title: Andrew Cuomo

text: The two U.S. senators for New York, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, both Democrats, called for an independent investigation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a CNN interview that President Joe Biden supported an independent investigation into Governor Cuomo's conduct.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On March 1, a third woman came forward alleging Cuomo had sexually harassed her and touched her without consent on her bare lower back. Anna Ruch was not on the governor's staff, but encountered him socially at a wedding reception in September 2019. The attorney general of New York state, Letitia James, was reported to be investigating options for an independent investigation. When reporting the allegation, "The New York Times" also published a photograph from the event which showed Cuomo putting his hands on Ruch's face. She said the incident made her feel "uncomfortable and embarrassed".


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: A fourth woman, Ana Liss, came forward on March 6 and alleged Cuomo touched her inappropriately on her lower back and kissed her hand. That same day, Karen Hinton, a former consultant of Cuomo when he was leading the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, alleged that in 2000 he had asked personal questions and inappropriately hugged her in his hotel room.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On March 1, 2021, Cuomo's senior counsel and special adviser Beth Garvey instructed New York attorney general Letitia James to proceed with an independent investigation of Cuomo. On March 8, James hired attorneys from two law firms (firstly Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and secondly Vladeck, Raskin & Clark) to conduct an independent investigation of Cuomo.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On March 9, a sixth woman alleged that Cuomo inappropriately touched her at the governor's mansion. On April 7, the unnamed aide said that after she had been summoned to governor's mansion in November 2020, Cuomo allegedly rose from his desk and began groping her. After the aide told him it would get him in trouble, Cuomo then shut the door and said "I don't care." He then returned and groped one of her breasts under her bra by reaching under her blouse. A month later she claimed that Cuomo told her to cover-up what had occurred. On August 8, she revealed her identity: Brittany Commisso.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On March 11, 2021, the New York Assembly approved a separate impeachment investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations made against Cuomo.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On March 12, Kaitlin (last name unreported), who formerly worked for the governor's office, alleged that Cuomo had made her feel uncomfortable in various situations, with his comments, questions, requests, and invasions of her personal space. She did not allege inappropriate touching or explicit sexual propositions. Also on March 12, journalist Jessica Bakeman alleged that Cuomo had sexually harassed her by touching her and making inappropriate comments. She wrote: "I never thought the governor wanted to have sex with me. It wasn't about sex. It was about power. He wanted me to know that I was powerless".


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On March 18, another journalist, Valerie Bauman, came forward. She said that Cuomo had made her feel uncomfortable, describing him staring at her, entering her personal space, offering her a job, and asking personal questions. Bauman also stated that Cuomo "never touched [her] inappropriately or said anything that [she] felt [she] could report to [her] boss". On March 19, Alyssa McGrath, who was still working for Cuomo's office at the time, accused Cuomo of sexually harassing her by ogling her and making inappropriate comments. McGrath did not accuse Cuomo of inappropriate sexual contact. On March 29, Sherry Vill, a New York constituent whose flood-damaged house Cuomo had visited in May 2017, alleged that Cuomo had inappropriately kissed her twice during that visit.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: Attorney General James's five-month investigation concluded with the release of a report on August 3, 2021. This report concluded that during Cuomo's time in office, he sexually harassed 11 women: Boylan, Bennett, Ruch, Liss, Brittany Commisso, Kaitlin, McGrath, event attendee Virginia Limmiatis, an unnamed New York State trooper and two unnamed state entity employees. The investigation concluded that Cuomo's behaviour included unwanted groping, kissing and sexual comments, and also found that Cuomo's office had engaged in illegal retaliation against Boylan for her allegation against him.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: Cuomo responded to the report with a denial: "I never touched anyone inappropriately." The report generated public condemnation against the governor and heightened calls for him to resign. On August 3, President Joe Biden called upon Cuomo to resign. The release also prompted district attorneys for Manhattan, Nassau County, Westchester County, Albany County and Oswego County to pursue criminal investigations regarding his behavior.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On August 10, 2021, Cuomo announced he would step down as Governor of New York, effective August 24. On August 21, Cuomo said that Hurricane Henri would not affect his resignation.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On October 28, 2021, a spokesman for the state court system announced that Cuomo would be charged with a misdemeanor sex crime in the Albany City Court. The office of Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple would file a criminal complaint against Cuomo related to Brittany Commisso's groping allegation. However, on January 4, 2022, Albany County District Attorney David Soares declined to prosecute Cuomo and asked a judge to dismiss the complaint, stating that "While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence, we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial." Soares also stated that his office considered other potential criminal charges, but none fit the allegations.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On January 4, 2022, Albany County District Attorney David Soares dropped a criminal complaint against Cuomo and also announced that Cuomo would not face any other charges related to other groping allegations, citing lack of evidence.[9] Three days later, a judge dropped the criminal charge against Cuomo. On January 31, 2022, a district attorney in upstate New York declined to continue the investigation of the criminal side of other allegations against Cuomo. On January 31, the fifth and final Sexual Misconduct case against Cuomo, made by Virginia Limmiatis, was dropped by New York district attorney Gregory Oakes, effectively clearing him of all charges.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: Cuomo filed for a state retirement pension, to be effective September 1, based on 14.56 years of state service as attorney general and governor. According to "Politico", Cuomo used the weeks after his resignation to mount a revenge campaign against his successor Kathy Hochul and other perceived enemies, financing it with $18 million of leftover campaign donations.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On March 3, 2022, during Cuomo's first public appearance since his resignation, he gave a speech at the God's Battalion of Prayer church in Brooklyn and came out against cancel culture and hinted at a political comeback. Cuomo said, "The press roasted me, my colleagues were ridiculed, my brother was fired. It was ugly. It was probably the toughest time of my life." In the speech before an ally's church, he said, "Contrary to what my political opponents would have you believe, nothing I did violated the law or the regulation."


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: Cuomo married Kerry Kennedy, the seventh child of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy, on June 9, 1990. They have three daughters: twins, Cara Ethel Kennedy-Cuomo and Mariah Matilda Kennedy-Cuomo (born 1995), and Michaela Andrea Kennedy-Cuomo (born 1997). They separated in 2003, and divorced in 2005.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: Cuomo began dating Food Network host Sandra Lee in 2005, and the couple moved in together in 2011. The two resided in Westchester County, New York. On September 25, 2019, the couple announced that they had ended their relationship. From the fall of 2019 until August 21, 2021, Cuomo lived in the New York State Executive Mansion on a full-time basis with his three daughters.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: On July 4, 2015, Cuomo presided over the wedding ceremony of his longtime friend Billy Joel to his fourth wife, Alexis Roderick.


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: Cuomo is a Roman Catholic. According to "The New York Times", Cuomo's positions in favor of abortion rights and same-sex marriage (and his cohabitation with Lee without marrying her) contrary to church teachings have "become a lightning rod in a decades-old culture war between conservative Catholics and those, like Mr. Cuomo, who disagree with the church's positions on various issues, including abortion and divorce".


title: Andrew Cuomo

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuomo became known by the nickname of the "Love Gov" after answering a question by his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, about showing his softer tone while leading coronavirus response efforts. The governor responded with, "I've always been a soft guy. I am the love gov. I'm a cool dude in a loose mood, you know that. I just say, 'Let it go, just go with the flow, baby.' You know. You can't control anything, so don't even try."


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Robert Budd Dwyer (November 21, 1939 – January 22, 1987) was an American politician. He served from 1965 to 1971 as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and from 1971 to 1981 as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate representing the state's 50th district. Dwyer then served as the 30th state treasurer of Pennsylvania from January 20, 1981, to January 22, 1987, when he died by suicide during a live press conference.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: In the early 1980s, Pennsylvania discovered that its state workers had overpaid federal taxes due to errors in state withholding prior to Dwyer's administration. A multi-million-dollar recovery contract was required to determine the compensation to be given to each employee. In 1986, Dwyer was convicted of accepting a bribe from Computer Technology Associates (CTA) to award them the contract. He was found guilty on 11 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, perjury, and interstate transportation in aid of racketeering, and was scheduled to be sentenced on January 23, 1987. On January 22, Dwyer called a news conference in the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg, during which he fatally shot himself with a .357 Magnum revolver in front of reporters. Dwyer's suicide was broadcast later that day to a wide television audience across Pennsylvania.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: All posthumous appeals made by Dwyer's lawyers on Dwyer's behalf were denied, and his convictions were upheld. Along with Barbara Hafer and Rob McCord, Dwyer is one of three former Pennsylvania State treasurers to be convicted of corruption since the 1980s.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: R. Budd Dwyer was born on November 21, 1939, in St. Charles, Missouri. He graduated in 1961 with an A.B. in Political Science and Accounting from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Beta Chi chapter of Theta Chi Fraternity. After earning a master's degree in education in 1963, he taught social studies and coached football at Cambridge Springs High School.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: A Republican, Dwyer became active in politics. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 6th district (although seats were apportioned by county before 1969) in 1964 and was reelected in 1966 and 1968. In 1970, while still a sitting State Representative, Dwyer ran for a seat in the Pennsylvania State Senate from its 50th district and won. Shortly after his victory he resigned his seat in the State House and was sworn in as Senator in January 1971.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: After being elected to additional terms in 1974 and 1978, Dwyer decided to try for a statewide office and in 1980 ran for and won the office of Pennsylvania Treasurer that had been held by Robert E. Casey since 1976. He ran for a second and last term in 1984 and won reelection to the seat, defeating Democratic nominee and former auditor general Al Benedict.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: From 1979 to 1981, before Dwyer was state treasurer, public employees of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania overpaid millions of dollars in Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes (FICA). As a result, the state required an accounting firm to determine refunds for its employees. Dwyer awarded the no-bid $4.6 million contract to Computer Technology Associates (CTA), a California-based firm, owned by John Torquato Jr., a native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1984.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: In early 1984, Dennis Schatzman, deputy comptroller of Pittsburgh Public Schools, noticed financial discrepancies in the CTA contract, and wrote to Pittsburgh school officials regarding these. Schatzman later contacted officials at the accounting firm Arthur Young and Associates, who confirmed that the no-bid CTA contract was overpriced by millions of dollars. In June 1984 the Office of the Pennsylvania Auditor General informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the alleged bribery that occurred during the awarding of the contract. In late July 1984, Janice R. Kincaid, a former CTA employee, released a sworn statement claiming that Dwyer awarded the contract to CTA because he was promised a $300,000 kickback by the company.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: An investigation into Dwyer's awarding of the CTA contract was undertaken by federal prosecutors. Upon learning of this investigation, Dwyer rescinded the contract with CTA on July 11, 1984. Subsequently, Dwyer repeatedly attempted to stop, divert and forestall the investigation, stating that the U.S. attorney had neither the authority nor evidence to pursue prosecution. Dwyer later admitted to telling his staff to withhold request for proposal (RFP) information from the U.S. attorney and the FBI during the investigation. After being indicted by a federal grand jury, Dwyer was finally charged with agreeing to receive a kickback of $300,000 in return for awarding CTA the contract.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Dwyer stated that he offered to take a polygraph exam but only on the condition that if he passed it, he would not be indicted. The state rejected Dwyer's offer. Prior to Dwyer's indictment, on October 22, 1984, a grand jury indicted Torquato, Torquato's attorney William T. Smith, Judy Smith, Alan R. Stoneman, and David Herbert. At Smith's 1985 trial, Smith, who was a friend of Dwyer's, testified that he did not bribe Dwyer, and instead that Torquato offered Dwyer a campaign contribution in return for the CTA contract, yet Dwyer rejected Torquato's offer. In contrast, Torquato testified that Smith offered Dwyer a $300,000 bribe in return for the CTA contract. Dwyer, acting as a defense witness for Smith at Smith's trial, denied that he was offered any contribution at all. In August 1984, Smith failed a polygraph exam when he stated that he did not bribe Dwyer or any state official. However, prior to Smith's trial, on October 27, 1984 (four days after Smith's indictment), Smith confessed to offering Dwyer a bribe, and stated that Dwyer accepted this offer.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: However, Bob Asher, the then Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman, objected to this, and requested that the $300,000 be directed entirely to the Republican State Committee, since Asher "did not want Dwyer to go to jail".


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Dwyer, along with Asher, were indicted by a federal grand jury on May 13, 1986. In the hopes of reducing his twelve-year sentence stemming from his 1985 conviction, Smith testified on behalf of the federal government against Dwyer and Asher at their 1986 trial. Ultimately, Smith did not receive any reduction in his sentence for testifying against Dwyer (although his wife, Judy Smith, was granted immunity from prosecution). Before testifying against Dwyer, Smith passed a polygraph exam.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: It was revealed at Dwyer's trial that he sought and won approval for special legislation—Act 38 of 1984 (House Bill 1397)—that authorized him to recover the FICA overpayments, and that coded computer tape seized from CTA's office on July 6, 1984, showed that Dwyer was to receive a $300,000 pay-off for awarding CTA the contract. Moreover, Smith and Torquato's claims about Dwyer being bribed were corroborated by four independent and impartial witnesses, and Smith's testimony against Dwyer was virtually identical to written statements Smith made long before entering into a plea agreement. Additionally, FBI agents testified that Dwyer attempted to conceal his involvement in the scheme when, after learning of the FBI investigation, he erased the entry in his appointment book of the March 2, 1984, meeting with Torquato and Smith in which he was first offered a bribe. Dwyer maintained that he awarded CTA the contract on the basis of his treasury task force recommendation, yet this conflicted with the fact that Dwyer personally handled all matters relating to the contract six days prior to awarding it to CTA. Furthermore, his task force's contribution merely consisted in the making of a single phone call to David I. Herbert (the former State Director for Social Security, who controlled FICA recovery for Pennsylvania's public employees, and who was subsequently convicted for conspiring with CTA).


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Dwyer awarded the contract to CTA—an obscure California firm with three employees, little equipment, and little experience—despite being informed in April 1984 by the major Pennsylvania-based accounting firm Arthur Young and Associates (who had two hundred and fifty employees and submitted a proposal on April 13, 1984, at least fourteen days prior to CTA's proposal) that they could perform the FICA recovery as fast as CTA for half the cost.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Charles Collins, Arthur Young's former director of management consulting in Pittsburgh, testified at Dwyer's trial that Arthur Young and Associates, who, unlike CTA, had experience in identical tax recovery work, was prepared to negotiate the FICA recovery contract (that was half the cost of the CTA contract) and that Dwyer was clearly aware of Arthur Young's position before committing the contract to CTA. Additionally, sixteen other competitors were willing to be considered for the FICA recovery contract and many had communicated with Treasurer Dwyer's office to request an opportunity to bid on the contract, yet Dwyer did not respond. Dwyer repeatedly stated that he awarded the contract to CTA (via his task force's recommendation) on the basis of CTA's providing "immediate credit", yet the contract between CTA and Dwyer contained no information regarding CTA's ability to provide such credit. Moreover, Dwyer admitted that he did not mention the concept of "immediate credit" to Arthur Young and Associates when officials from the firm asked why CTA was chosen over them. In contradiction to Dwyer's statements about awarding CTA the contract on the basis of their providing "immediate credit", Arthur Young and Associates were told that CTA got the contract since they first recognized that the overpayments could be recovered, and that they supported legislation that gave Dwyer the sole power to award said contract.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Nevertheless, Dwyer denied any wrongdoing, stating that after the CTA contract was signed, Smith merely made a "generic" offer to help him with his campaign. Dwyer's lawyer spoke to the prosecutor, acting U.S. Attorney James West, asking him if he would drop all charges against Dwyer if Dwyer resigned as state treasurer. West declined the offer. He instead offered to let Dwyer plead guilty to a single charge of bribe receiving, which would have meant up to a maximum of five years' imprisonment, as long as he resigned from his office as Treasurer of Pennsylvania and cooperated fully with the government's investigation, but Dwyer refused and went to trial. At his trial, Dwyer did not take the stand, and his lawyer, Paul Killion, presented no defense witnesses since he thought that the government did not sufficiently prove its case. It is possible that Dwyer did not testify in his own defense since he did not want to be questioned regarding his involvement in a 1980 conspiracy involving his wife's business "Poli-Ed," and two Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) employees. One of these employees was Dwyer's close friend and campaign manager Fred Mckillop, who was subsequently fired by the PSEA for his involvement in the scheme, and who later featured in a 2010 about Dwyer. In this conspiracy, which was investigated by the office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General, Dwyer allegedly siphoned money from his campaign into his personal funds.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: On December 18, 1986, Dwyer was found guilty on 11 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, perjury and interstate transportation in aid of racketeering, and consequently faced a sentence of up to 55 years imprisonment and a $300,000 fine. His sentencing was scheduled for January 23, 1987, to be performed by U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm Muir. One mail-fraud charge against Dwyer was dismissed by Judge Muir. One juror, Carolyn Edwards of Williamsport, found it emotionally difficult to convict Dwyer (and Asher) since they were men of "very high integrity ... they just made a mistake". Bob Asher, Dwyer's co-defendant, was sentenced to one year in jail. He later returned to politics and served as a Republican national committeeman for Pennsylvania.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Accounting firm Levin-Horwath ultimately fulfilled the contract for $1,300,000, with slightly over a third of the fee possibly being subject to rebate. If CTA were to have performed the recovery work, Pennsylvania would have lost $6,000,000.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Pennsylvania law stated that Dwyer could not officially be removed from office until his sentencing in January. Given this, Dwyer stated that until his legal appeal was resolved, he would stay on as treasurer under leave of absence without pay and would not resign before having the opportunity to appeal his conviction. In the interim, the treasury department would be run by Deputy Treasurer Donald L. Johnson.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Dwyer continued to profess his innocence after being convicted, and on December 23 wrote a letter to President Ronald Reagan seeking a presidential pardon, and to Senator Arlen Specter seeking support in this effort.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: The week of Dwyer's sentencing, Pennsylvania State Attorney General LeRoy Zimmerman and state prosecutors were investigating a provision of the Pennsylvania state constitution where removal of a civil worker from office who has been convicted of a crime is "self-executing", thus, automatic upon that person's sentencing. A decision confirming this constitutional point was expected on January 22, the day before Dwyer's sentencing hearing.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: In a meeting in his home on January 15, 1987, Dwyer discussed the idea of a press conference with his press secretary James "Duke" Horshock and Deputy Treasurer Don Johnson. At the meeting, both Horshock and Johnson cautioned Dwyer not to use the conference to attack the governor or other individuals involved with his criminal conviction, and both suggested to Dwyer that he should hold the conference at a location other than his office. Dwyer angrily rejected their suggestion, but nevertheless assured both men that he would not attack anybody involved with his conviction. He additionally stated that he would not announce his resignation at the conference, but rather thank his staff and friends. Nevertheless, both men left assuming Dwyer would ultimately resign at the conference, although Horshock had fears that Dwyer would break his promise.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: The next day Dwyer visited his lawyer, Paul Killion, who told Dwyer to express repentance for his crimes. Dwyer responded by agreeing to change his "version of events" which was to be presented to Judge Muir at Dwyer's pre-sentencing conference scheduled for the afternoon of January 22. Dwyer later saw Killion again, gave him an updated "version of events", and stated that he would announce his resignation at the press conference, yet did not want Killion to attend the conference.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Dwyer finally reached Senator Specter by telephone on January 21, two days before his sentencing. A Specter aide stated that the two of them talked for 8 to 10 minutes. Following up on his letter to the senator asking for help, he personally wrote to President Ronald Reagan asking for a presidential pardon. In his letter, Dwyer once again professed his innocence and stated that the concept of immediate credit was not understood by the uneducated, unsophisticated "rural" jury at his trial. The senator responded that this request to President Reagan was "not realistic" because the judicial process, including appeals, had not yet run its course.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: On the same day, Dwyer asked his press secretary Horshock and deputy press secretary Gregory Penny to set up a news conference for the next day without telling them what he was to discuss. Horshock arranged the press conference for 10:30 a.m. EST the next day, January 22. The press secretary called dozens of reporters asking them to attend, and told them he did not know its subject.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Initially, Dwyer wanted to ban certain reporters from the press conference who he believed wrote biased accounts about him and even suggested that a guard should be in attendance to prevent entry to those who were not on his authorized list. Horshock, who was unconvinced about Dwyer's claims that he was being conspired against, objected, stating to Dwyer that he could not "use state government facilities to manipulate the free flow of information".


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Leading up to the press conference, acting U.S. Attorney West, who had secured the conviction against Dwyer, remarked that the Treasurer's (supposed) resignation "sounds like the appropriate thing to do under the circumstances. It seems like it would save everybody a lot of time and aggravation." Similarly, Harrisburg "Patriot-News" reporter Kenn Marshall described the consensus among reporters: they would be attending to see Dwyer announce his resignation from his office. "My mission was to stay there until he said those words, then call in a new top for our story."


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: The next morning, Dwyer went to his press conference as planned. Standing behind a large wood table that separated him from nine television cameras, four wire service photographers and about 20 television, radio and newspaper reporters. He began reading from a 21-page prepared text, while aides handed a 20-page version to the media. The final page was expected to be his announcement that he would resign office.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Appearing nervous and agitated, Dwyer again professed his innocence and accused acting U.S. Attorney James West, FBI agents, U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm Muir, the media and others for tarnishing the justice system and ruining him. Dwyer stated that Attorney West purposely held Dwyer's trial not in Harrisburg but in Williamsport, due to it being located in Lycoming County, one of the most uneducated counties in Pennsylvania. Dwyer spoke out against the death penalty and expressed regret for voting in favor of it while he was in the Pennsylvania assembly. This speech lasted nearly 30 minutes, and approximately halfway into it, with no apparent end in sight, some of the gathered press began to pack up and leave. Dwyer spotted this and interrupted himself to say, "Those of you who are putting your cameras away, I think you ought to stay because we're not, we're not finished yet."


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Given the sensitive nature of portions of Dwyer's text, press secretary Horshock had considered interrupting him outright to stop him but concluded that he would hold his own press conference after Dwyer's. "I had to make it known that I was not aware of the content of the statement. I didn't want it to be thought that I wrote that for him."


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Upon reaching the final page of his statement, which had not been distributed to the press nor press secretary Horshock in advance, Dwyer paused. "... and I'm on the last page now, and I don't have enough to pass out, but Duke [Horshock], I'll leave this here, and you can make copies for the people; there's a few extra copies here right now." Dwyer continued,


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: At this point, Dwyer stopped reading from his prepared remarks, with the gathered press still waiting on his expected resignation. There was still a significant portion of the prepared text remaining, which detailed what he was actually planning to do, and it read as follows (he did not read these comments to the crowd):


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: After deciding to break from his speech, Dwyer called to three of his staffers, giving each a sealed envelope with the insignia of the treasury department. The first envelope, given to Bob Holste, contained a letter addressed to then-Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey, who had taken office just two days earlier. The second, given to deputy press secretary Gregory Penny, contained an organ donor card and other related materials. The last, given to Deputy Treasurer Don Johnson, contained materials intended for Dwyer's family, including three letters: one for his wife Joanne, and one for each of his children, Rob and DeeDee (Dyan), and suggested funeral arrangements.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Freelance photographer Gary Miller, one of the reporters in attendance, described the scene at this point, stating: "It was just kind of a long-winded, sad event."


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: After he had finished speaking and handing out the notes to his staffers, Dwyer then produced a manila envelope with a Model 19 .357 Magnum revolver in it. When the crowd in the room saw what Dwyer had pulled out of the envelope, the mood changed immediately from one of waiting to see whether he would resign his office to one of panic as nobody knew what he was planning to do with the gun.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Reporters David Morris of the Associated Press, Thom Cole of UPI and Gary Warner of afternoon newspaper The Pittsburgh Press were at the rear of the room, waiting for Dwyer to say he had resigned, so they could run down the hall to telephones to tell their editors they could publish pre-written stories and add Dwyer's direct quote. When Dwyer produced the gun, the three ran into the hallway and shouted to a state police kiosk in the center of the long hallway that the treasurer had a gun.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Inside the room, people gasped, and Dwyer backed up against the wall, holding the weapon close to his body. Dwyer calmly said, "Please, please leave the room if this will ... if this will affect you."


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Among those who stayed, some pleaded with Dwyer to surrender the gun while others tried to approach him and seize the weapon. Dwyer warned against either action, exclaiming his last words, "Don't, don't, don't, this will hurt someone."


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Dwyer quickly put the muzzle of the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, firing a shot through the roof of his mouth and into his brain. He collapsed on the floor, dead.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Five news cameras recorded the events. One of the cameras remained focused on Dwyer and captured close-up footage of the aftermath of the shooting; as his body slumped, blood streamed from the exit wound in the back of his head as well as from his nostrils and mouth. He died instantly from the gunshot shortly before 11:00 a.m. EST but was not pronounced dead until 11:31 a.m. An aide later stated that Dwyer's corneas were made available for transplant per his organ donation wishes, but that no other organs were usable by the time his body reached a hospital. Interment took place at Blooming Valley Cemetery in Saegertown on January 26.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Many television stations throughout Pennsylvania broadcast taped footage of Dwyer's suicide to a midday audience. Philadelphia station WPVI (Channel 6) showed Dwyer pulling the trigger and falling backwards, but did not show the bullet path. Over the next several hours, news editors had to decide how much of the graphic footage they wanted to air. Many chose not to air the final moments of the suicide and WPVI also chose not to show the gunshot a second time.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Many stations, including WCAU and Pennsylvania's Group W stations KYW and KDKA, froze the action just before the gunshot. However, the latter two allowed the audio of the shooting to continue under the frozen image. Group W's news cameraman William L. "Bill" Martin and reporter David Sollenberger had a camera set up at the conference. They chose to air the audio with a freeze-frame of the gun in Dwyer's mouth. Only a handful aired the unedited press conference. WPVI in Philadelphia re-broadcast the suicide footage in full on their 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Action News broadcast without warning the viewers. That station's broadcast is a source for copies circulating on the Internet. WPXI in Pittsburgh is reported by the Associated Press to have broadcast the footage uncensored on an early newscast. In explaining the decision to air, WPXI operations manager By Williams said, "It's an important event [about] an important man." Williams avoided airing the footage in the evening newscasts, explaining, "Everyone knows by then that he did it. There are children out of school." However, in central Pennsylvania, many children were home from school during the day of Dwyer's suicide due to a snowstorm.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Many older students reacted to the event by creating black comedy jokes. A study of the incidence of the jokes showed that they were told only in areas where stations showed uncensored footage of the press conference. At least one reporter present at Dwyer's suicide suffered from being a witness. Tony Romeo, a radio reporter, was standing a few feet from Dwyer. After the suicide, Romeo developed depression and took a break from journalism.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Dwyer's deep mistrust of outgoing Republican Governor Dick Thornburgh was spelled out in detail in his press conference statement. The timing of Dwyer's press conference and suicide meant that Thornburgh was not empowered to appoint a Treasurer to replace him. Instead, this fell to Thornburgh's successor, Democrat Bob Casey, who had taken office on January 20.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: The letter Dwyer had sent to Casey stated, among other things, "By the time you receive this letter ... the office of State Treasurer of Pennsylvania will be vacant. I stress to you that I did not resign but was State Treasurer of Pennsylvania to the end." It also stated that Casey "will be the great Governor that Pennsylvania needs at this time in our history." He suggested his wife Joanne as his successor, describing her as "very talented, personable, organized and hard-working."


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Governor Casey did not take Dwyer's suggestion. Regardless of the events of January 22, the governor and legislature of Pennsylvania already expected Dwyer to either resign or be removed from office. As such, a deal had already been brokered wherein the next treasurer, a Democrat, would serve out Dwyer's term and step down at its end. This was G. Davis Greene Jr., who was appointed as the 31st Treasurer of Pennsylvania on January 23, 1987, the day after Dwyer's suicide.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: In 2010, former U.S. attorney James West, who prosecuted Dwyer, affirmed Dwyer's guilt, stating that "the evidence against Dwyer was overwhelming and indisputable".


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: In his final press statement, Dwyer alleged that Governor Thornburgh along with prosecutor James West, engaged in a political vendetta against him, and that FBI agents had acted improperly in their investigation. Following Dwyer's public suicide, the National Association of State Treasurers called for Dwyer's allegations to be reviewed by the Department of Justice. After a thorough investigation, the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility cleared attorney James West and everyone else involved in Dwyer's investigation and prosecution of any wrongdoing. The FBI also investigated Dwyer's claims regarding impropriety on behalf of FBI personnel. They ultimately found Dwyer's claims to be "lacking in substance and specificity" and warranting no further action. R.B. Swift, former Capitol reporter, noted that Dwyer's allegations were extensively investigated by journalists from both "The Philadelphia Inquirer" and the Associated Press, but no evidence was found to substantiate them.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Dwyer claimed that Governor Thornburgh sought revenge against him, since Dwyer had angered Thornburgh when he publicly refused to approve expense vouchers for Thornburgh's wife for a European trip, and, additionally, when he criticized Thornburgh's use of state police to chauffeur his son to school. In response, Thornburgh pointed out that prior to their European trip, the Thornburgh family had issued a press release specifically stating that Ginny Thornburgh would pay her own expenses. Upon their return to Pennsylvania, Mrs. Thornburgh "repeatedly requested" the Thornburgh staff to "advise her of the amount" to be reimbursed; however, Dwyer leaked this matter to "The Philadelphia Inquirer" in an attempt to "enhance his own image by embarrassing" Thornburgh and his family. Regarding the use of the state police, Thornburgh stated that “the security detail provided its services to all members of our household as the officers deemed necessary for our protection. We neither asked for nor questioned these services, which were no different than those provided to our predecessors.” Thornburgh spokesman David Runkel dismissed Dwyer's allegations (as being "paranoic"), as did John Taylor, the former spokesman for Governor Bob Casey. Pennsylvanian journalist and author Brad Bumsted suggested that Dwyer's allegations against Thornburgh may have been an attempt to divert attention from his own criminal activity with CTA. Bumsted also stated that, in Dwyer's final press statement, Dwyer "offered no real evidence" that there was any conspiracy against him.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Dwyer's deputy press secretary Gregory Penny, who was handed an envelope by Dwyer at Dwyer's final press conference, stated that he was convinced that Dwyer, who he had once defended, had been guilty all along:


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: Since Dwyer died in office, his widow Joanne was able to collect full survivor benefits totaling over (equivalent to about $M in ), which at the time was the largest death benefit payment ever made by the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System. If Dwyer had been sentenced, state law would have prohibited the payment of his state-provided pension benefits. A spokesman for Dwyer suggested that he may have killed himself to preserve the pension benefits for his family, whose finances had been ruined by legal defense costs. Other statements made by some friends and family also suggest that this was Dwyer's motivation.


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: However, at a panel discussion for the documentary "", Dwyer's sister Mary Kun stated that Dwyer had made the decision to kill himself prior to knowing he would lose his pension and thus his motivation for his suicide was not to provide financial support to his family, but rather to "sacrifice himself to help the system."


title: R. Budd Dwyer

text: On January 27, 1987, Dwyer's lawyers filed an appeal in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania seeking the dismissal of all post-trial motions that were then pending against Dwyer, abatement of Dwyer's conviction and the dismissal of his May 13, 1986, indictment. On March 5, 1987, the district court denied all motions, stating that "there were no grounds whatsoever upon which Mr. Dwyer could hope to succeed upon appeal" and ordered to "close this file as to R. Budd Dwyer". Dwyer's lawyers appealed this decision, and The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit subsequently vacated the judgment. On remand, the district court was instructed to dismiss Dwyer's motions (since the Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction), and Dwyer's convictions for mail fraud and conspiracy were upheld. Six years after Dwyer's death, efforts were made to clear Dwyer's name when a retrial request was filed in U.S. District Court in July 1993. This request was denied in October of the same year.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 34th Disney animated feature film and the seventh produced during the Disney Renaissance, it is loosely based on the 1831 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The film was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise and produced by Don Hahn, from a screenplay written by Tab Murphy, Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and the writing team of Bob Tzudiker and Noni White. Featuring the voices of Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay, and Kevin Kline, the film follows Quasimodo, the deformed and confined bell-ringer of Notre Dame, and his yearning to explore the outside world and be accepted by society, against the wishes of his cruel, puritanical foster father Claude Frollo, who also wants to exterminate Paris' Romani population.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: The film is considered to be one of Disney's darkest animated films due to its mature subject matter such as infanticide, lust, damnation, antiziganism, genocide, and sin, despite the changes made from the original source material in order to ensure a G rating from the MPAA. The musical score was written by Alan Menken, with songs written by Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who had previously collaborated on "Pocahontas" (1995). The pair later also collaborated on 2007's "Enchanted".


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was released on June 21, 1996, to generally positive reviews. It was a commercial success, grossing over $325 million worldwide and becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 1996. The film received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for its musical score. A stage adaptation of the film was produced by Walt Disney Theatrical in 1999. A direct-to-video sequel, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame II", was released in 2002.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: A group of Roma immigrating to Paris were ambushed by Judge Claude Frollo, Paris' Minister of Justice, and his soldiers. One woman attempted to flee with her baby, reaching the doors of Notre Dame pleading for sanctuary. Frollo chased her down and knocked her onto the cathedral's steps, where she fractured her skull and died. Seeing her baby's appearance, Frollo believed it to be a demon and went to drown the child but was interrupted by the archdeacon, who rebuked Frollo for murdering an innocent woman. Afraid for his soul, Frollo reluctantly agreed to raise the child as his own, naming him "Quasimodo" (meaning 'half-formed') and hiding him away in the cathedral's bell tower.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Twenty years later, Quasimodo has grown into a kind yet isolated young man, now with a pronounced hunchback caused by kyphosis. He has lived his entire life in the cathedral with his only company being a trio of living stone gargoyles Victor, Hugo, and Laverne. The gargoyles encourage him to attend the annual Festival of Fools, despite Frollo's warnings that he would be shunned for his appearance. Quasimodo attends and is celebrated for his appearance but then, prompted by Frollo's guards, is humiliated by the crowd. Frollo refuses Quasimodo's pleas for help, but he is rescued by Esmeralda, a kind Traveller. Frollo, who intends to commit genocide against Romani people living in Paris, orders her arrest but Esmeralda escapes using a magic trick.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Quasimodo retreats back into the cathedral, followed by Esmeralda and Captain Phoebus of Frollo's guard. Phoebus refuses to arrest her for witchcraft inside Notre Dame and instead tells Frollo that she has claimed asylum. Esmeralda finds and befriends Quasimodo, who helps her escape Notre Dame out of gratitude for defending him. She entrusts Quasimodo with a pendant containing a map to the Roma hideout called the Court of Miracles. Frollo develops an obsessive lust for Esmeralda and, upon realizing them, begs the Virgin Mary to save him from her "spell" and avoid eternal damnation.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: When Frollo discovers that Esmeralda escaped, he searches for her, bribing and arresting Travellers and setting fire to houses trying to find her. Phoebus defies Frollo when ordered to burn down a house with a family inside and Frollo orders him executed. Phoebus flees but is struck by an arrow and falls into the River Seine, where he is found by Esmeralda and taken to Notre Dame for refuge. The gargoyles encourage Quasimodo to confess his feelings for Esmeralda, but he is heartbroken to discover she and Phoebus have fallen in love. Realizing that Quasimodo helped Esmeralda escape, Frollo tells him he knows about the Court of Miracles and plans to attack it at dawn. Using the map Esmeralda gave him, Quasimodo and Phoebus find the court to warn the Roma, only for Frollo to follow them and capture all the Travellers present.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: When Esmeralda again rejects Frollo's advances, he attempts to burn her at the stake at Place du Parvis, but Quasimodo swoops down and carries her to the cathedral tower, crying "Sanctuary!" from the ledge. When Frollo attempts to seize the cathedral, Quasimodo and the gargoyles pour molten lead onto the streets to prevent anyone entering. Phoebus releases the Roma and rallies the Paris citizens against Frollo's guards while Frollo himself breaks into the cathedral. Violating the tradition of sanctuary, he pursues Quasimodo and Esmeralda to the bell tower with the intent of killing them both. He and Quasimodo fight, eventually both falling from a ledge. Frollo plummets to his death in the molten lead while Quasimodo is saved by Phoebus. Quasimodo accepts Phoebus and Esmeralda's love and they encourage him to leave the cathedral; when he does so, the people of Paris hail him as a hero.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: The idea to adapt "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" came from development executive David Stainton in 1993, who was inspired to turn Victor Hugo's novel "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" into an animated feature film after reading the Classics Illustrated comic book adaptation. Stainton then proposed the idea to then-studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg. After the release of "Beauty and the Beast" (1991), Gary Trousdale had taken a sabbatical break from directing, instead spending several months developing storyboards for "The Lion King" (1994). Following this, Trousdale and Kirk Wise subsequently developed an animated feature based on the Greek myth of "Orpheus and Eurydice" titled "A Song of the Sea", adapting it to make the central character a humpback whale and setting it in the open ocean. While they were working on the project they were summoned to meet with Katzenberg. "During that time," explained Trousdale, "while we working on it, we got a call from Jeffrey. He said, 'Guys, drop everything – you're working on "Hunchback" now. According to Wise, they believed that it had "a great deal of potential... great memorable characters, a really terrific setting, the potential for fantastic visuals, and a lot of emotion."


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Production on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" began in the summer of 1993. In October 1993, directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, art director David Goetz, Roy Conli, Ed Ghertner, Will Finn, Alan Menken, and Stephen Schwartz took a trip to Paris, France, for ten days; three days were devoted to exploring Notre Dame including a private tour of rarely glimpsed sites such as passageways, stairwells, towers, and a hidden room. The production crew also visited the Palace of Justice and an original location of the Court of Miracles.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Writer Tab Murphy was brought on board to write the screenplay, and it was decided early on that Quasimodo would be the center of the story, as he was in preceding live-action film adaptations. In the early drafts, Quasimodo served as a Cyrano between Phoebus and Esmeralda, but it was discarded to focus more on Quasimodo. Meanwhile, a love story between Quasimodo and Esmeralda was also conceived, according to Murphy, but "we decided to make Phoebus more heroic and central to the story. Out of that decision grew the idea of some sort of a triangle between Quasimodo, Esmeralda and Phoebus." Some of the novel's key characters were jettisoned entirely. The gargoyles of Notre Dame were added to the story by Trousdale and Wise. Their portrayal as comedic friends and confidantes of Quasimodo was inspired by a portion of the novel, which reads: "The other statues, the ones of monsters and demons, felt no hatred for Quasimodo…The saints were his friends and blessed him; the monsters were his friends, and protected him. Thus he would pour out his heart at length to them."


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: One of the first changes made to accommodate Disney's request was to turn the villainous Claude Frollo into a judge rather than an archdeacon, thus avoiding religious sensibilities in the finished film. "As we were exploring the characters, especially Frollo, we certainly found a lot of historical parallels to the type of mania he had: the Confederate South, Nazi Germany, take your pick," explained Wise. "Those things influenced our thinking." Producer Don Hahn evaluated that one inspiration for Frollo was found in Ralph Fiennes's performance as Amon Goeth in "Schindler's List" (1993), who had murdered Jews yet lusted after his Jewish maid.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: For the opening sequence, Disney story veteran Burny Mattinson constructed an effective sequence that covered much exposition, although Katzenberg felt something was missing. Following Stephen Schwartz's suggestion to musicalize the sequence, French animators Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi storyboarded the sequence to Menken and Schwartz's music resulting in "The Bells of Notre Dame." Lyricist Stephen Schwartz also worked closely with the writing team even suggesting that the audience should be left wondering what the outcome of what Phoebus would do before he extinguishes the torch in water in retaliation against Frollo. Another was the film's conclusion. While Frollo's death was made more explicit, Quasimodo and Esmeralda were both spared their fates and given a happy ending. This revised ending was based in part on Victor Hugo's own libretto to a "Hunchback" opera, in which he had permitted Captain Phoebus to save Esmeralda from her execution.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: In late 1993, pop singer Cyndi Lauper was the first actor cast during the film's initial stages. She had been hired one week after reading for a part with the directors, who felt her performance was "hilarious and sweet". Thinking she had been cast as Esmeralda, Lauper was startled to learn she was to voice a gargoyle named Quinn. The development team had came up with the names of Chaney, Laughton and Quinn—named after the actors who portrayed Quasimodo in preceding "Hunchback" film adaptations. However, Disney's legal department objected to the proposed names of the gargoyles, fearing that the estates of Lon Chaney, Charles Laughton, or Anthony Quinn (who was still alive at the time) would file a lawsuit over the unauthorized use of their names, so the idea was dropped. Trousdale and Wise then suggested naming the characters Lon, Charles, and Anthony, which would have resulted in the same legal concern. Instead, they would name the first two gargoyles after Victor Hugo, and the third gargoyle after Andrews Sisters singer Laverne Andrews as suggested by Wise.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Now cast as Laverne, Lauper was deemed too youthful for a friend who would provide wise counsel to Quasimodo. At the same time, Sam McMurray—best known for his work on "The Tracey Ullman Show"—was hired for Hugo. Meanwhile, Charles Kimbrough was cast as Victor, who was initially unimpressed at an animated adaptation of "Hunchback", but later became rather impressed at the level of research that went into the film and how the story ideas transitioned from the novel to the screen. After several recording sessions and test screenings, Lauper and McMurray were called by the directors who released them from their roles. At one point, Jeffrey Katzenberg had considered Arsenio Hall, David Letterman, and Jay Leno to voice the gargoyles, but he eventually cast Jason Alexander, due to his previous role in "The Return of Jafar" (1994). After a suggestion by supervising animator Will Finn, Laverne was then re-envisioned into a wiser, mature character with Mary Wickes cast in the role. Following Wickes' death in October 1995, Jane Withers was hired to voice her six remaining lines.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Katzenberg had also wanted Meat Loaf for the role of Quasimodo, but he passed on the role after Disney couldn't come to an agreement with his record company. Mandy Patinkin was also approached for the title role, but his style of portraying Quasimodo collided with the producers' demands, and Patinkin stated I [was] just there at the audition [and I] said, 'I can't do this. Tom Hulce was cast as Quasimodo following his first audition for the role, and according to the actor, he noticed during the audition that the Disney executives, producers, and directors "were staring at the floor. It looked like everyone was at a memorial service" until he noticed the floor was lined with storyboard sketches. According to Wise, the filmmakers "like to audition the voices with our eyes closed, so we see the character's face." Quasimodo was originally portrayed as older and with more of a speech impediment during the early rehearsals, but Hulce commented that "we experimented, endlessly. At one point I was ready to call in and say 'Things just aren't happening'." Ultimately, the directors desired to portray Quasimodo with a younger voice different from the previous portrayals since "[Victor] Hugo described Quasimodo as 20." Additionally, Hulce was permitted to do his own singing after performing a demo recording of "Out There."


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Due to her deeper voice than actresses who had previously played Disney heroines, Demi Moore was cast as Esmeralda, and met with Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz on singing. After several singing demos, the actress said "You'd better get someone else," according to Schwartz. New York City cabaret singer Heidi Mollenhauer was selected to provide the singing voice. For the role of Phoebus, co-director Kirk Wise explained that "As we're designing the characters, we form a short list of names...to help us find the personality of the character." Subsequently, the filmmakers modeled his portrayal on the personalities of Errol Flynn and John Wayne, and "One of the names on the top of the list all the time was Kevin Kline." Moore and Kline were the only actors to have the role directly offered to them instead of auditioning. British actor Tony Jay, who declared his role as Frollo as his "bid for immortality," was cast after the directors had worked with him in "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). Anthony Hopkins was originally considered for the role, but he turned down the offer. After watching his portrayal as Uncle Ernie in the musical "The Who's Tommy", Broadway actor Paul Kandel was selected to voice Clopin.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Alongside "Pocahontas" (1995), storyboard work on "The Hunchback of the Notre Dame" was among the first to be produced for an animated film on the new Disney Feature Animation building adjacent to the main Disney lot in Burbank, which was dedicated in 1995. However, most animators were occupied with "The Lion King" (1994) and "Pocahontas" (1995) at the time, and as a result, more animators were hired from Canada and United Kingdom to join the production team for the film. As the development phase furthered along, most of the entire animation team moved out into a large warehouse facility on Airway in Glendale, California. As the Disney story artists, layout crew, and animators moved in their new quarters, they decided to name the building "Sanctuary."


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Since "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), other animators hired by Disney Feature Animation were from Germany, France, Ireland, and additional ones from Canada were involved in providing animation duties at the recently opened satellite studio, Walt Disney Animation Paris, of which about 20 percent of the film was done. Meanwhile, at the Feature Animation Florida studio, which had been working on their first in-house production "Mulan" (1998), at least seven animators penned about four minutes of screen time, which mostly involved Frollo and Quasimodo. The studio had also provided additional layout, cleanup, and special-effects animation.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: During early development, Trousdale and Wise realized they needed crowds of people, but for this time, they wanted them to move as opposed to being traditionally drawn as painted backdrops. Recalling the wildebeest stampede in "The Lion King" (1994), they landed on the idea of using computer animation to generate them. For that reason, the CGI department, headed by Kiran Joshi, created the software "Crowd" to achieve large-scale crowd scenes, particularly for the Feast of Fools sequence and the film's climax. The software was used to create six types of characters—males and females either average in weight, fat, or thin—which were programmed and assigned 72 specific movements ranging from jumping and clapping. Digital technology also provided a visual sweep that freed Quasimodo to scamper around the cathedral and soar around the plaza to rescue Esmeralda.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Having worked on "Pocahontas" (1995) for a year, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz were offered multiple film projects to collaborate on when they chose to work on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". According to Schwartz, they had both been attracted to underlying themes of social outcast and Quasimodo's struggle to break free of the psychological abuse of Frollo.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: The film has many musical motifs that carry throughout the film, weaving their way in and out of various pieces of music, and having varying timbres depending on the action in the story at that point. The film's soundtrack includes a musical score composed by Menken and songs written by him and Stephen Schwartz. The film's songs include "The Bells of Notre Dame" for Clopin, Frollo and the Archdeacon, "Out There" for Quasimodo and Frollo, "Topsy Turvy" for Clopin, "God Help the Outcasts" for Esmeralda, "Heaven's Light" for Quasimodo, "Hellfire" for the Archdeacon and Frollo, "A Guy Like You" for the gargoyles and "The Court of Miracles" for Clopin and the other Travellers.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Three songs written for the film were discarded for the storyboarding process. Trousdale and Wise were not certain what musical number could be placed for the third act, though Menken and Schwartz conceived two love songs, "In a Place of Miracles" and "As Long as There's a Moon," between Esmeralda and Phoebus in the film. However, Trousdale and Wise felt the song took too much focus off of Quasimodo, and ultimately decided to have Clopin sing about sentencing Phoebus and Quasimodo to death for finding their Romani sanctuary. Menken and Schwartz had also written "Someday" originally for the film, but the directors suggested that a religious song be sung in the cathedral, and the song was instead featured in the end credits. R&B group All-4-One recorded the song for the end credits of the North American English release, and by the British R&B girl group Eternal in the British English version. Luis Miguel recorded the version for the Latin American Spanish version, which became a major hit.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"s thematic concerns include infanticide, lust, damnation, and sin, as well as the belief in a loving, forgiving God. According to Mark Pinsky, it is also a "condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, and racism, and [a] moral resistance to genocide."


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was the first – and currently only – Disney animated feature to have a major focus on traditional religious faith; in this case, pre-Reformation Catholicism. In fact, the words "God," "Lord", and "Hell" are uttered more times in this film than in any other produced by Disney. "The Gospel According to Disney" explains that "it is the church...that interposes, or attempts to interpose itself between the villain and his evil intentions." During production, the studio executives expressed concerns about various aspects of the film, especially those relating to the religious content in the story, "for their failure to defend the poor and the powerless" and concerns that the story was "too controversial." "Deconstructing Disney" notes that the studio "approached the name of God with an almost Hebraic zeal (that it should never be stated) yet here it is invoked in a manner both pious and puritan." Many of the songs were adapted from genuine Latin prayers and chants, such as "Hellfire", which uses the Tridentine form of the Confiteor as a counterpoint melody. "The Gospel According to Disney" includes a quote that says "religion... appears as an impotent, irrelevant caricature [and] Disney refuses to admit a serious role for religion." At one point, the archdeacon says to Esmeralda, "You can't right all the wrongs of this world by yourself... perhaps there is someone in here who can," referring either to God or Mary. This questions the power religious people actually have in making the world a moral and happy place, according to Pinsky.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: "The Gospel According to Disney" explains that "while Frollo's stated goal is to purge the world of vice and sin, according to the opening song, he 'saw corruption everywhere except within.'" Because "killing the woman on the steps has put Frollo's soul in mortal danger," he has to take the child and look after him as penance. Even then, he absolves himself of agency in the murder by claiming "God works in mysterious ways," and ponders whether "the child may be of use to him one day." During the song "God Help the Outcasts," Esmeralda wonders if Mary could have been an outcast as well.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: According to the film's production notes, Quasimodo is "symbolically viewed as being an angel in a devil's body." He is "trapped between heaven above [and] the gritty streets of urban Paris viewed as Hell." The version of the alphabet Quasimodo recites in a daily ritual reflects Frollo's view of the world – full of abominations and blasphemy. He is also constantly called deformed, ugly, a monster, and an outcast who would be hated if he ever left the confines of the church.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: In 1994, the film was scheduled for a Christmas 1995 release, though the film was reportedly delayed following the departure of Jeffrey Katzenberg from the Walt Disney Company. By January 1995, it was later pushed back to a summer 1996 release. The film premiered on June 19, 1996, at the New Orleans Superdome, where it was played on six enormous screens. The premiere was preceded by a parade through the French Quarter, beginning at Jackson Square and utilizing floats and cast members from Walt Disney World. The film was widely released two days later.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: As part of the promotion of the film, Walt Disney Records shipped two million products, including sing-along home videos, soundtrack CDs, and the "My First Read Along" novelized version of the film. Upon release, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was accompanied by a marketing campaign of more than $40 million with commercial tie-ins with Burger King, Payless Shoes, Nestlé and Mattel. By 1997, Disney earned approximately $500 million in profit with the spin-off products based from the film.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was first released on VHS, standard CLV Laserdisc, and special edition CAV Laserdisc on March 4, 1997, under the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection label. By mid-1998, the operating income of the VHS release had accumulated to $200 million. It was originally planned for a DVD release in December 2000 as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection, but instead, it was re-issued on March 19, 2002, as a special edition along with its direct-to-video sequel, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame II" (2002).


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" on Blu-ray alongside its sequel in a Special Edition "2-Movie Collection" on March 12, 2013.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" grossed $21.3 million during its opening weekend, ranking second place at the box office behind "Eraser". In a new box office strategy, Disney also included ticket sales which were sold from Disney Stores nationwide, which added about $1 million to the box office numbers. However, the film had earned slightly less when compared to "Pocahontas", which had grossed $29 million the year previous. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution president Dick Cook defended the results claiming it was comparable to "Beauty and the Beast" (1991), which opened in half as many theaters, and grossed about $9 million.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: The film ultimately grossed just over $100.1 million domestically. In foreign markets, by December 1996, the film became the fifteenth film that year to gross over $100 million, and went on to accumulate $225.2 million, surpassing "Pocahontas" $204.5 million international gross. Worldwide, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" grossed over $325.3 million, making it the fifth highest-grossing film of 1996.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film positive rating based on reviews, along with an average rating of . The consensus reads, "Disney's take on the Victor Hugo classic is dramatically uneven, but its strong visuals, dark themes, and message of tolerance make for a more-sophisticated-than-average children's film." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 74 based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: "Chicago Sun-Times" film critic Roger Ebert rewarded the film 4 stars, calling it "the best Disney animated feature since "Beauty and the Beast" – a whirling, uplifting, thrilling story with a heart touching message that emerges from the comedy and song." In his review for the "Chicago Tribune", Gene Siskel awarded the film (out of a possible 4) stars, describing the film as "a surprisingly emotional, simplified version of the Victor Hugo novel" with "effective songs and, yes, tasteful bits of humor." Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" graded the film an A, labeling it as "the best of Disney's 'serious' animated features in the multiplex era, (...) an emotionally rounded fairy tale that balances darkness and sentimentality, pathos and triumph, with uncanny grace."


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Richard Corliss of "Time" magazine praised the film, stating that "the result is a grand cartoon cathedral, teeming with gargoyles and treachery, hopeless love and tortured lust" and also said "Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz have written the largest, most imposing score yet for an animated film." Charles Spencer of "The Daily Telegraph" gave it a positive review, saying "it is thrillingly dramatic, and for long stretches you forget you are watching a cartoon at all... A dazzling treat." "Variety" also gave the film a positive review, stating that "there is much to admire in "Hunchback", not least the risk of doing such a downer of a story at all" and also saying: "the new film should further secure Disney's dominance in animation, and connoisseurs of the genre, old and young, will have plenty to savor." Janet Maslin wrote in her "The New York Times" review: "In a film that bears conspicuous, eager resemblances to other recent Disney hits, the filmmakers' Herculean work is overshadowed by a Sisyphean problem. There's just no way to delight children with a feel-good version of this story."


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Upon opening in France in March 1997, reception from French critics towards Hunchback was largely positive. French critics and audiences found resonance in the film which recounted a real-life incident from August 1995 when French police raided a Parisian church and seized over 200 immigrants seeking refuge from deportation under France's strict expulsion laws. "It is difficult not to think of the undocumented immigrants of St. Bernard when Frollo tries to sweep out the rabble," wrote one reviewer.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Arnaud Later, a leading scholar on Hugo, accused Disney of simplifying, editing and censoring the novel in numerous aspects, including the personalities of the characters. In his review, he later wrote that the animators "don't have enough confidence in their own emotional feeling" and that the film "falls back on clichés." Descendants of Hugo bashed Disney in an open letter to the "Libération" newspaper for their ancestor receiving no mention on the advertisement posters, and describing the film as a "vulgar commercialization by unscrupulous salesmen."


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Some audiences expressed concerns about whether the film was appropriate for children. Jason Alexander said that while "Disney would have us believe this movie's like the Ringling Bros., for children of all ages," he would not take his then-four-year-old child to view the film. However, some newspaper publications reported child audiences being unaffected by the mature content and praising the film. Some audiences criticized the film for having "homosexual undertones," noticeably with the song "Out There," being the name of a gay pressure group and as a call to come out of the closet.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: In June 1996, the Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly to urge its sixteen million members to boycott Disney films, theme parks, and merchandise, saying the company "disparages Christian values." The cause of the protests—unrelated to the film—stemmed from the company's domestic partnership policy and gay and lesbian theme days at Walt Disney World. Trousdale also claimed that Southern Baptists were outraged over the casting of Demi Moore as Esmeralda, as she had just come off of the film "Striptease" (1996), in which she played an exotic dancer. Disney officials would not comment on the motivation for the religious content displayed in the film beyond comments on the subject included in the film's press kit, with Disney vice president John Dreyer commenting, "The film speaks for itself." Nevertheless, there was praise from religious organizations for its portrayal of religion in the film. Louis P. Sheldon, a Presbyterian pastor and chairman of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, said two months before its premiere: "I am thrilled at what I hear about "Hunchback", that Disney is seeking to honour Christianity and its role in Western civilization. I only pray that it will accomplish much good in the minds and hearts of its viewers."


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Following protests in the United States, thousands of British parents banned their kids from seeing "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame". In reaction to the controversy, Walt Disney Feature Animation president Peter Schneider said, "The only controversy I've heard about the movie is certain people's opinion that, 'Well, it's OK for me, but it might disturb somebody else." Schneider also stated in his defense that the film was test-screened "all over the country, and I've heard nobody, parents or children, complain about any of the issues. I think, for example, the issue of disabilities is treated with great respect." and "Quasimodo is really the underdog who becomes the hero; I don't think there's anything better for anybody's psychological feelings than to become the hero of a movie. The only thing we've been asked to be careful about is the word hunchback, which we have to use in the title."


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: The film was adapted into a musical production, re-written and directed by James Lapine and produced by Walt Disney Theatrical, in Berlin, Germany. The musical "Der Glöckner von Notre Dame" (translated in English as "The Bellringer of Notre Dame") was very successful and played from 1999 to 2002, before closing. A cast recording was also recorded in German. An English-language revival of the musical premiered in San Diego on October 28, 2014.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: In June 1998, Disney had announced production had begun on a sequel titled "The Hunchback of Notre Dame Deux: The Secret of the Bells", and was slated for release in fall 1999. However, the sequel was delayed from its planned fall release in order to accommodate the recording of "I'm Gonna Love You" by Jennifer Love Hewitt. The sequel reunited its original voice cast, with Hewitt, Haley Joel Osment and Michael McKean voicing new characters. In 2002, the direct-to-video sequel, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame II", was released on VHS and DVD.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Victor, Hugo, Laverne and Frollo all made guest appearances on the Disney Channel TV series "House of Mouse". Frollo could also be seen amongst a crowd of Disney Villains in "Mickey's House of Villains".


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: A live-action remake of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was announced in January 2019. The script will be penned by David Henry Hwang with Menken and Schwartz returning to write the music. Josh Gad, David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman are set to produce, with Gad being possibly considered to play Quasimodo. The film, titled "Hunchback", will draw elements from both the animated film and Hugo's novel. In January 2021, Gad stated that the project is still in the works and that he and the studio are "getting closer" to making it happen.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: In 1996, a tie-in game entitled "" was released by Disney Interactive for the PC and the Nintendo Game Boy, which is a collection of mini games based around the Festival of Fools that includes a variation of Balloon Fight.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: A world based on the movie, "La Cité des Cloches" (The City of Bells), made its debut appearance in the "Kingdom Hearts" series in "". It was the first new Disney world confirmed for the game.


title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)

text: Disney has converted its adaptation of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" into other media. For example, "Disney Comic Hits" #11, published by Marvel Comics, features two stories based upon the film. Characters from The Hunchback of Notre Dame make very rare appearances at the Disney Parks and Resorts, but can be seen as figures inside Clopin's Music Box in Fantasyland.


title: Control (video game)

text: Control is an action-adventure game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by 505 Games. The game was released in August 2019 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in February 2021. Cloud-based versions for the Nintendo Switch and Amazon Luna were released in October 2020, followed by a version for Stadia in July 2021. Two paid expansions have been released.


title: Control (video game)

text: The game revolves around the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), a secret U.S. government agency tasked with containing and studying phenomena that violate the laws of reality. As Jesse Faden (Courtney Hope), the Bureau's new Director, the player explores the Oldest House – the FBC's paranormal headquarters – and utilizes powerful abilities in order to defeat a deadly enemy known as the Hiss, which has invaded and corrupted reality. The player gains abilities by finding Objects of Power, mundane objects like a rotary phone or a floppy disk imbued with energies from another dimension, that have been at the center of major paranormal events and since recovered by the FBC. In addition to Hope, voice work and live-action footage is provided by James McCaffrey, Matthew Porretta, and Martti Suosalo, while the band Poets of the Fall provided additional music.


title: Control (video game)

text: "Control" is inspired by paranormal stories about the fictional SCP Foundation created by an online collaborative wiki fiction project, based on the genre of the new weird. The environments of the Oldest House are designed in the brutalist architecture style, common for many government buildings created during the Cold War era, which served as a setting to show off the game's destructive environmental systems. The core game includes many allusions to "Alan Wake", one of Remedy's prior games with similar themes of the paranormal, and "Control" "AWE" expansion is a crossover between these two series, which Remedy said forms part of the Remedy Connected Universe. "Control" was one of the first games released to take advantage of real-time ray tracing built into the hardware of newer video cards.


title: Control (video game)

text: Upon release, "Control" was met with positive reviews from critics, with several gaming publications naming it among their top games of 2019. The game was nominated for numerous video game awards, winning several related to the game's art and design. It sold over three million units by November 2022. A sequel, "Control 2", and a separate four-player co-operative spin-off, codenamed "Condor", were announced in June 2021.


title: Control (video game)

text: "Control" is played from a third-person perspective. "Control" is set within the Oldest House, a featureless Brutalist skyscraper in New York City, and the headquarters of the fictional Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), which studies Altered World Events (AWEs) and collects and studies Objects of Power from these AWEs. The Oldest House, itself an Object of Power, has an interior far larger than its exterior; an enormous, constantly shifting supernatural realm that defies the laws of spacetime. At the onset of the game, an entity called the Hiss is attempting to cross over through a dimensional barrier into this reality and has taken over numerous parts of the Oldest House, reconfiguring its architecture to its needs, as well as many of the FBC employees to fight for it. The player controls Jesse Faden, who has come to the Oldest House seeking answers about her brother after a prior AWE, and becomes involved in the fight against the Hiss.


title: Control (video game)

text: "Control" is built in the Metroidvania format, with a large world map that can be explored at a nonlinear pace, unlike Remedy's previous titles which were primarily linear. As the player completes the main story missions, they will encounter areas known as Control Points, which can be unlocked after clearing the area of enemies and then used both as save points and for fast travel throughout the building to previously unlocked Control Points. As the player completes missions, they unlock more of the building to explore, along with additional side quests, in addition to various rewards. These include skill points which can be used to improve psychokinetic powers that Jesse gains over the course of the game, such as projectile-launching debris at enemies or seizing control of enemies' minds temporarily to turn them into her allies. Mission rewards include resources that can be used to improve the function of the Service Weapon, a special gun that can take on multiple forms, ranging from a close-range shotgun-like blast to long-range sniper-like form, with each form outfitted with various perks. The player can equip perks to improve Jesse's base attributes. Various side-quests and optional time-limited mission alerts are available with additional rewards if completed.


title: Control (video game)

text: An A.I. system known as the Encounter Director controls interactions with enemies based on the player's level and location in the Oldest House. Enemies in "Control" are predominantly human agents of the FBC possessed by the Hiss, an otherworldly force. They range from standard humans carrying firearms to heavily mutated variations that possess a variety of superpowers.


title: Control (video game)

text: "Control" revolves around the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), a clandestine U.S. government agency which investigates supernatural Altered World Events (AWEs). These AWEs are affected by the human collective unconscious and have a variety of "paranatural" effects, including the creation of Objects of Power, archetypal items which grant special abilities to their wielders. Objects of Power are connected to the Board, a black pyramid-shaped entity which exists within the Astral Plane, an alternate dimension. The individual chosen by the Board to wield the Service Weapon, an Object of Power, is considered by default to be the director of the FBC. "Control" takes place within the Oldest House, a Brutalist skyscraper in New York City that serves as the headquarters of the FBC. The Oldest House is a Place of Power with several paranatural characteristics: it resists being noticed by anyone other than FBC members and individuals with an innate sensitivity to the paranatural, it is larger on the inside than on the outside, and its internal architecture is prone to shifting and rearranging in unpredictable ways. The FBC is able to stabilize portions of the Oldest House for its use by harnessing nexuses of resonance called Control Points.


title: Control (video game)

text: The protagonist of "Control" is Jesse Faden (Courtney Hope), who is chosen by the Board to replace the recently deceased Zachariah Trench (James McCaffrey) as the director of the FBC. Seventeen years prior to the game's events, Jesse and her younger brother Dylan (Sean Durrie) were involved in an Altered World Event in their hometown of Ordinary, Maine. After discovering an Object of Power in the form of a slide projector, the two children accidentally unleashed paranatural forces which caused Ordinary's adult population to vanish. Jesse and Dylan were rescued by Polaris, a mysterious telepathic entity. Shortly thereafter, the FBC arrived in Ordinary, capturing Dylan and the slide projector while Jesse fled. In the present day, Jesse arrives at the Oldest House seeking her brother's whereabouts.


title: Control (video game)

text: Other notable characters in "Control" include missing Head of Research Casper Darling (Matthew Porretta), research specialist Emily Pope (Antonia Bernath), security chief Simon Arish (Ronan Summers), Head of Operations Helen Marshall (Brig Bennett), and Ahti (Martti Suosalo), a mysterious Finnish janitor.


title: Control (video game)

text: In October 2019, Jesse Faden arrives at the Oldest House following a telepathic message from Polaris, seeking the whereabouts of her kidnapped brother Dylan. Inside the building, Jesse discovers the lifeless body of Zachariah Trench, and is instructed by Polaris to pick up his fallen Service Weapon. Jesse is translocated to the Astral Plane, where the Board appoints her as the new director of the FBC in Trench's stead. Exiting Trench's office, Jesse is attacked by FBC agents possessed by an entity Jesse dubs "the Hiss". Jesse learns that the Oldest House is under emergency lockdown following the Hiss's spread, and that everyone in the building has been possessed by the Hiss except those wearing Hedron Resonance Amplifiers (HRAs), devices built by missing Bureau scientist Dr. Casper Darling. Jesse agrees to aid the surviving agents in reclaiming the building and containing the Hiss, in exchange for Dylan's whereabouts.


title: Control (video game)

text: Using an Object of Power known as the Hotline, Jesse communicates with the deceased Trench and learns that his former management team knows the secrets of the Bureau. After lifting the building's lockdown in the Maintenance Sector, Jesse enters the Research Sector in search of Helen Marshall, one of the members of Trench's management team, whom she helps secure the production of more HRAs. Marshall reveals that Dylan, known to the Bureau as Prime Candidate 6 or P6, was being groomed to succeed Trench as the Bureau's director due to his immense supernatural abilities. However, after killing several Bureau agents, Dylan was deemed too dangerous and locked away in the Containment Sector. Jesse rushes to the sector to find Dylan, only to learn that he has escaped and surrendered to the Bureau in the Executive Sector. Dylan reveals to Jesse that he has embraced the Hiss, and that the Hiss entered the Oldest House through the slide projector Object of Power the Bureau recovered from Ordinary.


title: Control (video game)

text: Ahti, a paranatural entity who manifests as a janitor, gives Jesse a cassette player which enables her to navigate an elaborate maze protecting the slide projector's chamber in the Research Sector. She finds the slide projector missing, but learns that Trench and Darling used the device to enter an alternate dimension known as Slidescape-36, where they discovered an entity they dubbed Hedron. Jesse finds Hedron and discovers that it is Polaris, but moments later, the Hiss attacks and destroys Hedron. Jesse's mind is invaded by the Hiss, but Jesse is able to rediscover Polaris within herself, saving her and the Bureau. In the process, Jesse learns that Trench was the first individual to be possessed by the Hiss during the expeditions to Slidescape-36, and was responsible for releasing the Hiss into the Oldest House. Jesse finds the slide projector in the Executive Sector, where Dylan and the Hiss are attempting to enter the Astral Plane through a portal and overtake the Board. Jesse deactivates the slide projector and seemingly cleanses the Hiss from Dylan, which closes the portal but leaves him in a coma. In the aftermath, the Oldest House remains infested by the Hiss and under lockdown to prevent its escape, but Jesse has come to terms with her new role as director and resolves to find a solution together with the FBC's surviving personnel.


title: Control (video game)

text: Jesse is summoned by the Board to the Foundation, a cavernous area lying at the center of the Oldest House which houses the Nail, an object that connects the Oldest House to the Astral Plane. Jesse finds that the Nail has been seriously damaged, which is causing the Astral Plane to leak into the Oldest House, with potentially catastrophic consequences. As Jesse attempts to restore the Nail, she seeks the whereabouts of Helen Marshall, who entered the Foundation during the Hiss invasion, and has gone missing. Meanwhile, Jesse discovers logs left behind by Theodore Ash, Jr., a Bureau scientist who was part of the first expeditions to the Oldest House in 1964. Ash reveals that Broderick Northmoor, the director who preceded Trench, fell under the Board's influence during the expedition, and was responsible for radically changing the Bureau in order to serve the Board's interests.


title: Control (video game)

text: As Jesse continues to restore the Nail, she encounters Former, an extradimensional entity which grants Jesse a new ability, enraging the Board. Former claims to have once been a member of the Board, but was exiled after being blamed for an unknown transgression. Torn between the two entities, Jesse is eventually able to restore the Nail, but tremors occur between the Oldest House and the Astral Plane which threaten to destroy both dimensions. Jesse reaches the base of the Nail, where she finds Marshall possessed by the Hiss. With the aid of Former, Jesse kills Marshall and cleanses the Nail. Jesse learns that it was Marshall who destroyed the Nail, as a preventative measure against both the Hiss and the Board. The Board destroyed Marshall's HRA in response, allowing her to be possessed by the Hiss. Her faith in the Board shattered, Jesse vows to lead the Bureau her own way.


title: Control (video game)

text: "AWE" is a crossover between "Control" and Remedy Entertainment's previous title, "Alan Wake". "Alan Wake" takes place in Bright Falls, Washington; in that game, writer Alan Wake finds himself coerced and trapped by the Dark Presence that inhabited Bright Falls' Cauldron Lake, able to turn his writings into reality. Following the events of "Alan Wake" (as described in "Control"), Emil Hartman, a psychologist who attempted to investigate and exploit this power, was confronted and arrested by agents of the FBC, who confiscated all of his research on the lake. In a final act of desperation, Hartman dove into Cauldron Lake and was possessed by the Dark Presence. Hartman was subsequently captured and brought to the Oldest House by the Bureau, who attempted to contain him in the Investigations Sector. However, after Hartman breached containment, the Bureau was forced to completely abandon the sector. During the Hiss invasion, the Hiss mixed with the Dark Presence in Hartman, twisting him into a monstrous entity which haunts the sector.


title: Control (video game)

text: Jesse is summoned to the Investigations Sector by an apparition of Alan Wake, who otherwise was considered missing after events of "Alan Wake". As Jesse attempts to restore the Investigations Sector and destroy Hartman, she learns from Alan that he was responsible for unleashing Hartman, using his power to rewrite reality using works of fiction. Alan implies that he was responsible for the Hiss invasion, as to create a "crisis" for his "hero", Jesse, for unknown reasons. Jesse reaches the Bright Falls AWE area of the Investigations Sector and destroys Hartman. She is informed by FBC agents of a newly detected AWE in Bright Falls, the date of which is several years in the future.


title: Control (video game)

text: "Control" was developed by Remedy Entertainment. As their first major release since their initial public offering in 2017 and separation from Microsoft as a publishing partner, "Control" was developed using more efficient development strategies to keep costs and time low. In contrast to "Alan Wake" and "Quantum Break" which took seven and five years to complete respectively, "Control" was completed within three years with a budget, lower than the typical costs of a triple-A game.


title: Control (video game)

text: Mikael Kasurinen, who worked on "Alan Wake" (as lead gameplay designer) and "Quantum Break" (as lead director), was "Control" director and Sam Lake served as the game's writer and creative director alongside narrative lead Anna Megill. Development of the game began before the release of "Quantum Break". As they were finishing "Quantum Break" and deciding on the next project, Kasurinen recognized that that game rested heavily on full motion video and other cinematic elements, and suggested they look at a more open-world game where the player would drive what they experienced. Instead of focusing on creating a large and complex story, Remedy wanted to put more emphasis on creating a game world and universe that is rich enough for players to craft their own stories. The team still wanted to leave narrative elements for players to discover to help flesh out the world, and added optional documents, audio logs, and live-action video footage that the player could review at their own pace. Another goal for the team was to create a game that has high replayability. They still stated that they wanted to make a strong narrative, one that is "narrowly focused" according to Kasurinen.


title: Control (video game)

text: The first concept down was creating the fictional FBC, a realistic setting that would serve as a basis for paranormal events and a catalyst for events in the story. This enabled Remedy to consider multiple stories they could tell, not just about the player-character but other individuals in the FBC, but this also created the challenge of how to present the stories of the other characters in the open-world format. The gathered writings of the fictional SCP Foundation ("Secure, Contain, Protect") website was a major influence on "Control". Stories on SCP Foundation's site are based on singular objects with strange paranormal impacts, and as a whole, they are narratively linked by the common format of reports written by the fictional SCP Foundation, which catalogs and studies the objects. "Control" was built atop this, having the various Objects of Power and Altered Items, along with numerous collectable writings about these objects or other stories in line with SCP. They fixed the story in the genre of the new weird, a modern variant of weird fiction with stories that combine science fiction and fantasy often with a bureaucratic government agency involved in these events. In "Control", they reversed the role to make the bureaucracy at the center of the story. Narrative designer Brooke Maggs stated "there is an invisible, assailing presence of bureaucracy in the corporate office setting that is in itself, unsettling". The mundane features of the Oldest House helped to contrast against the paranormal aspects of the game, thus well-suiting the new weird, according to world design director Stuart MacDonald. The design team's goal in using the new weird approach was not to create terrifying moments as one would do in a horror game, but instead create a continuing sense of dread for the player.


title: Control (video game)

text: The everyday objects that would become Objects of Power in the game were selected to be within the concept of the new weird. One such Object of Power is a floppy disk. MacDonald said he was drawn to use a floppy disk in this manner after reading a story about how many of the United States national missile defense sites had only recently transitioned off floppy disks, and prior to that, these disks could be seen as proverbial weapons that were held with high reverence. The copious presence in the Oldest House of 1960s and 1970s technology such as pneumatic tubes, slide projectors and monochrome monitors, and the absence of modern-day technologies such as cell phones, is explained in-game as the result of the tendency of newer technologies to fail or malfunction within the boundaries of the Oldest House.


title: Control (video game)

text: The Oldest House setting was based on brutalist architecture, a style utilizing large concrete blocks popularized in the 1950s and used in many government buildings at the time. The game's world design director, Stuart Macdonald, described brutalism as a good science-fiction setting, as it has "this sense of power, weight, strength and stability to it", and when the Oldest House's geometries are affected by the Hiss, "it makes for a really good contrast with the impossible architecture". The relatively flat colors of the background walls made it an ideal canvas to showcase other design and lighting effects in the game. It served well into the telekinesis powers of the game, as the concrete walls would be used in lieu of a target object when the player throws debris at foes via telekinesis, and the initially pristine spaces end up showing the results of a large, destructive battle. Among real-world influences in the game's architecture is 33 Thomas Street, formerly known as the AT&T Long Lines Building, a windowless building in the center of New York City. Macdonald used this building as a modern example of brutalism, and created the Oldest House as a "bizarre, brutalist monolith" to house the FBC. Other real-world locations used as inspiration included the Boston City Hall, the Andrews Building at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and the Met Breuer.


title: Control (video game)

text: Other real-world architects inspired the game's structures. Carlo Scarpa's work was used heavily in designing stairways that ascended with other parts of the structure, while Tadao Ando's focus on lighting and spiritual spaces were reflected in other parts of the game. Additionally, the design team turned to film for other inspiration. Films of Stanley Kubrick, particularly "A Clockwork Orange", as well as films featuring oppressive government agencies, such as "The Shape of Water", served as part of the design basis. Other films, like "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", evoke the concept of repetitiveness, process, and ritualism in these agencies, and that was used to define some of the internal artwork and architecture. Art director Janne Pulkkinen stated they looked at real world churches and other places where ritualism is common, as lighting and design of those spaces are often used to draw attention to specific points of interest.