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1796_16 | World War I service
Each Mle 1897 75 mm field gun battery (4 guns) was manned by highly trained crews of 170 men led by four officers recruited among graduates of engineering schools. Enlisted men from the countryside took care of the six horses that pulled each gun and its first limber. Another six horses pulled each additional limber and caisson which were assigned to each gun. A battery included 160 horses, most of them pulling ammunition as well as repair and supply caissons. |
1796_17 | The French artillery entered the war in August 1914 with more than 4,000 Mle 1897 75 mm field guns (1,000 batteries of four guns each). Over 17,500 Mle 1897 75 mm field guns were produced during World War I, over and above the 4,100 French 75s which were already deployed by the French Army in August 1914. All the essential parts, including the gun's barrel and the oleo-pneumatic recoil mechanisms were manufactured by French State arsenals: Puteaux, Bourges, Châtellerault and St Etienne. A truck-mounted anti-aircraft version of the French 75 was assembled by the automobile firm of De Dion-Bouton and adopted in 1913. |
1796_18 | The total production of 75 mm shells during World War I exceeded 200 million rounds, mostly by private industry. In order to increase shell production from 20,000 rounds per day to 100,000 in 1915, the government turned to civilian contractors, and, as a result, shell quality deteriorated. This led to an epidemic of burst barrels which afflicted 75 mm artillery during 1915. Colonel Sainte-Claire Deville corrected the problem, which was due to microfissures in the bases of the shells, due to shortcuts in manufacturing. Shell quality was restored by September 1915, but never to the full exacting standards of pre-war manufacture. |
1796_19 | The French 75 gave its best performances during the Battle of the Marne in August–September 1914 and at Verdun in 1916. At the time the contribution of 75 mm artillery to these military successes, and thus to the French victories that ensued, was seen as significant. In the case of Verdun, over 1,000 French 75s (250 batteries) were constantly in action, night and day, on the battlefield during a period of nearly nine months. The total consumption of 75 mm shells at Verdun during the period February 21 to September 30, 1916, is documented by the public record at the Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre to have been in excess of 16 million rounds, or nearly 70% of all shells fired by French artillery during that battle. The French 75 was a devastating anti-personnel weapon against waves of infantry attacking in the open, as at the Marne and Verdun. However, its shells were comparatively light and lacked the power to obliterate trench works, concrete bunkers and deeply buried shelters. |
1796_20 | Thus, with time, the French 75 batteries became routinely used to cut corridors with high-explosive shells, across the belts of German barbed wire. After 1916, the 75 batteries became the carriers of choice to deliver toxic gas shells, including mustard gas and phosgene. |
1796_21 | The French Army had to wait until early 1917 to receive in numbers fast-firing heavy artillery equipped with hydraulic recoil brakes (e.g. the 155 mm Schneider howitzer and the long-range Canon de 155mm GPF). In the meantime it had to do with a total of about four thousand de Bange 90 mm, 120 mm and 155 mm field and converted fortress guns, all without recoil brakes, that were effective but inferior in rate of fire to the more modern German heavy artillery.
Interwar service
During the interwar, the French army kept the Mle 1897 in service and it continued to be the main gun of the French field artillery. The surplus guns were soon sold to allied countries.
Upgrades were considered in the 1920s, such as the use of a split trail carriages. The prototypes were satisfactory but the French Army decided not to fund the improvements, choosing instead to develop a new model. That new plan was abandoned after the 1920s budget cuts. |
1796_22 | However, a few Mle 1897 guns were modernized between the wars. The Rif War showed the vulnerability of the crew against snipers during guerilla operations. The roues métalliques DAG, solid metallic wheels, were developed in the late 1920s to offer more protection to the crew, although they were very noisy during movements. They were mostly sent to units serving in the North African colonies. From 1928, the French Army also adopted bogies to enable transport by motor vehicles, such as the Citroën-Kégresse P17. Mounted on the bogies, the guns could be towed at a maximum speed of 30 km/h on the road but the removal of the bogies was complicated. |
1796_23 | A more modern version of the Mle 1897, the Canon de 75 Mle 1897/33, mounted the original barrel and recoil mechanism on a new split-trail carriage. In addition to the new carriage the Mle 1897/33 had a new gun shield, pneumatic tires, sprung suspension, and the wheels "toed in" when the trails were spread. The new carriage offered higher angles of traverse and elevation than the earlier box-trail carriage. However, the Mle 1897/33 was inferior to the new Canon de 105 C Mle 1935 B that used the same carriage, so it was only built in small numbers. A more modest upgrade to the Mle 1897 was the Canon de 75 Mle 1897/38 which was a modernized field artillery variant. The original box-trail carriage was retained but the gun had a new gun shield, sprung suspension and pneumatic tires for motor transport. The 75 Mle 1897 was also considered as a possible anti-tank gun by the French Army, who in 1936 ordered a new circular platform, the plateforme Arbel Mle 1935. Mounted on that platform, |
1796_24 | the Mle 1897 gun could now quickly traverse to engage enemy tanks. |
1796_25 | World War II service
Despite obsolescence brought on by new developments in artillery design, large numbers of 75s were still in use in 1939 (4,500 in the French Army alone), and they eventually found their way into a number of unlikely places. A substantial number had been delivered to Poland in 1919–20, together with infantry ordnance, in order to fight in the Polish-Soviet War. They were known as 75 mm armata wz.1897. In 1939 the Polish army had 1,374 of these guns, making it by far the most numerous artillery piece in Polish service. |
1796_26 | Many were captured by Germany during the Fall of France in 1940, in addition to Polish guns captured in 1939. Over 3,500 were modified with a muzzle brake and mounted on a 5 cm Pak 38 carriage, now named 7.5 cm Pak 97/38 they were used by the Wehrmacht in 1942 as an emergency weapon against the Soviet Union's T-34 and KV tanks. Its relatively low velocity and a lack of modern armor-piercing ammunition limited its effectiveness as an anti-tank weapon. When the German 7.5 cm Pak 40 became available in sufficient numbers, most remaining Pak 97/38 pieces were returned to occupied France to reinforce the Atlantic Wall defenses or were supplied to Axis nations like Romania (PAK 97/38) and Hungary. Non-modified remainders were used as second-line and coastal artillery pieces under the German designation 7.5 cm FK 231(f) and 7,5 cm FK 97(p). The few 60 Mle 1897/33s captured by the Germans were given the designation 7.5 cm K232(f).
British service |
1796_27 | In 1915 Britain acquired a number of "autocanon de 75 mm mle 1913" anti-aircraft guns, as a stopgap measure while it developed its own anti-aircraft alternatives. They were used in the defence of Britain, usually mounted on de Dion motor lorries using the French mounting which the British referred to as the "Breech Trunnion". Britain also purchased a number of the standard 75 mm guns and adapted them for AA use using a Coventry Ordnance Works mounting, the "Centre Trunnion". At the Armistice there were 29 guns in service in Britain. |
1796_28 | In June 1940, with many British field guns lost in the Battle of France, 895 M1897 field guns and a million rounds of ammunition were purchased from the US Army. For political purposes, the sale to the British Purchasing Commission was made through the US Steel Corporation. The basic, unmodified gun was known in British service as "Ordnance, QF, 75mm Mk 1", although many of the guns were issued to units on converted or updated mountings. They were operated by field artillery and anti-tank units. Some of the guns had their wheels and part of their carriages cut away so that they could be mounted on a pedestal called a "Mounting, 75mm Mk 1". These weapons were employed as light coastal artillery and were not declared obsolete until March 1945. |
1796_29 | During World War II through Lend Lease, the British received 170 American half-track M3 Gun Motor Carriage which mounted a 75mm; they used these in Italy and Northern Europe until the end of the war as fire support vehicles in Armoured Car Regiments.
Romanian service |
1796_30 | Romania had a considerable number of World War I guns of 75 mm and 76.2 mm. Some models were modernized at Resita works in 1935 including French md. 1897. The upgrade was made with removable barrels. Several types of guns of close caliber were barreled to use the best ammunition available for 75 mm caliber, explosive projectile model 1917 "Schneider". The new barrel was made of steel alloy with chrome and nickel with excellent mechanical resistance to pressure which allowed, after modifying the firing brake, the recovery arch and the sighting devices an increase of the range from 8.5 km to 11.2 km and a rate of fire of 20 rounds/minute. During World War 2 these guns also used Costinescu 75 mm anti-tank round. These upgraded field guns were used in all infantry divisions in World War II.
US service |
1796_31 | The US Army adopted the French 75 mm field gun during World War I and used it extensively in battle. The US designation of the basic weapon was 75 mm Gun M1897. There were 480 American 75 mm field gun batteries (over 1,900 guns) on the battlefields of France in November 1918. Manufacture of the French 75 by American industry began in the spring of 1918 and quickly built up to an accelerated pace. Carriages were built by Willys-Overland, the hydro-pneumatic recuperators by Singer Manufacturing Company and Rock Island Arsenal, the cannon itself by Symington-Anderson and Wisconsin Gun Company. American industry built 1,050 French 75s during World War I, but only 143 had been shipped to France by 11 November 1918; most American batteries used French-built 75s in action. |
1796_32 | The first US artillery shots in action in World War I were fired by Battery C, 6th Field Artillery on October 23, 1917 with a French 75 named "Bridget" which is preserved today at the United States Army Ordnance Museum. During his service with the American Expeditionary Forces, Captain (and future U.S. President) Harry S. Truman commanded a battery of French 75s. |
1796_33 | By the early 1930s, the only US artillery units that remained horse-drawn were those assigned to infantry and cavalry divisions. During the 1930s, most M1897A2 and A3 (French made) and M1897A4 (American made) guns were subsequently modernized for towing behind trucks by mounting it on the modern carriage M2A3 which featured a split trail, pneumatic rubber tires allowing towing at any speed, an elevation limit increased to 45 degrees, and traverse increased to 30 degrees left and right. Along with new ammunition, these features increased the effective range and allowed the gun to be used as an anti-tank gun, in which form it equipped the first tank destroyer battalions. |
1796_34 | In 1941, these guns began to become surplus when they were gradually being replaced by the M2A1 105 mm M101 split-trail Howitzer; some were removed from their towed carriages and installed on the M3 Half-Track as the M3 Gun Motor Carriage (GMC) tank destroyers. M3 GMCs were used in the Pacific theater during the Battle for the Philippines and by Marine Regimental Weapons Companies until 1944. The M3 GMC also formed the equipment of the early American tank destroyer battalions during operations in North Africa and Italy, and continued in use with the British in Italy and in small numbers in Northern Europe until the end of the war. Many others were used for training until 1942. |
1796_35 | The 75mm M2 and M3 tank guns of the M3 Lee and M4 Sherman Medium tanks, the 75mm M6 tank gun of the M24 Chaffee light tank and the 75mm gun of the -G and -H subtypes of the B-25 Mitchell bomber all used the same ammunition as the M1897. The 75mm Pack Howitzer M1 used the same projectiles fired from a smaller 75x272R case.
Contemporary usage
The Canon de 75 modèle 1897 is still used in France as a saluting gun. When the French Army discarded its 105 HM2 howitzers to replace them with MO-120-RT mortars, only 155mm artillery pieces remained, for which no blank cartridges were available. The Army then recommissioned two Canon de 75 modèle 1897, then located at the Musée de l'Artillerie de Draguignan. They are used for State ceremonies.
Variants and derivatives
Naval and coastal artillery
The French Navy adopted the 75mm modèle 1897 for its coastal batteries and warships |
1796_36 | The 75mm modèle 1897–1915 was placed on SMCA modèle 1925 mountings with a vertical elevation of -10 to +70° and a 360° rotation. This allowed it to be used in an anti-aircraft role.
New 75 mm guns were developed specifically for anti-aircraft use. The '75 mm modèle 1922', '75 mm modèle 1924' and '75 mm modèle 1927' of 50 calibre were developed from the 62.5 calibre '75 mm Schneider modèle 1908' mounted on the Danton-class battleships.
Field artillery
canon de 75 mm mle 1897 à roues métalliques DAG
variant with solid metallic wheels to protect the crew from small arms fire.
canon de 75 mm mle 1897 modifié 1938
motorized artillery variant with wooden wheels replaced by metallic wheels with pneumatic tires, altered shield
Anti-tank |
1796_37 | Canon de 75 mm mle 1897 modifié 1933
split-trail carriage allowing 58° traverse and -6° to +50° elevation. The solid wheels turn with the trails to offer more protection to the crew.
Canon de 75 mm mle 1897 sur plateforme Arbel modèle 1935
version mounted on a circular platform for quick traverse
7.5 cm Pak 97/38
Several thousand captured French guns were modified by the Germans during World War II as makeshift anti-tank guns, by adding a Swiss-designed muzzle brake and mounting it on German-built carriages.
Anti-aircraft
autocanon de 75 mm mle 1913
self-propelled anti-aircraft variant, on De Dion-Bouton chassis using Canon de 75 antiaérien mle 1913-1917.
canon de 75 mm contre-aéroplanes sur plateforme mle 1915
static anti-aircraft variant on rotating platform
canon de 75 mm contre-aéroplanes mle 1917
anti-aircraft variant on 1-axle trailer with stabilizer legs.
See also |
1796_38 | French 75 (cocktail) cocktail named for the gun
QF 18-pounder gun British gun of similar abilities
Notes
References
[Detailed history.] http://www.1939.pl/uzbrojenie/polskie/artyleria/a_75mm_wz97/index.html
External links |
1796_39 | Manual For The Battery Commander. 75-mm Gun. FROM "L'ECOLE DU COMMANDANT DU BATTERIE, I PARTIE, CANON 75", Of THE FRENCH ARTILLERY SCHOOL, OF DECEMBER, 1916, CORRECTED TO MARCH, 1917. Translated to English and republished by US Army War College 1917
Notes on the French 75-mm Gun. US Army War College. October 1917
Range tables for French 75-/mm Gun Model 1897
Firing tables
75 Millimeter Gun Material Model of 1897 M1 (French). Pages 80–93 in "Handbook of artillery : including mobile, anti-aircraft and trench matériel (1920)" United States. Army. Ordnance Dept, May 1920
United States War Department. TM 9-305 Technical Manual 75-MM Gun Matériel, M1897 and Modifications. 31 March 1941
List and pictures of World War I surviving 75 mm Mle 1897 guns
Canon de 75 Modèle 1897
Photos of a reproduction or restored US M1918 limber for the 75 mm gun M1897 with all accoutrements |
1796_40 | World War I guns
World War I field artillery of France
World War I artillery of the United States
75 mm artillery
World War II weapons of France
Articles containing video clips |
1797_0 | Alex Olanov is a fictional character from the long-running ABC soap opera One Life to Live. She was portrayed by Tonja Walker since the character's inception in 1990 to 1997, with appearances in 2001, 2002, 2007, 2009, and 2011 .
Storylines
Arrival
In 1990, federal agent Alex Olanov comes to Llanview, Pennsylvania to help Bo Buchanan find his missing wife Sarah Gordon, presumably kidnapped by mob boss Carlo Hesser. Sarah is later presumed dead in a plane crash, and Alex develops feelings for Bo. When he falls in love with Cassie Callison, Alex becomes obsessed with him. Losing touch with reality, Alex tries to kill Cassie but is ultimately arrested and institutionalized. She later escapes and reappears at Bo and Cassie's wedding with a very-much-alive Sarah in tow, before being taken back to the mental institution. |
1797_1 | Asa and Exit
Alex soon returns in 1992 and becomes the wife of Carlo. When he is murdered, she tries to assume control of his crime syndicate but is ultimately unsuccessful. Alex then pursues billionaire Asa Buchanan, who at first resists but ultimately marries her in a November 1994 Egyptian-themed wedding in Central Park. Alex is elected mayor of Llanview and Carlo turns up alive in 1996, invalidating her marriage to Asa; Carlo and Alex engage in an affair even as she divorces him and remarries Asa on March 29, 1996. They soon divorce, however, once Asa discovers her infidelity with Carlo; as a "pregnant" Alex prepares to remarry Carlo, Asa reveals that she is faking her condition and Carlo breaks off their engagement. |
1797_2 | Carlo is seemingly murdered again in 1996, and Alex is arrested for the crime; hoping to get away with murder, she makes a deal with The Sun publisher Todd Manning, trading her exclusive story for his paying her legal fees. Lawyer Téa Delgado has the charges dropped. After donating bone marrow to Todd's baby daughter Starr Manning, Alex leaves town in July 1997 with a huge chunk of Asa's fortune and a very-much alive Carlo, who reveals that it was actually his twin brother Mortimer whom she killed. |
1797_3 | Returns
In 2001, Asa brings Alex, who had been working as a stripper after Carlo dumped her yet again, back to town under the pretense of wanting to remarry her, but he marries Gabrielle Medina instead. Humiliated just as a vengeful Asa had wanted, Alex leaves Llanview but returns later that year for the reading of Asa's will; fleeing to Asa's private island with his ashes, she discovers a very-much-alive Asa. Alex attempts to blackmail Asa into remarrying her, but he turns the tables on Alex and tricks her into instead marrying a janitor (using Asa'a longtime alias, "Jeb Stuart"). |
1797_4 | In April 2002, Alex, now in the process of divorcing Jeb, returns to Llanview yet again at the behest of Todd Manning, who bribes her into donating bone marrow to his and Blair's ailing infant son Jack, who had been diagnosed with aplastic anemia (the same disease Todd's daughter, Starr, suffered from in 1997 when Alex donated bone marrow to her). After the successful operation, Alex attempts to seduce Bo; realizing he has no interest in her, Alex leaves town once again. |
1797_5 | Alex returns to Llanview in August 2007, this time for Asa's real funeral. She overhears Asa's butler Nigel Bartholomew-Smythe tell Max Holden that David Vickers is secretly Asa's biological son, and takes off to find David. Smelling money, Alex discovers David working at a rehabilitation clinic in November 2007; acting the part of a wealthy widow with a sex addiction, Alex preys upon old acquaintance David's greed to convince him to marry her on November 9, 2007, never mentioning his true parentage. Both David and Alex are playing each other, falsely believing that the other has come into money. Alex and David get married and briefly go back to Llanview; they run into David's ex-wife Dorian Lord at the airport and follow her to the Buchanan ranch in Texas, where Asa's will has been read. Once there, Alex blackmails Nigel with the truth about David; he has her tied up and gagged in the barn. Alex is crushed to discover that David has been left no money, but Nigel gives Alex his own |
1797_6 | inheritance from Asa — Asa's yacht, and the deed to his private resort, St. Blaze's Island — in exchange for her silence. Placated, Alex dumps David unceremoniously and skips town. On her way out, Alex accidentally backs over Dorian with her car. |
1797_7 | Unaware Alex owns St. Blaze's, Dorian vacations there in January 2009 and runs into Alex. When Dorian realizes Alex was the one responsible for her hit-and-run in 2007, she threatens to sue Alex for the accident; in exchange for Dorian's silence, Alex gives her the valuable information that David is Asa's son. Dorian returns to Llanview, leaving Alex relieved. |
1797_8 | Alex reappears in March 2011 when Bo and Rex Balsom go in search of David, whom Clint Buchanan had kidnapped and thrown into a Moroccan prison as revenge for David destroying Clint's marriage. Clint blackmails Alex into moving David from Morocco to St. Blaze's, but Bo and Rex catch wind of the plot and confront her at her island resort. Alex denies any involvement in David's kidnapping, even when Bo and Rex find David in a plush suite at her resort. Alex insists to Bo and Rex that David came to St. Blaze's of his own free will, but the two men disbelieve her lies. After Bo and Rex leave St. Blaze's with a relieved David, Alex contacts Clint and informs him that she did as he asked, then warns him that David is headed back to Llanview with Bo and Rex. |
1797_9 | In November 2011, Alex resurfaces again in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, storming out of the office of plastic surgeon Dr. Fascinella complaining about a botched surgery on her face and encountered con artist Cutter Wentworth, who reveals himself to be the son she abandoned as a child, an act which caused Cutter's father William J. "Billy Joe" Wentworth Jr. to commit suicide and he and his sister (and Alex's daughter) Kimberly Andrews to be placed in foster care. Cutter is so furious upon seeing Alex that he strangles her until being stopped by his companion, an amnesiac who thinks she is Stacy Morasco who had plastic surgery to look like her sister (and Rex's assumed dead love) Gigi Morasco. Cutter and "Stacy" are in Brazil to find her plastic surgeon to reverse the surgery and are both followed by Rex and Cutter's former grifting partner and ex-girlfriend Christine Karr (a.k.a. Aubrey Wentworth, the real name of Cutter's sister which she used when scamming); when they arrive at the |
1797_10 | same office, and after Alex admits to knowing and disliking Rex, Cutter orders Alex to help him and "Stacy" escape without Rex's knowledge and become involved in Cutter's scheme to win her son's forgiveness. Cutter covers Alex's face with a bunch of bandages to fool Rex and Aubrey to believe that she was Gigi after she got her plastic surgery. Cutter wheels out Alex to the waiting room where Rex and Aubrey are there to find Cutter and Gigi's "imposter". Aubrey unties the bandages off Alex's face to reveal herself to Aubrey and Rex. Rex is surprised to see Alex again. Alex lies to him by saying that she teamed up with Cutter to pretend to be Gigi to get her share of the Buchanan fortune with Cutter but did not tell Rex and Aubrey that she was Cutter and Kim's mother. Rex believes Alex and Cutter's story (even though he later revealed to Aubrey that he did not really believed them at all). He tells them he did not want to be like them and already accepted Gigi's death. After Rex and |
1797_11 | Aubrey leave, Alex gives Cutter her business card, telling him to call her anytime he needs her help. Alex wishes Cutter and "Stacy" good luck before she leaves Rio to go back to her home in St. Blaze's Island. |
1797_12 | References
One Life to Live characters
Television characters introduced in 1990
Fictional mayors
Fictional Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel
Female characters in television
Female villains |
1798_0 | Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female Rough Collie dog named Lassie and her companions, both human and animal. The show was the creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12, 1954, to March 25, 1973. The sixth longest-running U.S. primetime television series after The Simpsons, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Gunsmoke, Law & Order and Family Guy, the show ran for 17 seasons on CBS before entering first-run syndication for its final two seasons. Initially filmed in black and white, the show transitioned to color in 1965. |
1798_1 | The show's first 10 seasons follow Lassie's adventures living on a farm. 11-year-old Jeff Miller, his mother Ellen, and his grandfather are Lassie's first human companions until seven-year-old Timmy Martin and his adoptive parents take over in the fourth season. When Lassie's exploits on the farm end in the 11th season, she finds new adventures in the wilderness alongside United States Forest Service Rangers. After traveling on her own for a year, Lassie settles at a children's home for her final two syndicated seasons. |
1798_2 | Lassie received critical favor at its debut and won two Emmy Awards in its first years. Stars Jan Clayton and June Lockhart were nominated for Emmys. Merchandise produced during the show's run included books, a Halloween costume, clothing, toys, and other items. Campbell's Soup, the show's lifelong sponsor, offered two premiums (a ring and a wallet), and distributed thousands to fans. A multi-part episode was edited into the feature film Lassie's Great Adventure and released in August 1963. Selected episodes have been released to DVD.
Production |
1798_3 | Concept and development
Between 1943 and 1951, fictional collie Lassie was the inspiration for seven feature films produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. With completion of the seventh film in 1951, MGM planned no further films for the Lassie character or Pal, the male dog actor who portrayed Lassie. In lieu of $40,000 back pay owed him by MGM, Pal's owner and trainer Rudd Weatherwax was given all rights to the Lassie trademark and name. Weatherwax and Pal, appearing as Lassie, began to perform at county fairs, carnivals, rodeos, and other venues. |
1798_4 | Needing material for the relatively new medium of television, producer Robert Maxwell sold Weatherwax on the concept of a Lassie television series with a boy and his dog theme. The two men developed a scenario about a struggling war widow, her young son, and her father-in-law set on a weather-beaten, modern-day American farm. Two pilots were filmed in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with the first ("Inheritance") telling the story of the bond forged between boy and dog, and the second ("The Well") filmed to give potential sponsors and network buyers an idea of a typical episode. After viewing the pilots, CBS put the show on its fall 1954 schedule. Campbell's Soup Company signed on early as the show's sole sponsor and remained so for the show's entire 19 season run. Filming for the series began in the summer of 1954, and Lassie made its début Sunday, September 12, 1954, at 7:00 p.m. EST, a time slot the show would call home on CBS for the next seventeen years. |
1798_5 | In 1957, Jack Wrather, owner of the hit television series The Lone Ranger and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon purchased all rights to the Lassie television show for $3.25 million, and guided the show through its next several seasons. As 1964 and the show's eleventh season approached, the decision was made to completely rework the show; the boy and his dog theme was dropped and Lassie was teamed with a succession of United States Forest Service workers. The show focused on conservation and environmentalism, but its relevance in a time of social change was questioned. The show began a steady decline in ratings. In 1971, new rulings regarding network prime time scheduling were handed down from the Federal Communications Commission, and CBS canceled the show. Lassie then entered first-run syndication for two seasons before televising its last new episode on Sunday March 25, 1973.
Casting |
1798_6 | The show's title character was portrayed in the two pilots by Pal, the MGM Lassie. Thereafter, five of Pal's male descendants played the role. His son Lassie Junior performed through the Jeff years and first two Timmy years before retiring in 1959 to battle cancer. Though he recovered, Lassie Junior never worked the show again. His son Spook was rushed into the series while his brother Baby was in training for the role. Spook was inadequately prepared and never became comfortable on the set after an overhead light crashed to the floor on his first day. Weatherwax, however, coaxed a natural and seemingly confident performance from the nervous dog, and some regard Spook's portrayal as Weatherwax's finest work. Spook played the role in the spring and fall of 1960. Baby, son of Lassie Junior and brother to Spook, worked the show for six years. He appeared in the last Timmy years, and two of the Forest Service seasons. Baby died at just eight years of age, the only Lassie not to live at |
1798_7 | least seventeen years. He was followed in the role by Mire who played Lassie for five years. He portrayed the fictional collie in the syndicated seasons. |
1798_8 | Broadway star and quiz show panelist Jan Clayton was hired to play farm widow Ellen Miller with septuagenarian George Cleveland playing her father-in-law, George "Gramps" Miller. Child actor Tommy Rettig was hired to portray Ellen's eleven-year-old son Jeff Miller, and Donald Keeler (the professional name used at the time by Joey D. Vieira) was cast as Jeff's friend, Sylvester "Porky" Brockway. Porky's basset hound Pokey became a recurring animal character through the first several seasons. |
1798_9 | In 1957, both Clayton and Rettig wanted to leave the show. Producers decided to find a new boy and ease the Miller family out of the show. Two hundred boys were interviewed, and six-year-old film veteran Jon Provost was hired and made his début as Timmy in the fourth season opener, "The Runaway." In July 1957, George Cleveland died suddenly, and producers were forced to overhaul the entire show. The plot was extensively reworked, and Clayton and Rettig were completely dropped. Cloris Leachman and Jon Shepodd were quickly hired as Timmy's foster parents Ruth and Paul Martin. In the fourth season, George Chandler was hired to play Petrie Martin, Paul's uncle, but the character was later dropped. As fourth season shooting progressed, Leachman grew unhappy playing a somber farm woman, feuded on-set with co-workers and proved unpopular with viewers, which caused ratings to drop. When filming was completed for the 1957–58 season in February 1958, Wrather severed ties with producer Maxwell |
1798_10 | and dropped Leachman and Shepodd. Film veteran June Lockhart and Broadway stage star Hugh Reilly replaced Leachman and Sheppod as Ruth and Paul Martin at the top of the fifth season. Todd Ferrell played Timmy's friend Ralph "Boomer" Bates, a recurring character with his dog Mike, but both were dropped in 1959. |
1798_11 | Former Keystone Kop Andy Clyde, also a co-star of The Real McCoys, became a regular in 1959 as neighbor Cully Wilson.
Guest stars during the Timmy years included "The Lone Ranger", baseball player Roy Campanella, Olympian Rafer Johnson, Stacy Keach Sr., Marie Windsor, Dick Foran, Tod Griffin, Jane Darwell, Denver Pyle, Fuzzy Knight, Harry Carey, Jr., William Schallert, Stephen Talbot, Ellen Corby, and Karl Swenson.
During its first four years, Lassie received very decent ratings. However, at the end of the 1958–1959 season, the ratings had fallen from the top 30, likely due to the constant turnover in the cast. Once viewers began to warm to Lockhart and Reilly as Timmy's parents, the Martin family was accepted and embraced by the public. As a result, between 1960 and 1964, Lassies ratings greatly improved and by the spring of 1964, it received its highest rating ever, ranking at #13. |
1798_12 | In 1964, Provost declined to renew his contract. Producers decided to broaden the show's demographics to appeal to older viewers, and, to that end, dropped the boy and his dog theme for a plot featuring a Forest Service Ranger. Robert Bray, a former Marine and Gary Cooper look-alike was cast as Corey Stuart. During Bray's first year, the show transitioned to color filming and spectacular scenic locations across America were exploited as settings for the show. Eventually, Bray's long battle with alcoholism forced him from the show, and Jack De Mave and Jed Allan were hired to replace him. |
1798_13 | Guest stars during the Ranger years included Ken Osmond, Paul Petersen, Suzanne Somers, Victor French, Leo Gordon, and Morgan Brittany. When the Forest Service years came to an end, Lassie wandered the country on her own for a season then settled at the Holden ranch for her final two syndicated seasons with costars Ron Hayes, Larry Pennell, Skip Burton, Larry Wilcox, Sherry Boucher, and Pamelyn Ferdin.
Narration
Wrather's wife, Bonita Granville Wrather, who was the series' associate producer, narrated numerous episodes throughout the run of the series, usually the beginning and/or ending of multi-part episodes.
Writers
Many early episodes were written by Robert Maxwell under the pseudonym Claire Kennedy. In later years, the writing partnership of Robert Schaefer and Eric Freiwald was responsible for over 150 episodes. They were also responsible for developing the idea of having Lassie with a forest ranger. |
1798_14 | Novelist Inez Asher was among those who wrote for the series, while other scripts were produced by writers blacklisted during the heyday of McCarthyism and the House Un-American Activities Committee. These writers included Robert Lees (credited as J. E. Selby) and Adrian Scott, one of the Hollywood Ten who went to prison for contempt of the United States Congress. His wife, Joan Scott writing as Joanne Court, attended story conferences and gave her husband notes so he could do rewrites.
Filming
The show's first studio was Stage One of KTTV in Los Angeles, California, with the production moving to Desilu in 1957. Franklin Canyon Reservoir and Vasquez Rocks saw location shootings. During the Timmy seasons, episodes were filmed at the Grand Canyon and in the High Sierra, and, during the Forest Service seasons, the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior offered Alaska, Puerto Rico, the Washington Monument and other sites for location shoots. |
1798_15 | Fifteen pages were filmed per day, six days a week, with three shows completed per week. Shooting in order was not possible. Several barn segments might be filmed at a particular time with the crew then moving on to film an equal number of kitchen scenes. The shots may have then been used in four or five different episodes. Rettig was allowed to bond with the dog and often groomed the dog at the studio or spent weekends at Weatherwax's home playing with the animal. The bond translated to film, making the boy and dog scenes more believable, but, eventually the dog developed divided loyalties (looking to Rettig for direction rather than Weatherwax) and the trainer was forced to curtail the amount of time boy and dog spent together. |
1798_16 | Typically, there were two dog trainers on the set, each teetering on a stepladder only Lassie could see and waving a chunk of meat at the dog. "It would look as though Lassie was looking at Jon (Provost), but he was really looking past Jon at the piece of beef", Lockhart recalled in 2004. When Provost delivered his line, the trainer behind Lockhart would whisper "Lassie!" and wave another piece of meat. Lassie's head would turn to Lockhart who would deliver her line. Then the trainer behind Provost would get Lassie's attention again, and Provost would deliver his next line. "The sound editor would cut out all that," Lockhart said, "You finally got to where you never heard the trainers. Often, if the scene had gone well, and maybe we hadn't gotten the dialogue quite right, if the dog was right, they'd print it." In addition to the main Lassie, three other Lassies might be involved in an episode shoot: a stand-in for rehearsals, a stunt double, and a "fighter" for scenes involving |
1798_17 | battles with other animals. |
1798_18 | Theme music
Lassie used several pieces of theme music during its long broadcast history. For the first season, "Secret of the Silent Hills (Theme from the Lassie TV series)", is used for both the opening and ending theme. Composed by William Lava, the orchestral theme was originally created for the 1940 radio show The Courageous Dr. Christian. |
1798_19 | For the second and third season a variation of this theme, titled simply "Lassie Main & End Title", was used for the opening and ending theme. Raoul Kraushaar, the music director for the series, is the listed composer for the theme; however the changes he made to the original are so slight that only a trained ear can tell the difference. The third theme used for the series is an orchestral rendition of the aria, "Dio Possente" (Even Bravest Hearts May Swell) from Charles Gounod's opera, Faust. The exact time this theme started being used is uncertain due to conflicting records; however it is agreed that it was the third series, and was used for at least part of season four for the change of ownership of Lassie. |
1798_20 | The most famous of the Lassie theme songs appeared at the start of the fifth season. Copyrighted as "Lassie Main & End Title", the song was created by Les Baxter, with the whistling itself performed by Muzzy Marcellino. Nicknamed "The Whistler," it remained the series theme for the rest of the "Martin years". With the coming of the "Ranger years", the opening and ending theme was changed to an orchestral version of "The Whistler". With the coming of the "Alone" years, and continuing throughout the ranch/Holden family years the theme was changed again, this time to Nathan Scott's arrangement of the traditional folk tune Greensleeves, which become the series theme song for the rest of its run. For the final two seasons, the familiar closing visual of Lassie standing on a hill and lifting her paw, was replaced by the credits on a green background, and flashing from one slate to the other instead of scrolling as in most of the series run. Television composer Nathan Scott scored the |
1798_21 | music to nearly every episode between 1963 and 1973, except for four episodes. |
1798_22 | Sponsor
Campbell's Soup Company sponsored the entire nineteen-year run of Lassie. In one of the first instances of product placement, the company asked that their products be visible on the set and so, in episode after episode, Campbell's products are seen in background shots. Campbell's also contractually required the show's stars to avoid appearing in any film or theatrical production that undermined their All-American images. |
1798_23 | In 1956, the company held a "Name Lassie's Puppies" contest with the grand prizes being Lassie's pups and $2,000. Company executives hand-delivered puppies to the winner's homes. In 1958, for twenty-five cents and a label from a Swanson's frozen dinner, viewers could receive a Lassie portrait friendship ring based on one that Uncle Petrie fashions for Timmy. The company mailed 77,715 rings to viewers. In 1959, the company offered a wallet "made of rich brown plastic" emblazoned with a picture of Lassie; 1,343,509 wallets were mailed to viewers who sent in five different labels from Campbell products. The labels represented 6.5 million cans of Campbell's products sold. Campbell's paid the Wrather Company $7 million a year to air its commercials. The soup company's profits rose seventy percent over its pre-Lassie days. |
1798_24 | Lassie was spokesdog for Recipe Dog Food, a Campbell's product introduced in 1969, which was reportedly based on the homemade stew mixture Weatherwax prepared for Lassie. Printed advertisements for the product announced, "Now all dogs can come home to the dinner Lassie comes home to." In its first year, Recipe earned $10 million for Campbell's, and, in its third year, $40 million. To help boost sales, Campbell's paid Weatherwax to write a dog-training manual called The Lassie Method which the company used as a premium offer.
Plot and themes |
1798_25 | Plots during the first 10 "boy and his dog" seasons were similar: the boy (Jeff or Timmy) got into some sort of trouble. Lassie then dashed off to get help or rushed in to save her master's life herself. After being reunited with family and breathing a sigh of relief, the boy received a light lecture on why he should not have done what he had done. In 2004, June Lockhart described the show as "...a fairy tale about people on a farm in which the dog solves all the problems in 22 minutes, in time for the last commercial." |
1798_26 | Two Timmy and Lassie episodes launched Campbell's Soup premiums, while two others promoted a UNICEF Halloween project and the Peace Patrol, a children's savings bond program spearheaded by Lassie and The Lone Ranger. The same seasons saw several Christmas episodes, while conservation and environmentalism were brought center stage. Some scripts dealt with race and ethnicity with both Jeff and Timmy championing Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian Americans. Aging Americans were presented in a positive light during the years when Andy Clyde was featured as Martin family friend/neighbor Cully Wilson. |
1798_27 | Seasons 11–16 were the "Ranger years" of the series, as Lassie (because she was not able to go to Australia with the Martins when Paul got a job teaching agriculture there) was taken in by U.S. Forest Ranger Corey Stuart (who appeared in a few episodes of season 10) and began to work with the U.S. Forest Service. Color filming was exploited during the Ranger years with Lassie and her friends sent to exotic locations such as Sequoia National Forest and Monument Valley, creating miniature travelogues for viewers. Other rangers would be featured during the latter part of this era when Robert Bray (who played Stuart) left the series.
For season 17, the program shifted gears again and became somewhat of an anthology series, with Lassie traveling on her own, getting into different adventures each week (similar in format to The Littlest Hobo). No explanation was given as to why Lassie was no longer with the Forest Service. Some episodes during this final CBS season were animals-only. |
1798_28 | During seasons 18 and 19 (with the series having moved to first run syndication), Lassie was taken in by Garth Holden (played by Ron Hayes) who was in charge of the Holden Ranch – a home for orphaned boys – which he ran with his college-age son and his friend. This (somewhat) brought the show back to its roots by giving Lassie a farm/ranch home base, which is where she settled in for the final two years of the series. |
1798_29 | Lassie themes explored the relationship between boys and their dogs with the show helping to shape the viewer's understanding of mid-twentieth century American boyhood. Lassie was associated with the wholesome family values of its period but some parents' groups monitoring television content found cliffhanger plots showing children in danger too intense for very young viewers and objected to some of Timmy's actions which were believed to encourage children to disobey parents. However, Lassie was consistently depicted as caring, nurturing, and responsible with a commitment to family and community, often rescuing those in peril and righting wrongs. She was the perfect 'mother' within the American ideology of the 1950s and 1960s.
Characters and cast
Human leads |
1798_30 | 1954–1957: Miller Family (Jeff's Collie)
Ellen Miller – war-widowed farm woman (Jan Clayton)
Jeff Miller – Ellen's eleven-year-old son (Tommy Rettig)
George "Gramps" Miller – Ellen's father-in-law and Jeff's paternal grandfather (George Cleveland)
Sylvester "Porky" Brockway – a farm boy and Jeff's friend (Joey D. Vieira – using the stage name "Donald Keeler") |
1798_31 | 1957–1964: Martin Family (Timmy & Lassie)
Timmy Martin – a foster boy on the Miller farm (Jon Provost)
Paul Martin – a young farmer, Ruth's husband and Timmy's adoptive father (Jon Shepodd 1957–1958; Hugh Reilly 1958–1964)
Ruth Martin – Paul's wife and Timmy's adoptive mother (Cloris Leachman 1957–1958; June Lockhart 1958–1964)
Petrie J. Martin – Paul's uncle (George Chandler) (1957–1959)
Cully Wilson – a neighbor of the Martins, who was a farmer and nature lover (Andy Clyde) (1959–1964)
Ralph "Boomer" Bates – a neighbor of the Martins who owned a dog named Mike and was Timmy's best friend (Todd Ferrell) (1958–1959)
1964–1970: U.S. Forest Service
Forest Ranger Corey Stuart (Robert Bray) (1964–1968)
Forest Ranger Bob Erickson (Jack De Mave) (1968–1970)
Forest Ranger Scott Turner (Jed Allan) (1968–1970)
1970–1971: Traveling on her own
No human leads |
1798_32 | 1971–1973: Holden Ranch
Garth Holden – director of the Holden Ranch (Ron Hayes)
Ron Holden – Garth's son (Skip Burton)
Dale Mitchell – Ron's friend (Larry Wilcox)
Keith Holden – Garth's brother (Larry Pennell)
Lucy Baker – a deaf child living near the Holden Ranch (Pamelyn Ferdin)
Dog actors as Lassie
Pal (Pilot episodes)
Lassie Junior (1954–1959)
Spook (1960)
Baby (1960–1966)
Mire (1966–1971)
Hey Hey (1971–1973)
Media information |
1798_33 | Broadcast history
First-run Lassie was televised September 12, 1954 to March 24, 1973 with its first 17 seasons airing on CBS Sundays at 7:00 p.m. EST. In 1971, in order to promote community-related programming among local affiliates, the Federal Communications Commission moved primetime Sundays to 8:00 P.M. EST with the institution of the Prime Time Access Rule. CBS executives felt Lassie would not be well received in a time slot other than its traditional 7:00 p.m. slot, and, with the network's other family programs set, the show was canceled. (Lassie was among several shows that CBS canceled during this time period as part of a change in its target demographics.) Lassie then entered first-run syndication with Jack Wrather and Campbell's Soup still on board, and remained on the air for another two years with its final episode airing in March 1973. All totaled, 591 episodes were produced. |
1798_34 | An animated reworking, Lassie's Rescue Rangers, followed in fall 1973, immediately after the original series ended (the pilot movie aired in 1972 while the live-action series was still on the air). Lassie's Rescue Rangers was denounced by both Weatherwax and the National Association of Broadcasters, the latter of which made note of the animated series' "violence, crime and stupidity."
The Miller years were sold into syndication in 1958 under the title of Jeff's Collie. In rerun syndication, the Martin family episodes aired under the title of Timmy & Lassie. Re-runs of the series aired on Nickelodeon from 1984 until 1996.
Later series
While the original series had no direct spinoffs, a few subsequent productions would use the Lassie character.
In 1973, ABC created an animated Saturday-morning animated program called Lassie's Rescue Rangers produced by Filmation. |
1798_35 | In 1989, what was essentially a sequel series, The New Lassie – featuring Jon Provost as Steve McCullough – aired in first-run syndication. In its seventh episode ("Roots"), June Lockhart reprised her Ruth Martin role when Steve McCullough is revealed to be the adult Timmy Martin. It is revealed that Timmy was never properly adopted by the Martins and consequently was forced to remain in the U.S. when Ruth and Paul emigrated to Australia. Timmy was then subsequently adopted by the McCullough family and began going by his middle name Steven. In 1992, Tommy Rettig made a guest appearance in the final episode, "The Computer Study". This would be his last television appearance prior to his death in 1996. |
1798_36 | In 1997, a modified remake – also called Lassie – debuted, airing in the U.S. on the then new Animal Planet cable network. This show (which was filmed in Canada and set in Vermont) also revolved around a boy named Timmy and his dog, though differences in setting and character circumstances precluded it from being an exact remake of the original series. |
1798_37 | Feature film |
1798_38 | During Thanksgiving week 1962, a five-part color episode called "The Journey". was filmed in the High Sierra. First telecast in February and March 1963, the episode follows Timmy and Lassie, as the two are swept away in a carnival hot air balloon that eventually comes to rest in the Canadian wilderness. The voyagers face many perils before being rescued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Richard Simmons, star of another Jack Wrather property, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, made an appearance, while Lassie star Jon Provost performed whitewater stunts. Lassie sponsor Campbell's Soup objected to multi-part episodes, believing viewers would not want to tune in week after week to find out what happened from one segment to the next, but three of the five segments of "The Journey" hit the Nielsen top ten for the weeks in which they aired. The five segments were later edited into a feature-length film and released in August 1963 through 20th Century Fox as Lassie's Great Adventure. |
1798_39 | DVD releases
The series was released to DVD between 2001–2007.
Comics
The TV series was adapted into a comic book by Dan Spiegle, distributed by Gold Key Comics.
Reception
Ratings
Every year of its 17-year run on CBS, Lassie placed first in its time slot, Sunday 7:00 P.M. EST, and often ranked among the top 25 shows on television. The show's highest ranking years in the Nielsen ratings were the Martin years when the show placed #24 in 1957, #22 in 1958, #15 in 1959, #15 in 1961, #21 in 1962, #13 in 1963, and #17 in 1964. The only Martin year Lassie did not climb into the top twenty-five was 1960, when it ran opposite Walt Disney Presents on ABC and Shirley Temple Theater on NBC. However, Lassie still ran opposite Disney when the Disney anthology television series moved to NBC in 1961, and still managed to climb into the Top 25. With the advent of the Forest Service seasons, the show began a steady decline in ratings. |
1798_40 | From 1959 through 1967 (with the exception of 1963), the show was regularly pre-empted by CBS's annual two-hour fall telecast of The Wizard of Oz, which was always shown on a Sunday from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. E.S.T. Because the 1939 film always drew such a huge TV audience, CBS's Nielsen ratings in the 7:00 P.M. time slot remained high. Lassie did not even place in the top 30 once the annual telecast of Oz was on NBC Sunday opposite the show from 1969 to 1971.
Awards and honors
(All awards listed given during the time of, or specifically related to the TV series)
Two-time Emmy Award winner for Best Children's Program (1955, 1956)
1956 Peabody Award
Three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Lassie – 1960, June Lockhart – 1960 for television, Jon Provost – 1994)
1967 U.S. Department of Agriculture Conservation Award (awarded to Lassie for promoting conservation during the series' Forest Service era)
Timmy Martin's shirt, jeans, and Keds displayed at the Smithsonian Institution |
1798_41 | Cultural impact
In 1960, the Lassie character became one of only three live canine characters to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Jon Provost's Keds sneakers are in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution.
Lassie and the show's stars have appeared on the covers of Parade, Life, Look, and TV Guide.
Ancillary merchandise produced during the show's first-run includes Halloween costumes, Viewmaster reels, comic books, and other items. In 2005, Karen Pfeiffer released The Legacy of Lassie: An Unauthorized Information and Price Guide on Lassie Collectibles (). |
1798_42 | In 1967, in conjunction with Lassie's association with the United States Forest Service and environmentalism, Lassie was welcomed to the White House by Lady Bird Johnson. In January 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed into a law a bill targeting soil and water pollution that many called "the Lassie program". Lassie and her sponsors were honored with a luncheon in the Senate Dining Room on March 19, 1968, and presented with a plaque by senators Edmund Muskie and George Murphy, recognizing their commitment to the environment.
Jon Provost called his autobiography Timmy's in the Well! because a well was the one place Timmy never fell into—abandoned mine shafts, off cliffs, into rivers, lakes, and quicksand, but never a well. |
1798_43 | Mad parodied the show as "Lizzy", where it was revealed that the collie was actually a circus midget in a dog suit, while the real Lizzy was a dimwitted mutt.
In an episode of The Flintstones ("Dino Goes Hollyrock"), the character Dino wins an appearance on the smash hit TV show "Sassie" starring a heavily made-up and snobby girl dinosaur and her Lassie-like adventures.
Belgian comics artist Willy Vandersteen created his own version of the TV show with a collie named Bessy in 1954. Apart from the fact that his comic strip starred the same dog breed with a similar name, it had little to do with the series overall, since the comic was a Western comic.
References
Notes
Footnotes
Works cited
Bibliography
External links
Lassie's official website
Lassie's Twitter page |
1798_44 | 1954 American television series debuts
1973 American television series endings
1950s American children's television series
1960s American children's television series
1970s American children's television series
American children's adventure television series
American children's drama television series
Black-and-white American television shows
Emmy Award-winning programs
English-language television shows
First-run syndicated television programs in the United States
Lassie television series
Peabody Award-winning television programs
Super Bowl lead-out shows
Television shows based on American novels
Television shows based on British novels
Television series about families
Television shows set in California
Television shows about dogs
Television series by Universal Television
CBS original programming
Television shows adapted into films
Television shows adapted into comics |
1799_0 | Split-brain or callosal syndrome is a type of disconnection syndrome when the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres of the brain is severed to some degree. It is an association of symptoms produced by disruption of, or interference with, the connection between the hemispheres of the brain. The surgical operation to produce this condition (corpus callosotomy) involves transection of the corpus callosum, and is usually a last resort to treat refractory epilepsy. Initially, partial callosotomies are performed; if this operation does not succeed, a complete callosotomy is performed to mitigate the risk of accidental physical injury by reducing the severity and violence of epileptic seizures. Before using callosotomies, epilepsy is instead treated through pharmaceutical means. After surgery, neuropsychological assessments are often performed. |
1799_1 | After the right and left brain are separated, each hemisphere will have its own separate perception, concepts, and impulses to act. Having two "brains" in one body can create some interesting dilemmas. When one split-brain patient dressed himself, he sometimes pulled his pants up with one hand (that side of his brain wanted to get dressed) and down with the other (this side did not). He also reported to have grabbed his wife with his left hand and shaken her violently, at which point his right hand came to her aid and grabbed the aggressive left hand. However, such conflicts are very rare. If a conflict arises, one hemisphere usually overrides the other. |
1799_2 | When split-brain patients are shown an image only in the left half of each eye's visual field, they cannot vocally name what they have seen. This is because the image seen in the left visual field is sent only to the right side of the brain (see optic tract), and most people's speech-control center is on the left side of the brain. Communication between the two sides is inhibited, so the patient cannot say out loud the name of that which the right side of the brain is seeing. A similar effect occurs if a split-brain patient touches an object with only the left hand while receiving no visual cues in the right visual field; the patient will be unable to name the object, as each cerebral hemisphere of the primary somatosensory cortex only contains a tactile representation of the opposite side of the body. If the speech-control center is on the right side of the brain, the same effect can be achieved by presenting the image or object to only the right visual field or hand. |
1799_3 | The same effect occurs for visual pairs and reasoning. For example, a patient with split brain is shown a picture of a chicken foot and a snowy field in separate visual fields and asked to choose from a list of words the best association with the pictures. The patient would choose a chicken to associate with the chicken foot and a shovel to associate with the snow; however, when asked to reason why the patient chose the shovel, the response would relate to the chicken (e.g. "the shovel is for cleaning out the chicken coop").
History |
1799_4 | In the 1950s, research on people with certain brain injuries made it possible to suspect that the "language center" in the brain was commonly located in the left hemisphere. One had observed that people with lesions in two specific areas on the left hemisphere lost their ability to talk, for example. Roger Sperry and his colleague pioneered research. In his early work on animal subjects, Sperry made many noteworthy discoveries. The results of these studies over the next thirty years later led to Roger Sperry being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1981. Sperry received the prize for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. With the help of so-called "split brain" patients, he carried out experiments, and for the first time in history, knowledge about the left and right hemispheres was revealed. In the 1960s, Sperry was joined by Michael Gazzaniga, a psychobiology Ph.D. student at Caltech. Even though Sperry is |
1799_5 | considered the founder of split-brain research, Gazzaniga's clear summaries of their collaborative work are consistently cited in psychology texts. In Sperry and Gazzaniga's "The Split Brain in Man" experiment published in Scientific American in 1967 they attempted to explore the extent to which two halves of the human brain were able to function independently and whether or not they had separate and unique abilities. They wanted to examine how perceptual and intellectual skills were affected in someone with a split-brain. At Caltech, Gazzaniga worked with Sperry on the effects of split-brain surgery on perception, vision and other brain functions. The surgery, which was a treatment for severe epilepsy, involved severing the corpus callosum, which carries signals between the left-brain hemisphere, the seat of speech and analytical capacity, and the right-brain hemisphere, which helps recognize visual patterns. At the time this article was written, only ten patients had undergone the |
1799_6 | surgery to sever their corpus callosum (corpus callosotomy). Four of these patients had consented to participate in Sperry and Gazzaniga's research. After the corpus callosum severing, all four participants' personality, intelligence, and emotions appeared to be unaffected. However, the testing done by Sperry and Gazzaniga showed the subjects demonstrated unusual mental abilities. The researchers created three types of tests to analyze the range of cognitive capabilities of the split-brain subjects. The first was to test their visual stimulation abilities, the second test was a tactile stimulation situation and the third was a test mixing the previous first and second test . |
1799_7 | Visual test |
1799_8 | The first test started with a board that had a horizontal row of lights. The subject was told to sit in front of the board and stare at a point in the middle of the lights, then the bulbs would flash across both the right and left visual fields. When the patients were asked to describe afterward what they saw, they said that only the lights on the right side of the board had lit up. Next, when Sperry and Gazzaniga flashed the lights on the right side of the board on the subjects left side of their visual field, they claimed not to have seen any lights at all. When the experimenters conducted the test again, they asked the subjects to point to the lights that lit up. Although subjects had only reported seeing the lights flash on the right, they actually pointed to all the lights in both visual fields. This showed that both brain hemispheres had seen the lights and were equally competent in visual perception. The subjects did not say they saw the lights when they flashed in the left |
1799_9 | visual field even though they did see them because the center for speech is located in the brain's left hemisphere. This test supports the idea that in order to say one has seen something, the region of the brain associated with speech must be able to communicate with areas of the brain that process the visual information. |
1799_10 | Tactile test
In a second experiment, Sperry and Gazzaniga placed a small object in the subject's right or left hand, without being able to see (or hear) it. Placed in the right hand, the isolated left hemisphere perceived the object and could easily describe and name it. However, placed in the left hand, the isolated right hemisphere could not name or describe the object. Questioning this result, the researchers found that the subjects could later match it from several similar objects; tactile sensations limited to the right hemisphere were accurately perceived but could not be verbalized. This further demonstrated the apparent location (or lateralization) of language functions in the left hemisphere.
Combination of both tests |
1799_11 | In the last test the experimenters combined both the tactile and visual test. They presented subjects with a picture of an object to only their right hemisphere, and subjects were unable to name it or describe it. There were no verbal responses to the picture at all. If the subject however was able to reach under the screen with their left hand to touch various objects, they were able to pick the one that had been shown in the picture. The subjects were also reported to be able to pick out objects that were related to the picture presented, if that object was not under the screen. |
1799_12 | Sperry and Gazzaniga went on to conduct other tests to shed light on the language processing abilities of the right hemisphere as well as auditory and emotional reactions as well. The significance of the findings of these tests by Sperry and Gazzaniga were extremely telling and important to the psychology world. Their findings showed that the two halves of the brain have numerous functions and specialized skills. They concluded that each hemisphere really has its own functions. One's left hemisphere of the brain is thought to be better at writing, speaking, mathematical calculation, reading, and is the primary area for language. The right hemisphere is seen to possess capabilities for problem solving, recognizing faces, symbolic reasoning, art, and spatial relationships. |
1799_13 | Roger Sperry continued this line of research up until his death in 1994. Michael Gazzaniga continues to research the split-brain. Their findings have been rarely critiqued and disputed, however, a popular belief that some people are more "right-brained" or "left-brained" has developed. In the mid-1980s Jarre Levy, a psychobiologist at the University of Chicago, had set out and been in the forefront of scientists who wanted to dispel the notion we have two functioning brains. She believes that because each hemisphere has separate functions that they must integrate their abilities instead of separating them. Levy also claims that no human activity uses only one side of the brain. In 1998 a French study by Hommet and Billiard was published that questioned Sperry and Gazzaniga's study that severing the corpus callosum actually divides the hemispheres of the brain. They found that children born without a corpus callosum demonstrated that information was being transmitted between |
1799_14 | hemispheres, and concluded that subcortical connections must be present in these children with this rare brain malformation. They are unclear about whether these connections are present in split-brain patients though. Another study by Parsons, Gabrieli, Phelps, and Gazzaniga in 1998 demonstrated that split-brain patients may commonly perceive the world differently from the rest of us. Their study suggested that communication between brain hemispheres is necessary for imaging or simulating in your mind the movements of others. Morin's research on inner speech in 2001 suggested that an alternative for interpretation of commissurotomy according to which split-brain patients exhibit two uneven streams of self-awareness: a "complete" one in the left hemisphere and a "primitive" one in the right hemisphere. |
1799_15 | Hemispheric specialization |
1799_16 | The two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex are linked by the corpus callosum, through which they communicate and coordinate actions and decisions. Communication and coordination between the two hemispheres is essential because each hemisphere has some separate functions. The right hemisphere of the cortex excels at nonverbal and spatial tasks, whereas the left hemisphere is more dominant in verbal tasks, such as speaking and writing. The right hemisphere controls the primary sensory functions of the left side of the body. In a cognitive sense the right hemisphere is responsible for recognizing objects and timing, and in an emotional sense it is responsible for empathy, humour and depression. On the other hand, the left hemisphere controls the primary sensory functions of the right side of the body and is responsible for scientific and maths skills, and logic. The extent of specialised brain function by an area remains under investigation. It is claimed that the difference between the |
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