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Candidates
Paul Hackett, attorney and former Milford City Councilman
Victoria Wulsin, doctor
Charles Sanders, former mayor of Waynesville, Democratic nominee in 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004
James Parker, health care administrator
Jeff Sinnard, civil engineer
The Democratic campaign
The Democratic primary attracted little attention. The obvious candidate was Charles W. Sanders, who won the nomination in the past four primaries but never got more than 28% of the vote against Portman in the general election. But Sanders, the only black candidate in either primary, had been recalled as Mayor of Waynesville when he charged the village police with racial profiling. He also faced complaints from his constituents that he spent too much time on his Congressional campaigns and meeting high Democratic officials such as Bill Clinton rather than attending to local issues. Because of redistricting, Sanders no longer lived in the Second District and had not in his last two runs against Portman.
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Victoria Wells Wulsin, a doctor from Indian Hill, was the head of a charity, SOTENI International, that was funding an AIDS prevention campaign in Kenya. Her platform was not one that would win many fans in the conservative Second District: pro-choice, pro-gay rights, opposing the Iraq War, and calling for the repeal of the tax cuts that George W. Bush had advocated and Congress had passed.
Jeff Sinnard, a civil engineer who proudly noted he was a "stay-at-home dad", was the most conservative Democrat in the field, quoting the Bible on his web-site and expressing his opposition to gay marriage and abortion: "I endorse a reverence for human life and dignity from conception to natural death."
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Many party leaders expressed their gratitude for Sanders for his past service but backed Paul Hackett, an attorney from Indian Hill. Hackett had organized the recall of a councilman in Milford in 1995 and was elected to the council in his place, serving three years. He had also just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq, having been on active duty in the Marines in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Democratic parties in Pike, Clermont and Hamilton counties all endorsed Hackett. Sanders said that he was not concerned that party leaders were backing Hackett, telling The Cincinnati Enquirer "People out there know me. I may not have the money or the organization, but no one in this race will work harder."
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Special primary election
In his bid for Congress, Hackett was endorsed by the county Democratic parties in four of the seven counties in the district, those in Brown, Clermont, Hamilton and Pike counties. Party leaders chose to support him rather than Charles W. Sanders, the only black candidate in either primary and the Democratic nominee in 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004. Timothy Burke, chairman of the party in Hamilton County, said "The blunt reality is that Charles Sanders can't win the 2nd District seat." David Altman, a Cincinnati attorney who was on the party central committee, was also skeptical of Sanders, telling The Cincinnati Post "I don't think he has a snowball's chances of winning."
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Many were angered by the endorsement. Todd Portune, the first Democrat elected to the Hamilton County Commission in decades, told The Post "That's not the Democratic Party I'm a part of," saying the party should remain neutral. Victoria Wells Wulsin, a doctor from Indian Hill who ran a charity helping AIDS patients in Africa, also sought the nomination; the Hamilton County endorsement dismayed her. "It smacks of weapons of mass destruction," she told The Post.
Other candidates running were Jeff Sinnard, a civil engineer from Anderson Township, and the most conservative Democrat; James John Parker, a hospital administrator from Pike County; and Arthur Stanley Katz, a lawyer originally from New York City who had retired to Mason, who ran as a write-in candidate.
Hackett was also endorsed by labor unions: the United Auto Workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Greater Cincinnati Building and Construction Trades Council.
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The Dayton Daily News endorsed Hackett in the Democratic primary, calling him an "articulate, down-to-earth exponent of moderate Democratic views." The Cincinnati Enquirer also endorsed Hackett in the primary. The newspaper editorialized "he is not an ideologue, but someone willing to listen to different points of view and to act on the basis of what he believes will best serve his constituents." It also called attention to his leading a recall against members of the Milford city council and "his ability to take charge of a situation, whether it is a dysfunctional local government in Ohio, or setting up the basics of a civil government in a city in Iraq."
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Hackett told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the Iraq War has not been worth the price. "We need to develop an exit strategy and execute it. That strategy must commit 100% of our efforts to training the 140,000 Iraqi soldiers to do the jobs that the United States is doing now. We cannot again falsely declare victory." Hackett also told The Enquirer he was the best candidate because of his service in Iraq.
Hackett won the Democratic nomination with over half the vote in unofficial results. A total of 13,927 ballots were cast representing 3.05% of the 456,795 registered voters in the district and 23.4% of the 59,538 ballots cast in both primaries.
Results
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General election
Paul Hackett, the Democratic nominee for Congress faced Schmidt in the August 2, 2005, special election. Hackett was described by The New York Times as six foot four and "garrulous, profane, and quick with a barked retort or a mischievous joke". Hackett had organized the recall of a councilman in Milford in 1995 and was elected to the council in his place, serving three years. He had also just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq and played up his military service in the campaign.
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Contesting a Republican district
John Green, a political science professor at the University of Akron told USA Today "It's a real steep uphill climb for Hackett. It is such a Republican district." Jane S. Anderson, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati who has unsuccessfully run for the Cincinnati city council and the Ohio House as a Democrat, told the Associated Press
It's definitely worth it to the Democrats to put in the effort if only to keep the party energized. Even if Paul Hackett loses, it is very important for the party for him to do well. It could be seen as a sign of opportunities for Democrats in other GOP strongholds.
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Martin Gottlieb of the Dayton Daily News wrote a Republican landslide in the district was "a self-fulfilling prophecy":
It is so overwhelmingly Republican that Democrats typically don't make a real effort as a party. A candidate puts himself up, but generally it's somebody who has no political strengths and gets no financial contributions or volunteer help to speak of. The campaign gets little attention. And the prophecy gets fulfilled.
National attention on the race
Hackett attracted national attention to what had always been considered a safe Republican district. The New York Times ran a front-page story on him and articles appeared in USA Today and The Washington Post. USA Today wrote "if Democrats could design a dream candidate to capitalize on national distress about the war in Iraq, he would look a lot like the tall, telegenic Marine Reserve major who finished a seven-month tour of Iraq in March."
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The National Republican Congressional Committee, the official Republican Party body that helps candidates for the United States House of Representatives, announced on July 28 it was spending $265,000 for television ads in the Cincinnati market, covering the western part of the district, and $250,000 for ads in the Huntington, West Virginia, market, covering the eastern half. Carl Forti told The Cincinnati Enquirer "we decided to bury him" after Hackett told USA Today, in a story published that morning, "I don't like the son-of-a-bitch that lives in the White House but I'd put my life on the line for him." Forti said the NRCC had "no concern that she will lose. She will not lose."
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The NRCC ran commercials noting Hackett had voted for tax increases while on the Milford council and quoting his statement on his website that he would be "happy" to pay higher taxes. The NRCC was silent about Schmidt's own votes to raise taxes, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the NRCC's counterpart, was not. The DCCC responded with commercials noting that Schmidt had voted to raise the sales tax by 20% and the excise tax on gasoline by 30% when she was in the legislature. A mailing to voters by the DCCC reiterated these statements under the headline "Who Voted for the Taft Sales Tax Increase—the Largest in Ohio History?" and asked "can we trust Jean Schmidt to protect middle-class families in Washington?"
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Fundraising
After her primary win, Schmidt flew to Washington, D.C., to attend fundraisers and have a campaign commercial shot featuring her with George W. Bush. Having far more money than her opponent, she was able to afford a television campaign and distributed many large campaign signs throughout the district. However, her financial edge diminished as of late July.
Hackett's limited budget had meant his campaign was limited to word of mouth, one-on-one personal campaigning, and yard signs, of which there were many, despite the strong Republican tilt of the district. One tactic to ensure his name was seen was Hackett's campaign affixing signs to all of the overpasses of I-71 in eastern Hamilton County.
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However, with the help of Democrats from across the nation, Hackett raised several hundred thousand dollars in the closing weeks of the campaign. One main reason Democrats have decided to rally around Hackett was that, had he won, he would have been the first veteran of the 2003 invasion of Iraq to serve in Congress. Late in the campaign Schmidt claimed Mark Kirk, Republican Congressman from Illinois was the first Congressman to serve in Iraq, but Kirk said he had never actually been on tour in Iraq.
Endorsements
State and national endorsements
Schmidt won the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, which frustrated her opponent, a long-time NRA member. She also won the endorsements of the International Association of Fire Fighters, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the National Homebuilders Association, the Ohio Taxpayers Association, the Ohio Small Business PAC, and the Ohio Farm Bureau.
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Local endorsements
Schmidt also won the endorsements of the Southern Ohio Board of Realtors and the Fraternal Order of Police Queen City Lodge #69.
The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes , a Cincinnati-based group founded by Tom Brinkman (who lost the GOP primary to Schmidt), began running ads in the last week of July urging voters to skip the election. COAST's president, Jim Urling, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that this might help elect Hackett, but "we think it will be easier to remove a Democrat next year than an incumbent Republican posing as a conservative."
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For the general election, the Democratic Dayton Daily News endorsed Hackett. The Daily News said Schmidt's attacks on Senators Mike DeWine and George Voinovich–Schmidt had asked "what kind of men do we have in Washington representing us right now? One refuses to back the president and the other is crying on national television"–were "remarkably classless" and "seemed to be saying that voters who like legislators who exercise occasional independence from their party should not vote for her." The Cincinnati Post also endorsed Hackett. It noted Schmidt is the latest in a line of "Republican patricians" and "likely to be a dependable vote for the Bush administration."
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The Cincinnati Enquirer, a Republican paper, wrote Hackett "is an attractive candidate with many qualities to admire" but endorsed Schmidt. The Enquirer conceded Schmidt "has a troubling tendency to offer superficial answers on issues she may not have carefully studied. Some of her comments can lack tact, and she relies too often on anecdotal evidence to prove a point," but endorsed her:
Schmidt knows the district very well, having almost a "file-card" memory to recall details about people, places and issues she's had experience with on the local level . . . she's a quick learner who knows how to make deals and get things done. Even in her relatively short time in Columbus, she proved effective in passing legislation to address her district's concerns.
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Controversies
Controversy arose over whether Schmidt had failed to list gifts received when she was in the Ohio General Assembly on her financial disclosure statements. Another controversy was her ties to Tom Noe, a major player in the Coingate scandal. Schmidt initially denied ever meeting Noe, but Hackett produced minutes of a 2002 Ohio Board of Regents meeting attended by Schmidt. Noe was a member of the board at the time.
Election night
The election was given major national attention by the television networks and other observers despite its restricted locality. Throughout the night, as returns came in, political watchers and bloggers zeroed in on the election as an indicator of American political opinion shifts.
Many predictions were made everywhere, but as this district had always been a Republican stronghold, most projected a Schmidt win, even though polling was showing the race was getting tight.
Results
After the election
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Implications for Ohio elections
Following the election, many Democrats hailed the election as showing the weakness of Ohio's Republican party, which has been in control of Ohio state government for a decade, and public unhappiness with President Bush's policies. Hamilton County Democratic chairman Timothy Burke was delighted. "Paul was very critical of this president in a district that Bush carried easily last November, yet she barely hung on to win. There's a clear signal in that," he told The Cincinnati Post on election night. The Clermont County Democratic chairman, Dave Lane, told the Dayton Daily News "Here we are in the reddest of red districts and it was very, very close."
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee claimed in a press release Hackett's strong showing meant trouble for Mike Dewine's reelection campaign in 2006, especially since his son Pat had lost the Republican primary for the seat.
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Ohio Republican Party political director Jason Mauk said: ""To the extent that voters in that district were sending a message to the Republican Party at the state or national level, we have heard that message and we will continue to listen to their concerns."
Peter W. Bronson, a conservative columnist for The Cincinnati Enquirer, wrote "Hackett's surprising finish was less a repudiation of Bush than a repudiation of Ohio Governor Bob Taft, whose name is now officially radioactive poison." Bronson admitted Hackett "ran a strong campaign" but said he did so well only because of "the ugly primary" on the Republican side, fears that Schmidt was "another Taft RINO" (i.e. "Republican in name only") and apathy by Republican voters, not dissatisfaction with Bush or Republicans in general.
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John Nichols of the Madison Capital Times in Wisconsin saw it differently. "The district had been so radically gerrymandered by Republican governors and legislators that it was all-but-unimaginable that a Democrat could ever be competitive there" and that Hackett, "a smart telegenic Iraq War veteran", had been "swiftboated" in the final days of the campaign by "Republican operatives and right-wing talk radio hosts".
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As a measure, perhaps, of both Schmidt's unpopularity, and a growing anti-Republican trend in Ohio due to the unpopularity of Bush and Ohio Governor Bob Taft, Schmidt defeated Victoria Wells Wulsin, the second-place finisher in the 2005 Democratic primary, by an even smaller margin than that by which she had defeated Hackett in 2005. In addition, Democrats swept the statewide races for US Senate, governor and lieutenant governor, attorney general, state treasurer and state auditor, while winning the seat of former Republican congressman Bob Ney in Ohio's 18th District. Republicans did manage to win closely contested races in Ohio's 1st, 2nd and 15th Districts.
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Implications for national elections
The DSCC also claimed that "If Ohio is a bellwether state for next year's midterm elections, things don't look too good for the Republicans." Republicans said the election meant nothing of the sort. "There is no correlation between what happens in a special election, where turnout is very low and you have circumstances that just aren't comparable to an election that happens on an Election Day in an election year," Brian Nick of the National Republican Senatorial Committee told The Cincinnati Post.
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The Columbus Dispatch referred to "the trauma of barely winning a Congressional district long dominated by Republicans" and quoted an anonymous source in the Republican party claiming "there is not a tougher environment in the country than Ohio right now. There is kind of a meltdown happening." Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report told the Dispatch "Ohio becomes the microcosm for the debate Democrats are trying to have nationally" and Democrats would argue in future campaigns "'See what happens when one party rules too long, see what happens with corruption and insider influence.'" Her boss, Charlie Cook, told the Los Angeles Times Hackett's "rubber stamp" charge had resonated with Ohio voters.
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Mark Steyn, a conservative Canadian columnist, wrote in the Irish Times "Paul Hackett was like a fast-forward version of the John Kerry campaign" who "artfully neglected to mention the candidate was a Democrat." Steyn claimed that Democratic efforts to present Hackett's run as a success for the party were absurd.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned Republicans that the election was a warning sign for the 2006 midterms and that while they should not yet panic, they should "think" before it was too late.
Ultimately the Democrats would make significant gains in the 2006 midterm elections, gaining 30 seats in the U.S. House and six in the Senate, and gaining control of both chambers.
See also
Election Results, U.S. Representative from Ohio, 2nd District
Special elections to the United States House of Representatives
External links
League of Women Voters' Smart Voter page on the race
Another blog on the race
CityBeat article on the race
References
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Cindi Andrews. "Sheriff calls for DeWine to resign commission seat." The Cincinnati Enquirer. April 6, 2005. 1C. (Sheriff Leis calls for DeWine to quit)
Jim Bebbington. "Election board rules petitions of 3 invalid for 2nd District primary". Dayton Daily News. May 13, 2005. B2. (Candidates certified)
"Former Congressman To Seek Portman's Seat". CongressDaily. April 15, 2005. 6. (McEwen to run in Second District)
Lori Kurtzman. "Barber, D-Anderson Twp., also wants Portman seat". The Cincinnati Enquirer. April 17, 2005. 1C. (Democrat Russell Hurley)
"2nd District Candidates". The Cincinnati Enquirer. May 29, 2005. C2. (Profiles of all the candidates)
"Jean Schmidt". The Cincinnati Enquirer. June 8, 005. C2.
"Paul L. Hackett III". The Cincinnati Enquirer. June 8, 2005. C2.
Malia Rulon. "If dollars were votes, Pat DeWine would win". The Cincinnati Enquirer. June 8, 2005. A1. (Campaign finance reports)
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"Tom Brinkman". The Cincinnati Enquirer. June 8, 2005. C2.
Bill Sloat and Stephen Koff. "Will family values hurt campaign? Pat DeWine’s private life turning off some voters". The Plain Dealer. June 12, 2005. A1. (DeWine and conservative voters)
Howard Wilkinson. "Boehner endorses McEwen in 2nd". The Cincinnati Enquirer. June 8, 2005. C2. (Info on McEwen, Hackett's endorsements)
Howard Wilkinson. "Candidates' ad blitz goes from radio to TV". The Cincinnati Enquirer. May 19, 2005. 2C. (Advertising by candidates)
Howard Wilkinson. "Kemp's for McEwen, but 2nd choice is DeWine". The Cincinnati Enquirer. May 21, 2005. B4. (Jack Kemp campaigns for McEwen in 2005)
Howard Wilkinson. "McEwen displays his Reagan 'cred'". The Cincinnati Enquirer. June 1, 2005. C2. (Meese campaigns for him; DeWine on his lobbying)
Howard Wilkinson. "Schmidt has had lifelong drive to succeed". The Cincinnati Enquirer. July 24, 2005. E1, E5.
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Howard Wilkinson. "Sense of duty, purpose drive Hackett". The Cincinnati Enquirer. July 24, 2005. E1, E5.
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The Transformers is an American animated television series which originally aired from September 17, 1984 to November 11, 1987 in syndication
based upon Hasbro's Transformers toy line. The first television series in the Transformers franchise, it depicts a war among giant robots that can transform into vehicles and other objects.
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The series was produced by Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions in association with Japanese studio Toei Animation for first-run syndication. Toei co-produced the show and was the main animation studio for the first two seasons. In the third season Toei's involvement with the production team was reduced and the animation services were shared with the South Korean studio AKOM who also produced a few episodes for Season 2. The show's Supervising Producer; Nelson Shin was also AKOM's founder. The fourth season was entirely animated by AKOM. The series was supplemented by a feature film, The Transformers: The Movie (1986), taking place between the second and third seasons.
This series is also popularly known as "Generation 1", a term originally coined by fans in response to the re-branding of the franchise as Transformers: Generation 2 in 1992, which eventually made its way into official use. The series was later shown in reruns on Sci-Fi Channel and The Hub (now Discovery Family).
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Production background
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The Transformers toyline and animated series were inspired by the Japanese toyline, Microman (an Eastern descendant of the 12-inch G.I. Joe action figure series) by Takara. In 1980, the Microman spin-off, Diaclone, was released, featuring inch-tall humanoid figures able to sit in the drivers' seats of scale model vehicles, which could transform into humanoid robot bodies the drivers piloted. Later still, in 1983, a Microman sub-line, MicroChange was introduced, featuring "actual size" items that transformed into robots, such as microcassettes, guns and toy cars. Diaclone and MicroChange toys were subsequently discovered at the 1983 Tokyo Toy Fair by Hasbro toy company product developer Henry Orenstein, who presented the concept to Hasbro's head of R&D, George Dunsay. Enthusiastic about the product, it was decided to release toys from both Diaclone and MicroChange as one toyline for their markets, although there were eventual changes to the color schemes from the original toys to match
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the new series.
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By 1984, U.S. regulators had removed many of the restrictions regarding the placement of promotional content within children's television programming. The way was cleared for the new product-based television program. Hasbro had previously worked with Marvel Comics to develop G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero for a three-pronged marketing scheme – the toyline, a tie-in comic book by Marvel, and an animated mini-series co-produced by Marvel's media arm, Marvel Productions, and the Griffin-Bacal Advertising Agency's Sunbow Productions production house. Given the success of that strategy, the process was repeated in 1984 when Hasbro marketing vice president Bob Prupis approached Marvel to develop their new robot series, which Jay Bacal dubbed "Transformers."
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Marvel's Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter, produced a rough story concept for the series, creating the idea of the two warring factions of alien robots – the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. To flesh out his concept, Shooter called upon veteran editor Dennis O'Neil to create character names and profiles for the cast, but O'Neill's work did not meet with Hasbro's expectations, and they requested heavy revisions. O'Neill declined to make said revisions, and the project was turned down by several writers and editors approached by Shooter until editor Bob Budiansky accepted the task. Hastily performing the revisions over a weekend, Budiansky's new names and profiles were a hit with Hasbro, and production began on a bi-monthly four-issue comic book miniseries, and three-part television pilot. Both comic and cartoon would wind up continuing for years beyond these short-term beginnings, using Budiansky's original development work as a springboard to tell the story of the
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Transformers in very different ways from one another, forming two separate, unrelated continuities for the brand out of the gate.
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Japanese designer Shōhei Kohara was responsible for creating the earliest character models for the Transformers cast, greatly humanising the toy designs to create more approachable robot characters for the comic and cartoon. His designs were subsequently simplified by Floro Dery, who went on to become the lead designer for the series, creating many more concepts and designs in the future.
Plot
This series focuses on the Transformers, split into two warring factions: the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons as they crash land on Earth and continue their eons long conflict there.
Broadcast history
UK broadcast history
TV-AM (1984–1986?)
Sky One (1988–1995)
Fox Kids (1996–1997)
Pop (2007–2009)
Kix! (2008–2009)
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Pilot miniseries
The three-part pilot miniseries (retroactively titled "More than Meets the Eye") first aired in the United States in September 1984. The story follows Optimus Prime's heroic Autobots and Megatron's evil Decepticons as they leave their metallic homeworld of Cybertron to search for new sources of energy to revitalize their war efforts, only to crash-land on Earth, where they remain entombed and offline for 4 million years. Awakening in the year of 1984, the Decepticons set about pillaging the energy sources of Earth, while the Autobots—aided by human father and son Sparkplug and Spike Witwicky—attempt to protect the new world on which they find themselves. The miniseries concludes with the Decepticons believed dead after their space cruiser is sent plunging into the ocean depths, while the Autobots prepare to return to Cybertron.
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Season 1
The 13-episode first season, commissioned and produced before the pilot miniseries aired, was broadcast between October and December on Saturday mornings. Story-edited at Marvel Productions by Bryce Malek and Dick Robbins, the season begins with the revelation that the Decepticons have survived the events of the pilot and follows them as they set about constructing a "space bridge" to teleport resources back to Cybertron. A loose story arc centered on this technology spans the season, culminating in "The Ultimate Doom", a three-part episode in which the Decepticons teleport Cybertron itself into Earth's orbit. The paraplegic computer expert Chip Chase joins Spike and Sparkplug as a new human ally for the Autobots.
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The season also introduced several new characters from the upcoming 1985 product line in advance of their toys' release including Skyfire, the Dinobots, the Insecticons and the first "combiner" team, the Constructicons, who are able to merge into a giant robot, Devastator, whose introduction was set alongside a climactic one-on-one duel between Optimus Prime and Megatron that served as a part of the season finale.
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Season 2
Forty-nine further episodes were commissioned for the show's second season in 1985, bringing the total up to the "magic number" of 65 required to move the series into weekday broadcast syndication. Compared to the first season, Season 2's stories are more episodic, with many of them able to air in whatever order networks chose. Episodes would often spotlight individual characters or groups of characters as a means of promoting their toys and later in the season, the lore of the series would be expanded on as the history of Cybertron and origin of Optimus Prime were discovered and significant cartoon-original characters like Alpha Trion and the first female Transformer characters were introduced. A new recurring human cast member was also added in the form of Spike's girlfriend Carly.
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Partway into the season, the remainder of the 1985 product line was introduced, mostly through the two-part episode "Dinobot Island." These new characters, like the first year cast, were largely derived from Takara's Diaclone and Micro Change lines, including new Autobot car and mini-vehicles and Decepticon jets and the giant Autobot sentinel Omega Supreme and Decepticon "Triple-Changers" Astrotrain and Blitzwing. To expand the line, however, Hasbro also licensed several toys from other companies, including Takara's Japanese competitor, Bandai. Legal complications that arose from incorporating the first of these, Skyfire, into the first season resulted in the character quickly being phased out early in Season 2 and meant that none of the other Bandai-derived characters featured in the series.
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Toward the end of the season, the first 1986 product was introduced into the series: the Aerialbots, Stunticons, Protectobots and Combaticons, four combiner teams based on an unmade Diaclone line that was aborted in Japan in favor of importing the Transformers toy line itself. To promote these new toys even further in Japanese markets, a single Japanese-exclusive episode, Transformers: Scramble City, was released direct-to-video in spring of 1986.
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The Movie
The gap between seasons two and three was bridged by The Transformers: The Movie, which was released to theaters in the summer of 1986. Set 20 years after the second season, in the year 2005, the film featured the deaths of many characters, including Optimus Prime himself, clearing away all the discontinued product from the 1984 and 1985 toy lines and introduced a new cast of the characters designed for the film, who were then made into toys for the 1986 range. Young Autobot Hot Rod used the power of the Autobot talisman known as the Matrix of Leadership to become the new Autobot leader Rodimus Prime and defeated the world-eating robot planet Unicron.
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Season 3
Season 3 picks up where the movie leaves off, with the Autobots now in control of Cybertron once more, working to restore their homeworld and serving as peacemakers for worlds all across the galaxy. The Decepticons, meanwhile, are in exile on the ruined world of Chaar, led now by Galvatron, the rebuilt, upgraded version of Megatron recreated by Unicron. Interconnected episodes, running plot threads and small story arcs became more common in the series, including the return of Starscream (following his death in the movie) as a ghost, frequent battles between the giant Autobot and Decepticon cities of Metroplex and Trypticon and the threat to both sides posed by the alien Quintessons, introduced in the movie and revealed in the season's premiere miniseries "Five Faces of Darkness" to be the true creators of the Transformers.
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This season saw story-editing duties transfer from Marvel Productions to Sunbow, overseen by Flint Dille, Marv Wolfman and Steve Gerber. Animation for around half the season was provided by producer Nelson Shin's animation studio AKOM, creating a different "look" for the show that encompassed its opening sequence and commercial bumpers.
The death of Optimus Prime proved a controversial move and did not sit well with the viewing audience, resulting in a letter-writing campaign that ultimately compelled Hasbro to resurrect the Autobot leader in a two-part season finale called "The Return of Optimus Prime", which aired in March 1987.
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Season 4
The fourth season, consisting of a three-part finale miniseries named "The Rebirth", was broadcast in November 1987. This packed adventure, written by regular series writer David Wise, sent the Autobots and Decepticons to the alien world of Nebulos, where they bonded with the native Nebulans to become Headmasters and Targetmasters. The miniseries concluded with the successful restoration of Cybertron at last, but the Decepticons stole the final scene, their threat not yet quashed.
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Later developments
The Transformers did not disappear from American airwaves, as a fifth season aired in 1988. It consisted of reruns of 15 episodes from the original series, along with The Transformers: The Movie edited into five episodes. This season featured a new title sequence using footage from previous episodes, the movie, and toy commercials as well as all new framing scenes featuring a human boy named Tommy Kennedy (portrayed by actor Jason Jansen) and a stop-motion/machine prop Optimus Prime puppet.
From 1993–1995, select episodes of the series were rebroadcast under the title Transformers: Generation 2. The stories were presented as though they were historical recordings displayed by the "Cybernet Space Cube", which added computer-generated borders and scene-transitions to the original animation.
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The story was later continued in Transformers: Generation 2: Redux, a Botcon magazine which is set 22 years after the events of the final episode where the first generation of the Autobots led by Optimus Prime pursue Galvatron and Zarak into deep space and a new generation of Autobots and Decepticons are introduced.
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Supplemental sequences
Each of the first three seasons of the series featured its own tailored opening sequence, featuring completely original animation and a unique arrangement of the theme tune. Additionally, the third-season premiere "Five Faces of Darkness" had its own specialized opening, depicting events that occurred in the mini-series. The fourth season, however, did not feature any new animation in its opening sequence, instead combining together footage from the third season opening and various clips of animation from 1987 toy commercials; likewise, the fifth season featured commercial animation mixed in with footage from The Transformers: The Movie. Both used the season three musical arrangement.
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The series featured a distinctive scene transition that saw the Autobot and Decepticon symbols "flipping" from one to the other, accompanied by a distinctive five-note refrain. This transition technique became a hallmark of the series, and was used throughout the entire four-year run. Commercial breaks were segued into and out of using commercial bumpers featuring brief eyecatch-styled original animation with a voice over by series narrator Victor Caroli.
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A set of five proposed public service announcements were created to be tagged onto the end of episodes from the second season of the series, re-using the scripts from similar PSAs created for sister series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, complete with the catchphrase "...and knowing is half the battle!" These were never actually aired on television, but eventually appeared as bonus features on various DVDs and video games. For the third season, episodes were tagged with "The Secret Files of Teletraan II", a series of short featurettes that used clips from the show and new narration from Caroli to provide histories for the Autobots, the Decepticons, the Quintessons, and other subjects.
Japanese release
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In Japan, the first two seasons of the show were collectively released as , then rebranded as for Season 3, with all seasons aired on Nippon TV. Following the conclusion of the third season, the Japanese opted not to import "The Rebirth", but instead created a series of new animated shows to continue the story, beginning with Transformers: The Headmasters in 1987, and continuing into Transformers: Super-God Masterforce in 1988, Transformers: Victory in 1989, and the single-episode direct-to-video OVA Transformers: Zone in 1990. Supplementary manga written by Masami Kaneda and illustrated by Ban Magami ran alongside each series in Kodansha's TV Magazine.
VHS, Betamax, and DVD releases
In the 1980s, episodes from the first and second seasons as well as the third season's "Five Faces of Darkness" and "Return of Optimus Prime" were released on VHS and Betamax by Family Home Entertainment.
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Between 1995 - 1999, Canadian home entertainment company Malofilm (later renamed as Behaviour Distribution) released several episodes of the series on VHS, and some under the Transformers: Generation 2 name. None of the Malofilm VHS cover art was specifically related to the contents of the episodes either, as they were all various segments of promotional art related to the 1986 animated feature The Transformers: The Movie.
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Region 1
Seasons 1–4 were released on DVD in the U.S. by Rhino Entertainment Company/Kid Rhino Entertainment (under its Rhinomation classic animation entertainment brand) (a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner) (a division of Warner Music Group) between April 23, 2002, and March 9, 2004. Due to missing 35mm film stock, some sections of the Rhino Entertainment release use earlier incomplete animation, often introducing errors, such as mis-colored Decepticon jets, Skyfire colored like Skywarp, missing laser blasts, or a confusing sequence where Megatron, equipped with Skywarp's teleportation power, teleports but does not actually disappear. This version also added extra sound effects that were presented in the remixed 5.1 surround soundtrack and later remixed 2.0 stereo soundtrack, but not present in the original broadcast version.
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In 2005, Rhino lost the rights to distribute Transformers on DVD. The license was subsequently acquired by Sony Wonder (a division of Sony BMG). Sony Wonder announced in October 2006 that they would re-release the first season of the series in 2007, with the other seasons presumably following. In June 2007, Sony BMG dissolved Sony Wonder and moved the label to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, without releasing any DVD sets.
In May 2008, Hasbro re-acquired the rights to the Sunbow library of shows, including Transformers.
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In March 2009, Shout! Factory announced that they had acquired the license from Hasbro to release Transformers on DVD in Region 1 with Vivendi Entertainment. They subsequently released The Complete First Season on June 16, 2009. Season Two Volume One was released on September 15, 2009. Season Two Volume Two was released on January 12, 2010. Seasons Three and Four was released together in one set on April 20, 2010. These releases corrected most of the newly introduced Rhino animation errors, but this was necessarily accomplished by using lower quality sources taken from the original broadcast master tapes. Rhino's added sound effects were discarded in favor of a sound mix more faithful to the original mono audio.
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On October 20, 2009, Shout! Factory released the complete series in a box set for the first time in Region 1. This set, dubbed Transformers: The Complete Series - The Matrix of Leadership Collector's Set, features all 98 remastered episodes along with all new bonus features.
Region 2
Maverick released Season 1 in the U.K. in 2001. Three individual volumes were released (though the episodes are in the wrong order), a box set of the three disks, which included a fourth disk containing bonus features, and one volume of Transformers: Generation 2 with five episodes that had the Cybernetic Space Cube graphics added. They also released a volume of Transformers: Takara, which included the first six episodes of the Asian English dub of Transformers: The Headmasters.
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Metrodome Distribution released Seasons 1–4 in the U.K. between November 17, 2003 and October 11, 2004. Their first release was a budget-range DVD of the Transformers movie, released through Prism Leisure. The seasons were released in four box sets: Season 1, Season 2 Part 1, Season 2 Part 2 and Seasons 3–4. Notably, Season 2 was released first by Metrodome because Season 1 had been released by Maverick. Metrodome's releases use the remastered production masters, which originated with the Rhino release of the series (and contain all the inherent errors). Additionally, they include Magno Sound & Video's 5.1 audio (with added sound effects), but use a modified version of their 2.0 track.
Region 4
Madman Entertainment released the four seasons in six box sets in Australia and New Zealand (Region 4): Season 1, Season 2.1, Season 2.2, Season 3.1, Season 3.2 and Season 4.
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They later released the remastered Shout! Factory version of Transformers in the same volume arrangement as the American release. In 2007, Madman Entertainment released a 17-disc complete collection box set.
Other releases
A collector's tin box set was released in Asia by Guangdong Qianhe Audio & Video Communication Co., Ltd. under license by Pexlan International (Picture) Limited. The set includes the entire series, The Transformers: The Movie, a set of full color postcards, a rubber keychain and a full color book (graphic novel style) which serves as an episode guide. While the book is almost entirely in Mandarin, the chapter menus contain English translations for each episode. The set is coded as Region 1.
In July 2009, Transformers G1 Season 1 (25th Anniversary Edition) was made available for digital download via the PlayStation Network's video store in the United States for $1.99 per episode.
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On October 10, 2010, The Hub (formerly Discovery Kids, later Discovery Family on October 13, 2014) started airing the original episodes of the Transformers G1 series on the network (alongside Beast Wars: Transformers and Beast Machines: Transformers).
References
External links
Metrodome's Transformers DVD homepage
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1984 American television series debuts
1987 American television series endings
1986 manga
1987 manga
American children's animated action television series
1980s American animated television series
Television series by Marvel Productions
Television series by Hasbro Studios
First-run syndicated television programs in the United States
Television shows set in the United States
Television shows set in Japan
1980s American science fiction television series
Anime-influenced Western animated television series
Television series set in the future
Television series set in 2005
Television series set in 2006
Animated television series about robots
TV series
English-language television shows
Television series set in the 1980s
Children's manga
Manga series
Television shows based on Takara Tomy toys
American children's animated space adventure television series
American children's animated science fantasy television series
American children's animated superhero television series
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Television series by Sunbow Entertainment
Transformers (franchise) animated television series
Television series by Claster Television
Toei Animation
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The Crown Colony of Labuan was a British Crown colony on the northwestern shore of the island of Borneo established in 1848 after the acquisition of the island of Labuan from the Sultanate of Brunei in 1846. Apart from the main island, Labuan consists of six smaller islands; Burung, Daat, Kuraman, Papan, Rusukan Kecil, and Rusukan Besar.
Labuan was expected by the British to be a second Singapore, but it did not fulfil its promise especially after the failure of its coal production that did not become fruitful, causing investors to withdraw their money, leaving all machinery equipment and Chinese workers that had entered the colony previously. The Chinese workers then began involving themselves in other businesses with many becoming chief traders of the island's produce of edible bird's nest, pearl, sago and camphor, with the main successful production later being the coconut, rubber and sago.
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World War II brought the invasion of Japanese forces which abruptly ended British administration. Subsequently, Labuan became the place where the Japanese commander in Borneo surrendered to the Allied forces, with the territory placed under a military administration before merging into a new crown colony.
History
Foundation and establishment
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Since 1841, when James Brooke had successfully established a solid presence in northwestern Borneo with the establishment of the Raj of Sarawak and began to assist in the suppression of piracy along the island coast, he had persistently promoted the island of Labuan to the British government. Brooke urged the British to establish a naval station, colony or protectorate along the northern coast to prevent other European powers from doing so which being responded by the Admiralty with the arrival of Admiral Drinkwater Bethune to look for a site for a naval station and specifically to investigate Labuan in November 1844, along with Admiral Edward Belcher with his to survey the island.
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The British Foreign Office then appointed Brooke as a diplomat to Brunei in 1845 and asked him to co-operate with Bethune. At the same time, Lord Aberdeen who was the British Foreign Minister at the time sent a letter to the Sultan of Brunei requesting the Sultan to not enter any treaties with other foreign powers while the island was under consideration as a British base. On 24 February 1845, Admiral Bethune with his HMS Driver and several other political commissions left Hong Kong to survey the island more. The crews found that it was the most suitable for inhabitants than any other island in the coast of Borneo especially with its coal deposits. The British also saw the potential the island could be the next Singapore. Brooke acquired the island for Britain through the Treaty of Labuan with the Sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddin II on 18 December 1846.
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Captain Rodney Mundy visited Brunei with his ship to keep the Sultan in line until the British government made a final decision to take the island and he took Pengiran Mumin to witness the island's accession to the British Crown on 24 December 1846. Brooke supervised the transferring process and by 1848, the island was made a crown colony and free port with him appointed as the first Governor. From 1890, Labuan came to be administered by the North Borneo Chartered Company before been reverted to British government rule in 1904. By 30 October 1906, the British government proposed to extend the boundaries of the Straits Settlements to include Labuan. The proposal took effect from 1 January 1907, with the administration area being taken directly from Singapore, the capital of the Straits Settlements.
World War II and decline
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As part of the World War II, the Japanese navy anchored at Labuan on 3 January 1942 without being met by any strong resistance. Most treasury notes on the island had been burned and destroyed by the British to prevent them from falling into Japanese hands. The remaining Japanese forces then proceeded to Mempakul in the western coast of neighbouring North Borneo to strengthen their main forces there. Following the complete takeover of the rest of Borneo island, Labuan was ruled as part of the Empire of Japan and garrisoned by units of the Japanese 37th Army, which controlled northern Borneo. The island was renamed after Marquis Toshinari Maeda, the first commander of Japanese forces in northern Borneo. The Japanese planned to construct two airfields on the island with eleven others to be located in different parts of Borneo. To achieve this, the Japanese brought approximately one hundred thousand Javanese forced labourers from Java to work for them.
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The liberation of the whole of Borneo began on 10 June 1945 when the Allied forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur and Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead landed at Labuan with a convoy of 100 ships. The 9th Australian Division launched an attack, with its 24th Brigade landing two battalions at the island southeast protrudance and the north side of Victoria Harbour on Brown Beach while being supported by massive air and sea bombardments. The landings were witnessed by MacArthur on board the when he decided to proceed further south from the southern Philippines to Labuan. Following the surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945, Lieutenant General Masao Baba who was the last commander of the Japanese army in northern Borneo surrendered at the island's Layang-layang beach on 9 September 1945. He was then brought to the 9th Division headquarters on the island to sign the surrender document in front of the commander of the 9th Division, Major General George Wootten. The official
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surrender ceremony was held on the next day on 10 September at Surrender Point. The town of Victoria had been damaged by Allied bombings but was rebuilt after the war. The island assumed its former name and was under British Military Administration (BMA) along with the rest of the British territories in Borneo before joining the Crown Colony of North Borneo on 15 July 1946.
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Governor
Following the acquisition of Labuan, it was made a crown colony and governed by a Governor. Governor John Hennessy imported a group of Dublin policemen to clean up the island and enforce health regulations during his term. From 1880s, there had been a wide disenchantment over the position of Labuan as a crown colony among British administrators after the failure of coal production, causing the administration to be passed twice to North Borneo and the Straits Settlements. From the last years of British rule, the authorities encouraged the involvement of indigenous natives in the island to participate in politics although it was still controlled based on the interests of the British government.
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Economy
Since its discovery by the British, coal has been found on the main island. Other economic resources include edible bird's nest, pearl, sago and camphor. The British hoped that the island's capital would grow into a city to rival Singapore and Hong Kong, but the dream was never realised. In particular the decline of coal production caused most investors to withdrew their investment. As a replacement, coconut, rubber and sago production became the main resources of the Labuan economy. Under the administration of North Borneo, its revenue was $20,000 in 1889, increasing to $56,000 in 1902. Imports in 1902 were $1,948,742, while exports reached $1,198,945.
Society
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Demography
The island had a population of about 2,000 in 1864, 5,853 in 1890, 6,545 in 1911, and 8,963 in 1941. The population is mainly Malays (mostly Bruneian and Kedayan) and Chinese, with a remainder of European and Eurasian. The Europeans were mainly government officials and staff of companies, the Chinese were the chief traders with most of the industries in the island in their hands, while the Malays were mostly fishermen.
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Public service infrastructure
A telegraph line was established from Labuan to Sandakan on neighbouring North Borneo in 1894. Postal services were also available throughout the administration, with a post office operating on the island by 1864 and used a circular date stamp as a postmark. The postage stamps of India and Hong Kong were used on some mail, but they were probably carried there by individuals rather than being on sale in Labuan. Mail was routed through Singapore. From 1867, Labuan officially used the postage stamps of the Straits Settlements but began issuing its own in May 1879.
Notes
Footnotes
References
Further reading
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Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown Colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Crown colony of Labuan
Former polities of the Cold War
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Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones (January 5, 1868 or 1869 – June 24, 1933) was an American soprano. She sometimes was called "The Black Patti" in reference to Italian opera singer Adelina Patti. Jones' repertoire included grand opera, light opera, and popular music. Trained at the Providence Academy of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, Jones made her New York debut in 1888 at Steinway Hall, and four years later she performed at the White House for President Benjamin Harrison. She eventually sang for four consecutive presidents and the British royal family, and met with international success. Besides the United States and the West Indies, Jones toured in South America, Australia, India, southern Africa, and Europe.
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The highest-paid African-American performer of her time, later in her career she founded the Black Patti Troubadours (later renamed the Black Patti Musical Comedy Company), a musical and acrobatic act made up of 40 jugglers, comedians, dancers and a chorus of 40 trained singers. She remained the star of the Famous Troubadours for around two decades while they established their popularity in the principal cities of the United States and Canada, Jones retired from performing in 1915. In 2013, she was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame.
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Early life and education
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Matilda Sissieretta Joyner was born on January 5, 1869, in a house on Bart Street in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, to Jeremiah Malachi Joyner, an African Methodist Episcopal minister and Henrietta Beale, a singer in a church choir and washerwoman. Her father had formerly been enslaved, but was educated and literate. She was the oldest of three children, although her siblings died when they were young. Matilda Joyner was nicknamed as Sissy or Tilly by her family and friends, and began singing around the house at a young age. When she was six years old, her family moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where she began singing at an early age in her father's Pond Street Baptist Church. She attended Meeting Street and Thayer Schools. In 1883, Joyner began the formal study of music at the Providence Academy of Music. She studied with Ada Baroness Lacombe. In the late 1880s, Jones was accepted at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, studying under Flora Batson of the Bergen
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Star Company. She also studied at the Boston Conservatory.
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Musical career
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Debut and breakthrough concerts
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On October 29, 1885, Jones gave a solo performance in Providence as an opening act to a production of Richard III staged by John A. Arneaux's theatre troupe. In 1887, she performed at Boston's Music Hall before an audience of 5,000. Jones made her New York debut on April 5, 1888, at Steinway Hall. During a performance at Wallack's Theater in New York, Jones came to the attention of Adelina Patti's manager, who recommended that Jones tour the West Indies with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Jones made successful tours of the Caribbean in 1888 and 1892. Around this time one critic at the theatrical journal the New York Clipper dubbed her "the Black Patti" after Adelina Patti, an epithet that Jones disliked, preferring Madame Jones. She later told a reporter that the name "rather annoys me... I am afraid people will think I consider myself the equal to Patti herself. I assure you I don't think so, but I have a voice and I am striving to win the favor of the public by honest merit and hard
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work."
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In February 1892, Jones performed at the White House for President Benjamin Harrison. She eventually sang for four consecutive presidents — Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt — and the British royal family. For three of her White House performances, Jones had to enter the building through the back. She was finally allowed to enter through the front door for the Roosevelt performance.
Jones performed at the Grand Negro Jubilee at New York's Madison Square Garden in April 1892 before an audience of 75,000. She sang the song "Swanee River" and selections from La traviata. She was so popular that she was invited to perform at the Pittsburgh Exposition (1892) and the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893). At the Chicago performance, the venue was packed an hour before she was set to perform, and she received an ovation after singing "Ocean, Thou Mighty Monster."
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In June 1892, Jones became the first African American to sing at the Music Hall in New York (renamed Carnegie Hall the following year). Among the selections in her program were Charles Gounod's "Ave Maria" and Giuseppe Verdi's "Sempre libera" (from La traviata). The New York Echo wrote of her performance at the Music Hall: "If Mme Jones is not the equal of Adelina Patti, she at least can come nearer it than anything the American public has heard. Her notes are as clear as a mockingbird's and her annunciation perfect."
Expanded venues and international success
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On June 8, 1892, her venue options expanded, she received a contract with the possibility of a two-year extension, for $150 per week (plus expenses) with Major James B. Pond, who had meaningful affiliations to many authors and musicians and also managed artists such as Mark Twain and Henry Ward Beecher, and her fees began to rise. She received $2,000 for a week-long appearance at the Pittsburgh Exposition, noted for being the highest fee ever paid to a black artist in the United States. By comparison, Adelina Patti was paid $4,000 a night.
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In 1893, Jones met composer Antonín Dvořák. On January 23, 1894, Dvořák included Jones as a featured soloist during his benefit concert for the New York Herald'''s Free Clothing Fund at the Madison Square Garden Concert Hall. In addition to singing an arrangement of Rossini's Stabat Mater with the "colored male choir of St. Philip's church," Jones performed Dvořák's arrangement of Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home". By 1895, she had become the "most well known and highly paid" performer of African-American heritage of her time.
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Jones met with international success. Besides the United States and the West Indies, Jones toured in South America, Australia, India, and southern Africa. During a European tour in 1895 and 1896, Jones performed in London, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Milan, and Saint Petersburg. She noted in her letters that she encountered less racial prejudice in Europe, and that performers' skin color was irrelevant to their reception by audiences. By 1896, she also had become frustrated with racism limiting her venues in the United States, particularly when the Metropolitan Opera, which considered her for a lead role, rescinded that opportunity because of her race.
Black Patti Troubadours
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In 1896, Jones returned to Providence to care for her mother, who had become ill. Jones found that access to most American classical concert halls was limited by racism. She formed the Black Patti Troubadours (later renamed the Black Patti Musical Comedy Company), a musical and acrobatic act made up of 40 jugglers, comedians, dancers and a chorus of 40 trained singers. The Black Patti Troubadours reveled in vernacular music and dance. The revue paired Jones with rising vaudeville composers Bob Cole and Billy Johnson. The show consisted of a musical skit, followed by a series of short songs and acrobatic performances. During the final third of each show, Jones performed arias and operatic excerpts, although “low” comedy, song and dance were also showcased in what was originally a “free-for-all” variety production with no pretense of a coherent story line. The Indianapolis Freeman reviewed the “Black Patti Troubadours” with the following: “The rendition which she and the entire company
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give of this reportorial opera selection is said to be incomparably grand. Not only is the solo singing of the highest order, but the choruses are rendered with a spirit and musical finish which never fail to excite genuine enthusiasm." As the show grew more organized by the early 1900s, she had added scenery and costumes to her opera excerpts, and there were definite plots and musical comedy where she appeared in the storyline.
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The revue provided Jones with a comfortable income, reportedly in excess of $20,000 per year. She led the company with reassurance of a forty-week season that would give her a sustainable income, guaranteed lodging in a well-appointed and stylish Pullman car, and the ability to sing opera and operetta excerpts in the final section of the show. She was the highest-paid African-American performer of her time, remaining the star of the Famous Troubadours for around two decades while they toured each season and established their popularity in the principal cities of the United States and Canada. The company Troubadours made an important statement about the capabilities of black performers to its predominantly white audiences showing that there were diverse artist genres and styles besides minstrelsy. Their eventual fame and international tours collected many audiences, and several members of the troupe, such as Bert Williams, had significant careers in their own right. In April 1908, at
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the Avenue Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky where segregated seating was still prevalent, her rendition of "My Old Kentucky Home" was well-received by a primarily white audience, resulting in “the first time that a colored performer received a bouquet at the theatre in [the city of St. Louis]." The troupe also performed many times in the new theaters with black owners such as the Howard in Washington, D.C. Shows for the troupe included A Trip to Africa (1909 and 1910), In the Jungles (1911 and 1912), Captain Jaspar (1912 and 1913) and Lucky Sam from Alabam (1914 and 1915). She did not participate fully in the 1913–1914 season due to illness, and the following year the company disbanded. Her final two performances were at the Grand Theater in Chicago and the Lafayette Theater in New York City in October 1915, promising her audiences that she would return. Jones retired from performing in 1915.
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Legacy
W.C. Handy edited a songbook in 1944 which included a song about her; the book is called Unsung Americans Sung. In the 1967 book Black Magic by Milton Meltzer and Langston Hughes, she was described as a "stunning woman with a beautiful voice". Jones was also written about in Olio, which is a book of poetry written by Tyehimba Jess that was released in 2016. That book won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
As of 2003, several dresses from her early stage career were maintained by the Rhode Island Heritage Society. As of 2013, the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society was seeking funds to restore a performance dress worn by Jones in the 1890s, after the yellow silk and embroidered gown deteriorated. Her restored wedding gown at the time was on display at the John Brown House Museum in Providence.
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A biography of Jones by Maureen Lee, titled Sissieretta Jones: The Greatest Singer of her Race, was published in May 2012. The research for the book was partly based on a scrapbook of Jones which was on display at Howard University. At the same time, a plaque honoring Jones was erected near the location of Jones' home on the East Side of Providence.
In 2013 Jones was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame.
In 2018, The New York Times published a belated obituary for her.
Before her death in 2019, the great American soprano Jessye Norman was "in the planning stages for Call Her By Her Name!'', a multi-media tribute" to Jones.
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Personal life
In 1883, she married David Richard Jones, a news dealer and hotel bellman, when she was 14 years old. He served as her first manager. She filed for divorce in 1898, citing his drunkenness and lack of support. She divorced him in 1899 for his misuse of their money and gambling. In 1915, her mother fell ill, so Jones retired from performing and moved back to Rhode Island to take care of her. She devoted the remainder of her life to her church and to caring for her mother, also taking in homeless children and caring for her two adopted children. She lived off her holdings for a number of years, but was eventually forced to sell most of her property to survive, including most of her medals and jewels and three of her four houses. In her final years, the president of the local NAACP chapter helped pay her taxes and water bill, and provided her family with coal and wood.
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She died in poverty on June 24, 1933, from cancer at the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. She did not have the money to pay for a gravestone upon her death, and is buried in her hometown at Grace Church Cemetery. In 2018, money was raised to finally place a headstone on her grave; the headstone was erected in June of that year.
See also
African-American musical theater
Black Patti Records
References
Further reading
Wright, Josephine, and Eileen Southern. “Sissieretta Jones (1868-1933).” Black perspective in music 4.2 (1976): 191–201. Web.
External links
History's Unsung Opera Star, National Public Radio, June 11, 2007
Sissieretta Jones was a Trailblazing Black Opera Singer, PBS American Masters, 2020
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19th-century African-American women singers
19th-century American women opera singers
African-American women opera singers
American operatic sopranos
1860s births
1933 deaths
American stage actresses
Vaudeville performers
Musicians from Rhode Island
Musicians from Portsmouth, Virginia
Singers from Virginia
19th-century American actresses
20th-century American actresses
20th-century African-American women singers
20th-century American women opera singers
Burials in Rhode Island
Classical musicians from Virginia
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