title: Cappadocia

text: Cappadocia was known as Hatti in the late Bronze Age, and was the homeland of the Hittite power centred at Hattusa. After the fall of the Hittite Empire, with the decline of the Syro-Cappadocians (Mushki) after their defeat by the Lydian king Croesus in the 6th century BC, Cappadocia was ruled by a sort of feudal aristocracy, dwelling in strong castles and keeping the peasants in a servile condition, which later made them apt to foreign slavery. It was included in the third Persian satrapy in the division established by Darius but continued to be governed by rulers of its own, none apparently supreme over the whole country and all more or less tributaries of the Great King.


title: Cappadocia

text: After ending the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great tried to rule the area through one of his military commanders. But Ariarathes, previously satrap of the region, declared himself king of the Cappadocians. As Ariarathes I (332–322 BC), he was a successful ruler, and he extended the borders of the Cappadocian Kingdom as far as to the Black Sea. The kingdom of Cappadocia lived in peace until the death of Alexander. The previous empire was then divided into many parts, and Cappadocia fell to Eumenes. His claims were made good in 322 BC by the regent Perdiccas, who crucified Ariarathes; but in the dissensions which brought about Eumenes's death, Ariarathes II, the adopted son of Ariarathes I, recovered his inheritance and left it to a line of successors, who mostly bore the name of the founder of the dynasty.


title: Cappadocia

text: Persian colonists in the Cappadocian kingdom, cut off from their co-religionists in Iran proper, continued to practice Zoroastrianism. Strabo, observing them in the first century BC, records (XV.3.15) that these "fire kindlers" possessed many "holy places of the Persian Gods", as well as fire temples. Strabo furthermore relates, were "noteworthy enclosures; and in their midst there is an altar, on which there is a large quantity of ashes and where the magi keep the fire ever burning." According to Strabo, who wrote during the time of Augustus (), almost three hundred years after the fall of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, there remained only traces of Persians in western Asia Minor; however, he considered Cappadocia "almost a living part of Persia".


title: Cappadocia

text: Under Ariarathes IV, Cappadocia came into relations with Rome, first as a foe espousing the cause of Antiochus the Great, then as an ally against Perseus of Macedon. The kings henceforward threw in their lot with the Republic as against the Seleucids, to whom they had been from time to time tributary. Ariarathes V marched with the Roman proconsul Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus against Aristonicus, a claimant to the throne of Pergamon, and their forces were annihilated (130 BC). The imbroglio which followed his death ultimately led to interference by the rising power of Pontus and the intrigues and wars which ended in the failure of the dynasty.


title: Cappadocia

text: The Cappadocians, supported by Rome against Mithridates VI of Pontus, elected a native lord, Ariobarzanes, to succeed (93 BC); but in the same year Armenian troops under Tigranes the Great entered Cappadocia, dethroned king Ariobarzanes and crowned Gordios as the new client-king of Cappadocia, thus creating a buffer zone against the encroaching Romans. It was not until Rome had deposed the Pontic and Armenian kings that the rule of Ariobarzanes was established (63 BC). In the civil wars Cappadocia was first for Pompey, then for Caesar, then for Antony, and finally, Octavian. The Ariobarzanes dynasty came to an end, a Cappadocian nobleman Archelaus was given the throne, by favour first of Antony and then of Octavian, and maintained tributary independence until AD 17, when the emperor Tiberius, whom he had angered, summoned him to Rome and reduced Cappadocia to a Roman province.


title: Cappadocia

text: In 70 AD, Vespasian joined Armenia Minor to Cappadocia, and made the combined province a frontier bulwark. It remained, under various provincial redistributions, part of the Eastern Empire for centuries.


title: Cappadocia

text: Cappadocia contains several underground cities (see Kaymaklı Underground City). The underground cities have vast defence networks of traps throughout their many levels. These traps are very creative, including such devices as large round stones to block doors and holes in the ceiling through which the defenders may drop spears.


title: Cappadocia

text: In 314, Cappadocia was the largest province of the Roman Empire, and was part of the Diocese of Pontus. The region suffered famine in 368 described as "the most severe ever remembered" by Gregory of Nazianzus:


title: Cappadocia

text: The city was in distress and there was no source of assistance...The hardest part of all such distress is the insensibility and insatiability of those who possess supplies...Such are the buyers and sellers of corn ... by his word and advice [basil] open the stores of those who possessed them, and so, according to the Scripture, dealt food to the hungry and satisfied the poor with bread...He gathered together the victims of the famine...and obtaining contributions of all sorts of food which can relieve famine, set before them basins of soup and such meat as was found preserved among us, on which the poor live...Such was our young furnisher of corn, and second Joseph...[But unlike Joseph, Basil's] services were gratuitous and his succour of the famine gained no profit, having only one object, to win kindly feelings by kindly treatment, and to gain by his rations of corn the heavenly blessings".


title: Cappadocia

text: This is similar to another account by Gregory of Nyssa that Basil "ungrudgingly spent upon the poor his patriomny even before he was a priest, and most of all in the time of the famine, during which [Basil] was a ruler of the Church, though still a priest in the rank of presbyters; and afterwards did not hoard even what remained to him".


title: Cappadocia

text: In 371, the western part of the Cappadocia province was divided into Cappadocia Prima, with its capital at Caesarea (modern-day Kayseri); and Cappadocia Secunda, with its capital at Tyana. By 386, the region to the east of Caesarea had become part of Armenia Secunda, while the northeast had become part of Armenia Prima. Cappadocia largely consisted of major estates, owned by the Roman emperors or wealthy local families. The Cappadocian provinces became more important in the latter part of the 4th century, as the Romans were involved with the Sasanian Empire over control of Mesopotamia and "Armenia beyond the Euphrates". Cappadocia, now well into the Roman era, still retained a significant Iranian character; Stephen Mitchell notes in the "Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity": "Many inhabitants of Cappadocia were of Persian descent and Iranian fire worship is attested as late as 465".


title: Cappadocia

text: The Cappadocian Fathers of the 4th century were integral to much of early Christian philosophy. It also produced, among other people, another Patriarch of Constantinople, John of Cappadocia, who held office 517–520. For most of the Byzantine era it remained relatively undisturbed by the conflicts in the area with the Sassanid Empire, but was a vital frontier zone later against the Muslim conquests. From the 7th century, Cappadocia was divided between the Anatolic and Armeniac themes. In the 9th–11th centuries, the region comprised the themes of Charsianon and Cappadocia.


title: Cappadocia

text: Cappadocia shared an always-changing relationship with neighbouring Armenia, by that time a region of the Empire. The Arab historian Abu Al Faraj asserts the following about Armenian settlers in Sivas, during the 10th century: "Sivas, in Cappadocia, was dominated by the Armenians and their numbers became so many that they became vital members of the imperial armies. These Armenians were used as watch-posts in strong fortresses, taken from the Arabs. They distinguished themselves as experienced infantry soldiers in the imperial army and were constantly fighting with outstanding courage and success by the side of the Romans". As a result of the Byzantine military campaigns and the Seljuk invasion of Armenia, the Armenians spread into Cappadocia and eastward from Cilicia into the mountainous areas of northern Syria and Mesopotamia, and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia was eventually formed. This immigration was increased further after the decline of the local imperial power and the establishment of the Crusader States following the Fourth Crusade. To the crusaders, Cappadocia was "terra Hermeniorum," the land of the Armenians, due to the large number of Armenians settled there.


title: Cappadocia

text: Following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, various Turkish clans under the leadership of the Seljuks began settling in Anatolia. With the rise of Turkish power in Anatolia, Cappadocia slowly became a tributary to the Turkish states that were established to the east and to the west; some of the native population converted to Islam with the rest forming the remaining Cappadocian Greek population. By the end of the early 12th century, Anatolian Seljuks had established their sole dominance over the region. With the decline and the fall of the Konya-based Seljuks in the second half of the 13th century, they were gradually replaced by successive Turkic ruled states: the Karaman-based Beylik of Karaman and then the Ottoman Empire. Cappadocia remained part of the Ottoman Empire until 1922, when it became part of the modern state of Turkey. A fundamental change occurred in between when a new urban center, Nevşehir, was founded in the early 18th century by a grand vizier who was a native of the locality (Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha), to serve as regional capital, a role the city continues to assume to this day. In the meantime many former Cappadocians had shifted to a Turkish dialect (written in Greek alphabet, "Karamanlıca"), and where the Greek language was maintained (Sille, villages near Kayseri, Pharasa town and other nearby villages), it became heavily influenced by the surrounding Turkish. This dialect of Eastern Roman Greek is known as "Cappadocian Greek". Following the foundation of Turkey in 1922, those who still identified with this pre-Islamic culture of Cappadocia were required to leave, so this language is now only spoken by a handful of their descendants, most now located in modern Greece.


title: Cappadocia

text: The area is a popular tourist destination, as it has many areas with unique geological, historic, and cultural features.


title: Cappadocia

text: The region is located southwest of the major city Kayseri, which has airline and railway service to Ankara and Istanbul and other cities.


title: Cappadocia

text: The most important towns and destinations in Cappadocia are Ürgüp, Göreme, Ihlara Valley, Selime, Guzelyurt, Uçhisar, Avanos and Zelve. Among the most visited underground cities are Derinkuyu, Kaymakli, Gaziemir and Ozkonak. The best historic mansions and cave houses for tourist stays are in Ürgüp, Göreme, Guzelyurt and Uçhisar.


title: Cappadocia

text: Hot-air ballooning is very popular in Cappadocia and is available in Göreme. Trekking is enjoyed in Ihlara Valley, Monastery Valley (Guzelyurt), Ürgüp and Göreme.


title: Cappadocia

text: Sedimentary rocks formed in lakes and streams and ignimbrite deposits that erupted from ancient volcanoes approximately nine to years ago, during the late Miocene to Pliocene epochs, underlie the Cappadocia region. The rocks of Cappadocia near Göreme eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars and minaret-like forms. People of the villages at the heart of the Cappadocia Region carved out houses, churches and monasteries from the soft rocks of volcanic deposits. Göreme became a monastic centre in 300–1200 AD.


title: Cappadocia

text: The first period of settlement in Göreme goes back to the Roman period. The Yusuf Koç, Ortahane, Durmus Kadir and Bezirhane churches in Göreme, and houses and churches carved into rocks in the Uzundere, Bağıldere and Zemi Valleys, all illustrate history and can be seen today. The Göreme Open Air Museum is the most visited site of the monastic communities in Cappadocia (see Churches of Göreme, Turkey) and is one of the most famous sites in central Turkey. The complex contains more than 30 carved-from-rock churches and chapels, some having superb frescoes inside, dating from the ninth century to the eleventh century.


title: Cappadocia

text: In 1975, a study of three small villages in central Cappadocia—Tuzköy, Karain and Sarıhıdır—found that mesothelioma was causing 50% of all deaths. Initially, this was attributed to erionite, a zeolite mineral with similar properties to asbestos, but detailed epidemiological investigation demonstrated that the substance causes the disease mostly in families with a genetic predisposition to mineral fiber carcinogenesis. The studies are being extended to other parts of the region.


title: Cappadocia

text: The area was featured in several films due to its topography. The 1983 Italian/French/Turkish film "Yor, the Hunter from the Future" and 1985's "Land of Doom" were filmed in Cappadocia. The region was used for the 1989 science fiction film "Slipstream" to depict a cult of wind worshippers. In 2010 and early 2011, the film "" was also filmed in the Cappadocia region. Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Medea", based on the plot of Euripides' "Medea", was filmed in Göreme Open Air Museum's early Christian churches.


title: Cappadocia

text: Autechre's second album, Amber, features a photo of this region's fairy mountains as the cover art, being their only album whose cover isn't computer-generated.


title: Cappadocia

text: Cappadocia's winter landscapes and broad panoramas are prominent in the 2014 film "Winter Sleep" (Turkish: Kış Uykusu), directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Cappadocia

text: Since 2012, a multiday track running ultramarathon of desert concept, called Runfire Cappadocia Ultramarathon, is held annually in July. The race tours in six days through several places across Cappadocia reaching out to Lake Tuz.


title: Cappadocia

text: Between September 9 and September 13, 2016, for the first time, the Turkish Presidential Bike Tour took place in Cappadocia where more than 300 cyclists from around the globe participated.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: James Dimon (; born March 13, 1956) is an American billionaire businessman and banker who has been the chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase – the largest of the big four American banks – since 2005. Dimon was previously on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Dimon was included in "Time" magazine's 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2011 lists of the world's 100 most influential people. Dimon's net worth is estimated at $1.8 billion.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Dimon is one of the few bank chief executives to become a billionaire, largely because of his US$485 million stake in JPMorgan Chase. He received a $23 million pay package for fiscal year 2011, more than any other bank CEO in the US. However, his compensation was reduced to $11.5 million in 2012 by JPMorgan Chase following a series of controversial trading losses amounting to $6 billion. Dimon received $29.5 million in fiscal year 2017.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Jamie Dimon was born in New York City. He is one of three sons of Theodore and Themis (née Kalos) Dimon, who had Greek ancestry. His paternal grandfather was a Greek immigrant who worked as a banker in Izmir and Athens, and changed the family name from Papademetriou to Dimon; reportedly it was either because as he was trying to find work as a busboy he realized people didn't want to hire Greeks, or because he had fallen in love with a French girl and wanted his name to sound French. Dimon has an older brother, Peter, and a fraternal twin brother, Ted. Both his father and grandfather were stockbrokers at Shearson.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: He attended the Browning School, and majored in psychology and economics at Tufts University, where he graduated summa cum laude. At Tufts, Dimon wrote an essay on Shearson's mergers; his mother sent the paper to Sandy Weill, who hired Dimon to work at Shearson during one summer break, doing budgets.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: After graduating, he worked in management consulting at Boston Consulting Group for two years before enrolling at Harvard Business School, along with classmates Jeff Immelt, Steve Burke, Stephen Mandel, and Seth Klarman. During the summer at Harvard, he worked at Goldman Sachs. He graduated in 1982, earning an MBA as a Baker Scholar.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: After graduation from Harvard Business School, Sandy Weill convinced him to turn down offers from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman Brothers to join him as an assistant at American Express. Although Weill could not offer the same amount of money as the investment banks, he promised Dimon that he would have "fun". Dimon's father, Theodore Dimon, was an executive vice president at American Express.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Sandy Weill left American Express in 1985 and Dimon followed him. The two then took over Commercial Credit, a consumer finance company, from Control Data. At 30 years of age, Dimon served as the chief financial officer, helping to turn the company around. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, in 1998 Dimon and Weill were able to form a large financial services conglomerate, Citigroup. Dimon left Citigroup in November 1998, after being asked to resign by Weill during a weekend executive retreat. It was rumored at the time that he and Weill argued in 1997 over Dimon's not promoting Weill's daughter, Jessica M. Bibliowicz, although that happened over a year before Dimon's departure. At least one other account cites a request by Dimon to be treated as an equal as the real reason.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: In March 2000, Dimon became CEO of Bank One, the nation's fifth largest bank. When JPMorgan Chase purchased Bank One in July 2004, Dimon became president and chief operating officer of the combined company.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: On December 31, 2005, he was named CEO of JPMorgan Chase and on December 31, 2006, he was named Chairman and President. In March 2008 he was a Class A board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Under Dimon's leadership, with the acquisitions during his tenure, JPMorgan Chase has become the leading U.S. bank in domestic assets under management, market capitalization value, and publicly traded stock value. In 2009, Dimon was considered one of "The TopGun CEOs" by Brendan Wood International, an advisory agency.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: On September 26, 2011, Dimon was involved in a high-profile heated exchange with Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of Canada, in which Dimon said provisions of the Basel III international financial regulations discriminate against U.S. banks and are "anti-American". On May 10, 2012, JPMorgan Chase initiated an emergency conference call to report a loss of at least $2 billion in trades that Dimon said were "designed to hedge the bank's overall credit risks". The strategy was, in Dimon's words, "flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed, and poorly monitored". The episode was investigated by the Federal Reserve, the SEC, and the FBI and the central actor was labelled with the epithet the London Whale.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Dimon commented on the Volcker Rule in January 2012, "Part of the Volcker Rule I agreed with, which is no prop trading. But market making is an essential function. And the public should recognize that we have the widest, the deepest, the most transparent capital markets in the world. And part of that is because we have enormous market making. If the rules were written as they originally came out; I suspect they'll be changed, it would really make it hard to be a market maker in the United States." He served as chairman of the executive committee of The Business Council for 2011 and 2012.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: On January 24, 2014, it was announced that Dimon would receive $20 million for his work in 2013, a year of record profits and stock price under Dimon's reign, despite significant losses that year due to scandals and payments of fines. The award was a 74% raise, which included over $18 million in restricted stock. This is despite the recent $13 billion settlement with the US government, the largest in history, for bad mortgages and practices during the financial crisis. Forbes reported that, in a statement following news of Dimon's compensation, the bank said, "Under Mr. Dimon's stewardship, the Company has fortified its control infrastructure and processes and strengthened each of its key businesses while continuing to focus on strengthening the Company's leadership capabilities across all levels."


title: Jamie Dimon

text: As head of JPMorgan Chase, Dimon oversaw the transfer of $25 billion in funds from the U.S. Treasury Department to the bank on October 28, 2008, under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). This was the fifth largest amount transferred under Section A of TARP to help troubled assets related to residential mortgages. It has been widely reported that JPMorgan Chase was in much better financial shape than other banks and did not need TARP funds but accepted the funds because the government did not want to single out only the banks with capital issues. JPMorgan Chase advertised in February 2009 that it would be using its capital-base monetary strength to acquire new businesses.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: By February 2009, the U.S. government had not moved forward in enforcing TARP's intent of funding JPMorgan Chase with $25 billion. In the face of the government's lack of action, Dimon was quoted during the week of February 1, 2009, as saying,


title: Jamie Dimon

text: JPMorgan Chase was arguably the healthiest of the nine largest U.S. banks and did not need to take TARP funds. In order to encourage smaller banks with troubled assets to accept this money, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson allegedly coerced the CEOs of the nine largest banks to accept TARP money under short notice.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Dimon donates primarily to the Democratic Party. In May 2012, he described himself as "barely a Democrat" stating,


title: Jamie Dimon

text: After Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, there was speculation that Dimon would serve in the Obama Administration as Secretary of the Treasury. Obama eventually named the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner, to the position.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Following the acquisition of Washington Mutual by JPMorgan Chase, Obama commented on Dimon's handling of the real-estate crash, credit crisis, and the banking collapse affecting corporations nationwide, including major financial institutions like Bank of America, Citibank, and Wachovia (later acquired by Wells Fargo).


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Dimon has had close ties to some people in the Obama White House, including former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Dimon was one of three CEOs—along with Goldman Sachs Chairman Lloyd Blankfein and Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit—said by the Associated Press to have had liberal access to former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: On the May 15, 2012, episode of ABC's "The View", Obama responded to a question from Whoopi Goldberg regarding JPMorgan Chase's recently publicized $2 billion trading losses by defending Dimon against allegations of irresponsibility, saying, "first of all, JP Morgan is one of the best managed banks there is. Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we've got", but added, "it's going to be investigated".


title: Jamie Dimon

text: During the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, JP Morgan Chase under Dimon's leadership donated large sums of money to the Remain campaign, and Dimon personally campaigned with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne against Brexit.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: In December 2016, Dimon joined a business forum assembled by then president-elect Donald Trump to provide strategic and policy advice on economic issues. The forum later dissolved after Trump's comments on the alt-right political violence at the 2017 Unite the Right rally, including the Charlottesville car attack. During the presidency of Donald Trump, Dimon supported Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 but condemned the Trump administration's immigration and trade policies. In a 2019 interview with "60 Minutes", Dimon said that the United States had reached "the most prosperous economy the world has ever seen" despite acknowledging issues such as income inequality and the China–United States trade war. Dimon also criticized the U.S. federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic under Trump in a letter to shareholders which also criticized the state of education, health care, and social safety nets in the United States.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: During the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries Dimon criticized the lack of a "strong centrist, pro-business, pro-free enterprise" candidate. In 2018 Dimon "thought about thinking about" starting his own presidential campaign but decided that it would be too unpopular to succeed. During the 2020 United States presidential election Dimon wrote a memorandum calling for candidates to respect the democratic process and a peaceful transition of power, writing "While strong opinions and tremendous passion characterized this U.S. election, it is the responsibility of each of us to respect the democratic process, and ultimately, the outcome." Dimon condemned the 2021 United States Capitol attack. In 2021, Trump complained that Dimon was "not a patriot" because of his company's business in China.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: In 2020 Dimon expressed support for higher income taxes on the upper class, but condemned the idea of a wealth tax. On April 7, 2021, Dimon came out against the state and local tax (SALT) deduction implying that it was a tax deduction primarily for the rich saying that states like Illinois, California, New York "continue to fight for unlimited state and local tax deductions (because those five states reap 40% of the benefit) even though they are aware that over 80% of those deductions will accrue to people earning more than $339,000 a year."


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Dimon advocated a bill abolishing the United States debt ceiling, and warned that a sovereign default by the United States would have catastrophic consequences on the world economy.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: In the case of the 2012 JPMorgan Chase trading loss, according to a US Senate report published in March 2013 after 9 months of investigation, Dimon misled investors and regulators in April as losses rose dangerously to $6.2 billion on a "monstrous" derivatives bet made by the so-called "London Whale" Bruno Iksil. According to Carl Levin, chairman of this panel, JP Morgan had "a trading operation that piled on risk, ignored limits on risk taking, hid losses, dodged oversight and misinformed the public". Dimon dismissed press accounts of possible losses in Iksil's book as a "tempest in a teapot" on April 13, 2012 when he knew that Iksil had already lost $1 billion, which led Levin to say "None of those statements made on April 13 to the public, to investors, to analysts were true," and "The bank also neglected to disclose on that day that the portfolio had massive positions that were hard to exit, that they were violating in massive numbers key risk limits."


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Dimon corrected that wrong information a month later, in May 2012, before the true damage was revealed, after US Securities and Exchange financial watchdog started reviewing the losses.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: From 2015, which is when the Paris Agreement was adopted, until 2021, JP Morgan Chase provided $317 billion in fossil fuel financing; 33% more than any other bank. The company's managing director, Greg Determann, said "Mr. Dimon is quite focused on the industry. It's a huge business for us and that's going to be the case for decades to come." This was reiterated by Dimon himself, in a House Oversight Committee hearing in September 2022, where Democratic representative for Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, asked him whether his "bank has a policy against funding new oil and gas products", to which Dimon replied, "absolutely not, and that would be the road to hell for America."


title: Jamie Dimon

text: On October 21, 2021, JP Morgan Chase joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which supports "the global transition of the real economy to net-zero emissions."


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Dimon sent JPMorgan Chase COO Daniel Pinto to the November 2022 Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit. The attendance of US financial executives drew heavy criticism from US lawmakers; Representative Chris Smith said that companies "that trumpet their so-called 'Environmental, Social and Governance Principles' at home are quick to discard these 'values' for a chance to make a profit from China." Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer said of Lee that "American executives attending an event with the CCP's so-called enforcer makes a person question whether human rights are a real concern." Representative Lance Gooden said "The hypocrisy is staggering and every financial institution enabling China's atrocities should be ashamed." On 27 October 2022, two more US lawmakers urged the US financial executives to cancel their attendance to the Summit, with Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative Jim McGovern of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China saying "Their presence only serves to legitimize the swift dismantling of Hong Kong's autonomy, free press, and the rule of law by Hong Kong authorities acting along with the Chinese Communist Party." Representative Smith also warned that "Examining U.S. corporate complicity in China's repression will be a top oversight item in the next Congress," potentially putting Dimon's decision to send Pinto to the event a risk for the company.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: In 1983, Dimon married Judith Kent, whom he met at Harvard Business School. They have three daughters: Julia, Laura, and Kara Leigh. Julia and Kara attended Duke University, while Laura is a Barnard College graduate and freelance journalist who formerly worked for "New York Daily News" and is currently a producer for ABC News.


title: Jamie Dimon

text: Dimon was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. He received eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy ending in September 2014. In March 2020, at the age of 63, Dimon underwent "emergency heart surgery." The reason for the surgery was to repair an acute aortic dissection, a tear in the inner layer of the aorta, an artery that is the largest blood vessel in the body. According to JP Morgan, Dimon recovered well from surgery, with Gordon Smith and Daniel Pinto running the bank until his return. In April 2020, it was announced that Dimon returned to work in a remote capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: 2022 AFC Champions League

text: The 2022 AFC Champions League is the 41st edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 20th under the current AFC Champions League title.


title: 2022 AFC Champions League

text: This season is officially the last season in an all-year-round (spring-to-autumn) schedule despite actually being held from 2022 to 2023; from next season onwards the competitions will switch to an autumn-to-spring schedule.


title: 2022 AFC Champions League

text: The winners of the tournament will automatically qualify for the 2023–24 AFC Champions League, entering the qualifying play-offs, if they have not qualified through their domestic performance. This edition sees increase in numbers of preliminary players registration with 35 players can be registered, up from 30 in previous editions. This will pave the way for more foreign players to be included in squad although the AFC "3+1" foreign players rule will be in effect during the match.


title: 2022 AFC Champions League

text: Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia are the defending champions, having defeated Pohang Steelers in the 2021 final. 2021 AFC Cup winners Al-Muharraq, having not obtained an AFC license, were not eligible to participate in this edition.


title: 2022 AFC Champions League

text: The 47 AFC member associations are ranked based on their clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions (their national team's FIFA World Rankings no longer considered). The slots are allocated by the following criteria according to the Entry Manual:


title: 2022 AFC Champions League

text: For the 2022 AFC Champions League, the associations are allocated slots according to their AFC Club Competitions Ranking which was published on 29 November 2019, which takes into account their performance in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup during the period between 2016 and 2019.


title: 2022 AFC Champions League

text: "In the following table, the number of appearances and last appearance count only those since the 2002–03 season (including qualifying rounds), when the competition was rebranded as the AFC Champions League."


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: One Piece Film: Red is a 2022 Japanese animated musical fantasy action-adventure film directed by Gorō Taniguchi and produced by Toei Animation. It is the fifteenth feature film of the "One Piece" film series, based on the manga of the same name written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: It was first announced on November 21, 2021, in commemoration of the "One Piece" anime episode 1000's release and following the broadcast of the episode, a teaser trailer and poster was released on November 21, 2021. Its world premiere was in Nippon Budokan, Tokyo on July 22, 2022, for the celebration of 25th anniversary of "One Piece" manga and released theatrically on August 6, 2022, in Japan.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: , the film has grossed over ¥18.67 billion in Japan making it the highest-grossing film of "One Piece", the highest-grossing film of 2022 in Japan, the 6th highest-grossing anime film of all time in Japan, and the 9th highest-grossing film of all time in Japan. The film has been number one in box office ranking in Japan for eleven consecutive weeks which only three Japanese films had ever done. Worldwide, the film had grossed over US$206.7 million making it the 5th highest-grossing Japanese film of all-time.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: The Straw Hat Pirates leave for the island of Elegia to attend a concert by Uta, a world-famous singer. After Uta performs her first song, Luffy goes on stage to reunite with her, revealing that the two of them know each other because Uta is the daughter of "Red-Haired" Shanks. They met when Shanks has docked at Luffy's hometown 12 years ago, but one day he returned without her, claiming she had left to pursue a career as a singer.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Some pirate crews then attempt to kidnap Uta, but she easily subdues them by conjuring whatever she wants through song. Afterward, Uta tells Luffy that he should stop being a pirate, as she is going to make this concert last forever and create a world with only happiness and peace. When the Straw Hats resist the idea, Uta attacks and traps all of them except Luffy, who is rescued by Trafalgar Law and Bartolomeo. Meanwhile, the Five Elders ruling the World Government deem Uta's power a great threat to the world, and Marine Fleet Admiral Akainu orders a convoy of battleships led by Admirals Kizaru and Fujitora to go to Elegia and subdue her.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Luffy's group is pursued by Uta and the concertgoers, and they meet Gordon, who is Uta's adoptive father and the former king of Elegia. Gordon reveals that he raised Uta to be a great musician and kept her sheltered from the outside world, but when she attained worldwide fame, she began to learn of the suffering inflicted on a great number of her fans by pirates and so decided to put an end to the Pirate Era. Uta then arrives and forces Luffy's group to escape, and Gordon pleads with her to not carry out her plan out of fear for her safety. However, Uta reveals she found an inscription of a song called "Tot Musica" that can unleash a great power, and immobilizes Gordon.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Luffy's group comes across Koby, Helmeppo, and Blueno who are operating undercover for the World Government. Koby reveals that Uta has the power of the Sing-Sing Fruit, which allows her to send people into a dream world known as the Sing-Sing World by singing to them. They and everyone else who watched the concert are trapped in this world, whose reality is completely controlled by Uta. The Sing-Sing World ceases to exist whenever Uta falls asleep; however, Uta has been consuming a drug called wake-shrooms that keeps her awake at all hours and drastically shortens her lifespan. If Uta were to die, everyone in the Sing-Sing World would be trapped there forever. In the real world, the Marine fleet arrives at Elegia to find the concertgoers all sleeping. They block their hearing to nullify Uta's singing, but Uta assumes control of the concertgoers to overwhelm the Marines and remove their hearing blockers. The Five Elders know that Uta has mere hours left to live and that if she dies, 70% of the world's population would be trapped in the Sing-Sing World.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Koby's group helps the pirates free themselves by singing the note they correspond to on the staff, and the Straw Hats head towards the castle to find a weakness in Uta's power. In the library, Robin discovers that there is a way to make the worlds converge by summoning Tot Musica, a demonic entity whose existence spans both worlds. If Tot Musica is defeated simultaneously in both worlds, those in the Sing-Sing World will return to reality. Uta resumes her concert in the Sing-Sing World, but her audience begins to resist the idea of living in her world forever. Growing more and more unstable, Uta transforms all of them into inanimate objects. Luffy goes to confront Uta, and she reveals that Shanks abandoned her on Elegia after allegedly destroying and plundering it. Uta decides to kill Luffy in the real world but is stopped by Shanks and his crew.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Shanks tries to help Uta, but Akainu orders for the Marines to fire on her without regard for the concertgoers, forcing the Red-Haired Pirates to go on the defensive. Terrified at the slaughtering of her subjects and slipping into delirium from the wake-shrooms, Uta summons Tot Musica. She then attacks Luffy in the Sing-Sing World, but Gordon takes the blow instead. He reveals that Tot Musica was actually the one that destroyed Elegia 12 years ago after Uta accidentally summoned him, and Shanks left Uta on Elegia afterward so she could pursue a singing career without being a wanted pirate. Despite this revelation, Uta ends up being consumed by Tot Musica as it moves to consume both versions of Elegia, easily overpowering the pirates and Marines. However, Usopp is able to attain a mental link with his father Yasopp via Observation Haki, and this allows the two of them to coordinate simultaneous attacks between the forces of both worlds. After a long and arduous battle, Luffy and Shanks strike the finishing blows to defeat Tot Musica. However, since it has already consumed everyone on Elegia, those in the Sing-Sing World do not return. Uta rejects a medicine from Shanks to cure the effects of the wake shrooms in order to sing a song that will bring back everyone. Once she does this, the Marine forces move to seize her, but Shanks repels them with his Conqueror's Haki. As the Marines retreat, Shanks and Uta reconcile as father and daughter.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Luffy wakes up on the Thousand Sunny after his crew has already departed Elegia. He is able to see the Red-Haired Pirates' ship sailing away and looks on at the crew standing over a coffin, presumably containing Uta's body.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Gorō Taniguchi previously directed the 1998 OVA, "One Piece: Defeat The Pirate Ganzak!," which was produced by Production I.G. It was the first animated adaptation of "One Piece" manga, released before the anime series broadcast and had limited screenings in Japanese theaters. Oda stated that Taniguchi was "the first person to ever animate Luffy". After the first announcement of the film in November 2021, Taniguchi said that he wanted to express a "One Piece" that had never been seen before and that he would show it in "One Piece Film: Red".


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: According to Shinji Shimizu, a producer of the "One Piece" anime at Toei Animation, "One Piece Film: Red" is the "One Piece" film that Eiichiro Oda most actively participated in the development of. Oda is the executive producer, character designer, and also script reviewer of the film. He also said that the film will be different from the previous "One Piece" films, saying its animation will primarily be in 2D but in some scenes will be in 3D CGI to make it more impactful.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: The script for the film was developed by Oda, Taniguchi, and Tsutomu Kuroiwa for over two years. After finishing, Oda praised the final script saying, "It's fantastic!". Tsutomu Kuroiwa, the screenwriter, assured that "One Piece Film: Red" would be a great movie that would touch many hearts.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: The film score was composed by Yasutaka Nakata, and the theme song for the film is "New Genesis" performed by Ado and produced by Nakata. Ado also performed six more songs featuring Mrs. Green Apple, Vaundy, Fake Type., Hiroyuki Sawano, Yuta Orisaka, and Motohiro Hata in each and Toei Animation and Ado released their respective music videos on YouTube. The album "", containing all the vocal songs from the film was released on August 10, 2022, while the score album published by Avex, containing 47 tracks, was released on October 28, 2022.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Ado performed seven songs featuring Yasutaka Nakata, Mrs. Green Apple, Vaundy, Fake Type., Hiroyuki Sawano, Yuta Orisaka, and Motohiro Hata in each, and Toei Animation and Ado released video songs on YouTube for the movie's promotions; these songs are also featured in the movie as the singing voice for character Uta. Since the theatrical release of the film in Japan, there have been multiple giveaways to the theater audience, including different manga and databook by Eiichiro Oda which were printed in millions of copies and were giveaways for most of the weekends since the release. The "One Piece" anime's regular episodes' releases were put on hold for three weeks and the film's three tie-in episodes were broadcast after the film's release in Japan.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: The film had its world premiere in Nippon Budokan, Tokyo on July 22, 2022, and was released theatrically on 495 screens in Japan on August 6, 2022, by its distributor Toei Company. It had its IMAX screenings in Japan in 27 theaters, which is the first time for a "One Piece" film. It is also available in MX4D, 4DX, and Dolby Atmos.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Pathé Films released the film in French speaking regions, subbed and dubbed in French, In France, the film premiered in Le Grand Rex, Paris and 481 screens on August 6, 2022 and was released on August 10, 2022, in 631 screens. In Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland (French-speaking region) and Swiss German regions it will be released on October 13, 2022. On August 10, 2022, it was also released in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritius and Mali. In Djibouti, the film was released on August 11, 2022 and on August 12, 2022, the film was released in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Madagascar.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: In Taiwan, the film was released on August 19, 2022. In China, the film premiered at Beijing International Film Festival on August 21, 2022. In Hong Kong and Macau, it was released in Cantonese, subbed and dubbed on August 25, 2022. In Thailand, the film had fan screening from August 16 to 21 and was widely released on August 25 by distributor Japan Anime Movie (JAM) Thailand.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Odex announced that they will distribute the film in Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and India. In Singapore, the film will be released on September 29, 2022. In Malaysia, the film released on September 22, 2022. In the Netherlands, the film released on September 8, 2022. In Philippines, fan screenings on September 17 and 18, 2022 and will be released on September 28, 2022. In Indonesia, CBI Pictures announced limited premiere release on September 16 to 18, 2022. In India, the film is scheduled to release on October 7, 2022, by Odex and PVR Pictures. In Germany, the film is scheduled to premiere on October 11, 2022, at Berlin and will be released on October 13, 2022, in Germany and Austria by Crunchyroll. In Romania on October 14, 2022, in Romanian sub and dub. In select MENA countries, Front Row Filmed Entertainment is set to release the film on November 3, 2022, with English and Arabic subtitles. In Spain on November 4, 2022, will be released subbed and dubbed in Spanish and Catalan by SelectaVisión, In U.S. and Canada, it is scheduled to release on November 4, 2022, and in Australia and New Zealand, it is scheduled to release on November 3, 2022, by Crunchyroll. "Film Red" became the first "One Piece" film to be distributed under the Crunchyroll brand after Sony Pictures acquired Crunchyroll in 2021 and merged it with Funimation.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: In U.K and Ireland, the film will be released on the 4th of November 2022 by Anime Limited. CGV released the movie in Vietnam on November 25, 2022, by Tagger with a teaser announced before the release in their local Youtube channel. In Italy the movie will have its premiére at Lucca Comics and Games 2022 and will be released in theaters by Koch Media's Anime Factory brand in autumn. Diamond Films has been teasing a release of "One Piece" media in Latin America. In Pakistan, the film was released on October 7.In Israel, the film was released on December 1.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: The film was released on weekend and became a box office hit in the country. On its opening day, the film had box office revenues and admissions of ¥1,232,095,230 and 869,407 respectively. It is the biggest opening for a "One Piece" film ever, the third film in Japanese history to make over 1 billion yen on opening day, the best Saturday opening ever for IMAX, and also the second biggest opening day of all the time in Japan. In its second day, it had ¥1,022,141,800 and 710,145 box office revenue and admissions respectively, totaling to ¥2,254,237,030 and 1,579,552 in the weekend. This makes the film the best opening weekend for August in Japan, the biggest weekend box office of 2022 so far, the highest ever opening weekend for distributor Toei Company, the second-biggest two-day opening weekend for a film in Japanese history, and also the second ever film in Japan to gross more than 1 billion yen two days in a row. In 8 days, the film has already surpassed 5 billion yen on 3.6 million admissions, making it the second fastest film to reach that box office record of all the time in Japan. In 10 days, the film became the highest-grossing film in the "One Piece" franchise after it earned more than 7.06 billion yen (US$52.97 million) with over 5 million tickets sold in 502 screens and overtook "" total box office revenue in Japan. In 13 days, the film had grossed more than 8 billion yen () with over 5.7 million admissions. It is the second-fastest film in Japanese box office history to reach 8 billion yen after "". As of its 3rd weekend, the film grossed ¥9,281,365,450 () with over 6.65 million admissions. It surpassed "" and Studio Ghibli's "Arrietty". In 20 days, the film grossed over ¥10 billion with over 7.2 million admissions. The film became the second-fastest film in Japan to reach the 10 billion yen milestone surpassing the mark 5 days ahead of Hayao Miyazaki’s "Spirited Away", and the 41st film in Japan to ever pass this mark. As of its 4th weekend, the film ranked first place and grossed ¥11.454 billion (US$83.32 million) with over 8.2 million admissions. In 26 days, the film grossed over ¥12 billion (US$87.26 million) with over 8.6 million tickets sold. The film is the second fastest film ever to reach ¥12 billion and it overtook "" as the second-highest-grossing film in 2022 in Japan which Japanese box offices track as December 2021 to November 2022. As of its 6th weekend, the film grossed over ¥13.87 billion (US$100.48 million) with 9.94 million admissions making it the highest-grossing film of 2022. As of 38th day in Japanese theaters, the film has grossed more than 13.94 billion yen on the back of more than 10 million tickets sold. It is the 21st film to ever breach the 10 million tickets sold and the fourth fastest film to do so in Japan. As of its 7th weekend, the film grossed over 14.9 billion yen (US$103.8 million) on 10.72 million admissions, making it the seventh top-grossing anime film of all time in Japan after surpassing Makoto Shinkai's 2019 film "Weathering With You" (14.19 billion yen). In 46 days, the film sailed to over 15.006 billion yen (US$108.57 million) at the box office on the back of 10.76 million tickets sold to Japanese audiences. Its the 13th film to have ever crossed the 15 billion yen mark in Japan. As of its 8th weekend, the film grossed over 15.7 billion yen (US$108.7 million) on 11.26 million admissions, making it the 6th highest-grossing anime film of all time and 11th highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, surpassing Hayao Miyazaki’s "Ponyo" and James Cameron's "Avatar". As of its 11th weekend, the film has been 2022 box office number-one film in Japan for eleven consecutive weeks making it the fifth film (including hollywood films) in Japanese history to do so and grossed 17.1 billion yen on 12.31 million admissions. As of its 12th weekend, the film has grossed a total of 17.356 billion yen on the back of 12.5 million tickets sold. It is currently the ninth highest-grossing film of all time in Japan after it has overtaken both "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "Bayside Shakedown 2". As of its 14th weekend, the film box office revenue has surpassed 18 billion yen (US$122.7 million) on 13 million admissions and has been number one position in ranking for 13 weekends.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an 88% overall positive score.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: The film's main theme song "New Genesis" by Ado, topped Apple Music's Global Top 100 charts, making it the first for a Japanese song, and the number one song in the world, beating out songs from Beyoncé and DJ Khaled.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: In August 31, Oricon reported that Ado has three of the tracker's digital rankings for three consecutive weeks which happen for the first time ever in Oricon's history. Also, she is the first artist ever in Oricon's history to have five songs in the "Top 5 Streaming Chart" doing so for the past two weeks. These five songs from the film ("New Genesis", "I'm Invincible", "Backlight", "Fleeting Lullaby", and "Tot Musica") had been dominating the top five "Weekly Streaming Chart" in two weeks and its the first time ever that each song in the top five had reached over 10 million plays over the last week. Furthermore, the album "Uta's Songs: One Piece Film Red" has been in the top place in the "Weekly Digital Album Ranking" for the past three weeks. As for the main theme song, "New Genesis", it has been the number one in "Weekly Digital Single (Single Song) Ranking" for over the past four weeks and it marks the second time a solo female artist has topped the charts for a month after LiSA’s "Homura" did so for 13 weeks back in late 2020 / early 2021. This is its 12th week at number one (106,916,252 plays) and is the 4th fastest song in Japanese history to reach 100 million plays.


title: One Piece Film: Red

text: On September 7, 2022, Ado broke another record after Oricon reported that she had three of the tracker's digital rankings for four consecutive weeks on which she's the only artist who had ever done so.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American actor, dancer, singer, filmmaker, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessible to the general public, "dance for the common man." He starred in, choreographed, and co-directed with Stanley Donen some of the most well-regarded musical films of the 1940s and 1950s.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly is best known for his performances in "An American in Paris" (1951), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, "Singin' in the Rain" (1952), which he and Donen directed and choreographed, and other musical films of that era such as "Cover Girl" (1944) and "Anchors Aweigh" (1945), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. "On the Town" (1949), which he co-directed with Donen, was his directorial debut. Later in the 1950s, as musicals waned in popularity, he starred in "Brigadoon" (1954) and "It's Always Fair Weather" (1955), the last film he directed with Donen. His solo directorial debut was "Invitation to the Dance" (1956), one of the last MGM musicals, which was not a commercial success.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly made his film debut with Judy Garland in "For Me and My Gal" (1942), with whom he also appeared in "The Pirate" (1948) and "Summer Stock" (1950). He also appeared in the dramas "Black Hand" (1950) and "Inherit the Wind" (1960), for which he received critical praise.


title: Gene Kelly

text: He continued as a director in the 1960s, with his credits including "A Guide for the Married Man" (1967) and "Hello, Dolly!" (1969), which received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. He co-hosted and appeared in "Ziegfeld Follies" (1946), "That's Entertainment!" (1974), "That's Entertainment, Part II" (1976), "That's Dancing!" (1985), and "That's Entertainment, Part III" (1994).


title: Gene Kelly

text: His many innovations transformed the Hollywood musical, and he is credited with almost single-handedly making the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences. He "fundamentally affected the way movies are made and the way we look at them." Kelly received an Academy Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements; the same year, "An American in Paris" won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He later received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors (1982) and from the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute. In 1999, the American Film Institute also ranked him as the 15th greatest male screen legend of Classic Hollywood Cinema.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly was born in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He was the third son of James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman, and his wife, Harriet Catherine Curran. His father was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, to an Irish Canadian family. His maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Derry, Ireland, and his maternal grandmother was of German ancestry. When he was eight, Kelly's mother enrolled him and his brother James in dance classes. As Kelly recalled, they both rebelled: "We didn't like it much and were continually involved in fistfights with the neighborhood boys who called us sissies  ... I didn't dance again until I was 15." At one time, his childhood dream was to play shortstop for the hometown Pittsburgh Pirates.


title: Gene Kelly

text: By the time he decided to dance, he was an accomplished sportsman and able to defend himself. He attended St. Raphael Elementary School in the Morningside neighborhood of Pittsburgh and graduated from Peabody High School at age 16. He entered the Pennsylvania State College as a journalism major, but after the 1929 crash, he left school and found work in order to help his family financially. He created dance routines with his younger brother Fred to earn prize money in local talent contests. They also performed in local nightclubs.


title: Gene Kelly

text: In 1931, Kelly enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh to study economics, joining the Theta Kappa Phi fraternity (later known as Phi Kappa Theta after merging with Phi Kappa). He became involved in the university's Cap and Gown Club, which staged original musical productions. After graduating in 1933, he continued to be active with the Cap and Gown Club, serving as the director from 1934 to 1938. Kelly was admitted to the University of Pittsburgh Law School.


title: Gene Kelly

text: His family opened a dance studio in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. In 1932, they renamed it the Gene Kelly Studio of the Dance and opened a second location in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1933. Kelly served as a teacher at the studio during his undergraduate and law-student years at Pitt. In 1931, he was approached by the Beth Shalom Synagogue in Pittsburgh to teach dance, and to stage the annual Kermesse. The venture proved a success, Kelly being retained for seven years until his departure for New York.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly eventually decided to pursue a career as a dance teacher and full-time entertainer, so he dropped out of law school after two months. He increased his focus on performing and later said: "With time I became disenchanted with teaching because the ratio of girls to boys was more than ten to one, and once the girls reached 16, the dropout rate was very high." In 1937, having successfully managed and developed the family's dance-school business, he moved to New York City in search of work as a choreographer. Kelly returned to Pittsburgh, to his family home at 7514 Kensington Street, in 1940, and worked as a theatrical actor.


title: Gene Kelly

text: After a fruitless search for work in New York, Kelly returned to Pittsburgh to his first position as a choreographer with the Charles Gaynor musical revue "Hold Your Hats" at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in April 1938. Kelly appeared in six of the sketches, one of which, "La cumparsita", became the basis of an extended Spanish number in the film "Anchors Aweigh" eight years later.


title: Gene Kelly

text: His first Broadway assignment, in November 1938, was as a dancer in Cole Porter's "Leave It to Me!"—as the American ambassador's secretary who supports Mary Martin while she sings "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". He had been hired by Robert Alton, who had staged a show at the Pittsburgh Playhouse where he was impressed by Kelly's teaching skills. When Alton moved on to choreograph the musical "One for the Money", he hired Kelly to act, sing, and dance in eight routines. In 1939, he was selected for a musical revue, "One for the Money", produced by the actress Katharine Cornell, who was known for finding and hiring talented young actors.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly's first big breakthrough was in the Pulitzer Prize–winning "The Time of Your Life", which opened on October 25, 1939—in which, for the first time on Broadway, he danced to his own choreography. In the same year, he received his first assignment as a Broadway choreographer, for "Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe". He began dating a cast member, Betsy Blair, and they got married on October 16, 1941.


title: Gene Kelly

text: In 1940, he got the lead role in Rodgers and Hart's "Pal Joey", again choreographed by Robert Alton. This role propelled him to stardom. During its run, he told reporters: "I don't believe in conformity to any school of dancing. I create what the drama and the music demand. While I am a hundred percent for ballet technique, I use only what I can adapt to my own use. I never let technique get in the way of mood or continuity." His colleagues at this time noticed his great commitment to rehearsal and hard work. Van Johnson—who also appeared in "Pal Joey"—recalled: "I watched him rehearsing, and it seemed to me that there was no possible room for improvement. Yet he wasn't satisfied. It was midnight and we had been rehearsing since 8 in the morning. I was making my way sleepily down the long flight of stairs when I heard staccato steps coming from the stage ... I could see just a single lamp burning. Under it, a figure was dancing ... Gene."


title: Gene Kelly

text: Offers from Hollywood began to arrive, but Kelly was in no hurry to leave New York. Eventually, he signed with David O. Selznick, agreeing to go to Hollywood at the end of his commitment to "Pal Joey", in October 1941. Prior to his contract, he also managed to fit in choreographing the stage production of "Best Foot Forward".


title: Gene Kelly

text: Selznick sold half of Kelly's contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for his first motion picture: "For Me and My Gal" (1942) starring Judy Garland. Kelly said he was "appalled at the sight of myself blown up 20 times. I had an awful feeling that I was a tremendous flop." "For Me and My Gal" performed very well, and in the face of much internal resistance, Arthur Freed of MGM picked up the other half of Kelly's contract. After appearing in a B movie drama, "Pilot No. 5" (1943) and in "Christmas Holiday" (1944), he took the male lead in Cole Porter's "Du Barry Was a Lady" (1943) with Lucille Ball (in a part originally intended for Ann Sothern). His first opportunity to dance to his own choreography came in his next picture, "Thousands Cheer" (1943), in which he performed a mock-love dance with a mop. Unusually, in "Pilot No. 5", Kelly played the antagonist.


title: Gene Kelly

text: He achieved a significant breakthrough as a dancer on film when MGM lent him to Columbia to work with Rita Hayworth in "Cover Girl" (1944), a film that foreshadowed the best of his future work. He created a memorable routine dancing to his own reflection. Despite this, critic Manny Farber was moved to praise Kelly's "attitude", "clarity", and "feeling" as an actor while inauspiciously concluding, "The two things he does least well—singing and dancing—are what he is given most consistently to do."


title: Gene Kelly

text: In Kelly's next film, "Anchors Aweigh" (1945), MGM gave him a free hand to devise a range of dance routines, including his duets with co-star Frank Sinatra and the celebrated animated dance with Jerry Mouse—the animation for which was supervised by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. That performance was enough for Farber to completely reverse his previous assessment of Kelly's skills. Reviewing the film, Farber enthused, "Kelly is the most exciting dancer to appear in Hollywood movies." "Anchors Aweigh" became one of the most successful films of 1945 and Kelly was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In "Ziegfeld Follies" (1946)—which was produced in 1944 but delayed for release—Kelly collaborated with Fred Astaire, for whom he had the greatest admiration, in "The Babbitt and the Bromide" challenge dance routine.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly was deferred from the draft in 1940 by the U.S. Selective Service System at the request of his employers, but was classified 1-A, eligible for induction, in October 1944 after an appeal to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt by the head of the Selective Service in New York City. Roosevelt personally upheld the appeal. He was inducted into the armed forces a month later, and at his request he was assigned to the U.S. Navy. He served in the U.S. Naval Air Service and was commissioned as lieutenant, junior grade. He was stationed in the Photographic Section, Washington D.C., where he was involved in writing and directing a range of documentaries, and this stimulated his interest in the production side of filmmaking. He was discharged in 1946.


title: Gene Kelly

text: After Kelly returned from Naval service, MGM had nothing planned and used him in a routine, black-and-white movie: "Living in a Big Way" (1947). The film was considered so weak that the studio asked Kelly to design and insert a series of dance routines; they noticed his ability to carry out such assignments. This led to a lead part in his next picture, with Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli—a musical film version of S.N. Behrman's play, "The Pirate" (1948), with songs by Cole Porter, in which Kelly plays the lead opposite Garland. "The Pirate" gave full rein to Kelly's athleticism. It features Kelly's work with the Nicholas Brothers—the leading black dancers of their day—in a virtuoso dance routine. Now regarded as a classic, the film was ahead of its time, but flopped at the box office.


title: Gene Kelly

text: MGM wanted Kelly to return to safer and more commercial vehicles, but he ceaselessly fought for an opportunity to direct his own musical film. In the interim, he capitalized on his swashbuckling image as d'Artagnan in "The Three Musketeers" (also 1948)—and also appeared with Vera-Ellen in the "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ballet in "Words and Music" (1948 again). He was due to play the male lead opposite Garland in "Easter Parade" (1948), but broke his ankle playing volleyball. He withdrew from the film and persuaded Fred Astaire to come out of retirement to replace him. There followed "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (1949), his second film with Sinatra, where Kelly paid tribute to his Irish heritage in "The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day" routine. This musical film persuaded Arthur Freed to have Kelly make "On the Town" (also 1949), in which he partnered with Frank Sinatra for the third and final time. A breakthrough in the musical film genre, it has been described as "the most inventive and effervescent musical thus far produced in Hollywood."


title: Gene Kelly

text: Stanley Donen, brought to Hollywood by Kelly to be his assistant choreographer, received co-director credit for "On the Town". According to Kelly: "when you are involved in doing choreography for film, you must have expert assistants. I needed one to watch my performance, and one to work with the cameraman on the timing ... without such people as Stanley, Carol Haney, and Jeanne Coyne I could never have done these things. When we came to do "On the Town", I knew it was time for Stanley to get screen credit because we weren't boss–assistant anymore but co-creators." Together, they opened up the musical form, taking the film musical out of the studio and into real locations, with Donen taking responsibility for the staging and Kelly handling the choreography. Kelly went much further than before in introducing modern ballet into his dance sequences, going so far in the "Day in New York" routine as to substitute four leading ballet specialists for Sinatra, Munshin, Garrett, and Miller.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly asked the studio for a straight acting role and he took the lead role in the early mafia melodrama "Black Hand" (1950). This exposé of organized crime is set in New York's "Little Italy" during the late 19th century and focuses on the Black Hand, a group that extorts money upon threat of death. In real-life incidents upon which this film is based, the Mafia, not the Black Hand, functioned as the villain. Filmmakers had to tread gingerly whenever dealing with big-time crime, it being safer to go after a "dead" criminal organization than a "live" one. There followed "Summer Stock" (1950)—Garland's last musical film for MGM—in which Kelly performed the "You, You Wonderful You" solo routine with a newspaper and a squeaky floorboard. In his book "Easy the Hard Way", Joe Pasternak, head of another of MGM's musical units, singled out Kelly for his patience and willingness to spend as much time as necessary to enable the ailing Garland to complete her part.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Then followed in quick succession two musicals that secured Kelly's reputation as a major figure in the American musical film. First, "An American in Paris" (1951) and—probably the most admired of all film musicals—"Singin' in the Rain" (1952). As co-director, lead star, and choreographer, Kelly was the central driving force in both of these films. Johnny Green, the head of music at MGM at the time, said of him,


title: Gene Kelly

text: Gene is easygoing as long as you know exactly what you are doing when you're working with him. He's a hard taskmaster and he loves hard work. If you want to play on his team you'd better like hard work, too. He isn't cruel, but he is tough, and if Gene believed in something, he didn't care who he was talking to, whether it was Louis B. Mayer or the gatekeeper. He wasn't awed by anybody, and he had a good record of getting what he wanted.


title: Gene Kelly

text: "An American in Paris" won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film also marked the debut of 19-year-old ballerina Leslie Caron, whom Kelly had spotted in Paris and brought to Hollywood. Its dream ballet sequence, lasting an unprecedented 17 minutes, was the most expensive production number ever filmed at that time. Bosley Crowther described it as, "whoop-de-doo ... one of the finest ever put on the screen." Also in 1951, Kelly received an honorary Academy Award for his contribution to film musicals and the art of choreography.


title: Gene Kelly

text: The following year, "Singin' in the Rain" featured Kelly's celebrated and much imitated solo dance routine to the title song, along with the "Moses Supposes" routine with Donald O'Connor and the "Broadway Melody" finale with Cyd Charisse. Though the film did not initially generate the same enthusiasm "An American in Paris" created, it has subsequently overtaken the earlier film to occupy its current pre-eminent place in the esteem of critics.


title: Gene Kelly

text: At the peak of his creative powers, Kelly made what in retrospect some see as a mistake. In December 1951, he signed a contract with MGM that sent him to Europe for 19 months to use MGM funds frozen in Europe to make three pictures while personally benefiting from tax exemptions. Only one of these pictures was a musical, "Invitation to the Dance", a pet project of Kelly's to bring modern ballet to mainstream film audiences. It was beset with delays and technical problems, and flopped when finally released in 1956.


title: Gene Kelly

text: When Kelly returned to Hollywood in 1953, the film musical was beginning to feel the pressures from television, and MGM cut the budget for his next picture "Brigadoon" (1954), with Cyd Charisse, forcing him to make the film on studio backlots instead of on location in Scotland. This year also had him appear as a guest star with his brother Fred in the "I Love to Go Swimmin' with Wimmen" routine in "Deep in My Heart" (1954). MGM's refusal to lend him out for "Guys and Dolls" and "Pal Joey" put further strains on his relationship with the studio. He negotiated an exit to his contract that involved making three further pictures for MGM. The first of these, "It's Always Fair Weather" (1955), co-directed with Donen, was a musical satire on television and advertising, and includes his roller-skate dance routine to "I Like Myself", and a dance trio with Michael Kidd and Dan Dailey that Kelly used to experiment with the widescreen possibilities of Cinemascope. MGM had lost faith in Kelly's box-office appeal, and as a result "It's Always Fair Weather" premiered at 17 drive-in theatres around the Los Angeles metroplex. Next followed Kelly's last musical film for MGM, "Les Girls" (1957), in which he joined a trio of leading ladies, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall, and Taina Elg. The third picture he completed was a co-production between MGM and himself, a cheapie B-film, "The Happy Road" (1957), set in his beloved France, his first foray in a new role as producer-director-actor. After leaving MGM, Kelly returned to stage work.


title: Gene Kelly

text: In 1958, Kelly directed Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play "Flower Drum Song". Early in 1960, Kelly, an ardent Francophile and fluent French speaker, was invited by A. M. Julien, the general administrator of the Paris Opéra and Opéra-Comique, to select his own material and create a modern ballet for the company, the first time an American had received such an assignment. The result was "Pas de Dieux", based on Greek mythology, combined with the music of George Gershwin's "Concerto in F". It was a major success, and led to his being honored with the "Chevalier" de la Légion d'Honneur by the French Government.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly continued to make some film appearances, such as Hornbeck in the Hollywood production of "Inherit the Wind" (1960) and as himself in "Let's Make Love" (also 1960). However, most of his efforts were now concentrated on film production and directing. In Paris, he directed Jackie Gleason in "Gigot" (1962), but the film was drastically recut by Seven Arts Productions and flopped. Another French effort, Jacques Demy's homage to the MGM musical, "The Young Girls of Rochefort" ("Les Demoiselles de Rochefort", 1967), in which Kelly appeared, was a box-office success in France and nominated for Academy Awards for Best Music and Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation), but performed poorly elsewhere.


title: Gene Kelly

text: He was asked to direct the film version of "The Sound of Music", which had already been turned down by Stanley Donen. He escorted Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter, out of his house, saying, "Go find someone else to direct this piece of shit."


title: Gene Kelly

text: His first foray into television was a documentary for NBC's "Omnibus", "Dancing is a Man's Game" (1958), in which he assembled a group of America's greatest sportsmen—including Mickey Mantle, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Bob Cousy—and reinterpreted their moves choreographically, as part of his lifelong quest to remove the effeminate stereotype of the art of dance, while articulating the philosophy behind his dance style. It gained an Emmy nomination for choreography and now stands as the key document explaining Kelly's approach to modern dance.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly appeared frequently on television shows during the 1960s, including "Going My Way" (1962–63), which was based on the 1944 film of the same name. It enjoyed great popularity in Roman Catholic countries outside the US. He also appeared in three major TV specials: "The Julie Andrews Show" (1965), "New York, New York" (1966), and "Jack and the Beanstalk" (1967)—a show he produced and directed that again combined cartoon animation and live dance, winning him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program.


title: Gene Kelly

text: In 1963, Kelly joined Universal Pictures for a two-year stint. He joined 20th Century Fox in 1965, but had little to do—partly due to his decision to decline assignments away from Los Angeles for family reasons. His perseverance finally paid off, with the major box-office hit "A Guide for the Married Man" (1967), in which he directed Walter Matthau. Then, a major opportunity arose when Fox—buoyed by the returns from "The Sound of Music" (1965)—commissioned Kelly to direct "Hello, Dolly!" (1969), again directing Matthau along with Barbra Streisand. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning three.


title: Gene Kelly

text: In 1966, Kelly starred in an hour-long musical television special for CBS titled, "Gene Kelly in New York, New York". The special focuses on Gene Kelly in a musical tour around Manhattan, dancing along such landmarks as Rockefeller Center, the Plaza Hotel, and the Museum of Modern Art, which serve as backdrops for the show's entertaining production numbers. The special was written by Woody Allen, who also stars alongside Kelly. Guest stars included choreographer Gower Champion, British musical comedy star Tommy Steele, and songstress Damita Jo DeBlanc.


title: Gene Kelly

text: In 1970, he made another television special: "Gene Kelly and 50 Girls", and was invited to bring the show to Las Vegas, which he did for an eight-week stint on the condition he be paid more than any artist had ever been paid there. He directed veteran actors James Stewart and Henry Fonda in the comedy Western "The Cheyenne Social Club" (1970), which performed poorly at the box office. In 1973, he worked again with Frank Sinatra as part of Sinatra's Emmy-nominated TV special, "Magnavox Presents Frank Sinatra". He appeared as one of many special narrators in the surprise hit "That's Entertainment!" (1974). He directed and co-starred with his friend Fred Astaire in the sequel "That's Entertainment, Part II" (1976). It was a measure of his powers of persuasion that he managed to coax the 77-year-old Astaire—who had insisted that his contract rule out any dancing, having long since retired—into performing a series of song-and-dance duets, evoking a powerful nostalgia for the glory days of the American musical film.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly was a guest on the 1975 television special starring Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, "Our Love Is Here to Stay," appearing with his son, Tim, and daughter, Bridget. He starred in the poorly received action film "Viva Knievel!" (1977), with the then high-profile stuntman, Evel Knievel. Kelly continued to make frequent TV appearances. His final film role was in "Xanadu" (1980), a surprise flop despite a popular soundtrack that spawned five Top 20 hits by the Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard, and Kelly's co-star Olivia Newton-John. In Kelly's opinion, "The concept was marvelous, but it just didn't come off." In the same year, he was invited by Francis Ford Coppola to recruit a production staff for American Zoetrope's "One from the Heart" (1982). Although Coppola's ambition was for him to establish a production unit to rival the Freed Unit at MGM, the film's failure put an end to this idea. Kelly served as executive producer and co-host of "That's Dancing!" (1985), a celebration of the history of dance in the American musical. Kelly's final on-screen appearance was to introduce "That's Entertainment! III" (1994). His final film project was the animated film "Cats Don't Dance", not released until 1997, for which Kelly acted as an uncredited choreographic consultant. It was dedicated to his memory. His first Royal Variety Performance was at London's Theatre Royal on 6 November 1983 before Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.


title: Gene Kelly

text: When he began his collaborative film work, he was influenced by Robert Alton and John Murray Anderson, striving to create moods and character insight with his dances. He choreographed his own movement, along with that of the ensemble, with the assistance of Jeanne Coyne, Stanley Donen, Carol Haney, and Alex Romero. He experimented with lighting, camera techniques, and special effects to achieve true integration of dance with film, and was one of the first to use split screens, double images, and live action with animation, and is credited as the person who made the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences.


title: Gene Kelly

text: A clear progression was evident in his development, from an early concentration on tap and musical comedy style to greater complexity using ballet and modern dance forms. Kelly himself refused to categorize his style: "I don't have a name for my style of dancing ... It's certainly hybrid ... I've borrowed from the modern dance, from the classical, and certainly from the American folk dance—tap-dancing, jitterbugging ... But I have tried to develop a style which is indigenous to the environment in which I was reared." He especially acknowledged the influence of George M. Cohan: "I have a lot of Cohan in me. It's an Irish quality, a jaw-jutting, up-on-the-toes cockiness—which is a good quality for a male dancer to have." He was also heavily influenced by an African-American dancer, Robert Dotson, whom he saw perform at Loew's Penn Theatre around 1929. He was briefly taught by Frank Harrington, an African-American tap specialist from New York. However, his main interest was in ballet, which he studied under Kotchetovsky in the early 1930s. Biographer Clive Hirschhorn writes: "As a child, he used to run for miles through parks and streets and woods—anywhere, just as long as he could feel the wind against his body and through his hair. Ballet gave him the same feeling of exhilaration, and in 1933, he was convinced it was the most satisfying form of self-expression." He also studied Spanish dancing under Angel Cansino, Rita Hayworth's uncle. Generally speaking, he tended to use tap and other popular dance idioms to express joy and exuberance—as in the title song for "Singin' in the Rain" or "I Got Rhythm" in "An American in Paris", whereas pensive or romantic feelings were more often expressed via ballet or modern dance, as in "Heather on the Hill" from "Brigadoon" or "Our Love Is Here to Stay" from "An American in Paris".


title: Gene Kelly

text: According to Delamater, Kelly's work "seems to represent the fulfillment of dance–film integration in the 1940s and 1950s". While Fred Astaire had revolutionized the filming of dance in the 1930s by insisting on full-figure photography of dancers, while allowing only a modest degree of camera movement, Kelly freed up the camera, making greater use of space, camera movement, camera angles, and editing, creating a partnership between dance movement and camera movement without sacrificing full-figure framing. Kelly's reasoning behind this was that he felt the kinetic force of live dance often evaporated when brought to film, and he sought to partially overcome this by involving the camera in movement and giving the dancer a greater number of directions in which to move. Examples of this abound in Kelly's work and are well illustrated in the "Prehistoric Man" sequence from "On the Town" and "The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day" from "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". In 1951, he summed up his vision as: "If the camera is to make a contribution at all to dance, this must be the focal point of its contribution; the fluid background, giving each spectator an undistorted and altogether similar view of dancer and background. To accomplish this, the camera is made fluid, moving with the dancer, so that the lens becomes the eye of the spectator, "your eye"".


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly's athleticism gave his moves a distinctive broad, muscular quality, and this was a deliberate choice on his part, as he explained: "There's a strong link between sports and dancing, and my own dancing springs from my early days as an athlete ... I think dancing is a man's game and if he does it well he does it better than a woman." Caron said that while dancing with Astaire she felt like she was floating, Kelly danced close to the ground. He railed against what he saw as the widespread effeminacy in male dancing, which, in his opinion, "tragically" stigmatized the genre, alienating boys from entering the field: Dancing "does" attract effeminate young men. I don't object to that as long as they don't dance effeminately. I just say that if a man dances effeminately, he dances badly—just as if a woman comes out on stage and starts to sing bass. Unfortunately, people confuse gracefulness with softness. John Wayne is a graceful man and so are some of the great ballplayers ... but, of course, they don't run the risk of being called sissies. In his view, "one of our problems is that so much dancing is taught by women. You can spot many male dancers who have this tuition by their arm movements—they are soft, limp, and feminine." He acknowledged that in spite of his efforts—in TV programs such as "Dancing: A Man's Game" (1958) for example—the situation changed little over the years.


title: Gene Kelly

text: He also sought to break from the class-conscious conventions of the 1930s and early 40s, when top hat and tails or tuxedos were the norm, by dancing in casual or everyday work clothes, so as to make his dancing more relevant to the cinema-going public. His first wife, actress and dancer Betsy Blair said: A sailor suit or his white socks and loafers, or the T-shirts on his muscular torso, gave everyone the feeling that he was a regular guy, and perhaps they, too, could express love and joy by dancing in the street or stomping through puddles ... he democratized the dance in movies. In particular, he wanted to create a completely different image from that associated with Fred Astaire, not least because he believed his physique did not suit such refined elegance: "I used to envy his cool, aristocratic style, so intimate and contained. Fred wears top hat and tails to the Manor born—I put them on and look like a truck driver."


title: Gene Kelly

text: From the mid-1940s through the early 1950s, Blair and he organized weekly parties at their Beverly Hills home, and they often played an intensely competitive and physical version of charades, known as "The Game".


title: Gene Kelly

text: Late in life, Kelly was awarded Irish citizenship under Ireland's Citizenship by Foreign Birth program. The application was initiated on his behalf by his wife Patricia Ward Kelly.


title: Gene Kelly

text: On December 22, 1983, the actor's Beverly Hills mansion burned down. Faulty Christmas tree wiring was blamed. His family and pets escaped and he suffered a burned hand.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly married three times. His first marriage was to actress Betsy Blair in 1941. They had one child, Kerry (b. 1942), and divorced in April 1957.


title: Gene Kelly

text: In 1960, Kelly married his choreographic assistant Jeanne Coyne, who had previously been married to Stanley Donen between 1948 and 1951. Kelly and Coyne had two children, Timothy (b. 1962) and Bridget (b. 1964). This marriage lasted until Coyne died in 1973.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly married Patricia Ward in 1990 (when he was 77 and she was 30). Their marriage lasted until his death six years later and she has not remarried.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly was a lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party. His period of greatest prominence coincided with the McCarthy era in the US. In 1947, he was part of the Committee for the First Amendment, the Hollywood delegation that flew to Washington to protest at the first official hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. His first wife, Betsy Blair, was suspected of being a communist sympathizer, and when United Artists, which had offered Blair a part in "Marty" (1955), were considering withdrawing her under pressure from the American Legion, Kelly successfully threatened MGM's influence on United Artists with a pullout from "It's Always Fair Weather" unless his wife was restored to the part. He used his position on the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America West on a number of occasions to mediate disputes between unions and the Hollywood studios.


title: Gene Kelly

text: He was raised as a Roman Catholic and was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California. However, after becoming disenchanted by the Roman Catholic Church's support for Francisco Franco against the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War, he officially severed his ties with the church in September 1939. This separation was prompted, in part, by a trip Kelly made to Mexico in which he became convinced that the church had failed to help the poor in that country. After his departure from the Catholic Church, Kelly became an agnostic, as he had previously described himself.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly's health declined steadily in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In July 1994, he suffered a stroke and stayed in Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center hospital for seven weeks. In early 1995, he had another stroke which made him severely disabled. Kelly died on February 2, 1996. His body was cremated without a funeral or memorial service.


title: Gene Kelly

text: Kelly appeared as actor and dancer in musical films. He always choreographed his own dance routines and often the dance routines of others and used assistants. As was the practice at the time, he was rarely formally credited in the film titles.


title: Julian calendar

text: The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandria.


title: Julian calendar

text: The calendar became the predominant calendar in the Roman Empire and subsequently most of the Western world for more than 1,600 years until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated a minor modification to reduce the average length of the year from 365.25 days to 365.2425 days and thus corrected the Julian calendar's drift against the solar year. Worldwide adoption of this revised calendar, which became known as the Gregorian calendar, took place over the subsequent centuries, first in Catholic countries and subsequently in Protestant countries of the Western Christian world.


title: Julian calendar

text: The Julian calendar is still used in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts of Oriental Orthodoxy as well as by the Berbers.


title: Julian calendar

text: The Julian calendar has two types of years: a normal year of 365 days and a leap year of 366 days. They follow a simple cycle of three normal years and one leap year, giving an average year that is 365.25 days long. That is more than the actual solar year value of 365.24219 days (the current value, which varies), which means the Julian calendar gains a day every 128 years. For any given event during the years from 1901 to 2099 inclusive, its date according to the Julian calendar is 13 days behind its corresponding Gregorian date.


title: Julian calendar

text: The ordinary year in the previous Roman calendar consisted of 12 months, for a total of 355 days. In addition, a 27- or 28-day intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was sometimes inserted between February and March. This intercalary month was formed by inserting 22 or 23 days after the first 23 days of February; the last five days of February, which counted down toward the start of March, became the last five days of Intercalaris. The net effect was to add 22 or 23 days to the year, forming an intercalary year of 377 or 378 days. Some say the "mensis intercalaris" always had 27 days and began on either the first or the second day after the Terminalia (23 February).


title: Julian calendar

text: According to the later writers Censorinus and Macrobius, the ideal intercalary cycle consisted of ordinary years of 355 days alternating with intercalary years, alternately 377 and 378 days long. In this system, the average Roman year would have had days over four years, giving it an average drift of one day per year relative to any solstice or equinox. Macrobius describes a further refinement whereby, in one eight-year period within a 24-year cycle, there were only three intercalary years, each of 377 days (thus 11 intercalary years out of 24). This refinement averages the length of the year to 365.25 days over 24 years.


title: Julian calendar

text: In practice, intercalations did not occur systematically according to any of these ideal systems, but were determined by the pontifices. So far as can be determined from the historical evidence, they were much less regular than these ideal schemes suggest. They usually occurred every second or third year, but were sometimes omitted for much longer, and occasionally occurred in two consecutive years.


title: Julian calendar

text: If managed correctly this system could have allowed the Roman year to stay roughly aligned to a tropical year. However, since the pontifices were often politicians, and because a Roman magistrate's term of office corresponded with a calendar year, this power was prone to abuse: a pontifex could lengthen a year in which he or one of his political allies was in office, or refuse to lengthen one in which his opponents were in power.


title: Julian calendar

text: If too many intercalations were omitted, as happened after the Second Punic War and during the Civil Wars, the calendar would drift out of alignment with the tropical year. Moreover, because intercalations were often determined quite late, the average Roman citizen often did not know the date, particularly if he were some distance from the city. For these reasons, the last years of the pre-Julian calendar were later known as "years of confusion". The problems became particularly acute during the years of Julius Caesar's pontificate before the reform, 63–46 BC, when there were only five intercalary months (instead of eight), none of which were during the five Roman years before 46 BC.


title: Julian calendar

text: Caesar's reform was intended to solve this problem permanently, by creating a calendar that remained aligned to the sun without any human intervention. This proved useful very soon after the new calendar came into effect. Varro used it in 37 BC to fix calendar dates for the start of the four seasons, which would have been impossible only 8 years earlier. A century later, when Pliny dated the winter solstice to 25 December because the sun entered the 8th degree of Capricorn on that date, this stability had become an ordinary fact of life.


title: Julian calendar

text: Although the approximation of days for the tropical year had been known for a long time, ancient solar calendars had used less precise periods, resulting in gradual misalignment of the calendar with the seasons.


title: Julian calendar

text: The octaeteris, a cycle of eight lunar years popularised by Cleostratus (and also commonly attributed to Eudoxus) which was used in some early Greek calendars, notably in Athens, is 1.53 days longer than eight mean Julian years. The length of nineteen years in the cycle of Meton was 6,940 days, six hours longer than the mean Julian year. The mean Julian year was the basis of the 76-year cycle devised by Callippus (a student under Eudoxus) to improve the Metonic cycle.


title: Julian calendar

text: In Persia (Iran) after the reform in the Persian calendar by introduction of the Persian Zoroastrian (i. e. Young Avestan) calendar in 503 BC and afterwards, the first day of the year (1 Farvardin=Nowruz) slipped against the vernal equinox at the rate of approximately one day every four years.


title: Julian calendar

text: Likewise in the Egyptian calendar, a fixed year of 365 days was in use, drifting by one day against the sun in four years. An unsuccessful attempt to add an extra day every fourth year was made in 238 BC (Decree of Canopus). Caesar probably experienced this "wandering" or "vague" calendar in that country. He landed in the Nile delta in October 48 BC and soon became embroiled in the Ptolemaic dynastic war, especially after Cleopatra managed to be "introduced" to him in Alexandria.


title: Julian calendar

text: Caesar imposed a peace, and a banquet was held to celebrate the event. Lucan depicted Caesar talking to a wise man called Acoreus during the feast, stating his intention to create a calendar more perfect than that of Eudoxus (Eudoxus was popularly credited with having determined the length of the year to be days). But the war soon resumed and Caesar was attacked by the Egyptian army for several months until he achieved victory. He then enjoyed a long cruise on the Nile with Cleopatra before leaving the country in June 47 BC.


title: Julian calendar

text: Caesar returned to Rome in 46 BC and, according to Plutarch, called in the best philosophers and mathematicians of his time to solve the problem of the calendar. Pliny says that Caesar was aided in his reform by the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria who is generally considered the principal designer of the reform. Sosigenes may also have been the author of the astronomical almanac published by Caesar to facilitate the reform. Eventually, it was decided to establish a calendar that would be a combination between the old Roman months, the fixed length of the Egyptian calendar, and the days of Greek astronomy. According to Macrobius, Caesar was assisted in this by a certain Marcus Flavius.


title: Julian calendar

text: Caesar's reform only applied to the Roman calendar. However, in the following decades many of the local civic and provincial calendars of the empire and neighbouring client kingdoms were aligned to the Julian calendar by transforming them into calendars with years of 365 days with an extra day intercalated every four years. The reformed calendars typically retained many features of the unreformed calendars. In many cases, the New Year was not on 1 January, the leap day was not on the traditional bissextile day, the old month names were retained, the lengths of the reformed months did not match the lengths of Julian months, and, even if they did, their first days did not match the first day of the corresponding Julian month. Nevertheless, since the reformed calendars had fixed relationships to each other and to the Julian calendar, the process of converting dates between them became quite straightforward, through the use of conversion tables known as "hemerologia". Several of the reformed calendars are only known through surviving hemerologia.


title: Julian calendar

text: The three most important of these calendars are the Alexandrian calendar and the Ancient Macedonian calendar─which had two forms: the Syro-Macedonian and the 'Asian' calendars. Other reformed calendars are known from Cappadocia, Cyprus and the cities of (Roman) Syria and Palestine. Most reformed calendars were adopted under Augustus, though the calendar of Nabatea was reformed after the kingdom became the Roman province of Arabia in AD106. There is no evidence that local calendars were aligned to the Julian calendar in the western empire. Unreformed calendars continued to be used in Gaul (the Coligny calendar), Greece, Macedon, the Balkans and parts of Palestine, most notably in Judea.


title: Julian calendar

text: The Alexandrian calendar adapted the Egyptian calendar by adding a 6th epagomenal day as the last day of the year in every fourth year, falling on 29 August preceding a Julian bissextile day. It was otherwise identical to the Egyptian calendar. The first leap day was in 22 BC, and they occurred every four years from the beginning, even though Roman leap days occurred every three years at this time (see Leap year error). This calendar influenced the structure of several other reformed calendars, such as those of the cities of Gaza and Ascalon in Palestine, Salamis in Cyprus, and the province of Arabia. It was adopted by the Coptic Orthodox Church and remains in use both as the liturgical calendar of the Coptic church and as the civil calendar of Ethiopia.