrorist groups
During a 1979 visit to the GDR by senior PLO member Salah Khalaf, Mielke said, "We are paying great attention to the Palestine resistance and the other revolutionary forces fighting against the policies of the United States and against the provocations of the Israeli aggressor. Together with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, we will do everything to support this just battle."
With this in mind, Mielke ordered the Stasi to finance, arm, and train, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, Mielke's ties to violent paramilitary groups were overseen by Markus Wolf and Department Three of the MfS-HVA. Members of the West German Baader-Meinhoff Group, the Chilean Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware, insurgent tactics, and, "the leadership role of the Party." Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Nidal, and Black September.
Other Stasi agents worked as military advisers to Soviet-backed African guerrilla organizations and the governments they later formed. They included the Namibian SWAPO and the Angolan MPLA during the South African Border War, the FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence and civil war, and Robert Mugabe's ZANLA during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Venezuelan-born PLO terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Black September leader Abu Daoud during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972 Munich massacre and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.
During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly blackmailed a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that the La Belle bombing and other terrorist attacks against American and West German citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.
According to John Koehler, "Murder, kidnapping, extortion, bank robbery, and arson were felonies under the East German criminal code. However, if these offenses were committed under the banner of the 'anti-imperialist struggle,' the communist system would look the other way. Moreover, it had assigned the Stasi to make sure that terrorists were properly trained for murder and sowing mayhem. There was no limits to the East German regime's involvement with terrorism, so long as it could be ideologically justified."
The Peaceful Revolution
According to John Koehler, "Increasingly concerned over the growing popular opposition, Stasi Minister Mielke early in 1989 ordered the creation of a special elite unit for crushing disturbances. Its personnel were carefully selected members of the counterespionage and counterterrorism directorate. They were equipped with special batons similar to electric cattle prods but much more powerful. In a secret speech to top-ranking Stasi officers on 29 June, Mielke warned that, 'hostile opposing forces and groups have already achieved a measure of power and are using all methods to achieve a change in the balance of power. Former Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand told me he was horrified when Mielke compared the situation with that of China two months earlier. Chinese students in Beijing had begun massive protests in April and in May, during a student demonstration in Tiananmen Square, security troops had opened fire on them killing hundreds. 'Mielke said our situation was comparable and we had to be ready to counter it with all means and methods,' Wiegand recalled. 'Mielke said that the Chinese leadership had succeeded in smothering the protests before the situation got out of hand.'"
Despite Mielke's attempts to suppress them, East Germany's protesters grew more emboldened with every arrest.
40th anniversary of the GDR
As the fortieth anniversary of the GDR approached, Mielke ordered, "We must stop the internal enemy. At the least hint of a disturbance of the celebration, isolate and arrest them."
One former Stasi Major recalled, "We mixed inconspicuously with the demonstrators, accompanied by our IMs. Hundreds of us stood at the sides of the street in order to stop any activity before it got started. We barely got any sleep toward the end. Never did I sense that the people were afraid of the MfS. The Stasi was more afraid of the people than the people were of them."
According to Koehler, "Despite the unrest, the regime celebrated its fortieth with a huge, pompous ceremony in Berlin on 7 October, while tens of thousands of outside the ornate building of the State Council. The People's Police cordons were utterly ineffectual. As Stasi Minister Erich Mielke drove up and was greeted by General Günter Kratsch, the counterintelligence chief, Mielke screamed at police: "Club those pigs into submission!" () The police ignored Mielke's ranting.
As more and more East Germans were arrested for protesting the 40th anniversary celebrations, many of them sang The Internationale in Vopo and Stasi custody to imply that they, rather than their captors, were the real working class and the real revolutionaries.
According to Anna Funder, "There was a sea of red flags, a torchlight procession, and tanks. The old men on the podium wore light-grey suits studded with medals. Mikhail Gorbachev stood next to Honecker, but he looked uncomfortable among the much older Germans. He had come to tell them that it was over, to convince the leadership to adopt his reformist policies. He had spoken openly about the danger of not 'responding to reality.' He pointedly told the Politburo that, 'life punishes those who come too late.' Honecker and Mielke ignored him, just as they ignored the crowds when they chanted, "Gorby, help us! Gorby, help us!"
Plan X
On 8 October 1989, Mielke and Honecker ordered the Stasi to implement "Plan X"—the SED's plan to arrest and indefinitely detain 85,939 East Germans during a state of emergency. According to John Koehler, Plan X had been in preparation since 1979 and was, "a carbon copy of how the Nazi concentration camps got their start after Hitler came to power in 1933."
By 1984, 23 sites had been selected for "isolation and internment camps." Those who were to be imprisoned in them ran into six categories; including anyone who had ever been under surveillance for anti-state activities, including all members of peace movements which were not under Stasi control.
According to Anna Funder, "The plans contained exact provisions for the use of all available prisons and camps, and when those were full for the conversion of other buildings: Nazi detention centers, schools, hospitals, and factory holiday hostels. Every detail was foreseen, from where the doorbell was located on the house of each person to be arrested to the adequate supply of barbed wire and the rules of dress and etiquette in the camps..."
However, when Mielke sent the orders, codenamed "Shield" (), to each local Stasi precinct to begin the planned arrests, he was not obeyed. Terrified of an East German version of the mass lynchings of Hungarian secret police agents during the 1956 Revolution, Stasi agents throughout the GDR fortified their office-buildings and barricaded themselves inside.
Toppling Honecker
Even as orders were going out to implement Plan X, Mielke had already thrown his support behind the anti-Honecker faction in the SED's Politburo. Although he was of the same generation as Honecker and had matured in an environment where following orders was the rule, he was sober enough and politically savvy enough to realize this approach no longer worked. During a session on 10 October 1989, Mielke delivered a report attacking Honecker's desire to violently suppress the demonstrations rather than offer concessions.
In what Edward N. Peterson has called "a remarkable disclaimer of responsibility for the violence," Mielke declared that Honecker's orders to him "were built on false situation judgments." He added that Honecker's commands on 7 and 8 October "were false and undifferentiated condemnations of those who think differently. Despite this evaluation, there was never any instructions to use violence against persons. There is nothing in our basic principles to consider a demonstration as part of a possible counterrevolutionary coup."
Mielke also claimed that "the Party judged the situation falsely. We tried to tell them the true situation, but enough was not done." Mielke argued in favor of solving the demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel."
On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents who were loyal to him were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with tanks," and tried to impress upon Honecker that it was "the end".
After the vote to oust Honecker passed, Mielke "got nasty," and accused Honecker of corruption. Honecker responded that Mielke should not open his mouth so much. Mielke responded by putting the last nail into Honecker's coffin. He announced that the MfS had a file on the now-ousted leader. It contained proof of Honecker's corrupt business practices, sexual activities, and how, as a member of the underground Communist Party of Germany during the Nazi years, he had been arrested by the Gestapo and had named names.
To the shock of both the Politburo and the Stasi, Krenz's first televised addresses failed to win popular support. Despite his assurances that the SED was at last ready to embrace Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, Krenz's approval ratings remained extremely low.
Former Politburo member Günter Schabowski later recalled, "We made a palace revolution without offering a real alternative... We had not quickly and thoroughly enough whittled away from Stalin's methods."
Defeat
On 7 November 1989, Mielke resigned, along with eleven out of eighteen members of the SED's Council of Ministers, in response to the increasing disintegration of the GDR.
Two days later, Schabowski announced on television that the east–west border was open without restriction.
According to Anna Funder, there was panic at Stasi Headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg, "Stasi officers were instructed to destroy files, starting with the most incriminating–those naming westerners who spied for them, and those that concerned deaths. They shredded the files until the paper shredders overheated and shorted out. Among other shortages in the East, there was a shredder shortage, so they had to send agents out under cover to West Berlin to buy more. In Building 8 alone, the citizens' movement found over a hundred burnt out shredders. When they ran out of working shredders from the West and could not procure more they began using scissors to cut the documents by hand.
According to William F. Buckley, Jr., "In the weeks after 9 November, Stasi offices were stormed in various cities around East Germany. Stasi commissars in three of those cities committed suicide. But not one was lynched or executed."
Televised humiliation
On 13 November 1989, Mielke was summoned to deliver a briefing about the protests to the GDR parliament, or Volkskammer. Formerly a "rubber stamp parliament," the disintegration of the SED's power had allowed the Volkskammer to begin exercising real authority over the GDR. Therefore, Mielke, as the head of the Stasi (known as the "shield and sword of the [SED] party"), was summoned before the newly empowered parliament to justify his position in government.
As his speech was broadcast live, Mielke began by using overly bombastic, flag-waving language, saying "We have, comrades, dear assembly members, an extraordinarily high amount of contact with all working people" (). To his shock, the Volkskammer responded with boos, whistles, and catcalls.
His face grief-stricken and pale, Mielke then tried to defuse the situation, "Yes, we have such contact, let me tell you-let me tell you why. I am not afraid to stand here and to give you an unbiased answer" (). Mielke continued, speaking of the "triumph" of the socialist economy, continuing all the while to address the members of the Volkskammer as "Comrades" (). In response, Volkskammer member Dietmar Czok of the Christian Democratic Union, rose from his seat and raised his hand. The Volkskammer's president, Günther Maleuda, interrupted Mielke and urged Czok to speak.
With his voice dripping with contempt, Czok told Mielke, "As a point of order, I will not tell you this again. There are more people sitting in this Chamber than just your Comrades!" (). In response, many in the Volkskammer burst into applause, cheers, and shouts of "We are not your Comrades!" ()
Trying to appear magnanimous, Mielke responded, "This is a natural, Humanistic question! This is just a question of formality." (), leading to further shouts of displeasure from the members of the Volkskammer. In a last ditch effort, Mielke "raised his arms like an evangelist," and cried, "I love all – all Humanity! I really do! I set myself before you!" ()
Everyone in the room, including staunch SED members, burst out laughing. Then Mielke started to cry. John Koehler later wrote, "Mielke was finished."
Mielke's address to the Volkskammer remains the most famous broadcast in the history of German television. Anna Funder has written, "When they think of Mielke, East Germans like to think of this."
The Fall
On 17 November 1989, the Volkskammer renamed the MfS the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit (AfNS – Office for National Security). The following day, Mielke's tenure in office ended when the Volkskammer appointed Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz as the new director of the AfNS.
On 1 December 1989, the Volkskammer nullified the clause of the GDR constitution that enshrined the SED's "leading role" in the government and formally ending Communist rule in East Germany. Two days later, the SED announced that Mielke's party membership had been permanently revoked. Years later, he lamented, "Millions have died for nothing. Everything we fought for – it has all amounted to nothing." He also said, "If the party had given me the task, then there would perhaps still be a GDR today. On that you can rely."
Prosecution
Indictments
On 7 December 1989, Erich Mielke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for embezzlement of public funds in order to improve his hunting estate. He was charged with "Damaging the People's Economy" (Schädigung der Volkswirtschaft). On 7 January 1990, he was further charged with high treason and conspiring with Erich Honecker to bug the telephones and open the mail of every one of East Germany's citizens.
Meanwhile, the Federal Constitutional Court announced that Mielke had also been indicted for having ordered two terrorist attacks by the Baader-Meinhoff Group against United States military personnel who were stationed on West German soil. The first was the car bomb attack against the United States Air Force at Ramstein Air Base on 31 August 1981. The second was the attempted murder with an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket of United States Army General Frederick Kroesen, his wife, and the West German police officer who was driving their armored Mercedes at Heidelberg on 15 September 1981.
After German reunification in October 1990, Mielke was also indicted for ordering the shootings of defectors at the Berlin Wall. He was also charged with misuse of office, breach of trust, and incitement to pervert the course of justice.
Bülowplatz trial
In February 1992, Mielke was put on trial for the 1931 first degree murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck as well as the attempted murder of Senior Sergeant Willig. The evidence for Mielke's guilt was drawn from the original police files, the transcripts from the 1934 trial of his co-conspirators, and a handwritten memoir in which Mielke revealed that his role in, "the Bülowplatz Affair," had been his reason for fleeing to Moscow from the Weimar Republic in 1931. All had been found in Mielke's house safe during a police search in 1990. Mielke was believed to have kept the documents for the purpose of "blackmailing Honecker and other East German leaders." Former Associated Press reporter and White House Press Secretary John Koehler also testified that Mielke had boasted of his involvement in the Bülowplatz murders during a confrontation at Leipzig in 1965.
During his trial, Mielke appeared increasingly senile, admitting his identity but otherwise remaining silent, taking naps, and showing little interest in the proceedings. In a widely publicized incident, Mielke appeared to mistake the presiding judge for a prison barber. When a journalist for Der Spiegel attempted to interview him in Plötzensee Prison, Mielke responded, "I want to go back to my bed" (). Opinion was divided whether Mielke was suffering from senile dementia or was pretending in order to evade prosecution.
After twenty months of one-and-a-half-hour daily sessions, Erich Mielke was convicted on two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. At his sentencing, Mielke started to cry. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Imprisonment
Mielke was then put on trial for ordering the shootings of East Germans who were trying to defect to the West. In November 1994, the presiding judge adjourned the proceedings, ruling that Mielke was not mentally competent to stand trial.
During his incarceration, at JVA Moabit corrections officers supplied Mielke with a red telephone like the one in his office at Stasi Headquarters. Although it was not connected to the outside world, Mielke enjoyed having imaginary conversations with non-existent Stasi agents. His other favorite pastime was watching game shows on television.
In 1995, parole officers and Mielke's attorneys argued that he was "totally confused" and obtained his release. At 87 years of age, Erich Mielke was Germany's oldest prison inmate and had been incarcerated for 1,904 days. Days before his release, the Public Prosecutor of Berlin announced that he was "not interested in chasing an 87-year-old man anymore" and that all further prosecution of Mielke had been indefinitely suspended.
According to Koehler, "[Mielke's] bank account, which held more than 300,000 Marks (about US$187,500), was confiscated. Before his arrest in 1989, the most feared man in East Germany had lived in a luxurious home with access to an indoor pool. In addition, he owned a palatial hunting villa, complete with a movie theater, trophy room, 60 servants, and a 60 square kilometers hunting preserve. After he was released from prison Mielke was obliged to move into a two-room, 55-square-meter flat. Like all Stasi pensioners, he would henceforth have to live on 802 marks (about US$512) a month."
Death
Erich Mielke died on 21 May 2000, aged 92, in a Berlin nursing home. After being cremated at the crematorium in Meissen, an urn containing Mielke's ashes was buried in an unmarked grave at the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. An estimated 100 people reportedly attended the funeral. Erich Mielke's grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes. Within hours of his funeral, the flowers and wreaths left at Mielke's grave were ripped to shreds by persons unknown.
Legacy
Writing in 2003, Australian journalist Anna Funder declared, "The name Mielke has now come to mean 'Stasi.' Victims are dubiously honored to find his signature in their files: on plans for someone to be observed 'with all possible methods', on commands for arrest, for kidnapping, instructions to judges for sentencing, orders for 'liquidation'. The honor is dubious because... he signed so many."
In 2012, the museum at the former Stasi headquarters opened Mielke's office as a permanent exhibit. Soon after, The Guardian correspondent Tam Eastley visited the exhibit and numerous sites in Berlin connected to Mielke's life, times, and legacy. When she visited Mielke's grave, Eastley found that it had become a shrine for adherents of Ostalgie.
Personal life
Erich Mielke was a fitness enthusiast, a non-smoker, and drank very little. He was a keen hunter and owned a large area of ground where he would hunt animals with other East German and visiting Soviet officials.
During the late 1940s, when Mielke was working as security chief of the DWK, he began a relationship with Gertrud Mueller, a seamstress. On 18 December 1948, shortly after the birth of their son Frank Mielke, Erich and Gertrud married in a civil ceremony.
According to the newspaper Bild, the Mielkes adopted an orphaned girl named Ingrid, who was born in 1950. Like her adopted brother Frank, Ingrid Mielke attended the Wilhelm Pieck School. She ultimately became a captain in the Stasi and married a Stasi Lieutenant named Norbert Knappe. As of 1999, the Knappes had both refused to grant an interview to Bild reporters.
In popular culture
Erich Mielke has appeared as a character in both films and novels set in the GDR.
Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita (2000), which focuses on Stasi collusion with the West German far-left terrorist organization Rote Armee Fraktion. In conversation with fictional Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke), Mielke (Dietrich Körner) expresses admiration for the RAF's campaign against the United States, West Germany, and the State of Israel, which he compares with his own activities against the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. The RAF members are then brought to a training camp, where Stasi agents instruct them in the use of grenade launchers and other kinds of military hardware. Mielke's name is never disclosed and Agent Hull addresses him only as, "Comrade General." ()
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (2006), which focuses on the Stasi's surveillance and repression of the East German population. In the film, a previously loyal GDR playwright named Georg Dreymann (Sebastian Koch) publishes an anonymous article in the West German magazine Der Spiegel which accuses East Germany's Minister of Culture of having persecuted a blacklisted stage director until he hanged himself. Soon after the article goes to press, Mielke's voice is heard over the telephone giving a dressing down to fictional Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur). Addressed only as "Genosse Armeegeneral" (Mielke was the only person to ever hold that rank in the Stasi), Mielke threatens to throw Grubitz in front of a firing squad if he fails to identify and arrest the article's author.
In Philip Kerr's novel Field Grey (2010), Mielke first appears in 1931 Berlin, when protagonist Bernie Gunther saves him from being murdered by Nazi Brownshirts. The novel then flashes forward to 1954, when Gunther is recruited into a CIA plot to abduct Mielke from East Berlin.
Honours and awards
Mielke received a large number of awards and commemorative medals from organisations within the German Democratic Republic and from allied states. A more complete list is available (in German) at Liste der Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Erich Mielke.
Awards of the German Democratic Republic
Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (7 October 1954)
Six Orders of Karl Marx (28 December 1957, 20 November 1973, 1 December 1975, 28 December 1977, 28 June 1982, 28 December 1982)
Twice Hero of Labour of the GDR (5 October 1964, 24 February 1968)
Twice Hero of the GDR (1 December 1975, 28 December 1982)
Banner of Labour (8 May 1960)
Medal for Exemplary Border Service (26 April 1956)
Medal for Faithful Service in the National People's Army;
Bronze (7 October 1957)
Silver (8 February 1959)
Gold (1 July 1960)
Gold for 20 years service (8 February 1965)
Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (6 September 1958)
Gold Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (1 March 1957)
Scharnhorst Order, twice (25 September 1979, 7 October 1984)
Awards of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union (25 December 1987)
Four Orders of Lenin (12 June 1973, 28 December 1982, 1 April 1985, 28 December 1987)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (6 May 1970)
Four Orders of the Red Banner (23 October 1958, 5 February 1968, 28 December 1977, February 1980)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Soviet Militia" (20 December 1967)
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" (1970)
Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR" (6 January 1970)
Order of the October Revolution (February 1975)
Other states
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 28 December 1982)
Order of Friendship (Czechoslovakia) (28 December 1982)
Order of the Red Star (Czechoslovakia) (16 November 1970)
References
Further reading
Buckley, Jr., William F. (2004), The Fall of the Berlin Wall, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Funder, Anna (2003), Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books, London.
Kuchel, Dany (2011) "Le Glaive et le Bouclier", une histoire de la Stasi en France.
Otto, Wilfriede, Erich Mielke, Biographie: Aufstieg und Fall eines Tschekisten. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2000, .
Peterson, Edward N. (2002). The Secret Police and the Revolution: The Fall of the German Democratic Republic, Praeger Publications, Westport, Connecticut. London.
Pickard, Ralph (2007). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide. Frontline Historical Publishing.
Pickard, Ralph (2012). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II. Frontline Historical Publication.
1907 births
2000 deaths
Politicians from Berlin
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Government ministers of East Germany
Members of the 3rd Volkskammer
Members of the 4th Volkskammer
Members of the 5th Volkskammer
Members of the 6th Volkskammer
Members of the 7th Volkskammer
Members of the 8th Volkskammer
Members of the 9th Volkskammer
East German spies
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People convicted of murder by Germany
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Recipients of the Banner of Labor
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Recipients of the Order of Georgi Dimitrov
20th-century German criminals
People from Mitte
German mass murderers
Criminals from Berlin
German military personnel of World War II | false | [
"The Women's time trial of the 2016 UCI Road World Championships took place in and around in Doha, Qatar on 11 October 2016. The course of the race was . Linda Villumsen won her first world time trial title in 2015 but did not take part in the 2016 race.\n\n2008 world champion Amber Neben, from the United States, claimed her second rainbow jersey, completing the course 5.99 seconds quicker than the European champion Ellen van Dijk, from the Netherlands. Australia's Katrin Garfoot, the Oceanian champion, won the bronze medal, 2.33 seconds behind van Dijk and 8.32 seconds in arrears of Neben's winning time.\n\nQualification\n\nQualification for the event\n\nAll National Federations were allowed to enter four riders for the race, with a maximum of two riders to start. In addition to this number, the outgoing World Champion, the Olympic champion and the current continental champions were also able to take part.\n\nSchedule\nAll times are in Arabia Standard Time (UTC+3).\n\nFinal classification\n\n* Aljersiwi fell during her race by riding into a fence.\n\nReferences\n\nWomen's time trial\nUCI Road World Championships – Women's time trial\n2016 in women's road cycling",
"Andrew Greig (27 October 1889 – 7 January 1959) was a Scotland international rugby union player. He played at the full-back position.\n\nRugby Union career\n\nAmateur career\n\nGreig played for Glasgow HSFP.\n\nProvincial career\n\nThe Scottish Referee gave this brief biography of Greig on the 28 November 1910, just before the Inter-City match, and predicted international honours:\nIn his school days, Andrew Greig, was looked upon as one whose reputation as a Rugby footballer would be made as a half-back, but when he reached the formers he was induced to accept his place in the last line of defence. His success as a full back is undoubted, and the choice of the Glasgow Committee in selecting him again for that position against Edinburgh will be received with satisfaction. An excellent defender and grand kick, Greig's share of honours may not be confined to Inter-City games.\n\nGreig played in the Inter-City match on 3 December 1910 for Glasgow District against Edinburgh District.\n\nInternational career\n\nAfter a disappointing showing in the Blues Trial versus Whites Trial match on 21 January 1911 by the backs, it was hoped that Greig - who didn't play in the Trial match - would recover from his injury to take the full back place against Wales. The Dundee Evening Telegraph expressing this hope:\nThe defence in Saturday's trial match was the poorest ever seen in a game of this importance. The three-quarters and backs both sides were rank bad, and it therefore occasioned no great surprise when it was found that the Union selectors had passed over both backs, and had elected Andrew Greig to play in that position against Wales. It is hoped he will have recovered sufficiently to enable him to take his place, for, from what we saw on Saturday, he will be badly wanted.\n\nUnfortunately for Greig, the match came too soon. However he later received a cap later in the Five Nations of that season.\n\nGreig was capped by Scotland for just one match. This was the Five Nations match against Ireland on 25 February 1911. Ireland won the match 16 - 10.\n\nReferences\n\n1889 births\n1959 deaths\nGlasgow District (rugby union) players\nGlasgow HSFP players\nRugby union players from Glasgow\nScotland international rugby union players\nScottish rugby union players"
]
|
[
"New York Dolls",
"Dissolution: 1975-77"
]
| C_3bc51535ed1f422e8c4fb50b887db0ed_0 | Why did the band dissolve? | 1 | Why did the New York Dolls dissolve? | New York Dolls | By 1975 the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan and Kane as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a 5-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play. In March and April McClaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up The band reformed in July for an August tour of Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986. After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine . The group played its last show December 30, 1976 , CANNOTANSWER | Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up | The New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with The Velvet Underground, MC5, The Stooges, and The Modern Lovers, they were one of the bands later credited as proto-punk, early influences on what would only later be known as punk rock. Although the band never achieved much commercial success and their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums—New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)—became among the most popular cult records in rock. The line-up at this time comprised vocalist David Johansen, guitarist Johnny Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane, guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain and drummer Jerry Nolan; the latter two had replaced Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia, respectively, in 1972. On stage, they donned an androgynous wardrobe, wearing high heels, eccentric hats, satin, makeup, spandex, and dresses. Nolan described the group in 1974 as "the Dead End Kids of today". After Thunders, Nolan and Kane all left in spring 1975, Johansen and Sylvain continued the band with other musicians until the end of 1976.
According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1995), the New York Dolls predated the punk and glam metal movements and were "one of the most influential rock bands of the last 20 years". They influenced rock groups such as the Sex Pistols, Kiss, the Ramones, Guns N' Roses, the Damned, and the Smiths, whose frontman Morrissey organized a reunion show for the New York Dolls' surviving members, being Johansen and Sylvain, in 2004. After reuniting, they recruited new musicians to tour and record. They released three more albums—One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006), Cause I Sez So (2009) and Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011). Following a 2011 British tour with Alice Cooper, the band once again disbanded.
History
Formation
Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia, who went to junior high school and high school together, started playing in a band called "the Pox" in 1967. After the frontman quit, Murcia and Sylvain started a clothing business called Truth and Soul and Sylvain took a job at A Different Drummer, a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop. Sylvain said that the shop inspired the name for their future band. In 1970 they formed a band again and recruited Johnny Thunders to join on bass, though Sylvain ended up teaching him to play guitar. They called themselves the Dolls. When Sylvain left the band to spend a few months in London, Thunders and Murcia went their separate ways.
Thunders was eventually recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets, who had been playing together in the Bronx. At Thunders' suggestion, Murcia replaced the original drummer. Thunders played lead guitar and sang for the band Actress. An October 1971 rehearsal tape recorded by Rivets was released as Dawn of the Dolls. When Thunders decided that he no longer wanted to be the front man, David Johansen joined the band. Initially, the group was composed of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia.
The original line-up's first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the Endicott Hotel. After getting a manager and attracting some music industry interest, the New York Dolls got a break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert.
In the band's early days, the New York Dolls performed at the Mercer Art Center, where Ruby and the Rednecks opened for and were influenced by them.
Billy Murcia's death
While on a brief tour of England in 1972, Murcia was invited to a party, where he passed out from an accidental overdose. He was put in a bathtub and force-fed coffee in an attempt to revive him. Instead, it resulted in asphyxiation. He was found dead on the morning of November 6, 1972, at the age of 21.
Record deal: 1972–1975
Once back in New York, the Dolls auditioned drummers, including Marc Bell (who was to go on to play with Richard Hell, and with the Ramones under the stage name "Marky Ramone"), Peter Criscuola (better known as Peter Criss, the original and former drummer of Kiss), and Jerry Nolan, a friend of the band. They selected Nolan, and after US Mercury Records' A&R man Paul Nelson signed them, they began sessions for their debut album. In 1972, the band took on Marty Thau as manager.
New York Dolls was produced by singer-songwriter, musician and solo artist Todd Rundgren. In an interview in Creem magazine, Rundgren says he barely touched the recording; everybody was debating how to do the mix. Sales were sluggish, especially in the middle US, and a Stereo Review magazine reviewer in 1973 compared the Dolls' guitar playing to the sound of lawnmowers. America's mass rock audience's reaction to the Dolls was mixed. In a Creem magazine poll, they were elected both best and worst new group of 1973. The Dolls also toured Europe, and, while appearing on UK television, host Bob Harris of the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test derided the group as "mock rock," comparing them unfavorably to the Rolling Stones.
For their next album, Too Much Too Soon, the quintet hired producer George "Shadow" Morton, whose productions for the Shangri-Las and other girl-groups in the mid-1960s had been among the band's favorites. Mercury dropped the Dolls on 7 October 1975, their contract with Mercury having expired on 8 August 1975 - five months after Thunders' and Nolan's departures from the band.
Dissolution: 1975–1976
By 1975, the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan, and Kane, as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March, Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a five-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play.
In March and April, McLaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument. Blackie Lawless, who later founded W.A.S.P., replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up.
The band reformed in July for an August tour in Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986.
After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine. The group toured throughout 1976, performing a set including some songs with lyrics by David Johansen that would later appear on David Johansen's solo albums including "Funky But Chic", "Frenchette" and "Wreckless Crazy.” The group played its last show December 30, 1976 at Max's Kansas City; on the same bill as Blondie.
Individual endeavors: 1975–2004
Shortly after returning from Florida, Thunders and Nolan formed The Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hell, who had left Television the same week that they quit the Dolls. Thunders later pursued a solo career. He died in New Orleans in 1991, allegedly of an overdose of both heroin and methadone. It also came to light that he suffered from t-cell leukemia. Nolan died in 1992 following a stroke, brought about by bacterial meningitis. In 1976, Kane and Blackie Lawless formed the Killer Kane Band in Los Angeles. Immediately after the New York Dolls' second breakup, Johansen began a solo career. By the late 1980s, he achieved moderate success under the pseudonym, Buster Poindexter. Sylvain formed The Criminals, a popular band at CBGB.
A posthumous New York Dolls album, Lipstick Killers, made up of early demo tapes of the original Dolls (with Billy Murcia on drums), was released in a cassette-only edition on ROIR Records in 1981, and subsequently re-released on CD, and then on vinyl in early 2006. All the tracks from this title – sometimes referred to as The Mercer Street Sessions (though actually recorded at Blue Rock Studio, New York) – are included on the CD Private World, along with other tracks recorded elsewhere, including a previously unreleased Dolls original, "Endless Party." Three more unreleased studio tracks, including another previously unreleased Dolls original, "Lone Star Queen," are included on the Rock 'n' Roll album. The other two are covers: the "Courageous Cat" theme, from the original Courageous Cat cartoon series; and a second attempt at "Don't Mess With Cupid," a song written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd for Otis Redding, and first recorded independently for what was later to become the Mercer Street/Blue Rock Sessions.
Sylvain formed his own band, The Criminals, then cut a solo album for RCA, while also working with Johansen. He later became a taxicab driver in New York.
Johansen, meanwhile, formed the David Johansen Group, and released an eponymous LP in 1978, recorded at the Bottom Line in NYC’s Greenwich Village,featuring Sylvain Mizrahi and Johnny Thunders as guest musicians.
In May, 1978, he also released “David Johansen,” on Blue Sky Records, a label created by Steve Paul, formerly of The Scene. Johansen continued to tour with his solo project and released four more albums, In Style, 1979; Here Comes the Night, 1981; Live it Up, 1982; and Sweet Revenge, 1984.
During the later 1980's, Johansen, ever-evolving, decided to try to liberate himself from the expectations of his New York Dolls perceived persona, and, on a whim, created the persona Buster Poindexter.
The success of this act led him to be invited to appear in multiple films: Scrooged, Freejack, and Let it Ride, among others.
He also formed a band called David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, named after the eccentric ethnomusicologist, performing jump blues, Delta blues, and some original songs.
During this period, in the early 1990s, Sylvain moved to Los Angeles and recorded one album Sleep Baby Doll, on Fishhead Records. His band, for that record, consisted of Brian Keats on drums, Dave Vanian's Phantom Chords, Speediejohn Carlucci (who had played with the Fuzztones), and Olivier Le Baron on lead guitar. Guest appearances by Frank Infante of Blondie and Derwood Andrews of Generation X were also included on the record. It has been re-released as New York A Go Go,.
Reunion, return to recording, second dissolution: 2004–11, and death of Sylvain
Morrissey, having been a longtime fan of the band and head of their 1970s UK fan club, organized a reunion of the three surviving members of the band's classic line-up (Johansen, Sylvain and Kane) for the Meltdown Festival in London on June 16, 2004. The reunion led to a live LP and DVD on Morrissey's Attack label, as well as a documentary film, New York Doll, on the life of Arthur Kane. However, future plans for the Dolls were affected by Kane's sudden death from leukemia just one month later on July 13, 2004. Yet the following month the band appeared at Little Steven’s Underground Garage Festival on August 14 in New York City before returning to the UK to play several more festivals through the remainder of 2004.
In July 2005, the two surviving members announced a tour and a new album entitled One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Released on July 25, 2006, the album featured guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks), drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin, formerly a member of David Johansen and the Harry Smiths. On July 20, 2006, the New York Dolls appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, followed by a live performance in Philadelphia at the WXPN All About The Music Festival, and on July 22, 2006, a taped appearance on The Henry Rollins Show. On August 18, 2006, the band performed in a free concert at New York's Seaport Music.
In October 2006, the band embarked on a UK tour, with Sylvain taking time while in Glasgow to speak to John Kilbride of STV. The discussion covered the band's history and the current state of their live show and songwriting, with Sylvain commenting that "even if you come to our show thinking 'how can it be like it was before,' we turn that around 'cos we've got such a great live rock 'n roll show". In November 2006, the Dolls began headlining "Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents the Rolling Rock and Roll Show," about 20 live gigs with numerous other bands. In April 2007, the band played in Australia and New Zealand, appearing at the V Festival with Pixies, Pet Shop Boys, Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Jarvis Cocker and Phoenix.
On September 22, 2007, New York Dolls were removed from the current artists section of Roadrunner Records' website, signifying the group's split with the label. The band played the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on July 4, 2008, with Morrissey and Beck and the Lounge On The Farm Festival on July 12, 2008. On November 14, 2008, it was announced that the producer of their first album, Todd Rundgren, would be producing a new album, which would be followed by a world tour. The finishing touches on the album were made in Rundgren's studio on the island of Kauai. The album, Cause I Sez So, was released on May 5, 2009 on Atco Records.
The band played at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2009, and a show at London's 100 Club on May 14, 2009 supported by Spizzenergi.
On March 18, 2010, the band announced another two concert dates at KOKO in Camden, London and the Academy in Dublin on April 20. In December 2010, it was announced the band would release their fifth album which had been recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne. The album, Dancing Backward in High Heels, featuring new guitarist Frank Infante (formerly of Blondie) was released on March 15, 2011.
On March 1, 2011, it was announced the New York Dolls would be the opening act for a summer tour featuring Mötley Crüe and Poison. They announced a new lineup for the tour, featuring guitarist Earl Slick, who held previous stints with David Bowie and John Lennon, bassist Kenny Aaronson, who had toured with Bob Dylan, and drummer Jason Sutter, formerly of Foreigner.
In a 2016 interview, Earl Slick confirmed the band was over. "Oh, yeah, it's long gone. There was no point in doing it anymore and it was kinda spent. You know, David really does enjoy the Buster thing. He's so good at it. I've seen him do it a couple of times this last year, and man! He's got it down, you know."
Sylvain Sylvain died on January 13, 2021, at age 69, leaving David Johansen as the last surviving original member of the band.
Musical style
According to AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the New York Dolls developed an original style of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal music, and drew on elements such as the "dirty rock & roll" of the Rolling Stones, the "anarchic noise" of the Stooges, the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, and girl group pop music. Erlewine credited the band for creating punk rock "before there was a term for it." Ken Tucker, who referred to them as a proto-punk band, wrote that they were strongly influenced by the "New York sensibility" of Lou Reed: "The mean wisecracks and impassioned cynicism that informed the Dolls' songs represented an attitude that Reed's work with the Velvet Underground embodied, as did the Dolls' distinct lack of musicianship."
When they began performing, four of the band's five members wore Spandex and platform boots, while Johansen—the band's lyricist and "conceptmaster"— often preferred high heels and a dress occasionally. Fashion historian Valerie Steele said that, while the majority of the punk scene pursued an understated "street look", the New York Dolls followed an English glam rock "look of androgyny—leather and knee-length boots, chest hair, and bleach". According to James McNair of The Independent, "when they began pedalling their trashy glam-punk around lower Manhattan in 1971, they were more burlesque act than band; a bunch of lipsticked, gutter chic-endorsing cross-dressers". Music journalist Nick Kent argued that the New York Dolls were "quintessential glam rockers" because of their flamboyant fashion, while their technical shortcomings as musicians and Johnny Thunders' "trouble-prone presence" gave them a punk-rock reputation.
By contrast, Robert Christgau preferred for them to not be categorized as a glam rock band, but instead as "the best hard-rock band since the Rolling Stones". Robert Hilburn, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said that the band exhibited a strong influence from the Rolling Stones, but had distinguished themselves by Too Much Too Soon (1974) as "a much more independent, original force" because of their "definite touch of the humor and carefreeness of early (ie. mid-1950s) rock". Simon Reynolds felt that, by their 2009 album Cause I Sez So, the band exhibited the sound "not of the sloppy, rambunctious Dolls of punk mythology but of a tight, lean hard-rock band."
Band members
Former members
David Johansen – vocals, harmonica (1971–1976, 2004–2011)
Sylvain Sylvain – guitar, bass, piano (1971–1976, 2004–2011; died 2021)
Arthur Kane – bass guitar (1971–1975, 2004; died 2004)
Johnny Thunders - guitar, vocals (1971-1975; died 1991)
Billy Murcia – drums (1971–1972; died 1972)
Rick Rivets – guitar (1971; died 2019)
Jerry Nolan – drums (1972–1975; died 1992)
Peter Jordan – bass (1975–1976)
Tony Machine – drums (1975–1976)
Blackie Lawless – guitar (1975)
Chris Robison – keyboards (1975)
Bobby Blaine – keyboards (1976)
Steve Conte – guitar, vocals (2004–2010)
John Conte – bass (2004)
Gary Powell – drums (2004)
Brian Delaney– drums (2005–2011)
Sami Yaffa – bass (2005–2010)
Brian Koonin – keyboards (2005–2006)
Aaron Lee Tasjan - guitar (2008-2009)
Frank Infante – guitar (2010–2011)
Jason Hill – bass (2010–2011)
Jason Sutter – drums (2011)
Kenny Aaronson – bass (2011)
Earl Slick – guitar (2011)
Claton Pitcher – guitar (2011)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Chart placings shown are from the Billboard 200 US Albums chart.
New York Dolls (1973 US:#116)
Too Much Too Soon (1974 US:#167) in UK:#165
One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006 US:#129)
Cause I Sez So (2009 US:#159)
Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011)
Demo albums
Lipstick Killers – The Mercer Street Sessions 1972 (1981)
Seven Day Weekend (1992)
Actress – "Birth of the New York Dolls" (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
Private World - The Complete Early Studio Demos 1972–1973 (2006)
Live albums
Red Patent Leather (1984)
Paris Le Trash (1993)
Live In Concert, Paris 1974 (1998)
The Glamorous Life Live (1999)
From Paris with Love (L.U.V.) (2002)
Morrissey Presents: The Return Of New York Dolls Live From Royal Festival Hall (2004)
Live At the Filmore East (2008)
Viva Le Trash '74 (2009)
French Kiss '74 (2013)
Compilation albums
New York Dolls / Too Much Too Soon (1977)
Very Best of New York Dolls (1977)
Night of the Living Dolls (1985)
The Best of the New York Dolls (1985)
Super Best Collection (1990)
Rock'n Roll (1994)
Hootchie Kootchie Dolls (1998)
The Glam Rock Hits (1999)
Actress: Birth of The New York Dolls (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
New York Tapes 72/73 (2000)
Great Big Kiss (reissue of Seven Day Weekend and Red Patent Leather, 2002)
Looking For A Kiss (2003)
Manhattan Mayhem (2003)
20th Century Masters – the Millennium collection: the best of New York Dolls (2003)
Singles
"Personality Crisis" / "Looking for a Kiss" (1973)
"Trash" / "Personality Crisis" (1973)
"Jet Boy" / "Vietnamese Baby" (1973)
"Stranded in the Jungle" / "Don't Start Me Talkin'" (1974)
"(There's Gonna Be A) Showdown" / "Puss 'n' Boots" (1974)
"Jet Boy" // "Babylon" / "Who Are the Mystery Girls" (1977, UK)
"Bad Girl" / "Subway Train" (1978, Germany)
"Gimme Luv and Turn On the Light" (2006)
"Fool for You Baby" (2011)
"Dolled UP" (2014)
References
External links
"Private World: New York Dolls Manager Marty Thau on His Days with the Band" - Interview in Rocker Magazine 2012
1971 establishments in New York City
2011 disestablishments in New York (state)
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
American glam rock musical groups
Protopunk groups
Punk rock groups from New York (state)
Musical groups from New York City
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1971
Musical groups disestablished in 1976
Musical groups reestablished in 2004
Musical groups disestablished in 2011
Atco Records artists | false | [
"Dissolve may refer to:\n\n Dissolve (filmmaking), in film and video editing, a transition between scenes\n Dissolve (2019 film), a film by Kim Ki-duk\n The Dissolve, a web magazine property of Pitchfork, covering movies\n Dissolve (band), collaborative musical project between experimental guitarists Chris Heaphy and Roy Montgomery\n \"Dissolve\", a song by Absofacto\n \"Dissolve\", a song by Daniel Johns from the album Talk\n \"Dissolve\", a song by Hundred Reasons on the 2002 album Ideas Above Our Station\n\nSee also\n Dissolution (disambiguation)",
"Third Album for the Sun is the second album by Dissolve, released on 4 August 1997 through Kranky.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \nArnold Van Bussell – bass guitar, engineering\nJohn Chrisstoffels – cello, drums\nChris Heaphy – guitar, keyboards, bongos, percussion\nRoy Montgomery – guitar, keyboards, bongos, percussion, mixing\nKaye Woodward – guitar, vocals\n\nReferences \n\n1997 albums\nDissolve (band) albums\nKranky albums"
]
|
[
"New York Dolls",
"Dissolution: 1975-77",
"Why did the band dissolve?",
"Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up"
]
| C_3bc51535ed1f422e8c4fb50b887db0ed_0 | What was the argument about? | 2 | What was the argument about when the New York Dolls broke up? | New York Dolls | By 1975 the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan and Kane as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a 5-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play. In March and April McClaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up The band reformed in July for an August tour of Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986. After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine . The group played its last show December 30, 1976 , CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | The New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with The Velvet Underground, MC5, The Stooges, and The Modern Lovers, they were one of the bands later credited as proto-punk, early influences on what would only later be known as punk rock. Although the band never achieved much commercial success and their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums—New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)—became among the most popular cult records in rock. The line-up at this time comprised vocalist David Johansen, guitarist Johnny Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane, guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain and drummer Jerry Nolan; the latter two had replaced Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia, respectively, in 1972. On stage, they donned an androgynous wardrobe, wearing high heels, eccentric hats, satin, makeup, spandex, and dresses. Nolan described the group in 1974 as "the Dead End Kids of today". After Thunders, Nolan and Kane all left in spring 1975, Johansen and Sylvain continued the band with other musicians until the end of 1976.
According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1995), the New York Dolls predated the punk and glam metal movements and were "one of the most influential rock bands of the last 20 years". They influenced rock groups such as the Sex Pistols, Kiss, the Ramones, Guns N' Roses, the Damned, and the Smiths, whose frontman Morrissey organized a reunion show for the New York Dolls' surviving members, being Johansen and Sylvain, in 2004. After reuniting, they recruited new musicians to tour and record. They released three more albums—One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006), Cause I Sez So (2009) and Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011). Following a 2011 British tour with Alice Cooper, the band once again disbanded.
History
Formation
Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia, who went to junior high school and high school together, started playing in a band called "the Pox" in 1967. After the frontman quit, Murcia and Sylvain started a clothing business called Truth and Soul and Sylvain took a job at A Different Drummer, a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop. Sylvain said that the shop inspired the name for their future band. In 1970 they formed a band again and recruited Johnny Thunders to join on bass, though Sylvain ended up teaching him to play guitar. They called themselves the Dolls. When Sylvain left the band to spend a few months in London, Thunders and Murcia went their separate ways.
Thunders was eventually recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets, who had been playing together in the Bronx. At Thunders' suggestion, Murcia replaced the original drummer. Thunders played lead guitar and sang for the band Actress. An October 1971 rehearsal tape recorded by Rivets was released as Dawn of the Dolls. When Thunders decided that he no longer wanted to be the front man, David Johansen joined the band. Initially, the group was composed of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia.
The original line-up's first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the Endicott Hotel. After getting a manager and attracting some music industry interest, the New York Dolls got a break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert.
In the band's early days, the New York Dolls performed at the Mercer Art Center, where Ruby and the Rednecks opened for and were influenced by them.
Billy Murcia's death
While on a brief tour of England in 1972, Murcia was invited to a party, where he passed out from an accidental overdose. He was put in a bathtub and force-fed coffee in an attempt to revive him. Instead, it resulted in asphyxiation. He was found dead on the morning of November 6, 1972, at the age of 21.
Record deal: 1972–1975
Once back in New York, the Dolls auditioned drummers, including Marc Bell (who was to go on to play with Richard Hell, and with the Ramones under the stage name "Marky Ramone"), Peter Criscuola (better known as Peter Criss, the original and former drummer of Kiss), and Jerry Nolan, a friend of the band. They selected Nolan, and after US Mercury Records' A&R man Paul Nelson signed them, they began sessions for their debut album. In 1972, the band took on Marty Thau as manager.
New York Dolls was produced by singer-songwriter, musician and solo artist Todd Rundgren. In an interview in Creem magazine, Rundgren says he barely touched the recording; everybody was debating how to do the mix. Sales were sluggish, especially in the middle US, and a Stereo Review magazine reviewer in 1973 compared the Dolls' guitar playing to the sound of lawnmowers. America's mass rock audience's reaction to the Dolls was mixed. In a Creem magazine poll, they were elected both best and worst new group of 1973. The Dolls also toured Europe, and, while appearing on UK television, host Bob Harris of the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test derided the group as "mock rock," comparing them unfavorably to the Rolling Stones.
For their next album, Too Much Too Soon, the quintet hired producer George "Shadow" Morton, whose productions for the Shangri-Las and other girl-groups in the mid-1960s had been among the band's favorites. Mercury dropped the Dolls on 7 October 1975, their contract with Mercury having expired on 8 August 1975 - five months after Thunders' and Nolan's departures from the band.
Dissolution: 1975–1976
By 1975, the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan, and Kane, as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March, Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a five-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play.
In March and April, McLaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument. Blackie Lawless, who later founded W.A.S.P., replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up.
The band reformed in July for an August tour in Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986.
After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine. The group toured throughout 1976, performing a set including some songs with lyrics by David Johansen that would later appear on David Johansen's solo albums including "Funky But Chic", "Frenchette" and "Wreckless Crazy.” The group played its last show December 30, 1976 at Max's Kansas City; on the same bill as Blondie.
Individual endeavors: 1975–2004
Shortly after returning from Florida, Thunders and Nolan formed The Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hell, who had left Television the same week that they quit the Dolls. Thunders later pursued a solo career. He died in New Orleans in 1991, allegedly of an overdose of both heroin and methadone. It also came to light that he suffered from t-cell leukemia. Nolan died in 1992 following a stroke, brought about by bacterial meningitis. In 1976, Kane and Blackie Lawless formed the Killer Kane Band in Los Angeles. Immediately after the New York Dolls' second breakup, Johansen began a solo career. By the late 1980s, he achieved moderate success under the pseudonym, Buster Poindexter. Sylvain formed The Criminals, a popular band at CBGB.
A posthumous New York Dolls album, Lipstick Killers, made up of early demo tapes of the original Dolls (with Billy Murcia on drums), was released in a cassette-only edition on ROIR Records in 1981, and subsequently re-released on CD, and then on vinyl in early 2006. All the tracks from this title – sometimes referred to as The Mercer Street Sessions (though actually recorded at Blue Rock Studio, New York) – are included on the CD Private World, along with other tracks recorded elsewhere, including a previously unreleased Dolls original, "Endless Party." Three more unreleased studio tracks, including another previously unreleased Dolls original, "Lone Star Queen," are included on the Rock 'n' Roll album. The other two are covers: the "Courageous Cat" theme, from the original Courageous Cat cartoon series; and a second attempt at "Don't Mess With Cupid," a song written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd for Otis Redding, and first recorded independently for what was later to become the Mercer Street/Blue Rock Sessions.
Sylvain formed his own band, The Criminals, then cut a solo album for RCA, while also working with Johansen. He later became a taxicab driver in New York.
Johansen, meanwhile, formed the David Johansen Group, and released an eponymous LP in 1978, recorded at the Bottom Line in NYC’s Greenwich Village,featuring Sylvain Mizrahi and Johnny Thunders as guest musicians.
In May, 1978, he also released “David Johansen,” on Blue Sky Records, a label created by Steve Paul, formerly of The Scene. Johansen continued to tour with his solo project and released four more albums, In Style, 1979; Here Comes the Night, 1981; Live it Up, 1982; and Sweet Revenge, 1984.
During the later 1980's, Johansen, ever-evolving, decided to try to liberate himself from the expectations of his New York Dolls perceived persona, and, on a whim, created the persona Buster Poindexter.
The success of this act led him to be invited to appear in multiple films: Scrooged, Freejack, and Let it Ride, among others.
He also formed a band called David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, named after the eccentric ethnomusicologist, performing jump blues, Delta blues, and some original songs.
During this period, in the early 1990s, Sylvain moved to Los Angeles and recorded one album Sleep Baby Doll, on Fishhead Records. His band, for that record, consisted of Brian Keats on drums, Dave Vanian's Phantom Chords, Speediejohn Carlucci (who had played with the Fuzztones), and Olivier Le Baron on lead guitar. Guest appearances by Frank Infante of Blondie and Derwood Andrews of Generation X were also included on the record. It has been re-released as New York A Go Go,.
Reunion, return to recording, second dissolution: 2004–11, and death of Sylvain
Morrissey, having been a longtime fan of the band and head of their 1970s UK fan club, organized a reunion of the three surviving members of the band's classic line-up (Johansen, Sylvain and Kane) for the Meltdown Festival in London on June 16, 2004. The reunion led to a live LP and DVD on Morrissey's Attack label, as well as a documentary film, New York Doll, on the life of Arthur Kane. However, future plans for the Dolls were affected by Kane's sudden death from leukemia just one month later on July 13, 2004. Yet the following month the band appeared at Little Steven’s Underground Garage Festival on August 14 in New York City before returning to the UK to play several more festivals through the remainder of 2004.
In July 2005, the two surviving members announced a tour and a new album entitled One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Released on July 25, 2006, the album featured guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks), drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin, formerly a member of David Johansen and the Harry Smiths. On July 20, 2006, the New York Dolls appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, followed by a live performance in Philadelphia at the WXPN All About The Music Festival, and on July 22, 2006, a taped appearance on The Henry Rollins Show. On August 18, 2006, the band performed in a free concert at New York's Seaport Music.
In October 2006, the band embarked on a UK tour, with Sylvain taking time while in Glasgow to speak to John Kilbride of STV. The discussion covered the band's history and the current state of their live show and songwriting, with Sylvain commenting that "even if you come to our show thinking 'how can it be like it was before,' we turn that around 'cos we've got such a great live rock 'n roll show". In November 2006, the Dolls began headlining "Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents the Rolling Rock and Roll Show," about 20 live gigs with numerous other bands. In April 2007, the band played in Australia and New Zealand, appearing at the V Festival with Pixies, Pet Shop Boys, Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Jarvis Cocker and Phoenix.
On September 22, 2007, New York Dolls were removed from the current artists section of Roadrunner Records' website, signifying the group's split with the label. The band played the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on July 4, 2008, with Morrissey and Beck and the Lounge On The Farm Festival on July 12, 2008. On November 14, 2008, it was announced that the producer of their first album, Todd Rundgren, would be producing a new album, which would be followed by a world tour. The finishing touches on the album were made in Rundgren's studio on the island of Kauai. The album, Cause I Sez So, was released on May 5, 2009 on Atco Records.
The band played at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2009, and a show at London's 100 Club on May 14, 2009 supported by Spizzenergi.
On March 18, 2010, the band announced another two concert dates at KOKO in Camden, London and the Academy in Dublin on April 20. In December 2010, it was announced the band would release their fifth album which had been recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne. The album, Dancing Backward in High Heels, featuring new guitarist Frank Infante (formerly of Blondie) was released on March 15, 2011.
On March 1, 2011, it was announced the New York Dolls would be the opening act for a summer tour featuring Mötley Crüe and Poison. They announced a new lineup for the tour, featuring guitarist Earl Slick, who held previous stints with David Bowie and John Lennon, bassist Kenny Aaronson, who had toured with Bob Dylan, and drummer Jason Sutter, formerly of Foreigner.
In a 2016 interview, Earl Slick confirmed the band was over. "Oh, yeah, it's long gone. There was no point in doing it anymore and it was kinda spent. You know, David really does enjoy the Buster thing. He's so good at it. I've seen him do it a couple of times this last year, and man! He's got it down, you know."
Sylvain Sylvain died on January 13, 2021, at age 69, leaving David Johansen as the last surviving original member of the band.
Musical style
According to AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the New York Dolls developed an original style of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal music, and drew on elements such as the "dirty rock & roll" of the Rolling Stones, the "anarchic noise" of the Stooges, the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, and girl group pop music. Erlewine credited the band for creating punk rock "before there was a term for it." Ken Tucker, who referred to them as a proto-punk band, wrote that they were strongly influenced by the "New York sensibility" of Lou Reed: "The mean wisecracks and impassioned cynicism that informed the Dolls' songs represented an attitude that Reed's work with the Velvet Underground embodied, as did the Dolls' distinct lack of musicianship."
When they began performing, four of the band's five members wore Spandex and platform boots, while Johansen—the band's lyricist and "conceptmaster"— often preferred high heels and a dress occasionally. Fashion historian Valerie Steele said that, while the majority of the punk scene pursued an understated "street look", the New York Dolls followed an English glam rock "look of androgyny—leather and knee-length boots, chest hair, and bleach". According to James McNair of The Independent, "when they began pedalling their trashy glam-punk around lower Manhattan in 1971, they were more burlesque act than band; a bunch of lipsticked, gutter chic-endorsing cross-dressers". Music journalist Nick Kent argued that the New York Dolls were "quintessential glam rockers" because of their flamboyant fashion, while their technical shortcomings as musicians and Johnny Thunders' "trouble-prone presence" gave them a punk-rock reputation.
By contrast, Robert Christgau preferred for them to not be categorized as a glam rock band, but instead as "the best hard-rock band since the Rolling Stones". Robert Hilburn, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said that the band exhibited a strong influence from the Rolling Stones, but had distinguished themselves by Too Much Too Soon (1974) as "a much more independent, original force" because of their "definite touch of the humor and carefreeness of early (ie. mid-1950s) rock". Simon Reynolds felt that, by their 2009 album Cause I Sez So, the band exhibited the sound "not of the sloppy, rambunctious Dolls of punk mythology but of a tight, lean hard-rock band."
Band members
Former members
David Johansen – vocals, harmonica (1971–1976, 2004–2011)
Sylvain Sylvain – guitar, bass, piano (1971–1976, 2004–2011; died 2021)
Arthur Kane – bass guitar (1971–1975, 2004; died 2004)
Johnny Thunders - guitar, vocals (1971-1975; died 1991)
Billy Murcia – drums (1971–1972; died 1972)
Rick Rivets – guitar (1971; died 2019)
Jerry Nolan – drums (1972–1975; died 1992)
Peter Jordan – bass (1975–1976)
Tony Machine – drums (1975–1976)
Blackie Lawless – guitar (1975)
Chris Robison – keyboards (1975)
Bobby Blaine – keyboards (1976)
Steve Conte – guitar, vocals (2004–2010)
John Conte – bass (2004)
Gary Powell – drums (2004)
Brian Delaney– drums (2005–2011)
Sami Yaffa – bass (2005–2010)
Brian Koonin – keyboards (2005–2006)
Aaron Lee Tasjan - guitar (2008-2009)
Frank Infante – guitar (2010–2011)
Jason Hill – bass (2010–2011)
Jason Sutter – drums (2011)
Kenny Aaronson – bass (2011)
Earl Slick – guitar (2011)
Claton Pitcher – guitar (2011)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Chart placings shown are from the Billboard 200 US Albums chart.
New York Dolls (1973 US:#116)
Too Much Too Soon (1974 US:#167) in UK:#165
One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006 US:#129)
Cause I Sez So (2009 US:#159)
Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011)
Demo albums
Lipstick Killers – The Mercer Street Sessions 1972 (1981)
Seven Day Weekend (1992)
Actress – "Birth of the New York Dolls" (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
Private World - The Complete Early Studio Demos 1972–1973 (2006)
Live albums
Red Patent Leather (1984)
Paris Le Trash (1993)
Live In Concert, Paris 1974 (1998)
The Glamorous Life Live (1999)
From Paris with Love (L.U.V.) (2002)
Morrissey Presents: The Return Of New York Dolls Live From Royal Festival Hall (2004)
Live At the Filmore East (2008)
Viva Le Trash '74 (2009)
French Kiss '74 (2013)
Compilation albums
New York Dolls / Too Much Too Soon (1977)
Very Best of New York Dolls (1977)
Night of the Living Dolls (1985)
The Best of the New York Dolls (1985)
Super Best Collection (1990)
Rock'n Roll (1994)
Hootchie Kootchie Dolls (1998)
The Glam Rock Hits (1999)
Actress: Birth of The New York Dolls (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
New York Tapes 72/73 (2000)
Great Big Kiss (reissue of Seven Day Weekend and Red Patent Leather, 2002)
Looking For A Kiss (2003)
Manhattan Mayhem (2003)
20th Century Masters – the Millennium collection: the best of New York Dolls (2003)
Singles
"Personality Crisis" / "Looking for a Kiss" (1973)
"Trash" / "Personality Crisis" (1973)
"Jet Boy" / "Vietnamese Baby" (1973)
"Stranded in the Jungle" / "Don't Start Me Talkin'" (1974)
"(There's Gonna Be A) Showdown" / "Puss 'n' Boots" (1974)
"Jet Boy" // "Babylon" / "Who Are the Mystery Girls" (1977, UK)
"Bad Girl" / "Subway Train" (1978, Germany)
"Gimme Luv and Turn On the Light" (2006)
"Fool for You Baby" (2011)
"Dolled UP" (2014)
References
External links
"Private World: New York Dolls Manager Marty Thau on His Days with the Band" - Interview in Rocker Magazine 2012
1971 establishments in New York City
2011 disestablishments in New York (state)
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
American glam rock musical groups
Protopunk groups
Punk rock groups from New York (state)
Musical groups from New York City
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1971
Musical groups disestablished in 1976
Musical groups reestablished in 2004
Musical groups disestablished in 2011
Atco Records artists | false | [
"Hawkes' Ladder of Inference is an archaeological argument outlined by Christopher Hawkes in a 1954 paper that describes increasing difficulty of making inferences about ancient society with artifacts. Hawkes argued that it was easiest to infer how artifacts were made and hardest to describe the religion of a society.\n\nArgument \nWhat became the paper outlining Hawkes' Ladder was first presented as a lecture by Hawkes in November 1953 at a dinner hosted by the WennerGrun Foundation at Harvard University. The paper itself was 14 pages with about half a page outlining his fundamental argument.\n\nHawkes' proposed in his argument a ladder that has four 'rungs' and describes the increasing difficulty of making assumptions about ancient societies with archaeological data. The bottom 'rung' is making inferences about how artifacts were made and what technology they were made with, the second the economic systems built on those tools, and third the society that emerged. At the top of his ladder was the society's religion, which he argued to be \"the hardest of all\" to make inferences about.\n\nReception \nIn 1998 Christopher Evans wrote in Antiquity that the 'Ladder' paper is \"[a] key document in the history of 20th-century archaeology, citation to it is almost mandatory in any overview of the development of archaeological thought and it often serves as a 'windmill' to be tilted at when marshalling theoretical argument.\"\n\nReferences \n\nArchaeological theory",
"See Diodorus Cronus § Master argument for the classical master argument related to the problem of future contingents.\n\nThe master argument is George Berkeley's argument that mind-independent objects do not exist because it is impossible to conceive of them. The argument is against intuition and has been widely challenged. The term \"Berkeley's master argument\" was introduced by Andre Gallois in 1974. His term has firmly become currency of contemporary Berkeley scholarship.\n\nOverview\nIn order to determine whether it is possible for a tree to exist outside of the mind, we need to be able to think of an unconceived tree. But as soon as we try to think about this tree, we have conceived it. So we have failed and there is no good reason to believe that trees exist outside of the mind. \n\nThe master argument has been seen by several prominent philosophers as having a crucial mistake; see criticisms of idealism. However, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact mistake Berkeley makes. Bertrand Russell among others believed the problem is Berkeley's argument \"seems to depend for its plausibility upon confusing the thing apprehended with the act of apprehension\":\n\n\"If we say that the things known must be in the mind, we are either un-duly limiting the mind's power of knowing, or we are uttering a mere tautology. We are uttering a mere tautology if we mean by 'in the mind' the same as by 'before the mind', i.e. if we mean merely being apprehended by the mind. But if we mean this, we shall have to admit that what, in this sense, is in the mind, may nevertheless be not mental. Thus when we realize the nature of knowledge, Berkeley's argument is seen to be wrong in substance as well as in form, and his grounds for supposing that 'idea'-i.e. the objects apprehended-must be mental, are found to have no validity whatever. Hence his grounds in favour of the idealism may be dismissed.\"\n\nCriticisms \nSome claim that Berkeley was not making a master argument at all and that what he was actually trying to show was that the substance 'matter' was actually an abstract concept that passed itself off in peoples' minds as an object of immediate experience. Rather than say that the matter cannot exist, the critics claim, Berkeley is saying that it can only exist as an abstract concept and that this abstract concept was conceptually useless.\n\nReferences \n\nPhilosophical arguments\nGeorge Berkeley"
]
|
[
"New York Dolls",
"Dissolution: 1975-77",
"Why did the band dissolve?",
"Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up",
"What was the argument about?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_3bc51535ed1f422e8c4fb50b887db0ed_0 | When did Thunders leave? | 3 | When did Thunders leave The New York Dolls? | New York Dolls | By 1975 the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan and Kane as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a 5-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play. In March and April McClaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up The band reformed in July for an August tour of Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986. After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine . The group played its last show December 30, 1976 , CANNOTANSWER | In March and April McClaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. | The New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with The Velvet Underground, MC5, The Stooges, and The Modern Lovers, they were one of the bands later credited as proto-punk, early influences on what would only later be known as punk rock. Although the band never achieved much commercial success and their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums—New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)—became among the most popular cult records in rock. The line-up at this time comprised vocalist David Johansen, guitarist Johnny Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane, guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain and drummer Jerry Nolan; the latter two had replaced Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia, respectively, in 1972. On stage, they donned an androgynous wardrobe, wearing high heels, eccentric hats, satin, makeup, spandex, and dresses. Nolan described the group in 1974 as "the Dead End Kids of today". After Thunders, Nolan and Kane all left in spring 1975, Johansen and Sylvain continued the band with other musicians until the end of 1976.
According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1995), the New York Dolls predated the punk and glam metal movements and were "one of the most influential rock bands of the last 20 years". They influenced rock groups such as the Sex Pistols, Kiss, the Ramones, Guns N' Roses, the Damned, and the Smiths, whose frontman Morrissey organized a reunion show for the New York Dolls' surviving members, being Johansen and Sylvain, in 2004. After reuniting, they recruited new musicians to tour and record. They released three more albums—One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006), Cause I Sez So (2009) and Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011). Following a 2011 British tour with Alice Cooper, the band once again disbanded.
History
Formation
Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia, who went to junior high school and high school together, started playing in a band called "the Pox" in 1967. After the frontman quit, Murcia and Sylvain started a clothing business called Truth and Soul and Sylvain took a job at A Different Drummer, a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop. Sylvain said that the shop inspired the name for their future band. In 1970 they formed a band again and recruited Johnny Thunders to join on bass, though Sylvain ended up teaching him to play guitar. They called themselves the Dolls. When Sylvain left the band to spend a few months in London, Thunders and Murcia went their separate ways.
Thunders was eventually recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets, who had been playing together in the Bronx. At Thunders' suggestion, Murcia replaced the original drummer. Thunders played lead guitar and sang for the band Actress. An October 1971 rehearsal tape recorded by Rivets was released as Dawn of the Dolls. When Thunders decided that he no longer wanted to be the front man, David Johansen joined the band. Initially, the group was composed of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia.
The original line-up's first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the Endicott Hotel. After getting a manager and attracting some music industry interest, the New York Dolls got a break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert.
In the band's early days, the New York Dolls performed at the Mercer Art Center, where Ruby and the Rednecks opened for and were influenced by them.
Billy Murcia's death
While on a brief tour of England in 1972, Murcia was invited to a party, where he passed out from an accidental overdose. He was put in a bathtub and force-fed coffee in an attempt to revive him. Instead, it resulted in asphyxiation. He was found dead on the morning of November 6, 1972, at the age of 21.
Record deal: 1972–1975
Once back in New York, the Dolls auditioned drummers, including Marc Bell (who was to go on to play with Richard Hell, and with the Ramones under the stage name "Marky Ramone"), Peter Criscuola (better known as Peter Criss, the original and former drummer of Kiss), and Jerry Nolan, a friend of the band. They selected Nolan, and after US Mercury Records' A&R man Paul Nelson signed them, they began sessions for their debut album. In 1972, the band took on Marty Thau as manager.
New York Dolls was produced by singer-songwriter, musician and solo artist Todd Rundgren. In an interview in Creem magazine, Rundgren says he barely touched the recording; everybody was debating how to do the mix. Sales were sluggish, especially in the middle US, and a Stereo Review magazine reviewer in 1973 compared the Dolls' guitar playing to the sound of lawnmowers. America's mass rock audience's reaction to the Dolls was mixed. In a Creem magazine poll, they were elected both best and worst new group of 1973. The Dolls also toured Europe, and, while appearing on UK television, host Bob Harris of the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test derided the group as "mock rock," comparing them unfavorably to the Rolling Stones.
For their next album, Too Much Too Soon, the quintet hired producer George "Shadow" Morton, whose productions for the Shangri-Las and other girl-groups in the mid-1960s had been among the band's favorites. Mercury dropped the Dolls on 7 October 1975, their contract with Mercury having expired on 8 August 1975 - five months after Thunders' and Nolan's departures from the band.
Dissolution: 1975–1976
By 1975, the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan, and Kane, as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March, Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a five-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play.
In March and April, McLaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument. Blackie Lawless, who later founded W.A.S.P., replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up.
The band reformed in July for an August tour in Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986.
After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine. The group toured throughout 1976, performing a set including some songs with lyrics by David Johansen that would later appear on David Johansen's solo albums including "Funky But Chic", "Frenchette" and "Wreckless Crazy.” The group played its last show December 30, 1976 at Max's Kansas City; on the same bill as Blondie.
Individual endeavors: 1975–2004
Shortly after returning from Florida, Thunders and Nolan formed The Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hell, who had left Television the same week that they quit the Dolls. Thunders later pursued a solo career. He died in New Orleans in 1991, allegedly of an overdose of both heroin and methadone. It also came to light that he suffered from t-cell leukemia. Nolan died in 1992 following a stroke, brought about by bacterial meningitis. In 1976, Kane and Blackie Lawless formed the Killer Kane Band in Los Angeles. Immediately after the New York Dolls' second breakup, Johansen began a solo career. By the late 1980s, he achieved moderate success under the pseudonym, Buster Poindexter. Sylvain formed The Criminals, a popular band at CBGB.
A posthumous New York Dolls album, Lipstick Killers, made up of early demo tapes of the original Dolls (with Billy Murcia on drums), was released in a cassette-only edition on ROIR Records in 1981, and subsequently re-released on CD, and then on vinyl in early 2006. All the tracks from this title – sometimes referred to as The Mercer Street Sessions (though actually recorded at Blue Rock Studio, New York) – are included on the CD Private World, along with other tracks recorded elsewhere, including a previously unreleased Dolls original, "Endless Party." Three more unreleased studio tracks, including another previously unreleased Dolls original, "Lone Star Queen," are included on the Rock 'n' Roll album. The other two are covers: the "Courageous Cat" theme, from the original Courageous Cat cartoon series; and a second attempt at "Don't Mess With Cupid," a song written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd for Otis Redding, and first recorded independently for what was later to become the Mercer Street/Blue Rock Sessions.
Sylvain formed his own band, The Criminals, then cut a solo album for RCA, while also working with Johansen. He later became a taxicab driver in New York.
Johansen, meanwhile, formed the David Johansen Group, and released an eponymous LP in 1978, recorded at the Bottom Line in NYC’s Greenwich Village,featuring Sylvain Mizrahi and Johnny Thunders as guest musicians.
In May, 1978, he also released “David Johansen,” on Blue Sky Records, a label created by Steve Paul, formerly of The Scene. Johansen continued to tour with his solo project and released four more albums, In Style, 1979; Here Comes the Night, 1981; Live it Up, 1982; and Sweet Revenge, 1984.
During the later 1980's, Johansen, ever-evolving, decided to try to liberate himself from the expectations of his New York Dolls perceived persona, and, on a whim, created the persona Buster Poindexter.
The success of this act led him to be invited to appear in multiple films: Scrooged, Freejack, and Let it Ride, among others.
He also formed a band called David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, named after the eccentric ethnomusicologist, performing jump blues, Delta blues, and some original songs.
During this period, in the early 1990s, Sylvain moved to Los Angeles and recorded one album Sleep Baby Doll, on Fishhead Records. His band, for that record, consisted of Brian Keats on drums, Dave Vanian's Phantom Chords, Speediejohn Carlucci (who had played with the Fuzztones), and Olivier Le Baron on lead guitar. Guest appearances by Frank Infante of Blondie and Derwood Andrews of Generation X were also included on the record. It has been re-released as New York A Go Go,.
Reunion, return to recording, second dissolution: 2004–11, and death of Sylvain
Morrissey, having been a longtime fan of the band and head of their 1970s UK fan club, organized a reunion of the three surviving members of the band's classic line-up (Johansen, Sylvain and Kane) for the Meltdown Festival in London on June 16, 2004. The reunion led to a live LP and DVD on Morrissey's Attack label, as well as a documentary film, New York Doll, on the life of Arthur Kane. However, future plans for the Dolls were affected by Kane's sudden death from leukemia just one month later on July 13, 2004. Yet the following month the band appeared at Little Steven’s Underground Garage Festival on August 14 in New York City before returning to the UK to play several more festivals through the remainder of 2004.
In July 2005, the two surviving members announced a tour and a new album entitled One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Released on July 25, 2006, the album featured guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks), drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin, formerly a member of David Johansen and the Harry Smiths. On July 20, 2006, the New York Dolls appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, followed by a live performance in Philadelphia at the WXPN All About The Music Festival, and on July 22, 2006, a taped appearance on The Henry Rollins Show. On August 18, 2006, the band performed in a free concert at New York's Seaport Music.
In October 2006, the band embarked on a UK tour, with Sylvain taking time while in Glasgow to speak to John Kilbride of STV. The discussion covered the band's history and the current state of their live show and songwriting, with Sylvain commenting that "even if you come to our show thinking 'how can it be like it was before,' we turn that around 'cos we've got such a great live rock 'n roll show". In November 2006, the Dolls began headlining "Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents the Rolling Rock and Roll Show," about 20 live gigs with numerous other bands. In April 2007, the band played in Australia and New Zealand, appearing at the V Festival with Pixies, Pet Shop Boys, Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Jarvis Cocker and Phoenix.
On September 22, 2007, New York Dolls were removed from the current artists section of Roadrunner Records' website, signifying the group's split with the label. The band played the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on July 4, 2008, with Morrissey and Beck and the Lounge On The Farm Festival on July 12, 2008. On November 14, 2008, it was announced that the producer of their first album, Todd Rundgren, would be producing a new album, which would be followed by a world tour. The finishing touches on the album were made in Rundgren's studio on the island of Kauai. The album, Cause I Sez So, was released on May 5, 2009 on Atco Records.
The band played at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2009, and a show at London's 100 Club on May 14, 2009 supported by Spizzenergi.
On March 18, 2010, the band announced another two concert dates at KOKO in Camden, London and the Academy in Dublin on April 20. In December 2010, it was announced the band would release their fifth album which had been recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne. The album, Dancing Backward in High Heels, featuring new guitarist Frank Infante (formerly of Blondie) was released on March 15, 2011.
On March 1, 2011, it was announced the New York Dolls would be the opening act for a summer tour featuring Mötley Crüe and Poison. They announced a new lineup for the tour, featuring guitarist Earl Slick, who held previous stints with David Bowie and John Lennon, bassist Kenny Aaronson, who had toured with Bob Dylan, and drummer Jason Sutter, formerly of Foreigner.
In a 2016 interview, Earl Slick confirmed the band was over. "Oh, yeah, it's long gone. There was no point in doing it anymore and it was kinda spent. You know, David really does enjoy the Buster thing. He's so good at it. I've seen him do it a couple of times this last year, and man! He's got it down, you know."
Sylvain Sylvain died on January 13, 2021, at age 69, leaving David Johansen as the last surviving original member of the band.
Musical style
According to AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the New York Dolls developed an original style of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal music, and drew on elements such as the "dirty rock & roll" of the Rolling Stones, the "anarchic noise" of the Stooges, the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, and girl group pop music. Erlewine credited the band for creating punk rock "before there was a term for it." Ken Tucker, who referred to them as a proto-punk band, wrote that they were strongly influenced by the "New York sensibility" of Lou Reed: "The mean wisecracks and impassioned cynicism that informed the Dolls' songs represented an attitude that Reed's work with the Velvet Underground embodied, as did the Dolls' distinct lack of musicianship."
When they began performing, four of the band's five members wore Spandex and platform boots, while Johansen—the band's lyricist and "conceptmaster"— often preferred high heels and a dress occasionally. Fashion historian Valerie Steele said that, while the majority of the punk scene pursued an understated "street look", the New York Dolls followed an English glam rock "look of androgyny—leather and knee-length boots, chest hair, and bleach". According to James McNair of The Independent, "when they began pedalling their trashy glam-punk around lower Manhattan in 1971, they were more burlesque act than band; a bunch of lipsticked, gutter chic-endorsing cross-dressers". Music journalist Nick Kent argued that the New York Dolls were "quintessential glam rockers" because of their flamboyant fashion, while their technical shortcomings as musicians and Johnny Thunders' "trouble-prone presence" gave them a punk-rock reputation.
By contrast, Robert Christgau preferred for them to not be categorized as a glam rock band, but instead as "the best hard-rock band since the Rolling Stones". Robert Hilburn, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said that the band exhibited a strong influence from the Rolling Stones, but had distinguished themselves by Too Much Too Soon (1974) as "a much more independent, original force" because of their "definite touch of the humor and carefreeness of early (ie. mid-1950s) rock". Simon Reynolds felt that, by their 2009 album Cause I Sez So, the band exhibited the sound "not of the sloppy, rambunctious Dolls of punk mythology but of a tight, lean hard-rock band."
Band members
Former members
David Johansen – vocals, harmonica (1971–1976, 2004–2011)
Sylvain Sylvain – guitar, bass, piano (1971–1976, 2004–2011; died 2021)
Arthur Kane – bass guitar (1971–1975, 2004; died 2004)
Johnny Thunders - guitar, vocals (1971-1975; died 1991)
Billy Murcia – drums (1971–1972; died 1972)
Rick Rivets – guitar (1971; died 2019)
Jerry Nolan – drums (1972–1975; died 1992)
Peter Jordan – bass (1975–1976)
Tony Machine – drums (1975–1976)
Blackie Lawless – guitar (1975)
Chris Robison – keyboards (1975)
Bobby Blaine – keyboards (1976)
Steve Conte – guitar, vocals (2004–2010)
John Conte – bass (2004)
Gary Powell – drums (2004)
Brian Delaney– drums (2005–2011)
Sami Yaffa – bass (2005–2010)
Brian Koonin – keyboards (2005–2006)
Aaron Lee Tasjan - guitar (2008-2009)
Frank Infante – guitar (2010–2011)
Jason Hill – bass (2010–2011)
Jason Sutter – drums (2011)
Kenny Aaronson – bass (2011)
Earl Slick – guitar (2011)
Claton Pitcher – guitar (2011)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Chart placings shown are from the Billboard 200 US Albums chart.
New York Dolls (1973 US:#116)
Too Much Too Soon (1974 US:#167) in UK:#165
One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006 US:#129)
Cause I Sez So (2009 US:#159)
Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011)
Demo albums
Lipstick Killers – The Mercer Street Sessions 1972 (1981)
Seven Day Weekend (1992)
Actress – "Birth of the New York Dolls" (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
Private World - The Complete Early Studio Demos 1972–1973 (2006)
Live albums
Red Patent Leather (1984)
Paris Le Trash (1993)
Live In Concert, Paris 1974 (1998)
The Glamorous Life Live (1999)
From Paris with Love (L.U.V.) (2002)
Morrissey Presents: The Return Of New York Dolls Live From Royal Festival Hall (2004)
Live At the Filmore East (2008)
Viva Le Trash '74 (2009)
French Kiss '74 (2013)
Compilation albums
New York Dolls / Too Much Too Soon (1977)
Very Best of New York Dolls (1977)
Night of the Living Dolls (1985)
The Best of the New York Dolls (1985)
Super Best Collection (1990)
Rock'n Roll (1994)
Hootchie Kootchie Dolls (1998)
The Glam Rock Hits (1999)
Actress: Birth of The New York Dolls (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
New York Tapes 72/73 (2000)
Great Big Kiss (reissue of Seven Day Weekend and Red Patent Leather, 2002)
Looking For A Kiss (2003)
Manhattan Mayhem (2003)
20th Century Masters – the Millennium collection: the best of New York Dolls (2003)
Singles
"Personality Crisis" / "Looking for a Kiss" (1973)
"Trash" / "Personality Crisis" (1973)
"Jet Boy" / "Vietnamese Baby" (1973)
"Stranded in the Jungle" / "Don't Start Me Talkin'" (1974)
"(There's Gonna Be A) Showdown" / "Puss 'n' Boots" (1974)
"Jet Boy" // "Babylon" / "Who Are the Mystery Girls" (1977, UK)
"Bad Girl" / "Subway Train" (1978, Germany)
"Gimme Luv and Turn On the Light" (2006)
"Fool for You Baby" (2011)
"Dolled UP" (2014)
References
External links
"Private World: New York Dolls Manager Marty Thau on His Days with the Band" - Interview in Rocker Magazine 2012
1971 establishments in New York City
2011 disestablishments in New York (state)
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
American glam rock musical groups
Protopunk groups
Punk rock groups from New York (state)
Musical groups from New York City
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1971
Musical groups disestablished in 1976
Musical groups reestablished in 2004
Musical groups disestablished in 2011
Atco Records artists | false | [
"So Alone is the debut solo studio album by Johnny Thunders, then leader of The Heartbreakers and formerly lead guitarist for New York Dolls.\n\nBackground and content \n\nAfter recording L.A.M.F. with the Heartbreakers, Thunders returned to the studio and recorded his first true solo album, So Alone. The album featured Heartbreakers Walter Lure and Billy Rath, as well as several well-known guest musicians, including Phil Lynott, Steve Marriott, Chrissie Hynde, Peter Perrett, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Patti Palladin with whom Johnny would later record an album of duets. The album contained a mix of originals, standards from Heartbreakers live shows, and covers, including the Chantays' surf classic \"Pipeline,\" the Shangri-Las' \"Give Him a Great Big Kiss\", Otis Blackwell's \"Daddy Rollin' Stone\" (done with Thunders on the opening verse, Phil Lynott on the 2nd and Steve Marriott on verse 3), and New York Dolls' \"Subway Train.\"\n\nDiss track \n\nThe track \"London Boys\" was an answer song/diss track from Thunders aimed at the Sex Pistols who had recorded a song called \"New York\" on their album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols a year earlier, in which they anachronistically attacked Thunders's band New York Dolls for being rip-offs.\n\nReception \n\nTrouser Press called So Alone \"Thunders at his best.\" Music critic Robert Christgau named the album one of the few import-only records from the 1970s he loved yet omitted from Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981).\n\nTrack listing \nAll tracks written by Johnny Thunders, except where indicated.\n\nSide one \n \"Pipeline\" (Bob Spickard, Brian Carman)\n \"You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory\"\n \"Great Big Kiss\" (George \"Shadow\" Morton)\n \"Ask Me No Questions\"\n \"Leave Me Alone\"\n\nSide two \n \"Daddy Rollin' Stone\" (Otis Blackwell)\n \"London Boys\" (Billy Rath, Walter Lure, Thunders)\n \"(She's So) Untouchable\"\n \"Subway Train\" (Thunders, David Johansen)\n \"Downtown\" (Thunders, Johansen)\n\n CD release bonus tracks\nTracks included on 1992 CD reissue:\n \"Dead or Alive\"\n \"Hurtin'\" (Henri Paul Tortosa, Thunders)\n \"So Alone\"\n \"The Wizard\" (Marc Bolan)\n\nPersonnel \nJohnny Thunders – guitar, vocals, producer\nPaul Cook – drums\nJohn \"Irish\" Earle – saxophone\nPaul Gray – bass\nChrissie Hynde – vocals on \"Subway Train\"\nSteve Jones – guitar\nKoulla Kakoulli – vocals\nMike Kellie – drums\nSteve Lillywhite – piano, keyboards, producer, engineer\nWalter Lure – guitar\nPhil Lynott – bass, vocals on \"Daddy Rollin' Stone\"\nSteve Marriott – harmonica, piano, keyboards, vocals on \"Daddy Rollin' Stone\"\nSteve Nicol – drums\nPatti Palladin – vocals\nHenri Paul Tortosa – guitar\nPeter Perrett – guitar, vocals\nBilly Rath – bass\nTechnical\nPeter Gravelle – photography\nMolly Reeve-Morrison – project coordinator\nLee Herschberg – remastering\nIra Robbins – producer, liner notes\nBill Smith – art direction, design\nJoe McEwan – producer\n\nReferences \n\nJohnny Thunders albums\n1978 debut albums\nSire Records albums\nReal Music Records albums\nAlbums produced by Steve Lillywhite",
"Rock'n Roll is a 1994 compilation album by the New York Dolls. It features all the songs from their self-titled album, with the exception of their cover of Bo Diddley's song \"Pills\", and selections from Too Much Too Soon. There are also three unreleased tracks: \"Courageous Cat Theme\", which was recorded for a commercial during the sessions for the second album and demos of band composed, \"Lone Star Queen\" and a cover of \"Don't Mess With Cupid\".\n\nThis is the first remastered release of NY Dolls recordings. 24-bit remasters of the complete studio albums were released in 2006 in a limited edition in Japan.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Courageous Cat Theme\" (Johnny Holiday) - 2:19\n\"Trash\" (Sylvain Sylvain, David Johansen) - 3:07\n\"Personality Crisis\" (Johnny Thunders, Johansen) - 3:41\n\"Babylon\" (Thunders, Johansen) - 3:32\n\"Looking for a Kiss\" (Johansen) - 3:17\n\"Lone Star Queen\" (Johansen, Thunders, Sylvain, Arthur \"Killer\" Kane, Jerry Nolan) - 4:10\n\"Vietnamese Baby\" (Johansen) - 3:37\n\"Lonely Planet Boy\" (Johansen) - 4:07\n\"Frankenstein\" (Sylvain, Johansen) - 5:57\n\"Private World\" (Thunders, Johansen) - 3:37\n\"Chatterbox\" (Thunders) - 2:25\n\"Bad Girl\" (Thunders, Johansen) - 3:02\n\"Don't Mess with Cupid\" (Deanie Parker, Eddie Floyd, Steve Cropper) - 2:51\n\"Subway Train\" (Thunders, Johansen) - 4:19\n\"Who Are the Mystery Girls?\" (Thunders, Johansen) - 3:08\n\"Stranded in the Jungle\" (Ernestine Smith, James Johnson) - 4:04\n\"It's Too Late\" (Thunders, Johansen) - 4:40\n\"Puss 'n' Boots\" (Sylvain, Johansen) - 3:05\n\"Jet Boy\" (Thunders, Johansen) - 4:39\n\"Human Being\" (Thunders, Johansen) - 5:44\n\nReferences \n\nNew York Dolls albums\n1994 compilation albums\nMercury Records compilation albums"
]
|
[
"New York Dolls",
"Dissolution: 1975-77",
"Why did the band dissolve?",
"Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up",
"What was the argument about?",
"I don't know.",
"When did Thunders leave?",
"In March and April McClaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida."
]
| C_3bc51535ed1f422e8c4fb50b887db0ed_0 | How long did the tour last? | 4 | How long did the New York Dolls tour last? | New York Dolls | By 1975 the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan and Kane as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a 5-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play. In March and April McClaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up The band reformed in July for an August tour of Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986. After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine . The group played its last show December 30, 1976 , CANNOTANSWER | March and April | The New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with The Velvet Underground, MC5, The Stooges, and The Modern Lovers, they were one of the bands later credited as proto-punk, early influences on what would only later be known as punk rock. Although the band never achieved much commercial success and their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums—New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)—became among the most popular cult records in rock. The line-up at this time comprised vocalist David Johansen, guitarist Johnny Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane, guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain and drummer Jerry Nolan; the latter two had replaced Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia, respectively, in 1972. On stage, they donned an androgynous wardrobe, wearing high heels, eccentric hats, satin, makeup, spandex, and dresses. Nolan described the group in 1974 as "the Dead End Kids of today". After Thunders, Nolan and Kane all left in spring 1975, Johansen and Sylvain continued the band with other musicians until the end of 1976.
According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1995), the New York Dolls predated the punk and glam metal movements and were "one of the most influential rock bands of the last 20 years". They influenced rock groups such as the Sex Pistols, Kiss, the Ramones, Guns N' Roses, the Damned, and the Smiths, whose frontman Morrissey organized a reunion show for the New York Dolls' surviving members, being Johansen and Sylvain, in 2004. After reuniting, they recruited new musicians to tour and record. They released three more albums—One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006), Cause I Sez So (2009) and Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011). Following a 2011 British tour with Alice Cooper, the band once again disbanded.
History
Formation
Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia, who went to junior high school and high school together, started playing in a band called "the Pox" in 1967. After the frontman quit, Murcia and Sylvain started a clothing business called Truth and Soul and Sylvain took a job at A Different Drummer, a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop. Sylvain said that the shop inspired the name for their future band. In 1970 they formed a band again and recruited Johnny Thunders to join on bass, though Sylvain ended up teaching him to play guitar. They called themselves the Dolls. When Sylvain left the band to spend a few months in London, Thunders and Murcia went their separate ways.
Thunders was eventually recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets, who had been playing together in the Bronx. At Thunders' suggestion, Murcia replaced the original drummer. Thunders played lead guitar and sang for the band Actress. An October 1971 rehearsal tape recorded by Rivets was released as Dawn of the Dolls. When Thunders decided that he no longer wanted to be the front man, David Johansen joined the band. Initially, the group was composed of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia.
The original line-up's first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the Endicott Hotel. After getting a manager and attracting some music industry interest, the New York Dolls got a break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert.
In the band's early days, the New York Dolls performed at the Mercer Art Center, where Ruby and the Rednecks opened for and were influenced by them.
Billy Murcia's death
While on a brief tour of England in 1972, Murcia was invited to a party, where he passed out from an accidental overdose. He was put in a bathtub and force-fed coffee in an attempt to revive him. Instead, it resulted in asphyxiation. He was found dead on the morning of November 6, 1972, at the age of 21.
Record deal: 1972–1975
Once back in New York, the Dolls auditioned drummers, including Marc Bell (who was to go on to play with Richard Hell, and with the Ramones under the stage name "Marky Ramone"), Peter Criscuola (better known as Peter Criss, the original and former drummer of Kiss), and Jerry Nolan, a friend of the band. They selected Nolan, and after US Mercury Records' A&R man Paul Nelson signed them, they began sessions for their debut album. In 1972, the band took on Marty Thau as manager.
New York Dolls was produced by singer-songwriter, musician and solo artist Todd Rundgren. In an interview in Creem magazine, Rundgren says he barely touched the recording; everybody was debating how to do the mix. Sales were sluggish, especially in the middle US, and a Stereo Review magazine reviewer in 1973 compared the Dolls' guitar playing to the sound of lawnmowers. America's mass rock audience's reaction to the Dolls was mixed. In a Creem magazine poll, they were elected both best and worst new group of 1973. The Dolls also toured Europe, and, while appearing on UK television, host Bob Harris of the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test derided the group as "mock rock," comparing them unfavorably to the Rolling Stones.
For their next album, Too Much Too Soon, the quintet hired producer George "Shadow" Morton, whose productions for the Shangri-Las and other girl-groups in the mid-1960s had been among the band's favorites. Mercury dropped the Dolls on 7 October 1975, their contract with Mercury having expired on 8 August 1975 - five months after Thunders' and Nolan's departures from the band.
Dissolution: 1975–1976
By 1975, the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan, and Kane, as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March, Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a five-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play.
In March and April, McLaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument. Blackie Lawless, who later founded W.A.S.P., replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up.
The band reformed in July for an August tour in Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986.
After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine. The group toured throughout 1976, performing a set including some songs with lyrics by David Johansen that would later appear on David Johansen's solo albums including "Funky But Chic", "Frenchette" and "Wreckless Crazy.” The group played its last show December 30, 1976 at Max's Kansas City; on the same bill as Blondie.
Individual endeavors: 1975–2004
Shortly after returning from Florida, Thunders and Nolan formed The Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hell, who had left Television the same week that they quit the Dolls. Thunders later pursued a solo career. He died in New Orleans in 1991, allegedly of an overdose of both heroin and methadone. It also came to light that he suffered from t-cell leukemia. Nolan died in 1992 following a stroke, brought about by bacterial meningitis. In 1976, Kane and Blackie Lawless formed the Killer Kane Band in Los Angeles. Immediately after the New York Dolls' second breakup, Johansen began a solo career. By the late 1980s, he achieved moderate success under the pseudonym, Buster Poindexter. Sylvain formed The Criminals, a popular band at CBGB.
A posthumous New York Dolls album, Lipstick Killers, made up of early demo tapes of the original Dolls (with Billy Murcia on drums), was released in a cassette-only edition on ROIR Records in 1981, and subsequently re-released on CD, and then on vinyl in early 2006. All the tracks from this title – sometimes referred to as The Mercer Street Sessions (though actually recorded at Blue Rock Studio, New York) – are included on the CD Private World, along with other tracks recorded elsewhere, including a previously unreleased Dolls original, "Endless Party." Three more unreleased studio tracks, including another previously unreleased Dolls original, "Lone Star Queen," are included on the Rock 'n' Roll album. The other two are covers: the "Courageous Cat" theme, from the original Courageous Cat cartoon series; and a second attempt at "Don't Mess With Cupid," a song written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd for Otis Redding, and first recorded independently for what was later to become the Mercer Street/Blue Rock Sessions.
Sylvain formed his own band, The Criminals, then cut a solo album for RCA, while also working with Johansen. He later became a taxicab driver in New York.
Johansen, meanwhile, formed the David Johansen Group, and released an eponymous LP in 1978, recorded at the Bottom Line in NYC’s Greenwich Village,featuring Sylvain Mizrahi and Johnny Thunders as guest musicians.
In May, 1978, he also released “David Johansen,” on Blue Sky Records, a label created by Steve Paul, formerly of The Scene. Johansen continued to tour with his solo project and released four more albums, In Style, 1979; Here Comes the Night, 1981; Live it Up, 1982; and Sweet Revenge, 1984.
During the later 1980's, Johansen, ever-evolving, decided to try to liberate himself from the expectations of his New York Dolls perceived persona, and, on a whim, created the persona Buster Poindexter.
The success of this act led him to be invited to appear in multiple films: Scrooged, Freejack, and Let it Ride, among others.
He also formed a band called David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, named after the eccentric ethnomusicologist, performing jump blues, Delta blues, and some original songs.
During this period, in the early 1990s, Sylvain moved to Los Angeles and recorded one album Sleep Baby Doll, on Fishhead Records. His band, for that record, consisted of Brian Keats on drums, Dave Vanian's Phantom Chords, Speediejohn Carlucci (who had played with the Fuzztones), and Olivier Le Baron on lead guitar. Guest appearances by Frank Infante of Blondie and Derwood Andrews of Generation X were also included on the record. It has been re-released as New York A Go Go,.
Reunion, return to recording, second dissolution: 2004–11, and death of Sylvain
Morrissey, having been a longtime fan of the band and head of their 1970s UK fan club, organized a reunion of the three surviving members of the band's classic line-up (Johansen, Sylvain and Kane) for the Meltdown Festival in London on June 16, 2004. The reunion led to a live LP and DVD on Morrissey's Attack label, as well as a documentary film, New York Doll, on the life of Arthur Kane. However, future plans for the Dolls were affected by Kane's sudden death from leukemia just one month later on July 13, 2004. Yet the following month the band appeared at Little Steven’s Underground Garage Festival on August 14 in New York City before returning to the UK to play several more festivals through the remainder of 2004.
In July 2005, the two surviving members announced a tour and a new album entitled One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Released on July 25, 2006, the album featured guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks), drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin, formerly a member of David Johansen and the Harry Smiths. On July 20, 2006, the New York Dolls appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, followed by a live performance in Philadelphia at the WXPN All About The Music Festival, and on July 22, 2006, a taped appearance on The Henry Rollins Show. On August 18, 2006, the band performed in a free concert at New York's Seaport Music.
In October 2006, the band embarked on a UK tour, with Sylvain taking time while in Glasgow to speak to John Kilbride of STV. The discussion covered the band's history and the current state of their live show and songwriting, with Sylvain commenting that "even if you come to our show thinking 'how can it be like it was before,' we turn that around 'cos we've got such a great live rock 'n roll show". In November 2006, the Dolls began headlining "Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents the Rolling Rock and Roll Show," about 20 live gigs with numerous other bands. In April 2007, the band played in Australia and New Zealand, appearing at the V Festival with Pixies, Pet Shop Boys, Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Jarvis Cocker and Phoenix.
On September 22, 2007, New York Dolls were removed from the current artists section of Roadrunner Records' website, signifying the group's split with the label. The band played the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on July 4, 2008, with Morrissey and Beck and the Lounge On The Farm Festival on July 12, 2008. On November 14, 2008, it was announced that the producer of their first album, Todd Rundgren, would be producing a new album, which would be followed by a world tour. The finishing touches on the album were made in Rundgren's studio on the island of Kauai. The album, Cause I Sez So, was released on May 5, 2009 on Atco Records.
The band played at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2009, and a show at London's 100 Club on May 14, 2009 supported by Spizzenergi.
On March 18, 2010, the band announced another two concert dates at KOKO in Camden, London and the Academy in Dublin on April 20. In December 2010, it was announced the band would release their fifth album which had been recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne. The album, Dancing Backward in High Heels, featuring new guitarist Frank Infante (formerly of Blondie) was released on March 15, 2011.
On March 1, 2011, it was announced the New York Dolls would be the opening act for a summer tour featuring Mötley Crüe and Poison. They announced a new lineup for the tour, featuring guitarist Earl Slick, who held previous stints with David Bowie and John Lennon, bassist Kenny Aaronson, who had toured with Bob Dylan, and drummer Jason Sutter, formerly of Foreigner.
In a 2016 interview, Earl Slick confirmed the band was over. "Oh, yeah, it's long gone. There was no point in doing it anymore and it was kinda spent. You know, David really does enjoy the Buster thing. He's so good at it. I've seen him do it a couple of times this last year, and man! He's got it down, you know."
Sylvain Sylvain died on January 13, 2021, at age 69, leaving David Johansen as the last surviving original member of the band.
Musical style
According to AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the New York Dolls developed an original style of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal music, and drew on elements such as the "dirty rock & roll" of the Rolling Stones, the "anarchic noise" of the Stooges, the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, and girl group pop music. Erlewine credited the band for creating punk rock "before there was a term for it." Ken Tucker, who referred to them as a proto-punk band, wrote that they were strongly influenced by the "New York sensibility" of Lou Reed: "The mean wisecracks and impassioned cynicism that informed the Dolls' songs represented an attitude that Reed's work with the Velvet Underground embodied, as did the Dolls' distinct lack of musicianship."
When they began performing, four of the band's five members wore Spandex and platform boots, while Johansen—the band's lyricist and "conceptmaster"— often preferred high heels and a dress occasionally. Fashion historian Valerie Steele said that, while the majority of the punk scene pursued an understated "street look", the New York Dolls followed an English glam rock "look of androgyny—leather and knee-length boots, chest hair, and bleach". According to James McNair of The Independent, "when they began pedalling their trashy glam-punk around lower Manhattan in 1971, they were more burlesque act than band; a bunch of lipsticked, gutter chic-endorsing cross-dressers". Music journalist Nick Kent argued that the New York Dolls were "quintessential glam rockers" because of their flamboyant fashion, while their technical shortcomings as musicians and Johnny Thunders' "trouble-prone presence" gave them a punk-rock reputation.
By contrast, Robert Christgau preferred for them to not be categorized as a glam rock band, but instead as "the best hard-rock band since the Rolling Stones". Robert Hilburn, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said that the band exhibited a strong influence from the Rolling Stones, but had distinguished themselves by Too Much Too Soon (1974) as "a much more independent, original force" because of their "definite touch of the humor and carefreeness of early (ie. mid-1950s) rock". Simon Reynolds felt that, by their 2009 album Cause I Sez So, the band exhibited the sound "not of the sloppy, rambunctious Dolls of punk mythology but of a tight, lean hard-rock band."
Band members
Former members
David Johansen – vocals, harmonica (1971–1976, 2004–2011)
Sylvain Sylvain – guitar, bass, piano (1971–1976, 2004–2011; died 2021)
Arthur Kane – bass guitar (1971–1975, 2004; died 2004)
Johnny Thunders - guitar, vocals (1971-1975; died 1991)
Billy Murcia – drums (1971–1972; died 1972)
Rick Rivets – guitar (1971; died 2019)
Jerry Nolan – drums (1972–1975; died 1992)
Peter Jordan – bass (1975–1976)
Tony Machine – drums (1975–1976)
Blackie Lawless – guitar (1975)
Chris Robison – keyboards (1975)
Bobby Blaine – keyboards (1976)
Steve Conte – guitar, vocals (2004–2010)
John Conte – bass (2004)
Gary Powell – drums (2004)
Brian Delaney– drums (2005–2011)
Sami Yaffa – bass (2005–2010)
Brian Koonin – keyboards (2005–2006)
Aaron Lee Tasjan - guitar (2008-2009)
Frank Infante – guitar (2010–2011)
Jason Hill – bass (2010–2011)
Jason Sutter – drums (2011)
Kenny Aaronson – bass (2011)
Earl Slick – guitar (2011)
Claton Pitcher – guitar (2011)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Chart placings shown are from the Billboard 200 US Albums chart.
New York Dolls (1973 US:#116)
Too Much Too Soon (1974 US:#167) in UK:#165
One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006 US:#129)
Cause I Sez So (2009 US:#159)
Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011)
Demo albums
Lipstick Killers – The Mercer Street Sessions 1972 (1981)
Seven Day Weekend (1992)
Actress – "Birth of the New York Dolls" (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
Private World - The Complete Early Studio Demos 1972–1973 (2006)
Live albums
Red Patent Leather (1984)
Paris Le Trash (1993)
Live In Concert, Paris 1974 (1998)
The Glamorous Life Live (1999)
From Paris with Love (L.U.V.) (2002)
Morrissey Presents: The Return Of New York Dolls Live From Royal Festival Hall (2004)
Live At the Filmore East (2008)
Viva Le Trash '74 (2009)
French Kiss '74 (2013)
Compilation albums
New York Dolls / Too Much Too Soon (1977)
Very Best of New York Dolls (1977)
Night of the Living Dolls (1985)
The Best of the New York Dolls (1985)
Super Best Collection (1990)
Rock'n Roll (1994)
Hootchie Kootchie Dolls (1998)
The Glam Rock Hits (1999)
Actress: Birth of The New York Dolls (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
New York Tapes 72/73 (2000)
Great Big Kiss (reissue of Seven Day Weekend and Red Patent Leather, 2002)
Looking For A Kiss (2003)
Manhattan Mayhem (2003)
20th Century Masters – the Millennium collection: the best of New York Dolls (2003)
Singles
"Personality Crisis" / "Looking for a Kiss" (1973)
"Trash" / "Personality Crisis" (1973)
"Jet Boy" / "Vietnamese Baby" (1973)
"Stranded in the Jungle" / "Don't Start Me Talkin'" (1974)
"(There's Gonna Be A) Showdown" / "Puss 'n' Boots" (1974)
"Jet Boy" // "Babylon" / "Who Are the Mystery Girls" (1977, UK)
"Bad Girl" / "Subway Train" (1978, Germany)
"Gimme Luv and Turn On the Light" (2006)
"Fool for You Baby" (2011)
"Dolled UP" (2014)
References
External links
"Private World: New York Dolls Manager Marty Thau on His Days with the Band" - Interview in Rocker Magazine 2012
1971 establishments in New York City
2011 disestablishments in New York (state)
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
American glam rock musical groups
Protopunk groups
Punk rock groups from New York (state)
Musical groups from New York City
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1971
Musical groups disestablished in 1976
Musical groups reestablished in 2004
Musical groups disestablished in 2011
Atco Records artists | true | [
"The Aero-Vederci Baby! Tour was a concert tour by American hard rock band Aerosmith. Road manager Tommy Higgins came up with the tour's title. At the time the tour was announced, it had been speculated that the tour would last for upwards of three years and be the band's final tour. However, the band went on to schedule a residency in 2019 and is expected to continue touring after that, but it remains unknown for how long. The tour started with a free show in Phoenix, Arizona and took the band through Europe and South America. The band performed in the country of Georgia for the first time in the career. The final four shows of the tour were cancelled after lead singer Steven Tyler had health problems.\n\nTour dates\n\nCancelled dates\n\nReferences\n\n2017 concert tours\nAerosmith concert tours",
"\"40\", also known as \"40 (How Long)\", is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the tenth and final track on their 1983 album, War. The song is noted for its live performances; guitarist the Edge and bassist Adam Clayton trade instruments during performances of it, and as it was commonly played to end their concerts, the band would leave the stage one-by-one as the audience continued to sing the refrain \"How long to sing this song?\". The lyrics are a modification of the Bible's Psalm 40.\n\nThe song was released as a commercial single only in Germany, simply to promote U2's appearance at the Loreley Festival in 1983. The single was released on a 7-inch gramophone record with a B-side of the album version of \"Two Hearts Beat as One\". Since its live debut on 26 February 1983, in Dundee, \"40\" has been a staple of U2's live concerts, having been performed almost 400 times.\n\nRecording\n\nThe song was completed within the last few hours of the recording sessions for War. After working all night on the album in Windmill Lane Studios, the band found themselves at 6 a.m. feeling that they were still one song short. Another band, Minor Detail, were scheduled to start their recording session at 8 a.m. and had arrived early, and U2 bassist Adam Clayton had already gone home. In a moment of inspiration, the remaining members—Bono, the Edge, and Larry Mullen Jr.—decided to revive an abandoned song that the Edge described as having \"a great bass hook but a slightly unwieldy arrangement with lots of strange sections and time changes\" that they had been unable to translate into a \"coherent song\". Producer Steve Lillywhite quickly did a multi-track edit of the song, removing any parts that seemed disconnected from the main musical idea. With Clayton absent, the Edge switched between guitar and bass guitar. In search of lyrical inspiration, Bono opened the Bible and found Psalm 40, on which he based his words. As soon as his vocals were recorded and the song mixed, the band immediately exited the studio, completing the sessions for War.\n\nLive performances\n\n\"40\" debuted live on 26 February 1983 in Dundee as the final song of the show, and closed every single concert on 1983's War Tour. It became very popular as a concert closer, and between its debut and 10 January 1990, there were roughly only 24 concerts that did not feature \"40\" as the closing song. During live performances, Clayton and the Edge would swap instruments so that Clayton played guitar and Edge played bass, and the band members would progressively leave stage, with Bono the first to depart, then Clayton, then Edge, and finally Mullen. The crowd would often continue to chant the refrain of \"How long...to sing this song?\" even after the band had left the stage. Live performances of the song are included on the live album Under a Blood Red Sky and the concert film Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky.\n\nBetween January 1990 and March 2005, full performances of \"40\" were extremely rare, though on 2001's Elevation Tour, it was regularly snippeted at the end of \"Bad\" before the song segued into \"Where the Streets Have No Name\". \"40\" made a return to the regular set list in March 2005 on the Vertigo Tour and subsequently closed many of the tour's shows: it closed most on the first leg, three on the second, rotated with other songs (mainly \"Bad\") for closing duties on the third leg, made only a few appearances on the fourth leg, and was snippeted a few times rather than being played in full on the fifth leg. During the U2 360° Tour, it was snippeted in Pittsburgh (the final American tour date) and was revived on the last night of that tour in Moncton, New Brunswick as the tour's final song. It is U2's 15th-most performed live song, or 12-most performed if snippets are included in its total. The song made its Innocence + Experience Tour debut on 27 May 2015 in Inglewood, and was dedicated to the memory of their recently deceased tour manager Dennis Sheehan, before going on to close many of the subsequent shows on that tour.\n\nTrack listing\n \"40 (How Long)\" (Album Version) – 2:35\n \"Two Hearts Beat as One\" (Album Version) – 4:02\n\nThis is the only known single release, distributed only in Germany. The song was titled \"40 (How Long)\" for this release.\n\nSee also\n List of covers of U2 songs - \"40\"\n\nReferences\nFootnotes\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\n \"40\" Lyrics – Lyrics to the song\n\n1983 singles\nU2 songs\nRock ballads\nSongs written by Bono\nSongs written by the Edge\nSongs written by Adam Clayton\nSongs written by Larry Mullen Jr.\nSong recordings produced by Steve Lillywhite\nSongs based on the Bible\n1983 songs"
]
|
[
"New York Dolls",
"Dissolution: 1975-77",
"Why did the band dissolve?",
"Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up",
"What was the argument about?",
"I don't know.",
"When did Thunders leave?",
"In March and April McClaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida.",
"How long did the tour last?",
"March and April"
]
| C_3bc51535ed1f422e8c4fb50b887db0ed_0 | Did the band continue after the tour? | 5 | Did the band the New York Dolls continue after the tour? | New York Dolls | By 1975 the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan and Kane as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a 5-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play. In March and April McClaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up The band reformed in July for an August tour of Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986. After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine . The group played its last show December 30, 1976 , CANNOTANSWER | The band reformed in July for an August tour of Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, | The New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with The Velvet Underground, MC5, The Stooges, and The Modern Lovers, they were one of the bands later credited as proto-punk, early influences on what would only later be known as punk rock. Although the band never achieved much commercial success and their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums—New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)—became among the most popular cult records in rock. The line-up at this time comprised vocalist David Johansen, guitarist Johnny Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane, guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain and drummer Jerry Nolan; the latter two had replaced Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia, respectively, in 1972. On stage, they donned an androgynous wardrobe, wearing high heels, eccentric hats, satin, makeup, spandex, and dresses. Nolan described the group in 1974 as "the Dead End Kids of today". After Thunders, Nolan and Kane all left in spring 1975, Johansen and Sylvain continued the band with other musicians until the end of 1976.
According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1995), the New York Dolls predated the punk and glam metal movements and were "one of the most influential rock bands of the last 20 years". They influenced rock groups such as the Sex Pistols, Kiss, the Ramones, Guns N' Roses, the Damned, and the Smiths, whose frontman Morrissey organized a reunion show for the New York Dolls' surviving members, being Johansen and Sylvain, in 2004. After reuniting, they recruited new musicians to tour and record. They released three more albums—One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006), Cause I Sez So (2009) and Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011). Following a 2011 British tour with Alice Cooper, the band once again disbanded.
History
Formation
Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia, who went to junior high school and high school together, started playing in a band called "the Pox" in 1967. After the frontman quit, Murcia and Sylvain started a clothing business called Truth and Soul and Sylvain took a job at A Different Drummer, a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop. Sylvain said that the shop inspired the name for their future band. In 1970 they formed a band again and recruited Johnny Thunders to join on bass, though Sylvain ended up teaching him to play guitar. They called themselves the Dolls. When Sylvain left the band to spend a few months in London, Thunders and Murcia went their separate ways.
Thunders was eventually recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets, who had been playing together in the Bronx. At Thunders' suggestion, Murcia replaced the original drummer. Thunders played lead guitar and sang for the band Actress. An October 1971 rehearsal tape recorded by Rivets was released as Dawn of the Dolls. When Thunders decided that he no longer wanted to be the front man, David Johansen joined the band. Initially, the group was composed of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia.
The original line-up's first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the Endicott Hotel. After getting a manager and attracting some music industry interest, the New York Dolls got a break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert.
In the band's early days, the New York Dolls performed at the Mercer Art Center, where Ruby and the Rednecks opened for and were influenced by them.
Billy Murcia's death
While on a brief tour of England in 1972, Murcia was invited to a party, where he passed out from an accidental overdose. He was put in a bathtub and force-fed coffee in an attempt to revive him. Instead, it resulted in asphyxiation. He was found dead on the morning of November 6, 1972, at the age of 21.
Record deal: 1972–1975
Once back in New York, the Dolls auditioned drummers, including Marc Bell (who was to go on to play with Richard Hell, and with the Ramones under the stage name "Marky Ramone"), Peter Criscuola (better known as Peter Criss, the original and former drummer of Kiss), and Jerry Nolan, a friend of the band. They selected Nolan, and after US Mercury Records' A&R man Paul Nelson signed them, they began sessions for their debut album. In 1972, the band took on Marty Thau as manager.
New York Dolls was produced by singer-songwriter, musician and solo artist Todd Rundgren. In an interview in Creem magazine, Rundgren says he barely touched the recording; everybody was debating how to do the mix. Sales were sluggish, especially in the middle US, and a Stereo Review magazine reviewer in 1973 compared the Dolls' guitar playing to the sound of lawnmowers. America's mass rock audience's reaction to the Dolls was mixed. In a Creem magazine poll, they were elected both best and worst new group of 1973. The Dolls also toured Europe, and, while appearing on UK television, host Bob Harris of the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test derided the group as "mock rock," comparing them unfavorably to the Rolling Stones.
For their next album, Too Much Too Soon, the quintet hired producer George "Shadow" Morton, whose productions for the Shangri-Las and other girl-groups in the mid-1960s had been among the band's favorites. Mercury dropped the Dolls on 7 October 1975, their contract with Mercury having expired on 8 August 1975 - five months after Thunders' and Nolan's departures from the band.
Dissolution: 1975–1976
By 1975, the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan, and Kane, as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March, Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a five-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play.
In March and April, McLaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument. Blackie Lawless, who later founded W.A.S.P., replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up.
The band reformed in July for an August tour in Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986.
After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine. The group toured throughout 1976, performing a set including some songs with lyrics by David Johansen that would later appear on David Johansen's solo albums including "Funky But Chic", "Frenchette" and "Wreckless Crazy.” The group played its last show December 30, 1976 at Max's Kansas City; on the same bill as Blondie.
Individual endeavors: 1975–2004
Shortly after returning from Florida, Thunders and Nolan formed The Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hell, who had left Television the same week that they quit the Dolls. Thunders later pursued a solo career. He died in New Orleans in 1991, allegedly of an overdose of both heroin and methadone. It also came to light that he suffered from t-cell leukemia. Nolan died in 1992 following a stroke, brought about by bacterial meningitis. In 1976, Kane and Blackie Lawless formed the Killer Kane Band in Los Angeles. Immediately after the New York Dolls' second breakup, Johansen began a solo career. By the late 1980s, he achieved moderate success under the pseudonym, Buster Poindexter. Sylvain formed The Criminals, a popular band at CBGB.
A posthumous New York Dolls album, Lipstick Killers, made up of early demo tapes of the original Dolls (with Billy Murcia on drums), was released in a cassette-only edition on ROIR Records in 1981, and subsequently re-released on CD, and then on vinyl in early 2006. All the tracks from this title – sometimes referred to as The Mercer Street Sessions (though actually recorded at Blue Rock Studio, New York) – are included on the CD Private World, along with other tracks recorded elsewhere, including a previously unreleased Dolls original, "Endless Party." Three more unreleased studio tracks, including another previously unreleased Dolls original, "Lone Star Queen," are included on the Rock 'n' Roll album. The other two are covers: the "Courageous Cat" theme, from the original Courageous Cat cartoon series; and a second attempt at "Don't Mess With Cupid," a song written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd for Otis Redding, and first recorded independently for what was later to become the Mercer Street/Blue Rock Sessions.
Sylvain formed his own band, The Criminals, then cut a solo album for RCA, while also working with Johansen. He later became a taxicab driver in New York.
Johansen, meanwhile, formed the David Johansen Group, and released an eponymous LP in 1978, recorded at the Bottom Line in NYC’s Greenwich Village,featuring Sylvain Mizrahi and Johnny Thunders as guest musicians.
In May, 1978, he also released “David Johansen,” on Blue Sky Records, a label created by Steve Paul, formerly of The Scene. Johansen continued to tour with his solo project and released four more albums, In Style, 1979; Here Comes the Night, 1981; Live it Up, 1982; and Sweet Revenge, 1984.
During the later 1980's, Johansen, ever-evolving, decided to try to liberate himself from the expectations of his New York Dolls perceived persona, and, on a whim, created the persona Buster Poindexter.
The success of this act led him to be invited to appear in multiple films: Scrooged, Freejack, and Let it Ride, among others.
He also formed a band called David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, named after the eccentric ethnomusicologist, performing jump blues, Delta blues, and some original songs.
During this period, in the early 1990s, Sylvain moved to Los Angeles and recorded one album Sleep Baby Doll, on Fishhead Records. His band, for that record, consisted of Brian Keats on drums, Dave Vanian's Phantom Chords, Speediejohn Carlucci (who had played with the Fuzztones), and Olivier Le Baron on lead guitar. Guest appearances by Frank Infante of Blondie and Derwood Andrews of Generation X were also included on the record. It has been re-released as New York A Go Go,.
Reunion, return to recording, second dissolution: 2004–11, and death of Sylvain
Morrissey, having been a longtime fan of the band and head of their 1970s UK fan club, organized a reunion of the three surviving members of the band's classic line-up (Johansen, Sylvain and Kane) for the Meltdown Festival in London on June 16, 2004. The reunion led to a live LP and DVD on Morrissey's Attack label, as well as a documentary film, New York Doll, on the life of Arthur Kane. However, future plans for the Dolls were affected by Kane's sudden death from leukemia just one month later on July 13, 2004. Yet the following month the band appeared at Little Steven’s Underground Garage Festival on August 14 in New York City before returning to the UK to play several more festivals through the remainder of 2004.
In July 2005, the two surviving members announced a tour and a new album entitled One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Released on July 25, 2006, the album featured guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks), drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin, formerly a member of David Johansen and the Harry Smiths. On July 20, 2006, the New York Dolls appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, followed by a live performance in Philadelphia at the WXPN All About The Music Festival, and on July 22, 2006, a taped appearance on The Henry Rollins Show. On August 18, 2006, the band performed in a free concert at New York's Seaport Music.
In October 2006, the band embarked on a UK tour, with Sylvain taking time while in Glasgow to speak to John Kilbride of STV. The discussion covered the band's history and the current state of their live show and songwriting, with Sylvain commenting that "even if you come to our show thinking 'how can it be like it was before,' we turn that around 'cos we've got such a great live rock 'n roll show". In November 2006, the Dolls began headlining "Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents the Rolling Rock and Roll Show," about 20 live gigs with numerous other bands. In April 2007, the band played in Australia and New Zealand, appearing at the V Festival with Pixies, Pet Shop Boys, Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Jarvis Cocker and Phoenix.
On September 22, 2007, New York Dolls were removed from the current artists section of Roadrunner Records' website, signifying the group's split with the label. The band played the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on July 4, 2008, with Morrissey and Beck and the Lounge On The Farm Festival on July 12, 2008. On November 14, 2008, it was announced that the producer of their first album, Todd Rundgren, would be producing a new album, which would be followed by a world tour. The finishing touches on the album were made in Rundgren's studio on the island of Kauai. The album, Cause I Sez So, was released on May 5, 2009 on Atco Records.
The band played at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2009, and a show at London's 100 Club on May 14, 2009 supported by Spizzenergi.
On March 18, 2010, the band announced another two concert dates at KOKO in Camden, London and the Academy in Dublin on April 20. In December 2010, it was announced the band would release their fifth album which had been recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne. The album, Dancing Backward in High Heels, featuring new guitarist Frank Infante (formerly of Blondie) was released on March 15, 2011.
On March 1, 2011, it was announced the New York Dolls would be the opening act for a summer tour featuring Mötley Crüe and Poison. They announced a new lineup for the tour, featuring guitarist Earl Slick, who held previous stints with David Bowie and John Lennon, bassist Kenny Aaronson, who had toured with Bob Dylan, and drummer Jason Sutter, formerly of Foreigner.
In a 2016 interview, Earl Slick confirmed the band was over. "Oh, yeah, it's long gone. There was no point in doing it anymore and it was kinda spent. You know, David really does enjoy the Buster thing. He's so good at it. I've seen him do it a couple of times this last year, and man! He's got it down, you know."
Sylvain Sylvain died on January 13, 2021, at age 69, leaving David Johansen as the last surviving original member of the band.
Musical style
According to AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the New York Dolls developed an original style of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal music, and drew on elements such as the "dirty rock & roll" of the Rolling Stones, the "anarchic noise" of the Stooges, the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, and girl group pop music. Erlewine credited the band for creating punk rock "before there was a term for it." Ken Tucker, who referred to them as a proto-punk band, wrote that they were strongly influenced by the "New York sensibility" of Lou Reed: "The mean wisecracks and impassioned cynicism that informed the Dolls' songs represented an attitude that Reed's work with the Velvet Underground embodied, as did the Dolls' distinct lack of musicianship."
When they began performing, four of the band's five members wore Spandex and platform boots, while Johansen—the band's lyricist and "conceptmaster"— often preferred high heels and a dress occasionally. Fashion historian Valerie Steele said that, while the majority of the punk scene pursued an understated "street look", the New York Dolls followed an English glam rock "look of androgyny—leather and knee-length boots, chest hair, and bleach". According to James McNair of The Independent, "when they began pedalling their trashy glam-punk around lower Manhattan in 1971, they were more burlesque act than band; a bunch of lipsticked, gutter chic-endorsing cross-dressers". Music journalist Nick Kent argued that the New York Dolls were "quintessential glam rockers" because of their flamboyant fashion, while their technical shortcomings as musicians and Johnny Thunders' "trouble-prone presence" gave them a punk-rock reputation.
By contrast, Robert Christgau preferred for them to not be categorized as a glam rock band, but instead as "the best hard-rock band since the Rolling Stones". Robert Hilburn, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said that the band exhibited a strong influence from the Rolling Stones, but had distinguished themselves by Too Much Too Soon (1974) as "a much more independent, original force" because of their "definite touch of the humor and carefreeness of early (ie. mid-1950s) rock". Simon Reynolds felt that, by their 2009 album Cause I Sez So, the band exhibited the sound "not of the sloppy, rambunctious Dolls of punk mythology but of a tight, lean hard-rock band."
Band members
Former members
David Johansen – vocals, harmonica (1971–1976, 2004–2011)
Sylvain Sylvain – guitar, bass, piano (1971–1976, 2004–2011; died 2021)
Arthur Kane – bass guitar (1971–1975, 2004; died 2004)
Johnny Thunders - guitar, vocals (1971-1975; died 1991)
Billy Murcia – drums (1971–1972; died 1972)
Rick Rivets – guitar (1971; died 2019)
Jerry Nolan – drums (1972–1975; died 1992)
Peter Jordan – bass (1975–1976)
Tony Machine – drums (1975–1976)
Blackie Lawless – guitar (1975)
Chris Robison – keyboards (1975)
Bobby Blaine – keyboards (1976)
Steve Conte – guitar, vocals (2004–2010)
John Conte – bass (2004)
Gary Powell – drums (2004)
Brian Delaney– drums (2005–2011)
Sami Yaffa – bass (2005–2010)
Brian Koonin – keyboards (2005–2006)
Aaron Lee Tasjan - guitar (2008-2009)
Frank Infante – guitar (2010–2011)
Jason Hill – bass (2010–2011)
Jason Sutter – drums (2011)
Kenny Aaronson – bass (2011)
Earl Slick – guitar (2011)
Claton Pitcher – guitar (2011)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Chart placings shown are from the Billboard 200 US Albums chart.
New York Dolls (1973 US:#116)
Too Much Too Soon (1974 US:#167) in UK:#165
One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006 US:#129)
Cause I Sez So (2009 US:#159)
Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011)
Demo albums
Lipstick Killers – The Mercer Street Sessions 1972 (1981)
Seven Day Weekend (1992)
Actress – "Birth of the New York Dolls" (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
Private World - The Complete Early Studio Demos 1972–1973 (2006)
Live albums
Red Patent Leather (1984)
Paris Le Trash (1993)
Live In Concert, Paris 1974 (1998)
The Glamorous Life Live (1999)
From Paris with Love (L.U.V.) (2002)
Morrissey Presents: The Return Of New York Dolls Live From Royal Festival Hall (2004)
Live At the Filmore East (2008)
Viva Le Trash '74 (2009)
French Kiss '74 (2013)
Compilation albums
New York Dolls / Too Much Too Soon (1977)
Very Best of New York Dolls (1977)
Night of the Living Dolls (1985)
The Best of the New York Dolls (1985)
Super Best Collection (1990)
Rock'n Roll (1994)
Hootchie Kootchie Dolls (1998)
The Glam Rock Hits (1999)
Actress: Birth of The New York Dolls (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
New York Tapes 72/73 (2000)
Great Big Kiss (reissue of Seven Day Weekend and Red Patent Leather, 2002)
Looking For A Kiss (2003)
Manhattan Mayhem (2003)
20th Century Masters – the Millennium collection: the best of New York Dolls (2003)
Singles
"Personality Crisis" / "Looking for a Kiss" (1973)
"Trash" / "Personality Crisis" (1973)
"Jet Boy" / "Vietnamese Baby" (1973)
"Stranded in the Jungle" / "Don't Start Me Talkin'" (1974)
"(There's Gonna Be A) Showdown" / "Puss 'n' Boots" (1974)
"Jet Boy" // "Babylon" / "Who Are the Mystery Girls" (1977, UK)
"Bad Girl" / "Subway Train" (1978, Germany)
"Gimme Luv and Turn On the Light" (2006)
"Fool for You Baby" (2011)
"Dolled UP" (2014)
References
External links
"Private World: New York Dolls Manager Marty Thau on His Days with the Band" - Interview in Rocker Magazine 2012
1971 establishments in New York City
2011 disestablishments in New York (state)
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
American glam rock musical groups
Protopunk groups
Punk rock groups from New York (state)
Musical groups from New York City
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1971
Musical groups disestablished in 1976
Musical groups reestablished in 2004
Musical groups disestablished in 2011
Atco Records artists | false | [
"The Aero-Vederci Baby! Tour was a concert tour by American hard rock band Aerosmith. Road manager Tommy Higgins came up with the tour's title. At the time the tour was announced, it had been speculated that the tour would last for upwards of three years and be the band's final tour. However, the band went on to schedule a residency in 2019 and is expected to continue touring after that, but it remains unknown for how long. The tour started with a free show in Phoenix, Arizona and took the band through Europe and South America. The band performed in the country of Georgia for the first time in the career. The final four shows of the tour were cancelled after lead singer Steven Tyler had health problems.\n\nTour dates\n\nCancelled dates\n\nReferences\n\n2017 concert tours\nAerosmith concert tours",
"Days Like This is the third album from Dutch band Krezip. It peaked at #3 in the Dutch Mega Album Top 100.\n\nProduction\nAfter the tour for Krezip's debut album Nothing Less finished, lead singer Jacqueline Govaert suffered from writer's block, hindering the quick recording of a follow-up. Additionally, the band underwent a change in sound. During the aforementioned tour, Govaert had damaged her vocal cords and required surgery, after which the character of her voice changed. The band also went from a five-piece to a six-piece; guitarist Annelies Kuijsters had injured her hand during the tour and was unable to continue playing the guitar. The band decided she would continue by playing keyboards, and enlisted guitarist Thomas Holthuis to take the vacant guitar position.\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs written by Jacqueline Govaert except where noted.\n\n \"You Can Say\" (Govaert/Oscar Holleman) - 03:04 \n \"Take It Baby\" (Govaert/Holleman) - 03:10 \n \"Gentle\" - 03:27 \n \"Promise\" - 03:23 \n \"What It Takes\" - 02:57 \n \"Days Like This\" (Govaert/Holleman) - 03:27 \n \"Don't You Feel Afraid\" - 04:03 \n \"For Sure\" - 03:31 \n \"Mine\" (Govaert/Holleman) - 03:18 \n \"There It Goes\" - 02:50 \n \"More Than This\" - 03:17 \n \"That'll Be Me\" - 02:55\n\nReferences\n\n2002 albums\nKrezip albums"
]
|
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