title: Gotham City

text: Hamilton Hill became mayor through the backing of crime boss Rupert Thorne but was ultimately ousted from office and replaced by George P. Skowcroft. An unnamed mayor is killed by Deacon Blackfire's followers and replaced by Donald Webster. Mayor Julius Lieberman is killed by a Predator. Mayor Goode served briefly before being replaced by an African American man. Armand Krol became mayor and died of the Clench virus after leaving office. A woman, Marion Grange, became mayor with the backing of Bruce Wayne but was assassinated in Washington, D.C. while trying to secure federal aid for Gotham after an earthquake. In the wake of , Daniel Danforth Dickerson III served as mayor only to be killed by a sniper, after which he was replaced by David Hull. Seamus McGreevy served as mayor in the midst of a criminal conspiracy known as "The Body". An unnamed woman was mayor when Batman returned to Gotham a year after the Infinite Crisis. Sebastian Hady was a corrupt mayor who was eventually killed by the League of Shadows. Councilwoman Muir served as interim mayor when the city was in the grip of a virus that only affected men. Michael Akins, former commissioner of police, was appointed mayor, and later replaced by a man named Atkins. In the wake of Bane's takeover of the city, a man named Dunch served as mayor, and in the aftermath of the Joker War, anti-vigilante mayoral candidate Christopher Nakano wins election in a landslide.


title: Gotham City

text: The 1960s live-action "Batman" television series never specified Gotham's location, though there are hints it actually represents New York City, including a city map and its location across the "West River" from "Guernsey City" in "New Guernsey". Fictional residents Mayor Linseed (portrayed by Byron Keith) and Governor Stonefellow are also direct allusions to real-life Mayor John Lindsay and Governor Nelson Rockefeller. The related theatrical movie showed Batman to be flying over suburban Los Angeles, the Hollywood Hills, palm trees, a harbor, a beach and a view of the Los Angeles City Hall.


title: Gotham City

text: The live-action TV series "Gotham" was filmed in New York City and was an important requirement of the show's creative team. According to executive producer Danny Cannon, its atmosphere was inspired by the look of the city itself in the 1970s films of Sidney Lumet and William Friedkin. Clues to this include and signs showing phone numbers bearing the area code 212. Donal Logue, who portrayed Harvey Bullock in the series "Gotham", described different aspects of that series' design of Gotham City as exhibiting different sensibilities, explaining, "for me, you can step into things that almost feel like the roaring 20s, and then there's this other really kind of heavy "Blade Runner" vibe floating around. There are elements of it that are completely contemporary and there are pieces of it that are very old-fashioned...There were a couple of examples of modern technology, but maybe an antiquated version of it, that gave me a little bit of sense that it's certainly not the 50s and the 60s...But it's not high tech and it's not futuristic, by any means."


title: Gotham City

text: In the TV series "Smallville", Gotham City is mentioned by the character Linda Lake in the episode "Hydro", who jokes she can see Gotham from her view. In "Reunion", one of Oliver Queen's friends mentions having to get back to Gotham.


title: Gotham City

text: The fifth episode of "Young Justice", entitled "Schooled", indicates that Gotham is located in Connecticut, near Bridgeport.


title: Gotham City

text: Gotham City is featured heavily in "", "The New Batman Adventures" and "Batman Beyond" (where by then in the future is known as Neo-Gotham) and makes cameo appearances in ", Justice League, Justice League Unlimited" and "Static Shock". When describing Gotham City Paul Dini, a writer and director of the show, stated "In my mind, it was sort of like what if the 1939 World's Fair had gone on another 60 years or so".' In the episode "", a driver's license lists a Gotham area resident's hometown as "Gotham Estates, NY". In the episode , when Bruce Wayne leaves for England, a map shows Gotham City, at the joining of Long Island and the Hudson River. The episode shows a character's address in a police file indicating that Gotham City is located in New York state. The episode , however, implies that Gotham resides in a state of the same name; a prison workshop is shown stamping license plates that read "Gotham: The Dark Deco State" (as a reference to the artistic style of the series). The episode "" states that Gotham City has a population of approximately 10 million people. This figure was also given in the 1960s "Batman" TV series episode "Egg Grows in Gotham", the thirteenth episode of the second season.


title: Gotham City

text: Gotham City was first shown in the Arrowverse as part of "Elseworlds", a 2018 crossover storyline among the shows, which introduced Batwoman, although it had been referred to several times previously.


title: Gotham City

text: Themed lands meant to represent Gotham City have been physically constructed in several different theme parks around the world. WB Movie World in Germany featured a Gotham City section that housed Batman Adventure – The Ride, and Six Flags Magic Mountain opened a section called the "Gotham City Backlot" that featured . The section featured at Magic Mountain was designed by park designer Kevin Barbee, and alongside the opening of Batman: The Ride coincided with the largest expansion the park had ever undergone in 23 years, with the theming elements primarily having been inspired by the "Batman" films directed by Tim Burton. Both the ride and the Gotham City Backlot opened on March 26, 1994.


title: Gotham City

text: The Magic Mountain section closed at the end of the park's 2010 season and was later rethemed and rebranded as the "DC Universe," featuring characters and attractions outside of just Batman. It reopened in 2011.


title: Gotham City

text: Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi features a section themed after Gotham City, including rides based on Batman, the Riddler and the Scarecrow as well as a walk-through attraction called "The Joker's Funhouse." The park and its Gotham City section were designed by Thinkwell Group. DC characters as they appear in both the attractions themselves as well as through live performers feature costumes based on The New 52 comic book relaunch from 2011. The Gotham City section neighbors another section themed after Metropolis, home of Superman.


title: Gotham City

text: "Batman" (1989) director Tim Burton wanted a timeless alternative to New York and described it as "hell burst through the pavement and grew". The look of Gotham was overseen by production designer Anton Furst, who won an Oscar for supervising the art department. Furst stated "Batman" was "definitely based in many ways on the worst aspects of New York City" and was inspired by Andreas Feininger's photographs of 1940s New York. Furst's draftsman Nigel Phelps created numerous charcoal drawings of the buildings and interior sets for the production.


title: Gotham City

text: Following the death of Furst, Burton tapped Bo Welch to oversee production design for "Batman Returns" (1992). Burton wanted Welch to re-imagine Gotham, stating ""Batman" didn't feel big to me – it didn't have the power an old American city has". Welch wanted to expand on the same basic concept for the sequel but moved away from European influences to show more American Art Deco/world's fair elements. When asked what inspired his interpretation of Gotham, Welch stated "[H]ow can I create a visual expression of corruption and greed? That got me thinking about the fascistic architecture employed at world's fairs... That feels corrupt because it's evocative of oppressive bureaucracies and dictatorships... So I looked at a lot of [Third Reich] art and images from world's fairs". To physically make the city seem darker, he designed tall "oppressively overbuilt" cityscape that physically blocked out light.


title: Gotham City

text: When Joel Schumacher took over directing the "Batman" film series from Tim Burton, Barbara Ling handled the production design for both of Schumacher's films, "Batman Forever" (1995) and 1997's "Batman & Robin." Ling's vision of Gotham City was a luminous and outlandish evocation of modern Expressionism and Constructivism. Its futuristic design, which "Washington Post" critic Desson Howe felt evoked the 1982 film "Blade Runner", were described by Ling in her book, "Bigger, Bolder, Brighter: The Production Design of Batman & Robin" as a cross between 1930s Manhattan and the "Neo-Tokyo" of "Akira". Ling cited "neon-ridden Tokyo and the Machine Age as her influences, describing her Gotham as "like a World's Fair on ecstasy." When Batman is pursuing Two-Face in "Batman Forever", the chase ends at Lady Gotham, the fictional equivalent of the Statue of Liberty. During Mr. Freeze's attempt to freeze Gotham in the film "Batman & Robin", the targeting screen for his giant laser locates it somewhere on the New England shoreline, possibly as far north as Maine. The soundtrack for "Batman & Robin" features a song named after the city and sung by R. Kelly, later included on international editions of his 1998 double album "R."


title: Gotham City

text: Director Christopher Nolan has stated that Chicago inspired his portrayal of Gotham, and the majority of both "Batman Begins" (2005) and "The Dark Knight" (2008) were filmed there. However, Christopher Nolan's Gotham City was deliberately set in New Jersey to honor Gotham's location in the comic books.


title: Gotham City

text: In "Batman Begins", Nolan desired that Gotham appeared as a large, modern city that nonetheless reflected a variety of architecture styles and periods, as well as different socioeconomic strata. The production's approach depicted Gotham as an exaggeration of New York City, with elements taken from Chicago, the elevated freeways and monorails of Tokyo, and the "walled city of Kalhoon" in Hong Kong, which was the basis for the slum in the film known as The Narrows.


title: Gotham City

text: In "The Dark Knight", more Chicago and New York influences were observed. On filming in Chicago, James McAllister, key location manager stated, "visually it's that look like you would see in the comic books." Nolan also stated "there's all these different boroughs, with rivers to interconnect. I think it's hard to get away from that, because Gotham is based on New York."


title: Gotham City

text: For "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012), the production utilized Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, New Jersey, London and Glasgow for shots of Gotham City.


title: Gotham City

text: Within the DC Extended Universe, Gotham City is located in Gotham County, New Jersey. In "", paperwork mentions that the city is in "Gotham County," and Amanda Waller's files on Deadshot and Harley Quinn in "Suicide Squad" reveal Gotham City to be located in the state of New Jersey. Zack Snyder confirmed that Metropolis and Gotham City are in close geographical proximity to each other. The "Boston Globe" compared the close proximity of Gotham City and Metropolis to Jersey City, New Jersey and Manhattan, New York. A television ad for Turkish Airlines that premiered during the 2016 Super Bowl featured Bruce Wayne (played by Ben Affleck) promoting Gotham as a tourist destination.


title: Gotham City

text: To create Gotham in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", the creative team "decided to recreate and combine large sections of existing selected city sections and adapt the architecture and layout to fit Gotham's. Thousands of photographs were put through MPC's photogrammetry pipeline to create geometry and textures for each city section."


title: Gotham City

text: In "Birds of Prey", which takes place in Gotham, the entire shoot took place in Los Angeles. It was originally expected to be filmed in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, but the production received a tax credit from California, incentivizing the location change.


title: Gotham City

text: The 2022 Matt Reeves film "The Batman" delves into the criminal underbelly of Gotham City through noir-style storytelling and highlights themes of corruption rampant within the city's government and police department. The movie used London, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Chicago as filming locations for Gotham City. Although filmed in various locations, Matt Reeves modeled Gotham on New York City. A towering skyscraper similar to the Empire State Building looms over Gotham City with an emblazoned sign that reads "Gotham Empire". A busy, commercial intersection called "Gotham Square" is seen in several shots and resembles Times Square with its bright signs and giant digital screens. The film's concluding sequence, while filmed at London's O2 Arena, is called "Gotham Square Garden", taking its naming convention from New York's Madison Square Garden. Various members of the Gotham City Police Department and the city's mobsters speak with East Coast accents similar to those of New York and New Jersey.


title: Gotham City

text: "Joker" director and producer Todd Phillips imagined Gotham as a "version of Gotham was the pre-'80s boom New York, or urban northeastern center, but not the iconic New York." When asked how he re-imagined the city, production designer Mark Friedberg stated "our version of Gotham was what groomed him. It was both an appreciation for how severe things got in the city, but also for the world of possibility that lived in the version of that city."


title: Gotham City

text: During the events of the direct-to-video film "" (1998), a computer screen displaying Barbara Gordon's personal information refers to her location as "Gotham City, NY", and also displays her area code as being 212 – a Manhattan area code.


title: Gotham City

text: The 2008 direct-to-DVD film "" shows Gotham as a large city with many skyscrapers and a bustling population.


title: Gotham City

text: Gotham City appears in several video games, including "Batman Begins", "DC Universe Online", and "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe". The city makes another appearance in a video game with "", where the player can fight outside or inside of Wayne Manor, on top of a building and in an alley. Other games that feature the city include "Lego Dimensions" and Rocksteady's "Arkham" franchise.


title: Gotham City

text: Gotham City appears as a location in the 2017 video game "Fortnite Battle Royale" as part of a crossover in commemoration of Batman's 80th anniversary. It is the fourth incarnation of the game's iconic Tilted Towers area. Players are able to use the Batglider after falling from a great height, as long as they remain in the confines of Gotham City. The location was removed on October 13, 2019 during the game's "The End" live event, in which it was sucked into a Black Hole along with the rest of the "Fortnite" Chapter 1 Island.


title: Gotham City

text: "" (2009) opens with Batman driving Joker from Gotham City to Arkham Asylum. Joker also threatens to detonate bombs across Gotham. In "" (2011), the slums of Old Gotham City (the northern island) were converted into Arkham City. Inside the prison walls, this part of Gotham contains various landmarks throughout the story, like Penguin's Iceberg Lounge, the Ace Chemical Plant, the Sionis Steel Mill, the Old Gotham City Police Department building, and the Monarch Theatre with the Wayne murder scene in Crime Alley. Most of these locations have major events in the story. In "" (2013), an earlier, younger version of the city can be seen than that of other games in the "Batman: Arkham" series. In addition to the northern island, this installment in the series lets players explore a new southern island, connected to the former by the Pioneer's Bridge. The setting of "" (2015), Central Gotham City, is five times larger than Old Gotham. In the novelization for "Batman: Arkham Knight", it is revealed that Crime Alley was later renamed Wayne Way months after the 'death' of Batman.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed on Long Island in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, and best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla". The band has sold 25 million records worldwide, including 7 million in the United States alone. Blue Öyster Cult‘s music videos, especially "Burnin' for You", received heavy rotation on MTV when the music television network premiered in 1981, cementing the band's contribution to the development and success of the music video in modern popular culture.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Blue Öyster Cult's longest-lasting and the most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, "stun guitar", keyboards, synthesizer), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals, keyboards), and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, vocals, miscellaneous instruments). The band's current lineup still includes Bloom and Roeser, in addition to Danny Miranda (bass, backing vocals), Richie Castellano (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Jules Radino (drums, percussion). The duo of the band's manager Sandy Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, who also met at Stony Brook University, played a key role in writing many of the band’s lyrics.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Blue Öyster Cult was formed in 1967 as Soft White Underbelly (a name the group would occasionally use in the 1970s and 1980s to play small club gigs around the United States and UK) in a communal house at Stony Brook University on Long Island when rock critic Sandy Pearlman overheard a jam session consisting of fellow Stony Brook classmate Donald Roeser and his friends. Pearlman offered to become the band's manager and creative partner, to which the band agreed. The band's original lineup consisted of guitarist Roeser, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Allen Lanier, singers Jeff Kagel (aka Krishna Das) and Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In October 1967, the band made their debut performance as Steve Noonan's backing band at the Stony Brook University Gymnasium, a gig booked by Pearlman. The band's name came from Winston Churchill's description of Italy as "the soft underbelly of the Axis."


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Pearlman was important to the band – he was able to get them gigs and recording contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he provided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many of their songs, including "Astronomy". Writer Richard Meltzer, also a Stony Brook University student, provided the band with lyrics from their early days up through their most recent studio album. In 1968, the band moved in together at their first house in the Thomaston area of Great Neck, New York. The band recorded an album's worth of material for Elektra Records in 1968.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Braunstein played his final show as Soft White Underbelly's lead singer in the spring of 1969. His departure led Elektra to shelve the album recorded with him on vocals.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Eric Bloom was hired by the band as their acoustic engineer and eventually became lead singer, replacing Braunstein, through a series of three unlikely coincidences. One was that Lanier decided to join Bloom on a drive to an upstate gig, where he spent the night with Bloom's old college bandmates and got to hear old tapes of Bloom's talent as lead vocalist. Because of this, Bloom was offered the job of lead singer for Soft White Underbelly.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: However, a bad review of a 1969 Fillmore East show caused Pearlman to change the name of the band – first to Oaxaca, then to the Stalk-Forrest Group. Pearlman also gave stage names to each of the band members (Jesse Python for Eric Bloom, Andy Panda for Andy Winters, Prince Omega for Albert Bouchard, La Verne for Allen Lanier) but only Buck Dharma kept his. The band recorded yet another album's worth of material for Elektra, but only one single ("What Is Quicksand?" b/w "Arthur Comics") was released (and only in a promo edition of 300 copies) on Elektra Records (this album was eventually released, with additional outtakes, by Rhino Handmade Records as "" in 2001). The album featured Bloom as their main lead singer, but Roeser also sang lead on a few songs, a pattern of sharing lead vocals that has continued throughout the band's career. Under Bloom, Soft White Underbelly and Stalk-Forrest Group became Stony Brook University house bands which were popular on campus.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: After a few more temporary band names, including the Santos Sisters, the band settled on Blue Öyster Cult in 1971 (see below for its origin).


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: New York City producer/composer and jingle writer David Lucas saw the band perform and took them into his Warehouse Recording Studio and produced four demos, with which Pearlman was able to get the renamed band another audition with Columbia Records. Clive Davis liked what he heard, and signed the band to the label. The first album was subsequently produced and recorded by Lucas on eight-track at Lucas' studio. Winters would leave the band and be replaced by Bouchard's brother, Joe Bouchard.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Their debut album "Blue Öyster Cult" was released in January 1972, with a black-and-white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. Pearlman wanted the group to be the American answer to Black Sabbath. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as the Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Their next album "Tyranny and Mutation", released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from their debut album, and also a reference to the novel of the same name by Stendhal), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, although the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The band's third album, "Secret Treaties" (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of headlining shows. The album continued their upward sales trend, and would eventually go gold.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The band's first live album "On Your Feet or on Your Knees" (1975) achieved greater success and went gold. Its success gave the band more time to work on a follow-up. The band members were able to purchase home recording equipment to record demos for their next album.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Their next studio album, "Agents of Fortune" (1976), was their first to go platinum and was again produced by David Lucas. It contained the hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which reached number 12 on the Billboard charts and has become a classic of the hard rock genre. Other major songs on the album were "(This Ain't) The Summer of Love", "E.T.I. (Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence)" and "The Revenge of Vera Gemini". Having recorded demos of the songs at home before recording the album, the band's songwriting process had become more individual, with none of the songs featuring the collaborative writing between the band members that had been common on their earlier albums. Although the album still featured their trademark hard rock with sinister lyrics, the songs had become more conventional in structure, and the production was more polished. For the first and only time, the album featured lead vocals from all five band members, with Allen Lanier singing lead on the song "True Confessions." With Albert Bouchard singing lead on three songs and Joe Bouchard and Donald Roeser singing lead on one each, Eric Bloom ended up taking the lead on only four of the album's ten songs.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: For the tour, the band added lasers to their light show, for which they became known. They were among the first acts to use lasers in performance.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Their next album, "Spectres" (1977), had the FM radio hit "Godzilla," and would become one of the band's better-selling albums, with other well-known songs like "I Love the Night" and "Goin' Through the Motions". However, its sales were not as strong as those for the previous album, going gold but not platinum, becoming their first album to sell less than its predecessor. It featured even more polished production, and continued the trend of the lead vocals extensively shared between members, although Allen Lanier did not sing lead. As with the previous album, Eric Bloom sang lead on fewer than half the songs.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The band then released another live album, "Some Enchanted Evening" (1978). Although it was intended as another double-live album in the vein of "On Your Feet or on Your Knees", Columbia insisted that it be edited down to single-album length. It was a resounding commercial success, becoming Blue Öyster Cult's most popular album and eventually selling over two million copies. It also revealed that while the band's studio work was becoming increasingly well-produced, they were still very much a hard rock band on stage.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: It was followed by the studio album "Mirrors" (1979). For "Mirrors", instead of working with previous producers Sandy Pearlman (who instead went on to manage Black Sabbath) and Murray Krugman, Blue Öyster Cult chose Tom Werman, who had worked with acts such as Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent. It featured the band's glossiest production to date. It also gave Roeser, the lead vocalist on the band's biggest hits, bigger prominence as a vocalist, singing lead on four of the nine songs. However, the resulting album sales were disappointing.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Pearlman's association with Black Sabbath led to Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" producer Martin Birch being hired for the next Blue Öyster Cult record. The album found the band returning to their hard rock roots, and although both of the Bouchard brothers and guitarist Roeser all got lead vocal turns, Bloom would sing the majority of the tracks. The result was positive, with "Cultösaurus Erectus" (1980) receiving good reviews. The album went to number 12 in the United Kingdom, but did not do as well in the United States. The song "Black Blade", which was written by Bloom with lyrics by science fiction and fantasy author Michael Moorcock, is a kind of retelling of Moorcock's epic Elric of Melniboné saga. The band also did a co-headlining tour with Black Sabbath in support of the album, calling the tour "Black and Blue".


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Birch produced the band's next album as well, "Fire of Unknown Origin" (1981), which peaked at number 24 on the "Billboard" 200, becoming the band's highest-charting album. The biggest hit on this album was the Top 40 hit "Burnin' for You," a song Roeser had written with a Richard Meltzer lyric. He had intended to use it on his solo album, "Flat Out" (1982), but he was convinced to use it on the Blue Öyster Cult album instead. The revival of the band's heavier sound continued, albeit with fairly heavy use of synthesizers and some noticeable New Wave influence on a few tracks. It contained other fan favorites such as "Joan Crawford" (inspired by the book and film "Mommie Dearest") and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", another song co-written by Moorcock. Several of the songs had been written for the animated film "Heavy Metal", but only "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (which had not been written for "Heavy Metal") was actually used in the movie. The album marked a strong commercial resurgence for the band and achieved gold status, their first studio album since "Spectres" to do so.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: During the tour for "Fire of Unknown Origin", Albert Bouchard had a falling out with the others and left the band, and Rick Downey (formerly the band's lighting designer) replaced him on drums. This marked the end of the band's original and best-known lineup.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: After leaving the band, Albert Bouchard spent five years working on a solo album based on Sandy Pearlman's poem "Imaginos". Blue Öyster Cult also released a third live album "Extraterrestrial Live".


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The band then went to the studio for the next album, "The Revölution by Night" (1983), with Bruce Fairbairn as producer. After two albums of a return to a harder rocking sound, the band adopted a more radio-friendly, AOR-oriented sound with Fairbairn providing a 1980s-style production. This approach met with some success, especially on its highest-charting single, Roeser's "Shooting Shark", co-written by Patti Smith and featuring Randy Jackson on bass, which reached number 83 on the charts. Bloom's "Take Me Away" achieved some FM radio play. However, the album didn't match sales of its predecessor, failed to achieve gold status, and marked the beginning of the band's second commercial decline. After touring for "Revölution", Rick Downey left, leaving Blue Öyster Cult without a drummer.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Blue Öyster Cult re-united with Albert Bouchard for a California tour in February 1985, infamously known as the 'Albert Returns' Tour. This arrangement was only temporary and caused more tensions between the band and Bouchard, since he had thought he would be staying on permanently, which was not the case. The band had intended to use him only as a fill-in until another drummer could come on board, which resulted in Bouchard's leaving after the tour. Allen Lanier also quit the band shortly thereafter, leaving them without a keyboardist and with only three remaining original members. This incarnation of the band would sometimes be referred to as '3ÖC' by fans, which is a pun on the number of original members left.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Blue Öyster Cult hired drummer Jimmy Wilcox and keyboardist Tommy Zvoncheck to finish the album "Club Ninja", which was poorly received, with only "Dancin' in the Ruins," one of several songs on the record written entirely by outside songwriters, enjoying minimal success on radio and MTV. The best-known original on the album is "Perfect Water" written by Dharma and Jim Carroll (noted author of "The Basketball Diaries"). While the band members have generally been disparaging about the album in retrospect, Joe Bouchard has stated that "Perfect Water" is "perfect genius".


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The band toured in Germany, after which bassist Bouchard left, leaving only two members of the classic lineup: Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser. Some people referred to the band as "Two Öyster Cult" during this period. Jon Rogers was hired to replace Joe and this version of the band finished out the 1986 tour. After it wound up that year, the band took a temporary break from recording and touring. When Blue Öyster Cult received an offer to tour in Greece in the early summer of 1987, the band reformed. Wilcox quit while Zvoncheck was fired for making excessive financial demands. Allen Lanier then was offered to rejoin and agreed, so the new line-up now featured three founding members, along with Jon Rogers returning on bass and Ron Riddle as their newest drummer.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Columbia Records was not interested in releasing the "Imaginos" project as an Albert Bouchard solo album so it was arranged for the record to be released in 1988 by Columbia as a Blue Öyster Cult album, with some new lead vocal overdubs from Bloom and Roeser and lead guitar overdubs from Roeser. These replaced most of Albert Bouchard's lead vocals, as well as many lead guitar parts that had been recorded by session musicians. Joe Bouchard and Allen Lanier had earlier contributed some minor keyboard and backing vocal parts to the album, allowing all five original members to be credited. The album didn't sell well (despite a positive review in "Rolling Stone" magazine) and although the then-current Blue Öyster Cult lineup (minus both Bouchard brothers) toured to promote "Imaginos", promotion by the label was virtually non-existent. When Columbia Records' parent company CBS Records was purchased by Sony and became Sony Music Entertainment, Blue Öyster Cult were dropped from the label.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The band spent the next 11 years touring without releasing an album of new material, although they did contribute two new songs to the "Bad Channels" movie soundtrack, released in 1992, and also released an album of re-recorded songs from the band's original lineup, called "Cult Classic", in 1994. During these years, while the three original members remained constant, there were several changes in the band's rhythm section. Ron Riddle quit in 1991 and was followed by a series of other drummers including


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Chuck Burgi (1991–1992, 1992–1995, 1996–1997), John Miceli (1992, 1995), John O'Reilly (1995–1996) and Bobby Rondinelli (1997–2004). As for the bass position, Rogers left in 1995, and was replaced by Danny Miranda.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In the late 1990s, Blue Öyster Cult secured a recording contract with CMC Records (later purchased by Sanctuary Records), and continued to tour frequently. Two studio albums were released, "Heaven Forbid" (1998) and "Curse of the Hidden Mirror" (2001). Both albums featured songs co-written by cyberpunk/horror novelist John Shirley. The first mostly featured Miranda on bass and Burgi on drums, although a few tracks feature earlier bassist Jon Rogers and one track features Rondinelli on drums, who had joined the band near the end of the recording. "Curse of the Hidden Mirror" features Miranda and Rondinelli as the rhythm section, and the pair contributed to the songwriting as well. Neither album sold well.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Another live record and DVD "A Long Day's Night" followed in 2002, both drawn from one concert in Chicago. This album also featured the Bloom, Roeser, Lanier, Miranda, Rondinelli lineup.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Although the band's lineup had remained stable from 1997 to 2004, they began to experience personnel changes again in 2004. Rondinelli left in 2004, and was replaced by Jules Radino. Miranda left during the same year to become the bassist for Queen + Paul Rodgers in place of the retired John Deacon. He was replaced by Richie Castellano, who would also take occasional turns as a lead vocalist onstage.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In 2001, Sony/Columbia's reissue arm, Legacy Records issued expanded versions of the first four Blue Öyster Cult studio albums, including some previously unreleased demos and outtakes from album sessions, live recordings (from the "Live 72" EP), and post-"St. Cecilia" tunes from the Stalk-Forrest Group era.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Allen Lanier retired from live performances in 2007 after not appearing with the band since late 2006. Castellano switched to rhythm guitar and keyboards (Castellano also filled in on lead guitar and vocals for an ailing Buck Dharma in two shows in 2005), and the position of bassist was taken up by Rudy Sarzo (previously a member of Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne and Dio), with the band employing Danny Miranda and Jon Rogers as guest bassists to fill in when Sarzo was unavailable. Sarzo then joined as an official member of the band, although Rogers continued to occasionally fill in when Sarzo was busy.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In February 2007, the Sony Legacy remaster series continued, releasing expanded versions of studio album "Spectres" and live album "Some Enchanted Evening".


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In June 2012, the band announced that bassist Rudy Sarzo was leaving the band and was being replaced by former Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In August of the same year, it was announced that Sony Legacy would be releasing a 17-disc boxed set entitled "The Complete Columbia Albums Collection" on October 30, 2012. The set includes the first round of the remastered series plus the long-awaited remastered versions of "On Your Feet or on Your Knees", "Mirrors", "Cultösaurus Erectus", "Fire Of Unknown Origin", "Extraterrestrial Live", "The Revölution by Night", "Club Ninja" and "Imaginos". Also exclusive to this set are two discs of rare and unreleased B-sides, demos and radio broadcasts.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Also in 2012, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Blue Öyster Cult, the then-current incarnation of the band reunited for the first time in 25 years with other original members Joe and Albert Bouchard and Allen Lanier as guests for a special event in New York.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Founding keyboardist/guitarist Allen Lanier died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on August 14, 2013.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In 2016, Albert Bouchard played again as guest with the current line-up of the band, playing at shows in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and London, where Blue Öyster Cult played the album "Agents of Fortune" in its entirety. The shows featured songs from "Agents of Fortune" that had either not been played live before ("True Confessions", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", "Sinful Love", "Tenderloin", "Debbie Denise"), songs that had not been played since the album's debut tour ("Morning Final"), and songs that were either no longer or never were played frequently ("This Ain't the Summer of Love", "Tattoo Vampire"), as well as the fan favorite "Five Guitars", which had not been played since Albert initially left the band in 1981. Albert played in the following songs at the show: "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (vocals, guitar), "Sinful Love" (vocals, guitar), "Tattoo Vampire" (guitar), "Morning Final" (guitar), "Tenderloin" (cymbals), "Debbie Denise" (vocals, acoustic guitar), "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll" (vocals, drums), and "Five Guitars" (guitar).


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In a May 2017 appearance on Castellano's "Band Geek" podcast, Bloom confirmed that there were tentative plans to release a new album in 2018 and that the band was currently considering offers from multiple record labels. He also stated that former bassist Danny Miranda would be playing with the band for the remainder of the year due to Sulton's prior touring commitments with Todd Rundgren. During the same year, the band's official website started to list Miranda as an official member, stating that Miranda had "returned to BÖC" in early 2017.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Buck Dharma stated in February 2019 that the band would be recording a new album to be released by fall. On July 10, 2019, it was announced that the band had signed to Frontiers Music, and would in fact be releasing the new album in 2020. "It's been a long time since BÖC's last studio album. Recording with Danny, Richie and Jules should be a great experience as we've been touring together for years, and Buck and I look forward to including them in the creative and recording process," said Bloom. "The current band is GREAT and has never been recorded other than live, so we feel now's the time for new songs to be written and recorded. About half of the songs for the new record exist and the rest will be finished during the process," added Buck Dharma. In February 2020, Richie Castellano posted a short video to Facebook featuring himself and Eric Bloom, stating that the band are working on the new Blue Oyster Cult record remotely by using ConnectionOpen online audio collaboration tool.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In August 2020, the band announced on their website that their fifteenth studio album "The Symbol Remains" would be released on October 9, 2020. The span of nineteen years between "Curse of the Hidden Mirror" and "The Symbol Remains" marks the longest gap between studio albums in Blue Öyster Cult's career. The album was released to a positive critical reception, with tracks such as "Box In My Head" and "The Alchemist" receiving high praise.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In October 2022, during their European headlining tour, Blue Öyster Cult supported Deep Purple at five arena shows in the United Kingdom.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Blue Öyster Cult is a hard rock band, whose music has been described as heavy metal, psychedelic rock, occult rock, biker boogie, acid rock, and progressive rock. They have also been recognized for helping pioneer genres such as stoner metal. The band has also experimented with additional genres on specific albums. An example of this is "Mirrors".


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The band is influenced by artists such as Alice Cooper, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, MC5, The Blues Project, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: While Blue Öyster Cult has been noted for heavy rock, they would often add their own tongue-in-cheek style. Keeping with their image, the band would often include out-of-context fragments of Pearlman's "The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos" into their lyrics, giving their songs cryptic meanings. Additionally, the band would keep a folder of Meltzer's and Pearlman's word associations to insert into their music.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The name "Blue Öyster Cult" came from a 1960s poem written by manager Sandy Pearlman. It was part of his "Imaginos" poetry, later used more extensively on their album "Imaginos" (1988). Pearlman had also come up with the band's earlier name, "Soft White Underbelly", from a phrase used by Winston Churchill in describing Italy during World War II. In Pearlman's poetry, the "Blue Oyster Cult" was a group of aliens who had assembled secretly to guide Earth's history. "Initially, the band was not happy with the name, but settled for it, and went to work preparing to record their first release..."


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: In a 1976 interview published in the U.K. music magazine "ZigZag", Pearlman told the story explaining the origin of the band's name was an anagram of "Cully Stout Beer".


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The addition of an umlaut was suggested by Allen Lanier, but Richard Meltzer claims to have suggested it just after Pearlman came up with the name, reportedly "because of the Wagnerian aspect of Metal". Other bands later copied the practice of using umlauts or diacritic marks in their own band names, such as Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche and parodied by Spın̈al Tap.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The hook-and-cross logo was designed by fellow Stony Brook student Bill Gawlik for his master's thesis in January 1972, and appears on all of the band's albums. In Greek mythology, "... the hook-and-cross symbol is that of Kronos (Cronus), the king of the Titans and father of Zeus ... and is the alchemical symbol for lead (a heavy metal), one of the heaviest of metals." Sandy Pearlman considered this, combined with the heavy and distorted guitar sound of the band and decided the description "heavy metal" would be apt for the band's sound. The hook-and-cross symbol also resembled the astrological symbol for Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, and the sickle, which is associated with both Kronos (Cronus) and Saturn (both the planet and the Roman god). The logo's "... metaphysical, alchemical and mythological connotations, combined with its similarity to some religious symbols gave it a flair of decadence and mystery ..."


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The band was billed, for the only time, as ""The" Blue Öyster Cult" on the cover and label of their second album, "Tyranny and Mutation".


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Blue Öyster Cult have been influential to the realm of hard rock and heavy metal, leading them to being referred to as "the thinking man's heavy metal band" due to their often cryptic lyrics, literate songwriting, and links to famous authors. They have influenced many acts including Iron Maiden, Metallica, Fates Warning, Iced Earth, Cirith Ungol, Alice in Chains, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Steel Panther, Green River (and later Mudhoney), Body Count, Possessed, Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Opeth, White Zombie, Kvelertak, HIM, Turbonegro, Radio Birdman, The Cult, The Minutemen, Firehose, Hoodoo Gurus, Widespread Panic, Queens of the Stone Age, Umphrey's McGee, Stabbing Westward, Royal Trux, and Moe.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: The band's influence has extended beyond the musical sphere. The lyrics of "Astronomy" have been named by author Shawn St. Jean as inspirational to the later chapters of his fantasy novel "Clotho's Loom", wherein Sandy Pearlman's "Four Winds Bar" provides the setting for a portion of the action. Titles and lines from the band's songs provided structure and narrative for the third book in Robert Galbraith's (a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling), series of Cormoran Strike novels, "Career of Evil".


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: Their hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was featured in the famous "Saturday Night Live" sketch "More Cowbell". The original recording was produced at The Record Plant in New York by David Lucas, who sang background vocals with Roeser, and introduced the now-famous cowbell part, which may have been played by himself, Albert Bouchard, or Eric Bloom.


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used in writer/director John Carpenter's horror film classic, "Halloween" (1978), the opening sequence of the miniseries adaptation of "The Stand" (1994) by Stephen King, and covered by The Mutton Birds for Peter Jackson's horror-comedy film "The Frighteners" (1996). "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used throughout the comedy film "The Stoned Age" (1994) and plays a role in its storyline. In the film "Gone Girl" (2014), the song plays on the radio during a car driving scene with actor Ben Affleck. The song was also used as the opening theme and main story element in the 1996 FMV computer game "Ripper", by Take Two Interactive, and was also featured in the 2021 video game "Returnal". The lyrics for "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" are featured in the introduction of Stephen King's book "The Stand".


title: Blue Öyster Cult

text: During their career, Blue Öyster Cult have frequently collaborated with outside lyricists, although in the late 1970s the band members also wrote lyrics for some of their songs. Lyricists for Blue Öyster Cult have included all the original members (Bloom, Roeser, Albert and Joe Bouchard, and Lanier), producer Sandy Pearlman, and writers Richard Meltzer, Patti Smith, Michael Moorcock, Eric Van Lustbader, Jim Carroll, Broadway Blotto and John Shirley.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson (; , ) is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States, and is home to the University of Arizona. It is the second largest city in Arizona behind Phoenix, with a population of 542,629 in the 2020 United States census, while the population of the entire Tucson metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is 1,043,433. The Tucson MSA forms part of the larger Tucson-Nogales combined statistical area (CSA). Both Tucson and Phoenix anchor the Arizona Sun Corridor. The city is southeast of Phoenix and north of the U.S.–Mexico border. Tucson is the 34th largest city and the 53rd largest metropolitan area in the United States (2014).


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Major incorporated suburbs of Tucson include Oro Valley and Marana northwest of the city, Sahuarita south of the city, and South Tucson in an enclave south of downtown. Communities in the vicinity of Tucson (some within or overlapping the city limits) include Casas Adobes, Catalina Foothills, Flowing Wells, Midvale Park, Tanque Verde, Tortolita, and Vail. Towns outside the Tucson metro area include Benson to the southeast, Catalina and Oracle to the north, and Green Valley to the south.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson was founded as a military fort by the Spanish when Hugo O'Conor authorized the construction of Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón in 1775. It was included in the state of Sonora after Mexico gained independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821. In 1853, the United States acquired a region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico from Mexico under the Gadsden Purchase. Tucson served as the capital of the Arizona Territory from 1867 to 1877. Tucson was Arizona's largest city by population during the territorial period and early statehood, until it was surpassed by Phoenix by 1920. Nevertheless, population growth remained strong during the late 20th century. In 2017, Tucson was the first American city to be designated a "City of Gastronomy" by UNESCO.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The Spanish name of the city, "Tucsón" , is derived from the O'odham "Cuk Ṣon" , meaning "(at the) base of the black [hill]", a reference to a basalt-covered hill now known as Sentinel Peak. Tucson is sometimes referred to as "The Old Pueblo", and "Optics Valley," the latter referring to its optical science and telescopes known worldwide.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The Tucson area was probably first visited by Paleo-Indians, who were known to have been in southern Arizona about 12,000 years ago. Recent archaeological excavations near the Santa Cruz River found a village site dating from 2100 BC. The floodplain of the Santa Cruz River was extensively farmed during the Early Agricultural Period, c. 1200 BC to AD 150. These people hunted, gathered wild plants and nuts, and ate corn, beans and other crops grown using irrigation canals they constructed.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The Early Ceramic period occupation of Tucson saw the first extensive use of pottery vessels for cooking and storage. The groups designated as the Hohokam lived in the area from AD 600 to 1450 and are known for their vast irrigation canal systems and their red-on-brown pottery.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The Spanish Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino first visited the Santa Cruz River valley in 1692. He founded the Mission San Xavier del Bac in 1700, about upstream from the site of the settlement of Tucson. A separate Convento settlement was founded downstream along the Santa Cruz River, near the base of what is now known as "A" mountain. Hugo O'Conor, the founding father of the city of Tucson, Arizona, authorized the construction of a military fort in that location, "Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón," on August 20, 1775 (the present downtown Pima County Courthouse was built near this site). During the Spanish period of the presidio, attacks such as the Second Battle of Tucson were repeatedly mounted by the Apache. Eventually the town came to be called "Tucsón," a Spanish version of the O'odham word for the area. It was included in the state of Sonora after Mexico gained independence from the Kingdom of Spain and its Spanish Empire in 1821.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: During the Mexican–American War in 1846–1848, Tucsón was captured by Philip St. George Cooke with the Mormon Battalion, but it soon returned to Mexican control as Cooke proceeded to the west, establishing Cooke's Wagon Road to California. Tucsón was not included in the Mexican Cession to the United States following the war. Cooke's road through Tucsón became one of the important routes into California during the California Gold Rush of 1849.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The US acquired those portions of (modern day) Arizona that lay south of the Gila River via treaty from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase on June 8, 1854. Under this treaty and purchase, Tucsón became a part of the United States of America. The American military did not formally take over control until March 1856. In time, the name of the town became standardized in English in its current form, where the stress is on the first syllable, the "u" is long, and the "c" is silent.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In 1857, Tucson was established as a stage station on the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line. In 1858 it became 3rd division headquarters of the Butterfield Overland Mail and operated until the line was shut down in March 1861. The Overland Mail Corporation attempted to continue running; however, following the Bascom Affair, devastating Apache attacks on the stations and coaches ended operations in August 1861.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: From 1877 to 1878, the area suffered a rash of stagecoach robberies. Most notable were the two holdups committed by masked road-agent William Whitney Brazelton. Brazelton held up two stages in the summer of 1878 near Point of Mountain Station, approximately northwest of Tucson. John Clum, of Tombstone, Arizona fame, was one of the passengers. Pima County Sheriff Charles A. Shibell and his citizen posse killed Brazelton on August 19, 1878, in a mesquite bosque along the Santa Cruz River south of Tucson. Brazelton had been suspected of highway robbery in the Tucson area, the Prescott region, and the Silver City, New Mexico area. Because of the crimes and threats to his business, John J. Valentine, Sr. of Wells, Fargo & Co. had sent Bob Paul, a special agent and a future Pima County sheriff, to investigate. The US Army established Fort Lowell, then east of Tucson, to help protect settlers and travelers from Apache attacks.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In 1882, Morgan Earp was fatally shot, in what was later referred to in the press as "the Earp-Clanton Tragedy". Marietta Spence, wife of Pete Spence, one of the Cochise County Cowboys, testified at the coroner's inquest on Earp's killing and implicated Frank Stilwell in the murder. The coroner's jury concluded Pete Spence, Stilwell, Frederick Bode, and Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz were the prime suspects in the assassination of Morgan Earp.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp gathered a few trusted friends and accompanied Virgil Earp and his family as they traveled to Benson to take a train to California. They found Stilwell apparently lying in wait for Virgil Earp at the Tucson station and killed him on the tracks. After killing Stilwell, Wyatt deputized others and conducted a vendetta, killing three more cowboys over the next few days before leaving the Territory.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Jim Leavy had built a reputation of having fought in at least 16 gunfights. On June 5, 1882, Leavy had an argument with faro dealer John Murphy in Tucson. The two agreed to have a duel on the Mexican border, but after hearing of Leavy's exploits as a gunfighter, Murphy decided to ambush Leavy instead. Together with two of his friends, Murphy ambushed Leavy as he was leaving the Palace Hotel, killing him. According to Wright, the three co-defendants in Leavy's murder later escaped from the Pima County Jail, but were later recaptured. Murphy and Gibson were found in Fenner, California living under assumed names and retried for the murder before being found not guilty. Moyer was captured in Denver and sentenced to life in Yuma Territorial Prison, but was pardoned in 1888.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: As other settlers tried to overcome violent frontier society, in 1885 the territorial legislature founded the University of Arizona as a land-grant college on what was over-grazed ranch land between Tucson and Fort Lowell.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In 1890, Asians made up 4.2% of the city's population. They were predominantly Chinese men who had been recruited as workers on the railroads.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: By 1900, 7,531 people lived in Tucson. By 1910, the population increased to 13,913. At about this time, the U.S. Veterans Administration had begun construction of the present Veterans Hospital. The city's clean, dry air made it a destination for the many veterans who had been gassed in World War I and needed respiratory therapy. In addition, these dry and high altitude conditions were thought to be ideal for the treatment of tuberculosis, for which there were no known cures before antibiotics were developed against it.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The city continued to grow, with the population increasing to 20,292 in 1920 and 36,818 in 1940. In 2006, the population of Pima County, in which Tucson is located, passed one million, while the City of Tucson's population was 535,000.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In 1912, Arizona was admitted as a state. This increased the number of flags that had been flown over Tucson to five: Spanish, Mexican, United States, Confederate, and the State of Arizona.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: During the territorial and early statehood periods, Tucson was Arizona's largest city and commercial center, while Phoenix was the seat of state government (beginning in 1889) and agriculture. The development of Tucson Municipal Airport increased the city's prominence. But between 1910 and 1920, Phoenix surpassed Tucson in population, and has continued to outpace Tucson in growth. In recent years, both Tucson and Phoenix have had some of the highest growth rates of any jurisdiction in the United States.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The city's elevation is above sea level (as measured at the Tucson International Airport). Tucson is on an alluvial plain in the Sonoran Desert, surrounded by five minor ranges of mountains: the Santa Catalina Mountains and the Tortolita Mountains to the north, the Santa Rita Mountains to the south, the Rincon Mountains to the east, and the Tucson Mountains to the west. The high point of the Santa Catalina Mountains is Mount Lemmon, the southernmost ski destination in the continental U.S., while the Tucson Mountains include Wasson Peak. The highest point in the area is Mount Wrightson, found in the Santa Rita Mountains at above sea level.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson is southeast of Phoenix and north of the United States - Mexico border. The 2010 United States census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 980,263. In 2009, Tucson ranked as the 32nd-largest city and 52nd-largest metropolitan area in the United States. A major city in the Arizona Sun Corridor, Tucson is the largest city in southern Arizona, and the second largest in the state after Phoenix. It is also the largest city in the area of the historic Gadsden Purchase. As of 2015, The Greater Tucson Metro area has exceeded a population of 1 million.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The city is built along the Santa Cruz River, formerly a perennial river. Now a dry river bed for much of the year, it regularly floods during significant seasonal rains.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Interstate 10 runs northwest through town, connecting Tucson to Phoenix in the northwest (on the way to its western terminus in Santa Monica, California), and to Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas in the southeast. (Its eastern terminus is in Jacksonville, Florida).


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: I-19 runs south from Tucson toward Nogales and the U.S.-Mexico border. I-19 is the only Interstate highway that uses "kilometer posts" instead of "mileposts." However, speed limits are marked in miles per hour and kilometers per hour.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Similar to many other cities in the Western U.S., Tucson was developed by European Americans on a grid plan starting in the late 19th century, with the city center at Stone Avenue and Broadway Boulevard. While this intersection was initially near the geographic center of Tucson, the center has shifted as the city has expanded far to the east. Development to the west was effectively blocked by the Tucson Mountains. Covering a large geographic area, Tucson has many distinct neighborhoods.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson's earliest neighborhoods, some of which were redeveloped and covered by the Tucson Convention Center (TCC), include:


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, city planners and the business community worked to redevelop the downtown. The primary project was Rio Nuevo, a large retail and community center that had been stalled in planning for more than ten years. Downtown is generally regarded as the area bordered by 17th Street to the south, I-10 to the west, and 6th Street to the north, and Toole Avenue and the Union Pacific (formerly Southern Pacific) railroad tracks, site of the historic train depot on the east side. Downtown is divided into the Presidio District, the Barrio Viejo, and the Congress Street Arts and Entertainment District. Some authorities include the 4th Avenue shopping district, northeast of the rest of downtown and connected by an underpass beneath the UPRR tracks.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Historic attractions downtown with rich architecture include the Hotel Congress designed in 1919, the Art Deco Fox Theatre designed in 1929, the Rialto Theatre opened in 1920, and St. Augustine Cathedral completed in 1896. Included on the National Register of Historic Places is the old Pima County Courthouse, designed by Roy Place in 1928. The El Charro Café, Tucson's oldest restaurant, operates its main location downtown.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: As one of the oldest parts of town, Central Tucson is anchored by the Broadway Village shopping center, designed by local architect Josias Joesler at the intersection of Broadway Boulevard and Country Club Road. The 4th Avenue Shopping District between downtown, the university, and the Lost Barrio just east of downtown, also has many unique and popular stores. Local retail business in Central Tucson is densely concentrated along Fourth Avenue and the Main Gate Square on University Boulevard near the UA campus. The El Con Mall is also in the eastern part of midtown.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The University of Arizona, chartered in 1885, is in midtown and includes Arizona Stadium and McKale Center (named for J.F. "Pop" McKale).


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The historic Tucson High School (designed by Roy Place in 1924) was featured in the 1987 film "Can't Buy Me Love." The Arizona Inn (built in 1930) and the Tucson Botanical Gardens are also in Central Tucson.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson's largest park, Reid Park, is in midtown and includes Reid Park Zoo and Hi Corbett Field. Speedway Boulevard, a major east–west arterial road in central Tucson, was named the "ugliest street in America" by "Life" magazine in the early 1970s, quoting Tucson Mayor James Corbett.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In the late 1990s, Speedway Boulevard was awarded "Street of the Year" by "Arizona Highways." According to David Leighton, historical writer for the "Arizona Daily Star" newspaper, Speedway Boulevard was named after an historic horse racetrack, known as "The Harlem River Speedway", and more commonly called "The Speedway," in New York City. The Tucson street was called "The Speedway," from 1904 to about 1906, when "The" was removed from the title.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In the early 21st century, Central Tucson is considered bicycle-friendly. To the east of the University of Arizona, Third Street is bike-only except for local traffic; it passes by the historic homes of the Sam Hughes neighborhood. To the west, E. University Boulevard leads to the Fourth Avenue Shopping District. To the North, N. Mountain Avenue has a full bike-only lane for half of the to the Rillito River Park bike and walk multi-use path. To the south, N. Highland Avenue leads to the Barraza-Aviation Parkway bicycle path.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: South Tucson is the name of an independent, incorporated town of south of downtown, and which is surrounded by the city of Tucson. South Tucson has a colorful, dynamic history. It was incorporated in 1936 and reincorporated in 1940.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The population is about 83% Mexican-American and 10% Native American, as residents self-identify in the census. South Tucson is widely known for its many Mexican restaurants and architectural styles. Bright murals have been painted on some walls, but city policy discourages this and many have been painted over.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The South side of the city of Tucson is generally considered to be the area of approximately south of 22nd Street, east of I-19, west of Davis Monthan Air Force Base and southwest of Aviation Parkway, and north of Los Reales Road. The Tucson International Airport and Tucson Electric Park are here.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The West Side has areas of both urban and suburban development. It is generally defined as the area west of I-10. Western Tucson encompasses the banks of the Santa Cruz River and the foothills of the Tucson Mountains. Area attractions include the International Wildlife Museum and Sentinel Peak. The Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa serves travelers and residents. As travelers pass the Tucson Mountains, they enter the area commonly referred to as "west of" Tucson or "Old West Tucson". In this large, undulating plain extending south into the Altar Valley, rural residential development predominates. Attractions include Saguaro National Park West, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and movie set/theme park developed at the Old Tucson Studios.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: On Sentinel Peak, just west of downtown, a giant "A" was installed in honor of the University of Arizona, resulting in the nickname "A" Mountain. Starting in about 1916, an annual tradition developed for freshmen to whitewash the "A", which was visible for miles. The top of Sentinel Peak, which is accessible by road, offers an outstanding view of the city looking eastward. A parking lot near the summit of Sentinel Peak has been a popular place to watch sunsets or view the city lights at night.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: At the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, anti-war activists painted the "A" black. Competition ensued, with various sides repainting the "A" in different colors until the city council intervened. It is now painted white. Another color may be decided by a biennial election. With the tri-color scheme, some observers complain the shape of the A is hard to distinguish from the background of the peak.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: North Tucson includes the urban neighborhoods of Amphitheater and Flowing Wells. Usually considered the area north of Fort Lowell Road, North Tucson includes some of Tucson's primary commercial zones (Tucson Mall and the Oracle Road Corridor). Many of the city's most upscale boutiques, restaurants, and art galleries are also on the north side, including St. Philip's Plaza. The Plaza is directly adjacent to the historic St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church (built in 1936).


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The north side also is home to the suburban community of Catalina Foothills, in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains just north of the city limits. This community includes many of the area's most expensive homes, sometimes multimillion-dollar estates. The Foothills area is generally defined as north of River Road, east of Oracle Road and west of Sabino Creek. Some of the Tucson area's major resorts are in the Catalina Foothills, including Hacienda Del Sol, Westin La Paloma Resort, Loews Ventana Canyon Resort and Canyon Ranch Resort. La Encantada, an upscale outdoor shopping mall, is also in the Foothills.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The DeGrazia Gallery of the Sun is near the intersection of Swan Road and Skyline Drive. Built by artist Ted DeGrazia starting in 1951, the property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and features an eclectic chapel, an art gallery, and a museum.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The expansive area northwest of the city limits is diverse, ranging from the rural communities of Catalina and parts of the town of Marana, the small suburb of Picture Rocks, the affluent town of Oro Valley in the western foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains, and residential areas in the northeastern foothills of the Tucson Mountains. Continental Ranch (Marana), Dove Mountain (Marana), and Rancho Vistoso (Oro Valley), and Saddlebrooke (N. Oro Valley) are all masterplanned communities in the Northwest that have thousands of residents.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The community of Casas Adobes is also on the Northwest Side, with the distinction of being Tucson's first suburb, established in the late 1940s. Casas Adobes is centered on the historic Casas Adobes Plaza (built in 1948). Casas Adobes is also home to Tohono Chul Park, which is now within the town of Oro Valley, (a nature preserve) near the intersection of North Oracle Road and West Ina Road. The attempted assassination of Representative Gabby Giffords, which resulted in the murders of chief judge for the U.S. District Court for Arizona, John Roll, and five other people on January 8, 2011, occurred at the La Toscana Village in Casas Adobes. The Foothills Mall is also on the northwest side in Casas Adobes.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: This area is home to many of the Tucson area's golf courses and resorts, including the Preserve and Mountainview Golf Clubs at Saddlebrooke, Hilton El Conquistador Golf & Tennis Resort in Oro Valley, the Omni Tucson National Resort & Spa, and Westward Look Resort. The Ritz Carlton at Dove Mountain, the second Ritz Carlton Resort in Arizona, which also includes a golf course, opened in the foothills of the Tortolita Mountains in northeast Marana in 2009.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: East Tucson is relatively new compared to other parts of the city, developed between the 1950s and the 1970s, with developments such as Desert Palms Park. It is generally classified as the area of the city east of Swan Road, with above-average real estate values relative to the rest of the city. The area includes urban and suburban development near the Rincon Mountains. East Tucson includes Saguaro National Park East. Tucson's "Restaurant Row" is also on the east side, along with a significant corporate and financial presence. Restaurant Row is sandwiched by three of Tucson's storied Vicinages: Harold Bell Wright Estates, named after the famous author's ranch which occupied some of that area before the depression; the Tucson Country Club (the third to bear the name Tucson Country Club), and the Dorado Country Club. Tucson's largest office building is 5151 East Broadway in east Tucson, completed in 1975. The first phases of Williams Centre, a mixed-use, master-planned development on Broadway near Craycroft Road, were opened in 1987. Park Place, a recently renovated shopping center, is also along Broadway (west of Wilmot Road).


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Near the intersection of Craycroft and Ft. Lowell Roads are the remnants of the Historic Fort Lowell. This area has become one of Tucson's iconic neighborhoods. In 1891, the Fort was abandoned and much of the interior was stripped of their useful components and it quickly fell into ruin. In 1900, three of the officer buildings were purchased for use as a sanitarium. The sanitarium was then sold to Harvey Adkins in 1928. The Bolsius family – Pete, Nan and Charles Bolsius – purchased and renovated surviving adobe buildings of the Fort, transforming them into spectacular artistic southwestern architectural examples. Their woodwork, plaster treatment and sense of proportion drew on their Dutch heritage and New Mexican experience.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Other artists and academics throughout the middle of the 20th century, including: Win Ellis, Jack Maul, Madame Germaine Cheruy and René Cheruy, Giorgio Belloli, Charles Bode, Veronica Hughart, Edward H. Spicer and Rosamond Spicer, Hazel Larson Archer and Ruth Brown, renovated adobes, built homes and lived in the area. The artist colony attracted writers and poets including beat generation Alan Harrington and Jack Kerouac whose visit is documented in his iconic book "On the Road". This rural pocket in the middle of the city is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Each year in February the vicinage celebrates its history in the City Landmark it owns and restored the San Pedro Chapel.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Situated between the Santa Catalina Mountains and the Rincon Mountains near Redington Pass northeast of the city limits is the affluent community of Tanque Verde. The Arizona National Golf Club, Forty-Niners Country Club, and the historic Tanque Verde Guest Ranch are also in northeast Tucson.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Southeast Tucson continues to experience rapid residential development. The area includes Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The area is considered to be south of Golf Links Road. It is the home of Santa Rita High School, Chuck Ford Park (Lakeside Park), Lakeside Lake, Lincoln Park (upper and lower), The Lakecrest Vicinagess, and Pima Community College East Campus. The Atterbury Wash with its access to excellent bird watching is also in the Southeast Tucson area. The suburban community of Rita Ranch houses many of the military families from Davis-Monthan, and is near the southeasternmost expansion of the current city limits. Close by Rita Ranch and also within the city limits lies Civano, a planned development meant to showcase ecologically sound building practices and lifestyles.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Mount Lemmon, the highest peak of the Santa Catalina Mountains, reaches an elevation of above sea level. It is one of the Southwestern United States's 27 unique sky islands. The mountain is named after 19th century botanist Sara Lemmon. She was the first documented European woman to ascend to the peak, accompanied by her husband and by local rancher Emmerson Oliver Stratton. The Lemmons botanized extensively along the way, including collecting the plant "Tagetes lemmonii" which is now called the Mount Lemmon marigold.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Catalina Highway stretches and the entire mountain range is one of Tucson's most popular vacation spots for cycling, hiking, rock climbing, camping, birding, and wintertime snowboarding and skiing. Near the top of Mt. Lemmon is the town of Summerhaven. In Summerhaven, visitors will find log houses and cabins, a general store, and various shops, as well as numerous hiking trails. Near Summerhaven is the road to Ski Valley which hosts a ski lift, several runs, a gift shop, and nearby restaurant.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: A variety of astronomical research telescopes are at Mount Lemmon's summit, including the Mount Lemmon Sky Center. The center is open for public visitation and operated by the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: A major destination for cyclists, Mount Lemmon is ranked the second most difficult climb in the world by Bicycling Magazine.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson has a hot desert climate (Köppen "BWh"), with two major seasons, a hot summer and mild winter. Tucson averages of precipitation per year, concentrated during the Pacific storms of winter and the North American Monsoon of summer. Fall and spring months tend to be sunny and dry. Despite being at a more southerly latitude than Phoenix, Tucson is slightly cooler and wetter due to a variety of factors including elevation and orographic lift in surrounding mountains—though Tucson does occasionally see warmer daytime temperatures in the winter.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Summer is characterized by average daily high temperatures between and low temperatures between . Early summer is characterized by low humidity and clear skies; mid-summer and late summer are characterized by higher humidity, cloudy skies and frequent rain. The sun is intense in Tucson during part of the year, and those who spend time outdoors need protection. Recent studies show the rate of skin cancer in Arizona is at least three times higher than in more northerly regions. Additionally, heat stroke is a concern for hikers, mountain bikers, and adventurers who explore canyons, open desert lands, and other exposed areas.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: While monsoon season officially begins on June 15, the arrival of the North American Monsoon is unpredictable, and it varies from year to year. On average, Tucson receives its first monsoon storms around July 3. Monsoon activity generally persists through August and often into September. During the monsoon, the humidity is much higher than the rest of the year. It begins with clouds building up from the south in the early afternoon followed by intense thunderstorms and rainfall, which can cause flash floods. The evening sky at this time of year is often pierced with dramatic lightning strikes. Large areas of the city do not have storm sewers, so monsoon rains flood the main thoroughfares, usually for no longer than a few hours. A few underpasses in Tucson have "feet of water" scales painted on their supports to discourage fording by automobiles during a rainstorm. Arizona traffic code Title 28–910, the so-called "Stupid Motorist Law", was instituted in 1995 to discourage people from entering flooded roadways. If the road is flooded and a barricade is in place, motorists who drive around the barricade can be charged up to $2000 for costs involved in rescuing them. Despite all warnings and precautions, however, three Tucson drivers have drowned between 2004 and 2010.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The weather in the fall is much like spring: dry, with warm/cool nights and warm/hot days. Temperatures above are possible into early October. Temperatures decline at the quickest rate in October and November, and are normally the coolest in late December and early January.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Winters in Tucson are mild relative to other parts of the United States. Average daytime highs range between , with overnight lows between . Tucson typically averages three hard freezes per winter season, with temperatures dipping to the mid or low-20s (−7 to −4 °C), but this is typically limited to only a very few nights. Although rare, snow occasionally falls in lower elevations in Tucson and is common in the Santa Catalina Mountains. The most recent snowfall was on January 26, 2021, when a winter storm caused snow to fall throughout most of the southwest. Tucson airport recorded 1 inch of snow, while Summerhaven in the mountains received 25 inches.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Early spring is characterized by gradually rising temperatures and several weeks of vivid wildflower blooms beginning in late February and into March. During this time of year the diurnal temperature variation normally attains its maximum, often surpassing .


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Since records began in 1894, the record maximum temperature was on June 27, 1990, and the record minimum temperature was on January 7, 1913. There are an average of 158 days annually with highs of or higher and an average of 12 days with lows reaching or below the freezing mark. Average annual precipitation is . There is an average of 47.4 days with measurable precipitation. The wettest year was 1905 with and the driest year was 2020 with . The most precipitation in one month was in July 2021. The most precipitation in 24 hours was on July 29, 1958. Annual snowfall averages . The most snow in one winter was in winter 1971–1972. The most snow in one month was in December 1971.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 520,116 people, 229,762 households, and 112,455 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,500.1 inhabitants per square mile (965.3/km). There were 209,609 dwelling units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 69.7% White (down from 94.8% in 1970), 5.0% Black or African-American, 2.7% Native American, 2.9% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 16.9% from other races, and 3.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 41.6% of the population. Non-Hispanic Whites were 47.2% of the population in 2010, down from 72.8% in 1970.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: According to research by demographer William H. Frey using data from the 2010 United States census, Tucson has the lowest level of black-white segregation of any of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: There were 192,891 households, out of which 29.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.7% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.7% were non-families. 32.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.12.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In the inner-city, the population has 24.6% under the age of 18, 13.8% from 18 to 24, 30.5% from 25 to 44, 19.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.3 males.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The median income for a household in the city was $30,981, and the median income for a family was $37,344. Males had a median income of $28,548 versus $23,086 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,322. About 13.7% of families and 18.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.6% of those under age 18 and 11.0% of those age 65 or over.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Much of Tucson's economic development has centered on the development of the University of Arizona, which is the city's largest employer. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, on the city's southeastern edge, also provides many jobs for Tucson residents. Its presence, as well as the presence of the US Army Intelligence Center (Fort Huachuca, the region's largest employer, in nearby Sierra Vista), has led to the development of many high-tech industries, including government contractors. The city of Tucson is also a major hub for the Union Pacific Railroad's Sunset Route that links the Los Angeles ports with the South/Southeast regions of the country.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Raytheon Missiles and Defense (formerly Hughes Aircraft Co.), Texas Instruments, IBM, Intuit Inc., Universal Avionics, Honeywell Aerospace, Sunquest Information Systems, Sanofi-Aventis, Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., and Bombardier Aerospace all have a large presence in Tucson. Roughly 150 Tucson companies are involved in the design and manufacture of optics and optoelectronics systems, earning Tucson the nickname "Optics Valley". Much of this comes from the Steward Observatory at The University of Arizona, which is one of few locations in the world that can cast the enormous mirrors used in telescopes around the world and in space.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tourism is another major industry in Tucson. The city's many resorts, hotels and attractions bring in $2 billion per year and over 3.5 million visitors annually.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: One of the major annual attractions is the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, and its associated shows, all held generally in the first two weeks of February. These associated shows (such as gems, jewelry, beads, fossils) are held throughout the city, with 43 different shows in 2010. This makes Tucson's the largest such exposition in the world. Its yearly economic impact in 2015 was evaluated at $120 million.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In addition to vacationers, many winter residents, or "snowbirds", are attracted to Tucson's mild winters and live here on a seasonal basis. They also contribute to the local economy. Snowbirds often purchase second homes in Tucson and nearby areas, contributing significantly to the property tax base.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The Tucson Gem & Mineral Show is one of the largest gem and mineral shows in the world and has been held for over 50 years. The Show is only one part of the gem, mineral, fossil, and bead gathering held all around Tucson in over 45 different sites. The shows run from late-January to mid-February with the official Show lasting two weeks in February.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Since 2009, the Tucson Festival of Books has been held annually over a two-day period in March at the University of Arizona. By 2010 it had become the fourth largest book festival in the United States, with 450 authors and 80,000 attendees. In addition to readings and lectures, it features a science fair, varied entertainment, food, and exhibitors ranging from local retailers and publishers to regional and national nonprofit organizations. In 2011, the Festival Founders established an award to recognize exceptional literary achievement. The Founders Award Winners are:


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: For the past 33 years, the Tucson Folk Festival has taken place the first Saturday and Sunday of May in downtown Tucson's El Presidio Park. In addition to nationally known headline acts each evening, the Festival highlights over 100 local and regional musicians on five stages and is one of the largest free festivals in the country. All stages are within easy walking distance. Organized by the Tucson Kitchen Musicians' Association, volunteers make this festival possible. KXCI 91.3-FM, Arizona's only community radio station, is a major partner, broadcasting from the Plaza Stage throughout the weekend. There are also many workshops, events for children, sing-alongs, and a popular singer-songwriter contest. Musicians typically play 30-minute sets, supported by professional audio staff volunteers. A variety of food and crafts are available at the festival, as well as local microbrews. All proceeds help fund future festivals.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: There are two Fourth Avenue Street Fairs, in December and late March/early April, staged between 9th Street and University Boulevard, that feature arts and crafts booths, food vendors and street performers. The fairs began in 1970 when Fourth Avenue, which at the time had half a dozen thrift shops, several New Age bookshops and the Food Conspiracy Co-Op, was a gathering place for hippies, and a few merchants put tables in front of their stores to attract customers before the holidays.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: These days, the street fair has grown into a large corporate event, with most tables owned by outside merchants. It hosts mostly traveling craftsmen selling various arts such as pottery, paintings, wood working, metal decorations, candles, and many others.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Another popular event held in February, which is early spring in Tucson, is the Fiesta de los Vaqueros, or rodeo week, founded by winter visitor, Leighton Kramer. While at its heart the Fiesta is a sporting event, it includes what is billed as "the world's largest non-mechanized parade". The Rodeo Parade is a popular event as most schools give two rodeo days off instead of presidents Day. The exception is Presidio High (a non-public charter school), which does not get either. Western wear is seen throughout the city as corporate dress codes are cast aside during the Fiesta. The Fiesta de los Vaqueros marks the beginning of the rodeo season in the United States.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Every October for the past 30 years, the Tucson Meet Yourself festival has celebrated the city's many ethnic groups. For one weekend, the downtown area features dancing, singing, artwork, and food from more than 30 different ethnicities. The event is held at and around the Jacome Plaza, located in front of the Joel D. Valdez Main Library. All performers are from Tucson and the surrounding area, in keeping with the idea of "meeting yourself." The Records of the Tucson Meet Yourself Festival reside at the University of Arizona Special Collections Library.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Since 2012, during the first two weekends of October, the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation hosts Tucson Modernism Week. The event includes more than 30 programs including tours, lectures, exhibits, films and parties. The events are in mid-century modern buildings and neighborhoods throughout the city and highlight the work of significant architects and designers who contributed to the development and history of southern Arizona including: Architect Arthur Brown, Fashion Designer Dolores Gonzales, Architect Bob Swaim, Architect Anne Rysdale, Textile Designers Harwood and Sophie Steiger, Architect Nick Sakellar, Architectural Designer Tom Gist, Furniture Designer Max Gottschalk, Architect, Ned Nelson, Landscape Architect Guy Green, Architect Juan Worner Baz and many others.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The All Souls Procession, held in early November, is one of Tucson's largest festivals. Modeled on the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), it combines aspects of many different cultural traditions. The first All Souls Procession was organized by local artist Susan Kay Johnson in 1990 and involved 35 participants; by 2013, participation was estimated at 50,000.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The Procession, held at sundown, consists of a non-motorized parade through downtown Tucson featuring many floats, sculptures, and memorials, in which the community is encouraged to participate. The parade is followed by performances on an outdoor stage, culminating in the burning of an urn in which written prayers have been collected from participants and spectators. The event is organized and funded by the non-profit arts organization Many Mouths One Stomach, with the help of volunteers and donations from the public and local businesses.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Shops in Summerhaven on Mount Lemmon offer such items as jewelry and other gifts, pizza, and fresh-fruit pies. The legacy of the Aspen Fire can be seen in charred trees, rebuilt homes, and melted beads incorporated into a sidewalk.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Fourth Avenue, near the University of Arizona, is home to many shops, restaurants, and bars, and hosts the annual 4th Avenue Street Fair every December and March. University Boulevard, leading directly to the UA Main Gate, is also the center of numerous bars, retail shops, and restaurants most commonly frequented by the large student population of the UA.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: El Tiradito is a religious shrine in the downtown area. The shrine dates back to the early days of Tucson. It is based on a love story of revenge and murder. People stop by the shrine to light a candle for someone in need, a place for people to go give hope.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Biosphere 2 is a educational facility designed to mimic a tropical or sub-tropical climate-controlled environment.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The accomplished and awarded writers (poets, novelists, dramatists, nonfiction writers) who have lived in Tucson include Edward Abbey, Erskine Caldwell, Barbara Kingsolver and David Foster Wallace. Some were associated with the University of Arizona, but many were independent writers who chose to make Tucson their home. The city is particularly active in publishing and presenting contemporary innovative poetry in various ways. Examples are the Chax Press, a publisher of poetry books in trade and book arts editions, and the University of Arizona Poetry Center, which has a sizable poetry library and presents readings, conferences, and workshops.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Theater groups include the Arizona Theatre Company, which performs in the Temple of Music and Art, and Arizona Onstage Productions, a not-for-profit theater company devoted to musical theater. Broadway in Tucson presents the touring reproductions of many Broadway-style events. The Gaslight Theater produces musical melodrama parodies in the old Jerry Lewis Theater and has been in Tucson since 1977.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson is home to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the oldest performing arts organization in the state of Arizona.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The annual Tucson Fringe Festival, held in various local venues in and around Downtown Tucson, offers non-traditional artistic performances at low cost to the public. The festival is held in early January each year.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Musical organizations include the Tucson Symphony Orchestra (founded in 1929) and Arizona Opera (founded as the Tucson Opera Company in 1971). The Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus, founded in 1939 and performing a wide-ranging repertoire that incorporates rope tricks, has represented the city as "Ambassadors in Levi's" at local, national, and international concerts. The Tucson Girls Chorus runs six choirs and numerous satellite choirs which perform locally, nationally, and internationally.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson is considered an influential center for Mariachi music and is home to a large number of Mariachi musicians and singers. The Tucson International Mariachi Conference, hosted annually since 1982, involves several hundred mariachi bands and folklorica dance troops during a three-day festival in April. The Norteño Festival and Street Fair in the enclave city of South Tucson is held annually at the end of summer.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson is also known nationally for its punk scene. Since the late 1970s punk subculture has flourished in Tucson. At present there are multiple punk bars downtown and house venues in the surrounding neighborhoods.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Prominent musicians based in Tucson or with ties to the city include Linda Ronstadt, Lalo Guerrero, The Dusty Chaps, Howe Gelb, Bob Log III, Calexico, Giant Sand, Hipster Daddy-O and the Handgrenades, The Bled, AJJ, Ramshackle Glory, and Tucson's official troubadour Ted Ramirez. The Tucson Area Music Awards, or TAMMIES, are an annual event.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson has been the setting and filming location for multiple films. Some notable films that have been filmed in Tucson include "Revenge of the Nerds", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Major League", "Tombstone", and "Tin Cup". The city is also a common filming location and setting for Western films, most were filmed at Old Tucson. The television show "Hey Dude" was filmed at Tanque Verde Ranch. Additionally, the fictional motorcycle clubs the Sons of Anarchy and Mayans from the television shows "Sons of Anarchy" and "Mayans M.C." both have Tucson chapters that are featured in the show. In the season 4 "Sons of Anarchy" episode "Una Venta", the cast travels to Tucson to discuss an issue with the Tucson chapter. The upcoming TV series "Duster" began filming in Tucson in October 2021. The series is specifically being filmed in downtown Tucson and the Tucson Mountains region of Saguaro National Park.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson is well known for its Sonoran-style Mexican food. Since the turn of the century, other ethnic restaurants and fine dining choices have proliferated.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In 2015 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Tucson a "world city of gastronomy" under the Creative Cities Network program, becoming thus the first city of gastronomy in the United States.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The Sonoran hot dog is very popular in Tucson. A hot dog is wrapped in bacon and grilled, served on a bolillo-style hot dog bun, and topped with pinto beans, onions, tomatoes, and a variety of additional condiments, often including mayonnaise, mustard, and jalapeño salsa. Tucson also has a strong, though contested, claim to being the place of origin of the chimichanga.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson is commonly known as "The Old Pueblo". While the exact origin of this nickname is uncertain, it is commonly traced back to Mayor R. N. "Bob" Leatherwood. When rail service was established to the city on March 20, 1880, Leatherwood celebrated the fact by sending telegrams to various leaders, including the President of the United States and the Pope, announcing the "ancient and honorable pueblo" of Tucson was now connected by rail to the outside world. The term became popular with newspaper writers who often abbreviated it as "A. and H. Pueblo". This in turn transformed into the current form of "The Old Pueblo".


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In the early 1980s, city leaders ran a contest searching for a new nickname. The winning entry was the "Sunshine Factory". The new nickname never gained popular acceptance, allowing the old name to remain in common use. Tucson was dubbed "Optics Valley" in 1992 when "Business Week" ran a cover story on the Arizona Optics Industry Association.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson is not represented in any of the five major sports leagues of the United States; the NFL, MLB, the NBA, the NHL, or MLS. The University of Arizona Wildcats teams, most notably the men's basketball and women's softball teams have strong local interest. The men's basketball team, formerly coached by Hall of Fame head coach Lute Olson and currently coached by Tommy Lloyd, made 25 straight NCAA Tournaments appearances (1985–2009) and won the 1997 National Championship. Arizona's Softball team has reached the NCAA National Championship game 12 times and has won 8 times, most recently in 2007. The men's baseball team has won NCAA National Championships in 1976, 1980, 1986 and 2012. The university's swim teams have gained international recognition, with swimmers coming from as far as Japan and Africa to train with the coach Frank Busch who has also worked with the U.S. Olympic swim team for many years. Both men's and women's swim teams won the 2008 NCAA National Championships.