title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan's next visit to Wembley was three months later in the Charity Shield game, the traditional curtain-raiser to a new season, between the League champions and the FA Cup winners. Leeds had decided to niggle at Liverpool, and in particular Keegan, in the match. In one instance Johnny Giles punched the unsuspecting Keegan and was reprieved after Keegan asked the referee to be lenient. Giles, after escaping a red card, then later lunged two-footed at Keegan. Upon Keegan's outraged reaction Billy Bremner challenged Keegan. Keegan then exploded and punched Bremner. Bremner punched back. They were sent off, the first time anyone had been sent off in a Charity Shield match. Both players removed their shirts in protest, with Keegan visibly shaken by the decision. Inside the Liverpool dressing room, Bremner approached Keegan to apologise and was met by the fury of Keegan's father who had come down to check on his son. They both received lengthy bans. The fight was shown that night on BBC television and both were fined £500, with Keegan being suspended for three games and Bremner eight. Despite this, Keegan, Bremner and Giles remained good friends outside of football.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: The next year saw Keegan scoring goals and representing his club and country, but 1974–75 was a trophyless season for Liverpool and England failed to qualify for the European Championships. There were numerous honours for Keegan over the next two years, however, as Liverpool again won the League championship and UEFA Cup in 1975–76. Keegan scored in both legs of the UEFA Cup final against FC Bruges, having only scored once previously during Liverpool's run in the competition.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In 1976–77, Keegan helped Liverpool get close to an unprecedented "treble" of League championship, FA Cup and European Cup, although midway through the season he announced his intention to leave in the summer to play abroad. Nevertheless, Keegan was irrepressible as Liverpool clinched the title and reached the finals of both Cup competitions. Keegan's last appearance in a Liverpool shirt on home soil saw Liverpool lose the FA Cup final to bitter rivals Manchester United, ending the possibility of the treble. The European Cup final in Rome against Borussia Mönchengladbach was four days later. Keegan did not score, but he did make a late run which led to a foul inside the penalty area by Berti Vogts. This led to a penalty which was successfully converted by Phil Neal, sealing a 3–1 win. In this season, on 4 December 1976, Keegan's father, who had been suffering from cancer, died at the age of 71.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: After 323 appearances and exactly 100 goals, Keegan left Liverpool. He had been made offers from clubs across Europe, and chose to join Hamburger SV in the West German Bundesliga for £500,000. Liverpool replaced him with Kenny Dalglish. Of his time in Liverpool, Keegan later said, "The only thing I fear is missing an open goal in front of the Kop. I would die if that were to happen. When they start singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' my eyes start to water. There have been times when I've actually been crying while I've been playing."


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan's transfer to Hamburg was agreed between the FA Cup final and the European Cup final of 1977, although Keegan had negotiated a maximum transfer fee the season before. With the British record transfer record set by Keegan at £500,000, and Keegan almost doubling the German transfer record, Keegan arrived in Germany, joining a club that had not finished higher than sixth in two decades. Keegan told ITV that his annual salary the last season he played for Liverpool was £22,000 whereas at Hamburg it was £122,000.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Following his move to Hamburg, Keegan became an early trendsetter with his new haircut, the perm. On first sight, his wife thought it was hilarious and his agent jokingly tried to disown him in public. Soon though, players such as Bryan Robson, Charlie George, Phil Neal, Terry McDermott also had 1980s perms. Later, when Keegan was at Newcastle United as a manager, he and Terry McDermott would joke about the perm on a national kit supplier advert. Keegan, who was Hamburg's best-paid player and had been intensely billed as the superstar signing from England who would transform an average German team by the club's business manager Dr Peter Krohn, was not immediately accepted by his new teammates. Keegan perceived things that highlighted he was not immediately accepted. In training he would not receive the ball after he made a run.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Rules also stated that no club was allowed more than two foreign players, and unknowingly to Keegan he had also upset some of his new teammates as his move had indirectly moved out the three times European Cup winner Horst Blankenburg. Blankenburg was a very popular member of the squad. There was also a belief and a resentment amongst the players that the previous coach, who the players liked and did not think needed replacing, was replaced by Krohn, to accommodate Keegan. It was not until Keegan had moved out of temporary accommodation and moved to a bungalow in the little village of Itzstedt that Keegan began to feel he could make inroads and make a go of football and life in Germany.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In one early interview Keegan mentioned how he was settling in. He explained how he missed British cereals that he could not find in the supermarkets in Germany. The Hamburg fans then flooded him with parcels of his favourite cereal with lists of the suppliers. There were language difficulties early on. In one instance in the summer, Keegan went into a hardware shop intending to buy a fuse and he eventually left the shop after buying Christmas lights.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: He scored in pre-season friendlies against Barcelona and former club Liverpool, but the club suffered defeat in the European Super Cup against the Merseysiders. Keegan's time in Hamburg got off to a bad start. Keegan's first league match was against Duisburg and Hamburg lost 5–2. Rudi Gutendorf, the manager some believe was appointed for Keegan, would last until October.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In the winter break of his first season, and being isolated by the clique in the dressing room, frustrated Keegan was sent off in a friendly against lower league club VfB Lübeck. A player in the match decided to target Keegan. After the third time being smashed, Keegan walked to the goading Lübeck player and punched him. Keegan who knew he was going to be sent off, walked off the pitch prior to any decision by the referee. Keegan maintains this was the lowest ebb of his time in Germany and following this moment Keegan then decided to master the German language and be in a position to fully integrate in order to be in a strong position to ask the players why they were not passing to him, and to show the players in the training ground café, he too loved the club.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan was suspended for 8 weeks and in those 8 weeks Keegan and the squad made efforts to integrate. Keegan knew the dressing room was turning, when he was getting invited to the squad nights out, when one player told him he could get cheap meat for his dogs and when the full back Peter Hidien even got a perm. An unhappy first few months at the club gave way to a more successful season. Although the club finished tenth in the league in 1977–78, Keegan's 12 goals helped him pick up a personal honour, the "France Football" European Footballer of the Year award for 1978.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Hamburg appointed Branko Zebec, a Yugoslav, as a new coach. Zebec was a man who was known to work players to the max. Zebec's squad did a lot of running and Keegan claimed he had never been worked as hard in his life. The 1978–79 season saw a vast improvement on the club's 1978 finish. With new manager Branko Zebec imposing a tough training regime, and Keegan's increasing grasp of the German language, coupled with the newly imposed discipline meant that Hamburg finished as league champions for the first time in nineteen years. The club's success also translated into individual recognition for Keegan, who picked up the European Footballer of the Year award for a second consecutive year at the club. The European Footballer of the Year award had been running since 1956 and by 1979 only Keegan, Alfredo di Stefano, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff had won the award two or more times. By 2017 Keegan was amongst ten players who had won the award two or more times since 1956. After the 1978–79 season, Juventus, Real Madrid and the Washington Diplomats tried to sign Keegan offering good terms, but Keegan decided to see out his contract at Hamburg and to try and win the European Cup. In 1979 Keegan was given the nickname "Mighty Mouse" from the Hamburg fans. This nickname came from a popular cartoon superhero from the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: After training Keegan would be exhausted, and only have enough energy to sleep. In February in the 1979–80 season, Keegan announced he was leaving after his contract was up. One of the reasons for leaving was Zebec's training regime. Keegan had a lot of respect for Zebec, though Keegan also reasoned that Zebec's extreme fitness regime philosophy was flawed for the modern-day footballer. Keegan even told Zebec that his training regime would burn himself out as a footballer and that he believed he would be finished from playing by 30 if he continued. Zebec, in turn responded to Keegan's critique and explained to Keegan it was the same for all the players. Keegan then implied to Zebec that players have different roles and not all players run the same distances on match days; he pointed out to Zebec that because of his role and his effort, on match days not many players in the squad ran as much as himself. At Hamburg Keegan even doodled with a pen and paper what he thought of the training regime. Keegan, as the metaphorical prisoner, drew a cartoon picture of Zebec in sunglasses, with he and his teammates doing press-ups, and then scribed Roman numerals conveying Keegan was counting down to his freedom. These drawings were left in his training ground locker. The drawings and Keegan's personal locker are now held in the Hamburg museum under the title 'HSV Legenden'


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Hamburg's European campaign of 1979–80 saw Keegan score two goals to help Hamburg past Dinamo Tbilisi, Soviet champions who had beaten Liverpool to reach the latter stages. On the run Hamburg beat, Dinamo Tbilisi, Valur, Hajduk Split and Real Madrid. In the first leg against Real Madrid they were comfortably beaten 2-0 and most football pundits then predicted Hamburg were probably out. Hamburg then upset the apple-cart by winning the return leg 5–1. Keegan regarded this as one of the most outstanding team performances he had the fortune to be a part of. In the final they played Nottingham Forest. Forest played with 11 men behind the ball, and won the game 1–0 with a goal from John Robertson. This cup final defeat was coupled domestically with being beaten to the Bundesliga title by Bayern Munich. Having negotiated a maximum transfer fee of £500,000 in his contract the year before and agreeing to a move in February, Keegan left Hamburg for Southampton in the summer of 1980.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: On 11 February 1980, Lawrie McMenemy called a press conference at the Potters Heron hotel, Ampfield to announce that the European Footballer of the Year would be joining Southampton in the forthcoming summer. The news caused surprise throughout the world of football and around the city of Southampton, as Southampton were a relatively small club. The club were beginning to become established in the top division, but this signing showed how persuasive their manager could be, especially when Keegan captained England in the 1980 European Championships in Italy.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan had a clause inserted into his contract when he joined Hamburg in 1977, giving Liverpool the option to buy him back. Liverpool, however, opted not to exercise this clause when he returned to England three years later. As late as November 2011, Keegan has stated, "I was with Lawrie [McMenemy] at a charity event the other day, and he said he phoned up Peter Robinson because he wanted me, but Liverpool had a clause. Peter said, 'No, we won't be signing him, definitely, we don't need him.'" It was, therefore, Southampton boss Lawrie McMenemy who snapped him up for £420,000, and Keegan made his Southampton debut at Lansdowne Road in a pre-season friendly against Shamrock Rovers on 23 July 1980.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan's two seasons at The Dell saw him as part of a flamboyant team also containing Alan Ball, Phil Boyer, Mick Channon and Charlie George. In 1980–81 Saints scored 76 goals, finishing in sixth place, then their highest league finish.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In the following season, Keegan was able to produce some of his best form and at the beginning of April 1982 Southampton sat at the top of the First Division table, but a run of only three wins from the end of February meant a seventh-place finish, 21 points off 1st place. Despite this, Keegan was voted the PFA Player of the Year and awarded the OBE for services to Association Football. Keegan had scored 26 of the team's 72 goals and was voted the club's Player of the Year. This second season was the most prolific of his career and he, in total scored 30 goals and he won the golden boot.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan had fallen out with McMenemy over the manager's failure to strengthen Southampton's defence (which conceded 67 goals in 1981–82) while the team was at the top of the table. There were also rumours that McMenemy had charged the whole team of cheating after a 3–0 defeat by Aston Villa in April 1982 to which Keegan took great exception. Although Keegan joined Saints' next pre–season tour, he had already decided to move. In 2019 Lawrie McMenemy explained that prior to the start of the 1982–83 season, Keegan believed that Southampton did not match his footballing ambitions and therefore Keegan had made up his mind and demanded to leave, and there was nothing the club could do about it. A few days before the start of the 1982–83 season he signed for Newcastle United for a fee of £100,000.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan joined Newcastle United and spent two seasons there, during which time he was extremely popular with the supporters. Keegan's first press conference, to announce his signing, was held in the Gosforth Park Hotel. Upon signing the twice European footballer of the year in the second division, a local newspaper's main headline was simply, 'Here he is!'


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan always felt at one stage in his career he would play for Newcastle United. As a child Keegan's father would tell him football stories about Milburn and Gallagher. Keegan explained his father would have loved Keegan playing football in black and white stripes, and to Keegan playing for Newcastle felt like coming home. There was euphoria in Newcastle at the signing of Keegan and Keegan felt he was there to help the fans to start believing in themselves. Keegan had never experienced that kind of deification before. Keegan explained, no one could have made him more welcome. People had warned Keegan that whatever he was thinking his welcome would like, it would not be enough... To Keegan, who had played in a European Cup final, Wembley and Hamburg, the atmosphere on his debut was unique, explaining that the noise on his debut come from all sides of the ground like a surround-sound system. He made his debut and scored his first goal against QPR. After scoring, Keegan did something he had never done before, Keegan instinctively, and famously, threw himself into the crowd to 'show the fans he was one of them,' and explained to the press afterwards that 'I just wanted to stay there for ever...' Keegan had a fear of letting the fans down, constantly telling himself 'You can't let them down.'


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan at Newcastle was the senior pro. Keegan, along with Terry McDermott, Jeff Clark and David McCreery, now had a senior status. As a senior pro, his manager, Arthur Cox, who would later join many of Keegan's coaching teams when Keegan would later become a manager, had a different relationship to Keegan than with other players. Cox would ask Keegan his opinion on players.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: To Keegan, Cox was a task master, with a good sense of humour. Cox would condition the players like commandos by having Keegan and his teammates running up and down the hills in Gateshead.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In his first season Newcastle finished fifth. and Keegan maintained that after a faltering season, this position was a flattering league position. Keegan, finished this season with 21 goals in 37 appearances and won North East Player of the Year.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In September 1983, Keegan answered a phone call at 1:00 am from Arthur Cox. In the phone call Cox explained to Keegan, sharply, he had signed a player called Peter Beardsley from Vancouver Whitecaps and explained to Keegan that he'd like him; after giving Keegan the message, Cox immediately put the phone down... A few days later Keegan met Beardsley at Benwell. Keegan and his teammates, at first sight, thought Beardsley was just a lad who had won the competition to train with the first team. It was only when they saw him in action that they knew he had something about him. At Beardsley's first training session Keegan could not believe his eyes at what a talent he was witnessing. Keegan once stated about Beardsley, "At Scunthorpe I always thought Terry Heath had the wow factor, because of his skill on the ball, and when I moved to Liverpool I had never seen anyone with Peter Thompson's ability. By the time I started playing for Newcastle, however, I had played against Cruyff, Maradona and Pelé, and yet I have never had my mind blown as I did on the first day I saw Peter Beardsley."


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan announced his retirement prior to the end of the 1983–84 season, on 14 February 1984 - his 33rd birthday. Keegan felt his career was finished after a cup game, a month prior, away at Liverpool. In this match Keegan was put through on goal from a through ball. This through ball had caught all the defenders flat-footed, left the defenders out of the equation, and left Keegan one on one with the keeper Bruce Grobbelaar. Keegan thought this was his moment to put Newcastle 1-0 up in front of the thousands of Newcastle fans behind the goal. Keegan who had been in a one on one with the goal keeper many times in training, and in football matches, felt, with his pace, with his experience in this position, it was second nature to finish the move. Keegan though was intercepted by the recovering Mark Lawrenson. As Keegan was moving towards goal with his pace, Lawrenson caught up to Keegan and stole the ball off him from the side. At this precise moment, it occurred to Keegan he had now lost his yard of pace. At the end of the game a frustrated Keegan, whilst clapping off the fans, had decided this would be his last season as a footballer.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan felt if he had have extended his career at Newcastle in the first division he would have had to adjust his game and move from the attacking role he had built his footballing identity on over the last 15 years of his career. Keegan did not want to extend his career by moving back into midfield in the first division with Newcastle. He wanted to retire on a high at Newcastle United.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan's last league game was against Brighton & Hove Albion, scoring in a 3–1 victory. He played 78 times, he was prolific and he scored 48 goals and helped them to promotion from the Second Division in 1984, within a team which also contained Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle and Terry McDermott. His final appearance for Newcastle came in a friendly against Liverpool some days later, leaving the pitch in a helicopter while still dressed in his kit. Famously, a then unknown 13-year-old Alan Shearer, who Keegan would later break the world transfer record for, whilst manager of Newcastle, was a ball boy in Keegan's testimonial. Keegan would also famously rule out football management.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan moved with his family to Spain. Keegan, who had stated that he would never enter football management, did carry out occasional work as a football pundit for British television.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In April 1985, Keegan briefly came out of retirement to play a two-game stint as a guest player for Blacktown City in Australia's National Soccer League. He scored in the first fixture in a 3–2 loss to Canberra City.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan made his England debut on 15 November 1972 in a 1–0 World Cup qualifying win over Wales. Keegan appeared in only the two matches against Wales during this campaign as England failed to qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: He scored his first international goal in his third appearance, also against Wales, on 11 May 1974. He was given the captaincy by manager Don Revie in 1976 after Gerry Francis fell victim to a long-term injury. He went on to captain England 31 times, retaining the captain's armband until his international retirement after the 1982 World Cup.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan captained England at the 1980 Euros. England failed to progress from the group stage after finishing third in their group behind Italy and Belgium.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: He managed only one World Cup appearance though, after England failed to qualify for both the 1974 and 1978 tournaments. He finally reached a World Cup in 1982 when England got to the finals in Spain. He was named in the squad for the tournament, but was suffering from a chronic back injury and was unfit to play in all of England's group games. In a last, desperate effort to play in a World Cup (he knew that he would not be around for the 1986 competition) he secretly hired a car and drove from Spain to a specialist he knew in Germany for intensive treatment. He recovered sufficiently to appear as a substitute for the last 26 minutes of England's final second-round game against hosts Spain. During this time he missed a point-blank header which would have broken the deadlock, in a game England needed to win by a better scoreline than 2–1 to progress to the semi-finals (a 2–1 victory would have left them tied with West Germany). England drew the game 0–0 and were eliminated from the competition.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Following the successful start to the 1982–83 season with Newcastle United, there was much controversy when newly appointed England manager Bobby Robson did not select Keegan for his first squad, a decision Keegan learned of from the media rather than Robson himself. Keegan publicly expressed his displeasure at not being given the courtesy of a phone call from Robson, and never played for his country again. He had won a total of 63 caps and scored 21 goals.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: On 5 February 1992, almost eight years after his final game as a player, Keegan returned to football as manager of Newcastle United. They had been relegated from the top flight in 1989 and narrowly missed out on promotion in 1990 after losing in the playoffs to arch-rivals Sunderland, but in 1991 they had failed to make the playoffs and at several stages in 1991–92, they had temporarily occupied bottom place in the Second Division. Following the dismissal of previous manager Ossie Ardiles, Keegan was appointed to prevent Newcastle from being relegated to the third tier of English football for the first time. Keegan joined a club that still had participants from the old board room battles that had been going on at the club for decades. It has been argued the internal struggles from the former regime had held the club back. After three or more years trying, John Hall had recently won the board room from the old regime. Though John Hall was not yet confirmed as the chairman he had accrued enough power to make the key decisions. The board members belonging to the former regime were only told by John Hall, one hour before Keegan's first press conference that Kevin Keegan would be the manager. Keegan had only watched two live matches in seven years. One was the European Cup final in 1991 and the other being a Newcastle United 0–0 draw against Blackburn; as such, calls were made that suggested Keegan was unprepared and inexperienced.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: When Keegan turned up to Benwell for his first training session as manager, he noted the training ground was in a mess. Keegan was surprised at the timely neglect of the training ground facilities. The training ground was in the process of being sold, despite this, Keegan paid for the clean up of the training ground with his own money, with the cleaning work being done in one weekend. Keegan felt this clean up work was an important move and an indirect statement to the players that conveyed to the players that their professionalism, from now on, had to be high. Assessing the squad, Keegan opined that the squad was not good enough to reach the level he and McDermott once played at. In five-a-sides he and Terry McDermott, both in their 40s, with their lack of conditioning, believed they were two of the stand out players. Keegan noted the club had an impressive crop of youth players. This crop included: Lee Clark, Steve Watson, Steve Howey, Alan Thompson and Robbie Elliott. These young players would form a core of players involved in Keegan's Newcastle squads from 1992 to 1997. Keegan noted Steve Watson would take throw-ins via a somersault throw and this amused and shocked Keegan. Keegan regarded it as a gimmick and he could not believe the fans would take joy in it. The throw-in, to Keegan, was a sign of how far Newcastle had fallen. Keegan wanted the club to be known for scoring goals and thrilling football. Prior to his first game, Keegan made his first tough call with his squad of players when he dropped the midfielder Lee Clark. Though he liked Clark's spirit, Keegan believed he was at risk of being sent off. Prior to the game Keegan arranged a training match for the reserves and included himself to make up the numbers. In the training match a frustrated Clark went through the back of Keegan in a knee high tackle, following a hospital pass, in a similar way that Romeo Benetti went into the back of Keegan in an England versus Italy match. The melee resulted in Pavel Srnicek swinging a roundhouse kick at Lee Clark's head. Keegan was not upset and he did not punish either player. To Keegan, Srnicek and Clark's response showed they cared about their football. Keegan's first game, against Bristol City, ended in 3–0 victory in front of a capacity crowd.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: On 14 March 1992, following a 3–1 win over Swindon Town, Keegan had become frustrated with Chairman John Hall. Keegan perceived he had not given the transfer funds he had been promised. As a result of this frustration, Keegan briefly walked out of the Newcastle job. This resulted in a phone call between Keegan and Hall, where they settled their differences and where Hall guaranteed Keegan millions of pounds to spend on new players.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Further assessing his squad, Keegan noted some players could not handle the pressure and would sneak in by a turnstile rather than meet and greet the big crowds at the front entrance prior to games. Keegan decided to move these players on. With the club's transfer funds Keegan decided he needed a leader in the team, someone with a wild look about him, a look that meant business. Keegan signed the experienced Brian Kilcline. Keegan stated about Kilcline, "Even on his bad days his head never dropped, he was tough as teak, absolutely fearless" and "He was a ready-made captain - one of my more important signings as Newcastle's manager." Keegan's managerial guidance in the 1991–92 season helped secure survival, which meant Newcastle United would play in the new Division One for the 1992–93 season.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Prior to the 1992–93 season, Keegan strengthened the defence with the acquisition of Barry Venison from Liverpool and John Beresford from Portsmouth, while striker David Kelly had arrived on Tyneside a few months before Keegan was appointed. Newcastle began the season with 11 successive wins and led the league virtually all season, and the club record signing of Bristol City striker Andy Cole in February further strengthened their side; Cole netted 12 goals in his first 12 games for the club. The addition of Charlton Athletic's Rob Lee bolstered the midfield in the autumn.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Top scorer David Kelly and influential midfielder Gavin Peacock were both sold during the close season, and Keegan brought striker Peter Beardsley back to Newcastle from Everton, six years after he had been sold by Newcastle to Liverpool.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: 1993–94 was an enormous success for Newcastle as they finished third in the Premier League and qualified for the UEFA Cup, bringing European football to the club for the first time since the 1970s. Andy Cole was the Premier League's top scorer with 34 goals from 40 games, and managed a club record total of 41 goals in all competitions.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan then strengthened his side by signing Swiss World Cup defender Marc Hottiger and Belgium's defensive midfielder Philippe Albert, while Norwich City's quick winger Ruel Fox had arrived on transfer deadline day in March 1994.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Newcastle won their first six games of the 1994–95 season to top the league and they appeared capable of winning their first league title since 1927. But the shock departure of Andy Cole to Manchester United in January weakened their attack, and finished the season sixth place in the final table; not enough for even another UEFA Cup campaign. In the meantime, autumn signing Paul Kitson partnered Beardsley in attack.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan made several important additions to the Newcastle side in the summer of 1995: Reading goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, Paris Saint-Germain's French winger David Ginola, Queens Park Rangers striker Les Ferdinand and Wimbledon defender Warren Barton. Ferdinand was Newcastle's biggest signing at £6 million, while the £4 million paid for Barton was the highest fee paid for a defender in English football at the time.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Newcastle excelled in the first half of the 1995–96 season, going ten points ahead on 23 December 1995 and holding a 12-point lead from early in January to 4 February. After a 2–0 defeat at West Ham United on 21 February, the lead was cut to nine points. A 1–0 defeat at the hands of fellow title challengers Manchester United cut the gap to a single point on 4 March, and within two weeks Newcastle's lead was overhauled and they were unable to recover it. Newcastle's 4–3 defeat to Liverpool on 3 April is widely considered to be one of the classic Premier League games. With two games remaining Newcastle and Manchester United both had 76 points. Newcastle only got one point in a 1–1 drawn match against Nottingham Forest on 2 May, and with a 1–1 draw for Newcastle against Tottenham Hotspur on the final day of the season on 5 May, the title was won by Manchester United, whose 3–0 triumph at Middlesbrough would have won them the title regardless of Newcastle's result against Tottenham. Keegan stated in 2018 that if Newcastle United had won the title in that season, the squad, which included players such as Les Ferdinand, Darren Peacock, David Ginola, Peter Beardsley, Faustino Asprilla and Rob Lee would have stayed together, may have built up a momentum, and won more trophies.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: During the race for the 1995–96 title, Keegan directed remarks at the Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, during a post-match interview live on Sky Sports. His outburst – "I would love it if we beat them! Love it!" – is frequently referred to when describing the relationship between the pair. In April 2003, it was named as Quote of the Decade in the Premier League 10 Seasons Awards and Most Memorable Quote in the 20 Seasons Awards in May 2012. It also appeared in Channel 4's "100 Greatest Sporting Moments".


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan then broke the world transfer fee record by signing Blackburn Rovers and England striker Alan Shearer in July 1996. Shearer, who had been the Premier League's top scorer in the last two seasons, was born in Newcastle and had grown up as a fan of the club. Shearer made an instant impact on his native Tyneside, despite being on the losing side on his debut, a 4–0 FA Charity Shield defeat at the hands of Manchester United, and scored two months later in a 5–0 victory against United in the Premier League. Newcastle briefly topped the league at several stages in the first half of the season and Shearer led the league scoring 25 goals.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: On 8 January 1997, Keegan announced his resignation as manager. A club statement following his resignation read:


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Newcastle United Football Club today announce the resignation of manager Kevin Keegan. Kevin informed the board of his wish to resign at the end of the season, having decided he no longer wishes to continue in football management at this stage in his life. Following lengthy discussions of which the board attempted to persuade Kevin to change his mind, both parties eventually agreed that the best route forward was for the club to, reluctantly, accept his resignation with immediate effect.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan left the club with a short statement reading:It was my decision and my decision alone to resign. I feel I have taken the club as far as I can, and that it would be in the best interests of all concerned if I resigned now. I wish the club and everyone concerned with it all the best for the future.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: On the Newcastle United DVD "Magpie Magic", it is said that Chairman John Hall asked for a long-term commitment as manager from him which he was unwilling to give, while it also states that many still rumour that the pressure and criticism of selling Andy Cole and the failed title challenge in 1995–96 took its toll on him.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: He was succeeded by Kenny Dalglish, the same man who had replaced him as a player at Liverpool 20 years earlier, but Newcastle were unable to win the title and finished second place in the same season, and in the following season finished outside the top ten in the Premier League, although they were FA Cup runners-up. They did not return to the top five of the Premier League until the 2001–02 season, when they finished fourth under Sir Bobby Robson.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan returned to football on 25 September 1997 as "chief operating officer" (a similar role to a director of football) at Division Two club Fulham, with Ray Wilkins as head coach. Fulham finished sixth in the final table, but Wilkins was sacked just before the first leg of the playoff semi-final and Keegan took over as manager.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: His appointment came a few months after the takeover of the club by Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, who gave Keegan £10 million to spend on players that season as the first part of a £40 million attempt to deliver Premier League football to the Craven Cottage club, who had been outside the top flight since 1968 and had not even played in the league's second tier since 1986.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan was unable to inspire Fulham to overcome Grimsby Town in the playoffs, but good form in 1998–99 – helped by the acquisition of more players who would normally have been signed by Premier League or Division one clubs – clinched them the Division Two title and promotion to Division One, but Keegan left at the end of the season to concentrate on his duties as England manager, having succeeded Glenn Hoddle in February 1999.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Fulham replaced Keegan with Paul Bracewell and reached the Premier League two years later under Bracewell's successor Jean Tigana, with a squad still featuring many of the players bought by Keegan or Wilkins.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: After weeks of speculation, Keegan was named as the new England manager on 18 February 1999, succeeding Glenn Hoddle, who had been sacked two weeks earlier following a newspaper interview in which he suggested that disabled people were being punished for their sins in a previous life. He led the team to a winning start with 3–1 victory over Poland to reignite England's campaign to qualify for Euro 2000 in Group 5. However, points dropped in draws against Sweden, Bulgaria and in the return fixture against Poland left England facing elimination as they sat out the last round of matches. Fortunately however for England and Keegan, Poland lost their last match in Sweden in Group 5, and England instead entered the qualification playoff with Scotland. Two goals from Paul Scholes gave them a 2–0 win in the first leg, and despite a 1–0 defeat in the second leg, they qualified for the championships for the fourth tournament in succession (though on the third occasion, they had qualified automatically as hosts).


title: Kevin Keegan

text: After goodwill following this success, Keegan however began to come under fire for his perceived tactical naivety. This came to a head during the unsuccessful Euro 2000 campaign, which began with a 3–2 defeat against Portugal, despite England having taken a 2–0 lead after 17 minutes. A 1–0 win in the next game over Germany, the first English victory over Germany in a competitive match since 1966, helped to eliminate their opposition (the defending champions), but in the final group game against Romania, England once again lost 3–2, this time after taking a 2–1 lead, and their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals were over.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan resigned as England manager on 7 October 2000, after England lost to a Dietmar Hamann goal for Germany in their first 2002 World Cup qualifier, in the last game to be played at Wembley Stadium, before the old stadium was rebuilt. Keegan won only 38.9% of his games in charge, the lowest such percentage of any permanent England manager – although unlike Don Revie (1974–1977) or Steve McClaren (2006–2007), Keegan achieved qualification to a major tournament for England.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: When Sven-Göran Eriksson became England manager, Eriksson appointed the 64-year-old Tord Grip as his assistant. This caused Keegan to complain that when he was England manager, the FA had told him that he could not have Arthur Cox as his assistant because at 60, Cox was too old. Keegan went on, "I wasn't allowed to bring in the people I wanted and that was wrong. Mr Eriksson was and I'm delighted for him because that's the way it should be."


title: Kevin Keegan

text: On 24 May 2001, Keegan returned to football as successor to Joe Royle at Manchester City, who had just been relegated from the Premier League. Keegan signed experienced international players such as Stuart Pearce, Eyal Berkovic and Ali Benarbia. That season, City were promoted as Division One champions after scoring 108 league goals. Keegan was the first manager in the Premier League era to win the Division One title with two clubs.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In preparation for his second season as manager (2002–03), he signed Nicolas Anelka, Peter Schmeichel and Marc-Vivien Foé. That season saw Manchester City win against Liverpool at Anfield and take four points from Manchester United (their previous win in the Manchester derby being in September 1989), but concede five goals away to Chelsea and at home to Arsenal, securing their Premier League status comfortably by finishing ninth. Keegan also guided City into the UEFA Cup, qualifying via the UEFA Fair Play ranking.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: For 2003–04, the club's first season at the new City of Manchester Stadium, Keegan added Steve McManaman, Paul Bosvelt, David Seaman and Michael Tarnat to City's squad. City started well and were fifth in the league on 5 November. However, a draw at home to Polish minnows Groclin led to their second-round elimination from the UEFA Cup, and was followed by a slump in form. City did not win again in the league until 21 February, and finished 16th in the league, although at Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup on 4 February 2004, despite going in at half time 3–0 behind and with ten men after Joey Barton was sent off; Keegan's team came back to win 4–3.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: 2004–05 brought better form for Manchester City, but Keegan agreed to leave as manager on 10 March 2005 after telling the chairman his desire to retire from football at the end of the season. The club went on to finish eighth under his successor Stuart Pearce, and only missed out on a UEFA Cup place when Robbie Fowler missed a penalty in stoppage time of a 1–1 draw with Middlesbrough on the last day of the season, with the last European place going to their opponents instead. Earlier that season, while still under Keegan's management, City beat Chelsea 1–0 which turned out to be the only defeat in the league that season for Chelsea, who ended up as Premier League champions.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: After declaring his retirement from football in 2005, Keegan remained out of the media spotlight, working at the Soccer Circus football school in Glasgow. In October 2007, he indicated he was unlikely to manage again.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Following the dismissal of manager Sam Allardyce, Keegan made a sensational, unexpected return to Newcastle United on 16 January 2008. Thousands of Newcastle United fans attended St James' Park to welcome the manager back to the club as he arrived to see the FA Cup third-round replay against Stoke City alongside owner Mike Ashley and chairman Chris Mort. He managed his first game at the club since 1997 against Bolton Wanderers on 19 January 2008. He awarded the club captaincy to Michael Owen, stating, "He's not scared to give his opinion when he's right, and he's not scared to say what he feels. He's a tremendous professional, and he trains properly every day." Keegan announced on 22 January that he and Alan Shearer held talks about the two linking up with Shearer as his assistant, but decided against the idea, leaving the door open for him to take other roles he was interested in.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan's first eight games back at Newcastle passed without a win. On 22 March 2008, however, Keegan achieved the first victory of his second managerial spell, a 2–0 win against his former club Fulham. This was his first win as Newcastle manager since beating Leeds United on 1 January 1997, and he followed it up with wins over Tottenham and Sunderland, maintaining his perfect record over the club's local rivals in the Tyne-Wear derby and also putting Newcastle on top of the league's form chart. This run of good form was hugely thanks to a new 4–3–3 formation which was spearheaded by the productive strike trio of Obafemi Martins, Michael Owen and Mark Viduka. The trio scored 11 of the club's 14 goals in this run, which safely secured the club from a relegation battle. Newcastle's seven-game unbeaten run came to an end in a home defeat to Chelsea, and they finished the season in 12th place.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Having signed Argentine international winger Jonás Gutiérrez, as well as Gutiérrez's Argentina teammate and defender Fabricio Coloccini from Deportivo de La Coruña, amongst others, Newcastle began the 2008–09 season with a 1–1 draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford, having lost the previous season's fixtures 6–0 and 5–1, as well as beating Bolton 1–0 the following week and Coventry City 3–2 in the second round of the League Cup on 26 August.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: As the 2007–08 season drew to a close, rumours of tensions between the club's directors and Keegan began to surface, as he publicly criticised the board, claiming they were not providing him the financial support necessary to break into the top four of the Premier League standings. His accusations caused bad press for owner Mike Ashley, who was already battling reports that he had lost hundreds of millions of pounds in a disastrous stock market venture.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Following the closure of the transfer window at midnight on 1 September 2008, early on in the morning the following day, various media sources reported that Keegan had either resigned from the club or had been sacked, leading to fan protests around St James' Park. The club released statements denying that he had left the club, but stated that talks were ongoing between Keegan and members of the board. On 4 September 2008, Keegan issued a statement confirming that he had resigned the same day, stating that, "... a manager must have the right to manage and that clubs should not impose upon any manager any player that he does not want." Late on Friday 12 September 2008, it was reported Keegan met owner Mike Ashley in London in an attempt to resolve their differences, but the meeting ended without a satisfactory conclusion for either party.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Richard Bevan, chief executive of the League Managers Association (LMA), stated the following month that Keegan would consider a return to the club but only if those who hold the ownership are willing to develop a structure which he is happy with. The club was also warned by the LMA on 5 September 2008 to develop a structure which would satisfy the next manager to replace Keegan to avoid a similar situation repeating itself and damaging the club's image. Following Dennis Wise's resignation as director of football at Newcastle in April 2009, many fans directed the blame of Keegan's exit at both owner Mike Ashley and Dennis Wise as a result of such a role being established and poorly used.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In December 2008, it was reported that following Ashley's decision to withdraw the sale of Newcastle United, a legal dispute in regards to Keegan's departure of the club was in place between himself and Ashley, with Keegan claiming unfair dismissal and Ashley claiming damage to his public image. In September 2009, it was reported that Keegan had met with Ashley and the Newcastle board – including former members – in a Premier League arbitration hearing for a claim of £10 million in compensation for his shock resignation. All sides agreed to the arbitration being held publicly.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan's dispute with the club was resolved in October 2009. The tribunal ruled in favour of Keegan, agreeing that Newcastle had constructively dismissed him by insisting on the signing of midfielder Nacho González on loan (which was against his wishes) to replace James Milner following his move to Aston Villa and a bid for Bayern Munich's Bastian Schweinsteiger being rejected. Although Wise's signing of Spanish striker Xisco was not mentioned in the hearing, Keegan stated that this had also been a central factor in his departure.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: The ruling was based around seven issues. The panel declared that Keegan had been misled to believe he had the final decision on player transfers, and was never explicitly told in writing, his contract, or word of mouth that he did not or that his role would see him essentially report to others. Given the generally understood role of a Premiership manager, the panel agreed he could reasonably expect that this was not a factor. The club's signing of González meant that they had violated his employment contract, which amounted to constructive dismissal. While González was the main issue in the panel final decision, the club's alleged mistreatment of Keegan, claiming they were in a position to sack him should he have not agreed to the terms they offered him, as well as his decision to remain at the club until 4 September instead of resigning on 1 September, allowing the club to reach a compromise, led to the panel ruling in Keegan's favour. Keegan was awarded £2 million (plus interest accrued) according to severance clauses in his contract, which the club never paid him after his departure. Claims for more were turned down on the basis that the standard contract severance clauses covered constructive dismissal, but he stated afterwards that the purpose of his claim had been to restore his reputation, and was delighted with the outcome, allowing him to move forward.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In pursuit of winning the tribunal, the club admitted to misleading the media and their fans. Several key senior staff, including Dennis Wise and Derek Llambias, had publicly claimed that Keegan had "the final word"; they claimed to the tribunal that this was not in fact the case and that their claims were just "PR". It was then revealed that Director of Football Dennis Wise asked Keegan to sign González after watching him "on YouTube". On 21 October, a subsequent meeting of the same panel found that the club should pay all legal and associated costs incurred by Keegan as a result of the tribunal. They reached this conclusion based on their view that the club's "defence on the primary liability issue was, in our view, wholly without merit".


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan stated after the hearing he still wants to manage in the top flight of football, and would consider returning to his position at the club, but feels the fans may be exhausted from his last tenure and would prefer him not to. In June 2013, Keegan stated he would only consider a return should owner Mike Ashley leave the club. Keegan has continued to criticise Ashley, accusing him of a lack of respect for the fans.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Following the sale of Newcastle United to the Public Investment Fund, Keegan spoke publicly at a talk-in event in Cramlington, stating his delight at Ashley's departure and excitement at the new ownership's ability to compete financially with the wealthiest football clubs in the world.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In September 1970 Keegan met his future wife, Jean Woodhouse, on the Waltzers at Doncaster fair. They married on 23 September 1974 and have two daughters, Laura Jane and Sarah Marie.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan became renowned for his "poodle perm" hair in the 1970s, and has regularly appeared at the top of "worst hairstyles" surveys.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In early July 2008, Flybe International announced the naming of one of their new Bombardier Q400 aircraft in honour of Keegan's service to Newcastle United, both as a player and as manager. The plane is used on the regular service from Newcastle International Airport to London's Gatwick Airport.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: He is known for aiding charities, including appearances at cricket matches for Lord's Taverners and Sussex Cricket Club.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In 1976, Keegan competed in the BBC's television programme "Superstars". Despite suffering severe cuts after crashing his bicycle, he insisted on re-racing and secured second place in the event, before going on to win that edition of the programme. He also advertised Brut aftershave alongside boxer Henry Cooper.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In 1979 Keegan and his wife, participated with ITV's "Brian Moore meets Kevin Keegan," documentary filmed over the season at the family's Hamburg home and during his personal business appearances, including in France, as an insight and rare glimpse into the life of a modern millionaire footballer, away from the pitch.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: The same year, during his daughter's christening reception at a London hotel, Eamonn Andrews the presenter of "This Is Your Life", appeared from within a giant cake, to surprise Keegan and his guests with his famous big red book. The TV show was broadcast on Keegan's 28th birthday, ten days later. Keegan quipped, "I'm so glad that I wore brown trousers".


title: Kevin Keegan

text: He narrated the 90-minute documentary "Keegan on Keegan", released via Castle Vision on VHS cassette in 1992.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In August 2009, nearly a year after his departure from Newcastle, Keegan resurfaced after being confirmed as the lead pundit on ESPN. During the course of the 2010 World Cup, Keegan featured as a pundit for ITV broadcasts. He was part of ESPN's live coverage of the 2011, 2012 and 2013 FA Cup finals with pitch-side build-up and post-match commentary.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: Keegan released a single in 1972 titled "It Ain't Easy". In 1979, his song "Head Over Heels in Love", written by Chris Norman and Pete Spencer, was released on 9 June, and peaked at number 31 in the UK charts, but climbed to number 10 in Germany where Keegan was based at the time, and where Norman's band Smokie was popular. He released another single, "England", on his return to England from Germany, but it failed to chart.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In April 1991, he was attacked while sleeping in his Range Rover by the M25 at Reigate Hill in Surrey. His assailants later said in court that they needed money for a drugs debt and had no idea they were attacking Keegan.


title: Kevin Keegan

text: In February 2009, Keegan had three points added to his driving licence after being caught doing 36 mph in a 30 mph zone on the A69 road in August 2008. This brought his total to 12 points and he consequently received a six-month driving ban.


title: Toucan

text: Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five genera and over forty different species.


title: Toucan

text: Toucans are arboreal and typically lay 2–4 white eggs in their nests. They make their nests in tree hollows and holes excavated by other animals such as woodpeckers—the toucan bill has very limited use as an excavation tool. When the eggs hatch, the young emerge completely naked, without any down. Toucans are resident breeders and do not migrate. Toucans are usually found in pairs or small flocks. They sometimes fence with their bills and wrestle, which scientists hypothesize they do to establish dominance hierarchies. In Africa and Asia, hornbills occupy the toucans' ecological niche, an example of convergent evolution.


title: Toucan

text: The name of this bird group is derived from the Tupi word "tukana" or the Guaraní word "tukã", via Portuguese. The family includes toucans, aracaris and toucanets; more distant relatives include various families of barbets and woodpeckers in the suborder Pici.


title: Toucan

text: Toucans range in size from the lettered aracari ("Pteroglossus inscriptus"), at and , to the toco toucan ("Ramphastos toco"), at and . Their bodies are short (of comparable size to a crow's) and compact. The tail is rounded and varies in length, from half the length to the whole length of the body. The neck is short and thick. The wings are small, as they are forest-dwelling birds who only need to travel short distances, and are often of about the same span as the bill-tip-to-tail-tip measurements of the bird.


title: Toucan

text: The legs of the toucan are strong and rather short. Their toes are arranged in pairs with the first and fourth toes turned backward. The majority of toucans do not show any sexual dimorphism in their coloration, the genus "Selenidera" being the most notable exception to this rule (hence their common name, "dichromatic toucanets"). However, the bills of female toucans are usually shorter, deeper and sometimes straighter, giving more of a "blocky" impression compared to male bills. The feathers in the genus containing the largest toucans are generally purple, with touches of white, yellow, and scarlet, and black. The underparts of the araçaris (smaller toucans) are yellow, crossed by one or more black or red bands. The toucanets have mostly green plumage with blue markings.


title: Toucan

text: The colorful and large bill, which in some large species measures more than half the length of the body, is the hallmark of toucans. Despite its size, the toucan's bill is very light, being composed of bone struts filled with spongy tissue of keratin between them, which take on the structure of a biofoam. The bill has forward-facing serrations resembling teeth, which historically led naturalists to believe that toucans captured fish and were primarily carnivorous; today it is known that they eat mostly fruit. Researchers have discovered that the large bill of the toucan is a highly efficient thermoregulation system, though its size may still be advantageous in other ways. It does aid in their feeding behavior (as they sit in one spot and reach for all fruit in range, thereby reducing energy expenditure), and it has also been theorized that the bill may intimidate smaller birds, so that the toucan may plunder nests undisturbed (see Diet below). The beak allows the bird to reach deep into tree-holes to access food unavailable to other birds, and also to ransack suspended nests built by smaller birds.


title: Toucan

text: A toucan's tongue is long (up to ), narrow, grey, and singularly frayed on each side, adding to its sensitivity as a tasting organ.


title: Toucan

text: A structural complex probably unique to toucans involves the modification of several tail vertebrae. The rear three vertebrae are fused and attached to the spine by a ball and socket joint. Because of this, toucans may snap their tail forward until it touches the head. This is the posture in which they sleep, often appearing simply as a ball of feathers, with the tip of the tail sticking out over the head.


title: Toucan

text: Toucans are native to the Neotropics, from Southern Mexico, through Central America, into South America south to northern Argentina. They mostly live in the lowland tropics, but the mountain species from the genus "Andigena" reach temperate climates at high altitudes in the Andes and can be found up to the tree line.


title: Toucan

text: For the most part the toucans are forest species, and restricted to primary forests. They will enter secondary forests to forage, but are limited to forests with large old trees that have holes large enough to breed in. Toucans are poor dispersers, particularly across water, and have not reached the West Indies. The only non-forest living toucan is the toco toucan, which is found in savannah with forest patches and open woodlands.


title: Toucan

text: Toucans are highly social and most species occur in groups of up to 20 or more birds for most of the time. Pairs may retire from the groups during the breeding season, then return with their offspring after the breeding season. Larger groups may form during irruptions, migration or around a particularly large fruiting tree.


title: Toucan

text: Toucans often spend time sparring with their bills, tag-chasing and calling, during the long time it takes for fruit to digest. These behaviours may be related to maintenance of the pair bond or establishing dominance hierarchies, but the digestion time of fruit, which can take up to 75 minutes during which the toucan can't feed, provide this social time.


title: Toucan

text: Toucans are primarily frugivorous (fruit eating), but are opportunistically omnivorous and will take prey such as insects, smaller birds, and small lizards. Captive toucans have been reported to hunt insects actively in their cages, and it is possible to keep toucans on an insect-only diet. They also plunder nests of smaller birds, taking eggs and nestlings. This probably provides a crucial addition of protein to their diet. Certainly, apart from being systematically predatory as well as frugivorous, like many omnivorous birds, they particularly prefer animal food for feeding their chicks. However, in their range, toucans are the dominant frugivores, and as such, play an extremely important ecological role as vectors for seed dispersal of fruiting trees.


title: Toucan

text: Toucans nest in cavities in trees, and the presence of suitable trees is a habitat prerequisite for toucans. For the most part toucans don't excavate nesting cavities, although some green toucanets do.


title: Toucan

text: Toucans make a variety of sounds. The very name of the bird (from Tupi) refers to its predominant frog-like croaking call, but toucans also make barking and growling sounds. They also use their bills to make tapping and clattering sounds. Mountain toucans are known for donkey-like braying.


title: Toucan

text: The toucans are, due to their unique appearance, among the most popular and well known birds in the world. Across their native range they were hunted for food and also kept as pets, and their plumage and bills were used for decorations. In some places anyone that discovers a nest is deemed its owner and is entitled to sell the birds within. In the western world they were first popularised by John Gould who devoted two editions to a detailed monograph of the family. The constellation Tucana, containing most of the Small Magellanic Cloud, is named after the toucan.


title: Toucan

text: The family has been used prominently in advertising. During the 1930s and 1940s Guinness (beer) advertising featured a toucan, as the black and white appearance of the bird mirrored the stout. A cartoon toucan, Toucan Sam, has long been used as the mascot of Froot Loops breakfast cereal, and a toucan is the mascot of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party; its party members are called "tucanos" for this reason.


title: Toucan

text: Toucans have also been used in popular media. They have been used as the principal characters in "Toucan Tecs", a 1992 UK television cartoon about two detectives named Zippi and Zac. In "Dora the Explorer", the character Señor Túcan is a Spanish-speaking toucan who occasionally gives Dora and her friends advice. Tuca, the anthropomorphic title character of the 2019 show "Tuca & Bertie" is a Toucan, and the companion of the song thrush Bertie. In the 2016 Nintendo 3DS game "Pokémon Sun and Moon", the Pokémon Toucannon and its previous evolutions were modeled after a Toco Toucan.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: The AeroVironment Switchblade is a miniature loitering munition, designed by AeroVironment and used by several branches of the United States military. Small enough to fit in a backpack, the Switchblade launches from a tube, flies to the target area, and crashes into its target while detonating its explosive warhead. The name switchblade comes from the way the spring-loaded wings are folded up inside a tube and flip out once released.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: Introduced in 2011, the original Switchblade was rebranded the Switchblade300 after the much larger and very different Switchblade600 anti-armor variant was unveiled in 2020. The Blackwing, an unarmed variant of the Switchblade300 was released in 2015. More than 700 Switchblade 300 drones were sent to Ukraine by the United States as part of an arms package after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: Conceived by the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), developed by the U.S. Army, the Switchblade was meant to help U.S. troops respond to enemy ambushes in Afghanistan. Close air support takes time to arrive, is expensive to conduct, and risks collateral damage in urban areas. Troop-carried guided missiles such as the FGM-148 Javelin are also much larger, heavier, and more expensive, and few if any are carried on a typical patrol.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: Human-portable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) like the Raven or Puma can spot threats but lack weapons. The backpackable, relatively inexpensive Switchblade has sensors to help spot enemy fighters and an explosive warhead to attack them from above, which is especially helpful in dug-in positions like rooftops or ridge lines.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: On 29 July 2011, the U.S. Army awarded AeroVironment a $4.9 million contract for "rapid fielding" of an unspecified number of Switchblades to forces in Afghanistan. On 20 March 2012, the Army added $5.1 million, totaling $10 million.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: In May 2012, the United States Marine Corps began ordering Switchblades to allow troops to strike improvised explosive device (IED) emplacement teams and similar targets. Usually when air support is called in, attackers slip away before a large UAV, attack helicopter, fighter-bomber, or quick reaction force can arrive on station. Marines sometimes couldn't get support due to other units getting mission priority. The Switchblade is small enough to fit in a Marine's ALICE or MOLLE pack and locks onto and tracks a target once selected.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: In late 2012, 75 Switchblades were supplied to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Several successful employments had occurred by January 2013. Although the military would not confirm details about its deployment, effectiveness, distribution, or tactical employment, commanders reported that it was "very effective". Shortly after, a joint urgent needs statement was requested by the Army theater commanders for more systems. The number requested was not specified, but was "dramatically more" than the 75 systems initially supplied and exceeded budget limitations. The Switchblade gained notoriety among soldiers using it and insurgents targeted by it. The Army classifies it as a direct fire munition rather than a drone.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: Soldiers embraced it as a valuable tool, especially to reduce collateral damage. Unlike most other weapons, the Switchblade can wave off or abort a mission if the situation changes after launch, allowing it to engage a secondary target or destroy itself without inflicting casualties or property damage. Wave off was used over a dozen times to prevent civilian casualties that could have been caused had a person not been in the decision loop.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: On 28 August 2013, AeroVironment announced it had been awarded five contracts totaling $15.8 million to supply more Switchblade systems, ancillary equipment, and support to the Army. One week later, the Pentagon gave the company a follow-on contract worth $6.6 million. On 5 September 2013, AeroVironment was awarded a $29 million contract modification to supply Switchblade munitions systems and associated hardware and support services, totaling $51.4 million worth in contracts announced over nine days.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: In April 2015, the Marines test-fired a Switchblade out of the back of an MV-22 Osprey. The drone was not equipped with a warhead, but was successfully released and accurately steered toward a target. The test showed that the Switchblade could be air-launched from the aircraft and add a remotely controlled, weaponized surveillance tool to the Osprey. From its introduction to the end of Operation Enduring Freedom, over 4,000 Switchblades were deployed in Afghanistan. In mid-2017, 350 Switchblades were delivered to SOCOM for use against Islamic State.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: On 28 April 2016, AeroVironment announced they had developed an upgrade for the Switchblade Tactical Missile system designated Block 10C. In October 2016, AeroVironment announced the Multi-Pack Launcher (MPL), a system to carry and remotely launch several Switchblades.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: In October 2020, AeroVironment announced a project with Kratos Defense & Security Solutions to demonstrate a "high-speed, long-range unmanned combat air vehicle" that serves as a mothership to deliver Switchblade 300s in large numbers that cooperatively attack and overwhelm enemy defenses.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: In late 2018, AeroVironment was working on the larger Switchblade 600. In March 2020, AeroVironment revealed it had flight tested the product the previous year. In October 2020, AeroVironment unveiled the larger unit. By the time of its unveiling it had undergone 60 test flights from ground launches against fixed and moving targets.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: On 31 March 2021, AeroVironment was awarded a USD26.1 million contract by SOCOM for the Switchblade 600. The system addresses the United States Naval Special Warfare Command's Maritime Precision Engagement (MPE) requirement to engage asymmetric threats with Combatant Craft Medium (CCM) and Heavy (CCH) boats acting as host platforms.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: In March 2022, it was reported that the US was considering providing Switchblade drones to the Ukrainian armed forces following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 16 March, the White House announced that "100 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems" would be provided to Ukraine as part of a $800 million military aid package. Another 600 systems were announced to be sent in April, bringing the total number of munitions sent to Ukraine to 700.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: Ukraine first reported using a Switchblade on a Russian target in Kharkiv Oblast in early May. A Switchblade 300 was used against a bunker; it is unclear if it was shot down or completed its task by exploding. Russian forces recovered the remains. Despite receiving hundreds of Switchblade drones, some Ukrainian units prefer to use commercial drones equipped with explosives that are easier to use. The U.S. planned to also send the anti-armor Switchblade 600, but although the Switchblade 300 was delivered soon after being pledged to Ukraine, the larger Switchblade 600 was not because it was still a prototype and not considered a fielded capability, so it had to complete testing and evaluation. While the Switchblade 300 has been used against soft Russian targets like fuel trucks, personnel carriers, machine gun nests, trench positions and dismounted infantry, the Switchblade 600 can be used against heavy armor including tanks. In October 2022, AeroVironment said the first batch of 10 Switchblade 600s would likely be in Ukraine "in the next few weeks."


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: The Switchblade 300 is designed as an expendable UAV to increase precision firepower for platoon-sized infantry units. It is long and weighs including the carrying case and launcher, making it small and light enough for one soldier to carry.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: It can be controlled up to . Its small size limits its endurance to 10 minutes. This makes it unsuited for scouting roles, but it is useful for inexpensively engaging long-range targets and assisting in relieving units pinned down by enemy fire. The Switchblade uses a color camera and GPS locating to identify, track, and engage targets, as well as being able to be pre-programmed on a collision course. Its warhead has an explosive charge equivalent to a 40mm grenade to destroy light armored vehicles and personnel. If a situation causes a strike to be called off, the operator can call off the Switchblade and re-target it.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: The aircraft is propelled by an electric engine, so its small size and silent flight makes it extremely difficult to detect or intercept, enabling it to close in on a target at . The Switchblade uses the same Ground Control Station (GCS) as other AeroVironment UAVs including the Wasp, RQ-11 Raven, and RQ-20 Puma. This creates commonality and the potential for teaming of longer-endurance small UAVs to recon for targets, then having the Switchblade attack once they are identified with the same controller.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: U.S. Army regulations categorize the Switchblade as a missile rather than a drone. The term "loitering munition" is preferred to describe it. Unlike UAVs, it is not recoverable once launched. Its operation is similar to that of the wireless TOW missile, through a fly-by-radio frequency signal. The only difference being the TOW doesn't loiter, but both have the same operator-in-the-loop characteristics. The Switchblade uses daytime and infrared cameras, as well as an "aided target tracker" to lock on to stationary and moving targets.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: The warhead is specifically designed for controlled firepower to reduce collateral damage through a focused blast. It has a forward-firing shotgun-blast effect rather than a 360-degree blast, throwing pellets in the direction that the missile is traveling. It can be fused to detonate at a predetermined height, which can be adjusted in-flight. When diving, the air vehicle gives the operator the opportunity to wave off until four seconds from impact. The warhead can be detonated in-flight to destroy it.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: The Switchblade does not fit into established doctrines, since it is not an armed reconnaissance vehicle dispatched by a platoon commander to scout over an area and destroy enemies, or an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform, as its cameras are for seeing targets instead of performing recon. It meets the need for small squads and platoons that lack high-level intelligence and communications to have the ability to fire missiles beyond ranges they are trying to influence.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: Aside from use against ground targets, SRC Inc. has developed software to combine the Switchblade with sensors to be able to intercept hostile UAVs. The Switchblade is used alongside an existing counter-artillery radar and IED jamming system, all of which can be towed by Humvees. Interception of an enemy drone occurs in layers of defenses: if a drone gets through covering jet fighters or is too small to be targeted by them, it is picked up by the fire-finding radar. Once detected, the jammer performs electronic warfare to break its data-link. If the drone resists EW, the Switchblade is launched to physically impact and destroy it.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: Block 10C incorporates a Digital Data Link (DDL) to provide a stable and secure encrypted communication link through more efficient use of existing frequency bands and significantly reduced likelihood of signal interception, as well as enables concurrent operation of multiple Switchblade systems in the same vicinity without signal conflict, gives opportunity to extend operational ranges using another DDL arbiter such as a different AeroVironment UAV, and facilitates sensor to shooter operations through automatic communication of mission plans from one AeroVironment UAS to a Switchblade.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: The Multi-Pack Launcher (MPL) remotely launches multiple Switchblades. The MPL comes in a standard 6-pack configuration weighing fully loaded. The design is scalable from 2 to 20 rounds and enables rapid reloading of less than 30 seconds per round. The U.S. Army began deploying the MPL in early 2019 for base defense.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: The larger Switchblade 600 loitering munition weighs including the all-up round in the tube and FCS; the AUR weighs , with the FCS consisting of a tablet and long-range antenna. The system is man-portable and can be set up in 10 minutes. It is designed to fly out to in 20 minutes, then loiter for another 20 minutes (giving it an total range), however reaching its maximum capable range requires using two long-range antennas deployed on the field to relay command from one operator to another through the handoff capability of the data link. It attacks at a dash speed, carrying an ATGM warhead based on the Javelin ATGM, designed to neutralize armored vehicles.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: A touchscreen tablet-based fire control system can manually or autonomously control the munition. It is secured through onboard encrypted data links and Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module GPS with a patented wave-off capability. An optional pocket digital data link (DDL) module allows engagements beyond . The larger Switchblade could be fitted with an anti-tank warhead while having longer range and costing less than anti-tank missiles like the FGM-148 Javelin.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: The Switchblade 600 was developed for the Army Single Multi-Mission Attack Missile development program. Other methods could include a six-pack vehicle-mounted version and by air-launch.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: In October 2022, AeroVironment said it was capable of producing more than 2,000 Switchblade 600 systems annually, and that it planned within a few months to increase production capacity to 6,000 per year.


title: AeroVironment Switchblade

text: First demonstrated in 2015, the AeroVironment Blackwing is an unarmed variant of the Switchblade300 with similar weight and dimensions. It was developed for the United States Navy to provide rapid ISR (Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) as well as command and control relay operations among surface and undersea manned and unmanned vessels. The Blackwing can be deployed from a submerged submarine, surface ship, or mobile ground launcher.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929 and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known as the "Hays Code", in mid-1934. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor, and it did not become rigorously enforced until July 1, 1934, with the establishment of the Production Code Administration (PCA). Before that date, film content was restricted more by local laws, negotiations between the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) and the major studios, and popular opinion, than by strict adherence to the Hays Code, which was often ignored by Hollywood filmmakers.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: As a result, some films in the late 1920s and early 1930s depicted or implied sexual innuendo, romantic and sexual relationships between white and black people, mild profanity, illegal drug use, promiscuity, prostitution, infidelity, abortion, intense violence, and homosexuality. Nefarious characters were seen to profit from their deeds, in some cases without significant repercussions. For example, gangsters in films such as "The Public Enemy", "Little Caesar", and "Scarface" were seen by many as heroic rather than evil. Strong female characters were ubiquitous in such pre-Code films as "Female", "Baby Face", and "Red-Headed Woman". Along with featuring stronger female characters, movies examined female subject matters that would not be revisited until decades later in US films. Many of Hollywood's biggest stars such as Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell, and Edward G. Robinson got their start in the era. Other stars who excelled during this period, however, like Ruth Chatterton (who decamped to England) and Warren William (the so-called "king of Pre-Code", who died in 1948), would wind up essentially forgotten by the general public within a generation.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Beginning in late 1933 and escalating throughout the first half of 1934, American Roman Catholics launched a campaign against what they deemed the immorality of American cinema. This, plus a potential government takeover of film censorship and social research seeming to indicate that movies which were seen to be immoral could promote bad behavior, was enough pressure to force the studios to capitulate to greater oversight.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: In 1922, after some risqué films and a series of off-screen scandals involving Hollywood stars, the studios enlisted Presbyterian elder William H. "Will" Hays to rehabilitate Hollywood's image. Hays, later nicknamed the motion picture "Czar", was paid the then-lavish sum of $100,000 a year (equivalent to more than $1.7 million in 2022 dollars). Hays, Postmaster General under Warren G. Harding and former head of the Republican National Committee, served for 25 years as president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), where he "defended the industry from attacks, recited soothing nostrums, and negotiated treaties to cease hostilities." Hollywood mimicked the decision Major League Baseball had made in hiring judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as League Commissioner the previous year to quell questions about the integrity of baseball in wake of the 1919 World Series gambling scandal; "The New York Times" called Hays the "screen Landis".


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Hays introduced a set of recommendations dubbed "The Formula" in 1924, which the studios were advised to heed, and asked filmmakers to describe to his office the plots of films they were planning. The Supreme Court had already decided unanimously in 1915 in "Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio" that free speech did not extend to motion pictures, and while there had been token attempts to clean up the movies before, such as when the studios formed the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry (NAMPI) in 1916, little had come of the efforts.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: In 1929, Roman Catholic layman Martin Quigley, editor of the prominent trade paper "Motion Picture Herald", and Father Daniel A. Lord, a Jesuit priest, created a code of standards (of which Hays strongly approved) and submitted it to the studios. Lord's concerns centered on the effects sound film had on children, whom he considered especially susceptible to the medium's allure. Several studio heads, including Irving Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), met with Lord and Quigley in February 1930. After some revisions, they agreed to the stipulations of the Code. One of the main motivating factors in adopting the Code was to avoid direct government intervention. It was the responsibility of the Studio Relations Committee, headed by Colonel Jason S. Joy, to supervise film production and advise the studios when changes or cuts were required.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: The Code was divided into two parts. The first was a set of "general principles" that mostly concerned morality. The second was a set of "particular applications", an exacting list of items that could not be depicted. Some restrictions, such as the ban on homosexuality or the use of specific curse words, were never directly mentioned but were assumed to be understood without clear demarcation. Miscegenation, the mixing of the races, was forbidden. The Code stated that the notion of an "adults-only policy" would be a dubious, ineffective strategy that would be difficult to enforce. However, it did allow that "maturer minds may easily understand and accept without harm subject matter in plots which does younger people positive harm." If children were supervised and the events implied elliptically, the code allowed what Brandeis University cultural historian Thomas Doherty called "the possibility of a cinematically inspired thought crime."


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: The Code sought not only to determine what could be portrayed on screen, but also to promote traditional values. Sexual relations outside of marriage could not be portrayed as attractive and beautiful, presented in a way that might arouse passion or be made to seem right and permissible. All criminal action had to be punished, and neither the crime nor the criminal could elicit sympathy from the audience. Authority figures had to be treated respectfully, and the clergy could not be portrayed as comic characters or villains. Under some circumstances, politicians, police officers and judges could be villains, as long as it was clear that they were the exception to the rule.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: The entire document contained Catholic undertones and stated that art must be handled carefully because it could be "morally evil in its effects" and because its "deep moral significance" was unquestionable. The Catholic influence on the Code was initially kept secret, owing to the Anti-Catholic bias of the time. A recurring theme was "throughout, the audience feels sure that evil is wrong and good is right." The Code contained an addendum, commonly referred to as the Advertising Code, that regulated film advertising copy and imagery.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: On February 19, 1930, "Variety" published the entire contents of the Code and predicted that state film censorship boards would soon become obsolete. However, the men obligated to enforce the code – Jason Joy, who was the head of the Committee until 1932, and his successor, Dr. James Wingate – were seen as generally ineffective. The very first film the office reviewed, "The Blue Angel", which was passed by Joy without revision, was considered indecent by a California censor. Although there were several instances where Joy negotiated cuts from films, and there were indeed definite, albeit loose, constraints, a significant amount of lurid material made it to the screen.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Joy had to review 500 films a year using a small staff and little power. The Hays office did not have the authority to order studios to remove material from a film in 1930, but instead worked by reasoning and sometimes pleading with them. Complicating matters, the appeals process ultimately put the responsibility for making the final decision in the hands of the studios themselves.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: One factor in ignoring the Code was the fact that some found such censorship prudish. This was a period in which the Victorian era was sometimes ridiculed as being naïve and backward. When the Code was announced, "The Nation", a liberal periodical, attacked it. The publication stated that if crime were never presented in a sympathetic light, then, taken literally, "law" and "justice" would become the same. Therefore, events such as the Boston Tea Party could not be portrayed. And if clergy were always to be presented positively, then hypocrisy could not be examined either. The "Outlook" agreed, and, unlike "Variety", predicted from the beginning the Code would be difficult to enforce.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Additionally, the Great Depression of the 1930s motivated studios to produce films with racy and violent content, which boosted ticket sales. Soon, the flouting of the code became an open secret. In 1931, "The Hollywood Reporter" mocked the code, and "Variety" followed suit in 1933. In the same year as the "Variety" article, a noted screenwriter stated that "the Hays moral code is not even a joke any more; it's just a memory."


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Although the liberalization of sexuality in American film had increased during the 1920s, the pre-Code era is either dated to the start of the sound film era, or more generally to March 1930, when the Hays Code was first written. Over the protests of NAMPI, New York became the first state to take advantage of the Supreme Court's decision in "Mutual Film vs. Ohio" by instituting a censorship board in 1921. Virginia followed suit the next year, and eight individual states had a board by the advent of sound film.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Many of these boards were ineffectual. By the 1920s, the New York stage, a frequent source of subsequent screen material, had topless shows; performances were filled with profanity, mature subject matter, and sexually suggestive dialogue. Early during the sound system conversion process, it became apparent that what might be acceptable in New York would not be so in Kansas. In 1927, Hays suggested studio executives form a committee to discuss film censorship. Irving Thalberg of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Sol Wurtzel of Fox, and E. H. Allen of Paramount responded by collaborating on a list they called the "", based on items that were challenged by local censor boards, and which consisted of eleven subjects best avoided, and twenty-six to be handled very carefully. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the list, and Hays created the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) to oversee its implementation. However, there was still no way to enforce these tenets. The controversy surrounding film standards came to a head in 1929.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Director Cecil B. DeMille was responsible for the increasing discussion of sex in cinema in the 1920s. Starting with "Male and Female" (1919), he made a series of films that examined sex and were highly successful. Films featuring Hollywood's original "It girl" Clara Bow such as "The Saturday Night Kid" (released four days before the October 29, 1929, market crash) highlighted Bow's sexual attractiveness. 1920s stars such as Bow, Gloria Swanson, and Norma Talmadge freely displayed their sexuality in a straightforward fashion.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: The Great Depression presented a unique time for film-making in the United States. The economic disaster brought on by the stock market crash of 1929 changed American values and beliefs in various ways. Themes of American exceptionalism and traditional concepts of personal achievement, self-reliance, and the overcoming of odds lost great currency. Due to the constant empty economic reassurances from politicians in the early years of the Depression, the American public developed an increasingly jaded attitude.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: The cynicism, challenging of traditional beliefs, and political controversy of Hollywood films during this period mirrored the attitudes of many of their patrons. Also gone was the carefree and adventurous lifestyle of the 1920s. "After two years the Jazz Age seems as far away as the days before the war", F. Scott Fitzgerald commented in 1931. In the sense noted by Fitzgerald, understanding the moral climate of the early 1930s is complex. Although films experienced an unprecedented level of freedom and dared to portray things that would be kept hidden for several decades, many in America looked upon the stock market crash as a product of the excesses of the previous decade. In looking back upon the 1920s, events were increasingly seen as occurring in prelude to the market crash. In "Dance, Fools, Dance" (1931), lurid party scenes featuring 1920s flappers are played to excess. Joan Crawford ultimately reforms her ways and is saved; less fortunate is William Bakewell, who continues on the careless path that leads to his ultimate self-destruction.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: For "Rain or Shine" (1930), Milton Ager and Jack Yellen composed "Happy Days Are Here Again". The song was repeated sarcastically by characters in several films such as "Under Eighteen" (1931) and "20,000 Years in Sing Sing" (1933). Less comical was the picture of the United States' future presented in "Heroes for Sale" that same year (1933), in which a hobo looks into a depressing night and proclaims, "It's the end of America".


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: "Heroes for Sale" was directed by prolific pre-Code director William Wellman and featured silent film star Richard Barthelmess as a World War I veteran cast onto the streets with a morphine addiction from his hospital stay. In "Wild Boys of the Road" (1933), the young man played by Frankie Darrow leads a group of dispossessed juvenile drifters who frequently brawl with the police. Such gangs were common; around 250,000 youths traveled the country by hopping trains or hitchhiking in search of better economic circumstances in the early 1930s.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Complicating matters for the studios, the advent of sound film in 1927 required an immense expenditure in sound stages, recording booths, cameras, and movie-theater sound systems, not to mention the new-found artistic complications of producing in a radically altered medium. The studios were in a difficult financial position even before the market crash as the sound conversion process and some risky purchases of theater chains had pushed their finances near the breaking point. These economic circumstances led to a loss of nearly half of the weekly attendance numbers and closure of almost a third of the country's theaters in the first few years of the depression. Even so, 60 million Americans went to the cinema weekly.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Apart from the economic realities of the conversion to sound, were the artistic considerations. Early sound films were often noted for being too verbose. In 1930, Carl Laemmle criticized the wall-to-wall banter of sound pictures, and director Ernst Lubitsch wondered what the camera was intended for if characters were going to narrate all the onscreen action. The film industry also withstood competition from the home radio, and often characters in films went to great lengths to belittle other media. The film industry was not above using the new medium to broadcast commercials for its projects however, and occasionally turned radio stars into short feature performers to take advantage of their built-in following.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Seething beneath the surface of American life in the Depression was the fear of the angry mob, portrayed in panicked hysteria in films such as "Gabriel Over the White House" (1933), "The Mayor of Hell" (1933), and "American Madness" (1932). Massive wide shots of angry hordes, comprising sometimes hundreds of men, rush into action in terrifyingly efficient uniformity. Groups of agitated men either standing in breadlines, loitering in hobo camps, or marching the streets in protest became a prevalent sight during the Great Depression. The Bonus Army protests of World War I veterans on the capital in Washington, D.C., on which Hoover unleashed a brutal crackdown, prompted many of the Hollywood depictions. Although social issues were examined more directly in the pre-Code era, Hollywood still largely ignored the Great Depression, as many films sought to ameliorate patrons' anxieties rather than incite them.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Hays and others, such as Samuel Goldwyn, obviously felt that motion pictures presented a form of escapism that served a palliative effect on American moviegoers. Goldwyn had coined the famous dictum, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union" in the pre-Code era. However, the MPPDA took the opposite stance when questioned about certain so-called "message" films before Congress in 1932, claiming the audiences' desire for realism led to certain unsavory social, legal, and political issues being portrayed in film.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: The length of pre-Code films was usually comparatively short, but that running time often required tighter material and did not affect the impact of message films. "Employees' Entrance" (1933) received the following review from Jonathan Rosenbaum: "As an attack on ruthless capitalism, it goes a lot further than more recent efforts such as "Wall Street", and it's amazing how much plot and character are gracefully shoehorned into 75 minutes." The film featured pre-Code megastar Warren William (later dubbed "the king of Pre-Code"), "at his magnetic worst", playing a particularly vile and heartless department store manager who, for example, terminates the jobs of two long-standing male employees, one of whom commits suicide as a result. He also threatens to fire Loretta Young's character, who pretends to be single to stay employed, unless she sleeps with him, then attempts to ruin her husband after learning she is married.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Films that stated a position about a social issue were usually labeled either "propaganda films" or "preachment yarns". In contrast to Goldwyn and MGM's definitively Republican stance on social issue films, Warner Brothers, led by New Deal advocate Jack L. Warner, was the most prominent maker of these types of films and preferred they be called "Americanism stories". Pre-Code historian Thomas Doherty has written that two recurring elements marked the so-called preachment yarns. "The first is the exculpatory preface; the second is the Jazz Age prelude." The preface was essentially a softened version of a disclaimer that intended to calm any in the audience who disagreed with the film's message. The Jazz Age prelude was almost singularly used to cast shame on the boisterous behavior of the 1920s.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: "Cabin in the Cotton" (1932) is a Warner Bros. message film about the evils of capitalism. The film takes place in an unspecified southern state where workers are given barely enough to survive and taken advantage of by being charged exorbitant interest rates and high prices by unscrupulous landowners. The film is decidedly anti-capitalist; however, its preface claims otherwise: In the end, however, the planters admit their wrongdoing and agree to a more equitable distribution of capital.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: The avaricious businessman remained a recurring character in pre-Code cinema. In "The Match King" (1932), Warren William played an industrialist based on real-life Swedish entrepreneur Ivar Kreuger, himself nicknamed the "Match King", who attempts to corner the global market on matches. William's vile character, Paul Kroll, commits robbery, fraud, and murder on his way from a janitor to a captain of industry. When the market collapses in the 1929 crash, Kroll is ruined and commits suicide to avoid imprisonment. William played another unscrupulous businessman in "Skyscraper Souls" (1932): David Dwight, a wealthy banker who owns a building named after himself that is larger than the Empire State Building. He tricks everyone he knows into poverty to appropriate others' wealth. He is ultimately shot by his secretary (Verree Teasdale), who then ends the film and her own life by walking off the roof of the skyscraper.


title: Pre-Code Hollywood

text: Americans' mistrust and dislike of lawyers was a frequent topic of dissection in social problem films such "Lawyer Man" (1933), "State's Attorney", and "The Mouthpiece" (1932). In films such as "Paid" (1930), the legal system turns innocent characters into criminals. The life of Joan Crawford's character is ruined and her romantic interest is executed so that she may live free, although she is innocent of the crime for which the district attorney wants to convict her. Religious hypocrisy was addressed in such films as "The Miracle Woman" (1931), starring Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Frank Capra. Stanwyck also portrayed a nurse and initially reluctant heroine who manages to save, via unorthodox means, two young children in danger from nefarious characters (including Clark Gable as a malevolent chauffeur) in "Night Nurse" (1931).