title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice can be used for loosening asphalt floor tiles or car sound deadening material, making them easy to prise off, as well as freezing water in valveless pipes to enable repair.


title: Dry ice

text: One of the largest mechanical uses of dry ice is blast cleaning. Dry ice pellets are shot from a nozzle with compressed air, combining the power of the speed of the pellets with the action of the sublimation. This can remove residues from industrial equipment. Examples of materials removed include ink, glue, oil, paint, mold and rubber. Dry ice blasting can replace sandblasting, steam blasting, water blasting or solvent blasting. The primary environmental residue of dry ice blasting is the sublimed CO, thus making it a useful technique where residues from other blasting techniques are undesirable. Recently, blast cleaning has been introduced as a method of removing smoke damage from structures after fires.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice is also useful for the de-gassing of flammable vapours from storage tanks — the sublimation of dry ice pellets inside an emptied and vented tank causes an outrush of CO that carries with it the flammable vapours.


title: Dry ice

text: The removal and fitting of cylinder liners in large engines requires the use of dry ice to chill and thus shrink the liner so that it freely slides into the engine block. When the liner then warms up, it expands, and the resulting interference fit holds it tightly in place. Similar procedures may be used in fabricating mechanical assemblies with a high resultant strength, replacing the need for pins, keys or welds.


title: Dry ice

text: In laboratories, a slurry of dry ice in an organic solvent is a useful freezing mixture for cold chemical reactions and for condensing solvents in rotary evaporators. Dry ice and acetone forms a cold bath of , which can be used for instance to prevent thermal runaway in a Swern oxidation.


title: Dry ice

text: The process of altering cloud precipitation can be done with the use of dry ice. It was widely used in experiments in the US in the 1950s and early 1960s before it was replaced by silver iodide. Dry ice has the advantage of being relatively cheap and completely non-toxic. Its main drawback is the need to be delivered directly into the supercooled region of clouds being seeded.


title: Dry ice

text: A "dry ice bomb" is a balloon-like device using dry ice in a sealed container such as a plastic bottle. Water is usually added to accelerate the sublimation of the dry ice. As the dry ice sublimes, pressure increases, causing the bottle to burst causing a loud noise that can be avoided by replacing the screw cap with a rubber stopper to make a water rocket with a two-liter bottle.


title: Dry ice

text: The dry ice bomb device was featured on "MythBusters", episode 57 Mentos and Soda, which first aired on August 9, 2006. It was also featured in an episode of "Time Warp", as well as in an episode of "Archer".


title: Dry ice

text: Following the Mars flyby of the Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1966, scientists concluded that Mars' polar caps consist entirely of dry ice. However, findings made in 2003 by researchers at the California Institute of Technology have shown that Mars' polar caps are almost completely made of water ice, and that dry ice only forms a thin surface layer that thickens and thins seasonally. A phenomenon named dry ice storms was proposed to occur over the polar regions of Mars. They are comparable to Earth's thunderstorms, with crystalline CO taking the place of water in the clouds. Dry ice is also proposed as a mechanism for Geysers on Mars.


title: Dry ice

text: In 2012, the European Space Agency's Venus Express probe detected a cold layer in the atmosphere of Venus where temperatures are close to the triple point of carbon dioxide and it is possible that flakes of dry ice precipitate.


title: Dry ice

text: Observations from the Uranus flyby by Voyager 2 indicates that dry ice is present on the surface of its large moons Ariel, Umbriel and Titania. Scientists speculate that the magnetic field of Uranus contributes to the generation of CO ice on the surfaces of its moons. Voyager 2 observations of Neptune's moon Triton suggested the presence of dry ice on the surface, though follow up observations indicate that the carbon ices on the surface are carbon monoxide but that the moon's crust is composed of a significant quantity of dry ice.


title: Dry ice

text: Prolonged exposure to dry ice can cause severe skin damage through frostbite, and the fog produced may also hinder attempts to withdraw from contact in a safe manner. Because it sublimes into large quantities of carbon dioxide gas, which could pose a danger of hypercapnia, dry ice should only be exposed to open air in a well-ventilated environment. For this reason, in the context of laboratory safety dry ice is assigned label precaution . Industrial dry ice may contain contaminants that make it unsafe for direct contact with food. Tiny dry ice pellets used in dry ice blast cleaning do not contain oily residues.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice is assigned a UN number, a code for hazardous substances: UN 1845. Dry ice is not classified as a dangerous substance by the European Union, or as a hazardous material by the United States Department of Transportation for ground transportation. However, in the US, it is regulated as a dangerous good when shipped by air or water. International Air Transport Association (IATA) regulations require specific diamond-shaped black-and white labelling to be placed on the package. The package must have adequate ventilation so that it will not rupture from pressure in the event that it begins to sublimate in the packaging. The Federal Aviation Administration in the US allows airline passengers to carry up to per person either as checked baggage or carry-on baggage, when used to refrigerate perishables.


title: Dry ice

text: At least one person has been killed by carbon dioxide gas sublimating off dry ice in coolers placed in a car.


title: Dry ice

text: In 2020, three people were killed at a party in Moscow after 25 kg of dry ice was dumped in a pool; carbon dioxide is heavier than air, and so can linger near the ground, just above water level.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice is sometimes used to give a fog effect to cocktails. One bar patron who accidentally ingested pellets from a drink suffered severe burns to his esophagus, stomach, and duodenum, causing permanent problems with eating. Rapid sublimation could cause gas buildup that ruptures digestive organs or suffocation. Products that contain dry ice and prevent it from being accidentally ingested eliminate these risks while producing the desired fog effect.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Cheyenne ( or ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming, as well as the county seat of Laramie County, with 65,132 residents, per the 2020 US Census. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne metropolitan statistical area which encompasses all of Laramie County and had 100,512 residents as of the 2020 census. Local residents named the town for the Cheyenne Native American people in 1867 when it was founded in the Dakota Territory.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Cheyenne is the northern terminus of the extensive Southern Rocky Mountain Front, which extends southward to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and includes the fast-growing Front Range Urban Corridor. Cheyenne is situated on Crow Creek and Dry Creek.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: At a celebration on July 4, 1867, Grenville M. Dodge of the Union Pacific Railroad announced the selection of a townsite for its mountain region headquarters adjacent to the bridge the railroad planned to build across Crow Creek in the Territory of Dakota. At the same celebration, Major General Christopher C. Augur announced the selection of a site three miles (5 km) west of Crow Creek Crossing for a U.S. Army fort to protect the railroad.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: The Union Pacific Railroad platted its Crow Creek Crossing townsite on July 5, 1867. Residents named the town Cheyenne for the Cheyenne Native American people. On August 8, 1867, the Town of Cheyenne, Dakota Territory was incorporated, and on August 10, 1867, H. M. Hook was elected as Cheyenne's first mayor. The tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad reached Cheyenne on November 13, 1867, and the first train arrived the following day. Cheyenne grew so quickly it gained the nickname of "Magic City of the Plains".


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: On September 8, 1867, the United States Army established Fort D.A. Russell in honor of Brigadier General David Allen Russell. Initially a cavalry encampment, construction of the fort began the following month. The fort was renamed Fort Francis E. Warren in 1930 in honor of the first Governor of the State of Wyoming, Francis E. Warren. The fort was transferred to the new United States Air Force and was renamed Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in October 1949.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: On July 25, 1868, the United States organized the Territory of Wyoming. Territorial Governor John Allen Campbell arrived in Cheyenne on May 7, 1869, and named Cheyenne the temporary territorial capital. Cheyenne has remained the only capital of Wyoming. On December 10, 1869, the first session of the Wyoming Territorial Legislature met in Cheyenne. That day, the legislature passed and Territorial Governor Campbell signed an act to re-incorporate the Town of Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, and an act granting white women the right to vote, the first U.S. state or territory to grant suffrage to women.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: On July 10, 1890, the Territory of Wyoming was admitted to the Union as the State of Wyoming. The Wyoming State Capitol was constructed between 1886 and 1890, with further improvements being completed in 1917.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: The Cheyenne Regional Airport was opened in 1920, initially serving as a stop for airmail. It soon developed into a civil-military airport, serving DC-3s and various military craft. During World War II, hundreds of B-17s, B-24s, and PBYs were outfitted and upgraded at the airfield. Today, it serves a number of military functions, and as a high-altitude testbed for civilian craft.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Lying near the southeast corner of the state, Cheyenne is one of the least centrally located state capitals in the nation (together with cities such as Carson City, Nevada; Juneau, Alaska; Tallahassee, Florida; and Topeka, Kansas).


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Cheyenne, like much of Wyoming, has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSk") and is part of USDA Hardiness zone 5b, with the suburbs falling in zone 5a. Winters are cold and moderately long, but relatively dry with highs often above freezing, having a normal mean temperature of , highs that fail to breach freezing for 35 days per year, and lows that dip to the mark on 9.2 mornings. However, the cold is often interrupted, with chinook winds blowing downslope from the Rockies that can bring warm conditions, bringing the high above on twenty days from December to February.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: While December is the coldest month, snowfall is greatest in March and April, seasonally averaging , historically ranging from between July 1965 and June 1966 up to between July 1979 and June 1980, yet thick snow cover rarely stays. Summers are warm, with a high diurnal temperature range; July averages , and highs reach on average for twelve afternoons annually. Spring and autumn are quick transitions, with the average window for freezing temperatures being September 29 thru May 14, allowing a growing season of 106 days. Official record temperatures range from on January 9, 1875, up to on June 23, 1954, the last of four occurrences; the record cold daily maximum is on January 11, 1963, while, conversely, the record warm daily minimum is on July 31, 1960. The annual precipitation of tends to be concentrated from May to August and is low during fall and winter; it has historically ranged from in 1876 to in 1942.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: The city averages below 60% daily relative humidity in each month and receives an average hours (~67% of the possible total) of sunshine annually. On July 16, 1979, an F3 tornado struck Cheyenne, causing one death and 40 injuries. It was the most destructive tornado in Wyoming history.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: In 2020, Cheyenne had a total population of 65,132. As of the census of 2010, there were 59,467 people, 25,558 households, and 15,270 families living in the city. The population density was . There were 27,284 housing units at an average density of . As of the census of 2000, there were 53,011 people, 22,324 households, 14,175 families living in the city, and 81,607 people living in the metropolitan statistical area making it the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Wyoming. The population density was 2,511.4 inhabitants per square mile (969.6/km). There were 23,782 housing units at an average density of 1,126.7 per square mile (435.0/km).


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: At the 2019 American Community Survey, the city had an owner-occupied housing rate of 65.9% with a median value at $214,300. There were 27,344 households from 2015 to 2019, and an average of 2.20 persons per household. Residents of Cheyenne had a median household income of $64,598 and per capita of $35,637. An estimated 10.4% lived at or below the poverty line.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: In 2010, there were 25,558 households, of which 30.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.1% were married couples living together, 12.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 40.3% were non-families. 33.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.92. In 2000, there were 22,324 households, out of which 30.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.2% were married couples living together, 10.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.5% were non-families. 31.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.93.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: The median age in the city was 36.5 years at the 2010 census. Twenty-four percent of residents were under the age of 18; 9.5% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.9% were from 25 to 44; 26.2% were from 45 to 64; and 13.5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. In 2000, 24.9% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 29.7% from 25 to 44, 22.8% from 45 to 64, and 13.8% 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.7 males.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: The median income for a household in the city was $38,856, and the median income for a family was $46,771. Males had a median income of $32,286 versus $24,529 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,809. About 6.3% of families and 8.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.1% of those under age 18 and 5.8% of those age 65 or over.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the racial and ethnic makeup of the city was 77.1% non-Hispanic white, 1.7% Black or African American, 0.6% American Indian or Alaska Native, 1.5% Asian, 0.2% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 6.7% two or more races, and 15.9% Hispanic or Latin American of any race, in 2020.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: In 2010, the racial makeup of the city was 87.44% White, 2.88% African American, 0.96% Native American, 1.24% Asian, 0.20% Pacific Islander, 4.0% from other races, and 3.28% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 14.45% of the population. At the 2005–2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates, the city's population was 87.2% White (79.3% non-Hispanic White alone), 12.7% Hispanic or Latino (of any race), 4.5% Black or African American, 2.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.1% Asian and 6.4% from some other race.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: In 2000, the racial makeup of the city was 88.1% White, 2.8% Black or African American, 0.8% Native American, 1.1% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 4.4% from other races, and 2.7% from two or more races. 12.5% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Cheyenne Frontier Days, which is held over ten days centered around the last full week in July, is the largest outdoor rodeo in the US. The events include professional bull riding, calf roping, barrel racing, steer wrestling, team roping, bronc riding, steer roping, bareback riding, and many others. During this week there are many parades and other events. Additionally there is a carnival with numerous rides, games, and shops.The festival has been held since 1897.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Over fifty different locations in Cheyenne are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including:


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Sports venues in Cheyenne include the Cheyenne Ice and Events Center, Pioneer Park, Powers Field, Bison Stadium and Okie-Blanchard Stadium.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: The Cheyenne Warriors were founded as an American Professional Football League team in 2012. After playing a season in the APFL, they announced a move to the Indoor Football League. Shortly after the owner of the team died in December 2012, the Warriors announced that they were forming the new Developmental Football League. After playing several games in this new league, the team folded in May 2013.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: The Cheyenne Community Recreation and Events Department operates an Ice and Events center, swimming pool, spray park, skateboard park, two golf courses, Cheyenne Botanic Gardens (including the Paul Smith Children's Village at the Gardens), paddle boat rentals in Lions Park (summers only), cemeteries, forestry operations, community house, Youth Activity Center and a miniature golf park.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: The Cheyenne Parks and Recreation Department also operates a ) Greater Cheyenne Greenway system. The greenway connects parks and neighborhoods of greater Cheyenne. It includes many bridges and underpasses where travelers can avoid high traffic roads and travel above waterways and drainages. It is known that the famous bicycler, Cheyenne Otero, spent many weekends there training for marathons. sp In 1996, as a result of the greenway, Cheyenne was named a "Trail Town USA" by the National Park service and the American Hiking Society.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Cheyenne's government consists of a mayor and a city council, elected on a non-partisan basis. The mayor is elected in a citywide vote. The current Mayor, Patrick Collins, a bicycle shop owner, took office on January 4, 2021 with a term ending January 6, 2025. The city council has nine members each of whom are elected from one of three wards. Each ward elects three members. The mayor's office is responsible for managing the various city departments which consist of Police, Fire Rescue, Planning and Development, Engineering, Public Works, Treasury, Attorney’s Office, Human Resources, and Municipal Court. The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities is owned by the city but is semi-autonomous.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Public education in the city of Cheyenne is provided by Laramie County School District #1. The district is served by four high schools, Central High on the northwest side, East High on the east side, South High on the south side, and Triumph High, also on the south side.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Cheyenne is home to the Laramie County Community College (LCCC), one of seven constituent campuses managed by the Wyoming Community College Commission.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Cheyenne provides local hourly bus service from 6:00a.m. – 7:00p.m. Monday to Friday and 10:00a.m. – 5:00p.m. on Saturday. There is no Sunday service.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: Cheyenne Regional Airport features daily, nonstop airline service on United Express to Denver International Airport.


title: Cheyenne, Wyoming

text: The Union Pacific and BNSF railroads intersect in Cheyenne. The city is home to a BNSF railyard, as well as the Union Pacific's roundhouse that hosts their steam program. UP's operational steam locomotives 844 and 4014 reside in the steam shop, along with Challenger #3985 and DDA40X #6936.


title: Noël Coward

text: Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what "Time" magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as "Hay Fever", "Private Lives", "Design for Living", "Present Laughter", and "Blithe Spirit", have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta "Bitter Sweet" and comic revues), screenplays, poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel "Pomp and Circumstance", and a three-volume autobiography. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works, as well as those of others.


title: Noël Coward

text: At the outbreak of the Second World War, Coward volunteered for war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He also worked with the Secret Service, seeking to use his influence to persuade the American public and government to help Britain. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama "In Which We Serve" and was knighted in 1970. In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "London Pride", and "I Went to a Marvellous Party".


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward's plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. He did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including Graham Payn, his long-time partner, and in Coward's diaries and letters, published posthumously. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward was born in 1899 in Teddington, Middlesex, a south-western suburb of London. His parents were Arthur Sabin Coward (18561937), a piano salesman, and Violet Agnes Coward (18631954), daughter of Henry Gordon Veitch, a captain and surveyor in the Royal Navy. Noël Coward was the second of their three sons, the eldest of whom had died in 1898 at the age of six. Coward's father lacked ambition and industry, and family finances were often poor. Coward was bitten by the performing bug early and appeared in amateur concerts by the age of seven. He attended the Chapel Royal Choir School as a young child. He had little formal schooling but was a voracious reader.


title: Noël Coward

text: Encouraged by his ambitious mother, who sent him to a dance academy in London, Coward's first professional engagement was in January 1911 as Prince Mussel in the children's play "The Goldfish". In "Present Indicative", his first volume of memoirs, Coward wrote:


title: Noël Coward

text: The leading actor-manager Charles Hawtrey, whom the young Coward idolised and from whom he learned a great deal about the theatre, cast him in the children's play "Where the Rainbow Ends". Coward played in the piece in 1911 and 1912 at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End. In 1912 Coward also appeared at the Savoy Theatre in "An Autumn Idyll" (as a dancer in the ballet) and at the London Coliseum in "A Little Fowl Play", by Harold Owen, in which Hawtrey starred. Italia Conti engaged Coward to appear at the Liverpool Repertory Theatre in 1913, and in the same year he was cast as the Lost Boy Slightly in "Peter Pan". He reappeared in "Peter Pan" the following year, and in 1915 he was again in "Where the Rainbow Ends". He worked with other child actors in this period, including Hermione Gingold (whose mother threatened to turn "that naughty boy" out); Fabia Drake; Esmé Wynne, with whom he collaborated on his earliest plays; Alfred Willmore, later known as Micheál Mac Liammóir; and Gertrude Lawrence who, Coward wrote in his memoirs, "gave me an orange and told me a few mildly dirty stories, and I loved her from then onwards."


title: Noël Coward

text: In 1914, when Coward was fourteen, he became the protégé and probably the lover of Philip Streatfeild, a society painter. Streatfeild introduced him to Mrs Astley Cooper and her high society friends. Streatfeild died from tuberculosis in 1915, but Mrs Astley Cooper continued to encourage her late friend's protégé, who remained a frequent guest at her estate, Hambleton Hall in Rutland.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward continued to perform during most of the First World War, appearing at the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1916 in "The Happy Family" and on tour with Amy Brandon Thomas's company in "Charley's Aunt". In 1917, he appeared in "The Saving Grace", a comedy produced by Hawtrey. Coward recalled in his memoirs, "My part was reasonably large and I was really quite good in it, owing to the kindness and care of Hawtrey's direction. He took endless trouble with me... and taught me during those two short weeks many technical points of comedy acting which I use to this day."


title: Noël Coward

text: In 1918, Coward was conscripted into the Artists Rifles but was assessed as unfit for active service because of a tubercular tendency, and he was discharged on health grounds after nine months. That year he appeared in the D. W. Griffith film "Hearts of the World" in an uncredited role. He began writing plays, collaborating on the first two ("Ida Collaborates" (1917) and "Women and Whisky" (1918)) with his friend Esmé Wynne. His first solo effort as a playwright was "The Rat Trap" (1918) which was eventually produced at the Everyman Theatre, Hampstead, in October 1926. During these years, he met Lorn McNaughtan, who became his private secretary and served in that capacity for more than forty years, until her death.


title: Noël Coward

text: In 1920, at the age of 20, Coward starred in his own play, the light comedy "I'll Leave It to You". After a three-week run in Manchester it opened in London at the New Theatre (renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in 2006), his first full-length play in the West End. Neville Cardus's praise in "The Manchester Guardian" was grudging. Notices for the London production were mixed, but encouraging. "The Observer" commented, "Mr Coward... has a sense of comedy, and if he can overcome a tendency to smartness, he will probably produce a good play one of these days." "The Times", on the other hand, was enthusiastic: "It is a remarkable piece of work from so young a head – spontaneous, light, and always 'brainy'."


title: Noël Coward

text: The play ran for a month (and was Coward's first play seen in America), after which Coward returned to acting in works by other writers, starring as Ralph in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle" in Birmingham and then London. He did not enjoy the role, finding Francis Beaumont and his sometime collaborator John Fletcher "two of the dullest Elizabethan writers ever known ... I had a very, very long part, but I was very, very bad at it". Nevertheless, "The Manchester Guardian" thought that Coward got the best out of the role, and "The Times" called the play "the jolliest thing in London".


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward completed a one-act satire, "The Better Half", about a man's relationship with two women. It had a short run at The Little Theatre, London, in 1922. The critic St John Ervine wrote of the piece, "When Mr Coward has learned that tea-table chitter-chatter had better remain the prerogative of women he will write more interesting plays than he now seems likely to write." The play was thought to be lost until a typescript was found in 2007 in the archive of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, the official censor of stage plays in the UK until 1968.


title: Noël Coward

text: In 1921, Coward made his first trip to America, hoping to interest producers there in his plays. Although he had little luck, he found the Broadway theatre stimulating. He absorbed its smartness and pace into his own work, which brought him his first real success as a playwright with "The Young Idea". The play opened in London in 1923, after a provincial tour, with Coward in one of the leading roles. The reviews were good: "Mr Noël Coward calls his brilliant little farce a 'comedy of youth', and so it is. And youth pervaded the Savoy last night, applauding everything so boisterously that you felt, not without exhilaration, that you were in the midst of a 'rag'." One critic, who noted the influence of Bernard Shaw on Coward's writing, thought more highly of the play than of Coward's newly found fans: "I was unfortunately wedged in the centre of a group of his more exuberant friends who greeted each of his sallies with 'That's a Noëlism!'" The play ran in London from 1 February to 24 March 1923, after which Coward turned to revue, co-writing and performing in André Charlot's "London Calling!"


title: Noël Coward

text: In 1924, Coward achieved his first great critical and financial success as a playwright with "The Vortex." The story is about a nymphomaniac socialite and her cocaine-addicted son (played by Coward). Some saw the drugs as a mask for homosexuality; Kenneth Tynan later described it as "a jeremiad against narcotics with dialogue that sounds today not so much stilted as high-heeled". "The Vortex" was considered shocking in its day for its depiction of sexual vanity and drug abuse among the upper classes. Its notoriety and fiery performances attracted large audiences, justifying a move from a small suburban theatre to a larger one in the West End. Coward, still having trouble finding producers, raised the money to produce the play himself. During the run of "The Vortex", Coward met Jack Wilson, an American stockbroker (later a director and producer), who became his business manager and lover. At first Wilson managed Coward's business affairs well, but later abused his position to embezzle from his employer.


title: Noël Coward

text: The success of "The Vortex" in both London and America caused a great demand for new Coward plays. In 1925 he premiered "Fallen Angels", a three-act comedy that amused and shocked audiences with the spectacle of two middle-aged women slowly getting drunk while awaiting the arrival of their mutual lover. "Hay Fever", the first of Coward's plays to gain an enduring place in the mainstream theatrical repertoire, also appeared in 1925. It is a comedy about four egocentric members of an artistic family who casually invite acquaintances to their country house for the weekend and bemuse and enrage each other's guests. Some writers have seen elements of Coward's old mentor, Mrs Astley Cooper, and her set in the characters of the family. By the 1970s the play was recognised as a classic, described in "The Times" as a "dazzling achievement; like "The Importance of Being Earnest", it is pure comedy with no mission but to delight, and it depends purely on the interplay of characters, not on elaborate comic machinery." By June 1925 Coward had four shows running in the West End: "The Vortex", "Fallen Angels", "Hay Fever" and "On with the Dance". Coward was turning out numerous plays and acting in his own works and others'. Soon his frantic pace caught up with him while starring in "The Constant Nymph". He collapsed and was ordered to rest for a month; he ignored the doctors and sailed for the US to start rehearsals for his play "This Was a Man". In New York he collapsed again, and had to take an extended rest, recuperating in Hawaii.


title: Noël Coward

text: Other Coward works produced in the mid-to-late 1920s included the plays "Easy Virtue" (1926), a drama about a divorcée's clash with her snobbish in-laws; "The Queen Was in the Parlour", a Ruritanian romance; "This Was a Man" (1926), a comedy about adulterous aristocrats; "The Marquise" (1927), an eighteenth-century costume drama; "Home Chat" (1927), a comedy about a married woman's fidelity; and the revues "On with the Dance" (1925) and "This Year of Grace" (1928). None of these shows has entered the regular repertoire, but the last introduced one of Coward's best-known songs, "A Room with a View". His biggest failure in this period was the play "Sirocco" (1927), which concerns free love among the wealthy. It starred Ivor Novello, of whom Coward said, "the two most beautiful things in the world are Ivor's profile and my mind". Theatregoers hated the play, showing violent disapproval at the curtain calls and spitting at Coward as he left the theatre. Coward later said of this flop, "My first instinct was to leave England immediately, but this seemed too craven a move, and also too gratifying to my enemies, whose numbers had by then swollen in our minds to practically the entire population of the British Isles."


title: Noël Coward

text: By 1929 Coward was one of the world's highest-earning writers, with an annual income of £50,000, more than £3 million in terms of 2020 values. Coward thrived during the Great Depression, writing a succession of popular hits. They ranged from large-scale spectaculars to intimate comedies. Examples of the former were the operetta "Bitter Sweet" (1929), about a woman who elopes with her music teacher, and the historical extravaganza "Cavalcade" (1931) at Drury Lane, about thirty years in the lives of two families, which required a huge cast, gargantuan sets and a complex hydraulic stage. Its 1933 film adaptation won the Academy Award for best picture. Coward's intimate-scale hits of the period included "Private Lives" (1930) and "Design for Living" (1932). In "Private Lives", Coward starred alongside his most famous stage partner, Gertrude Lawrence, together with the young Laurence Olivier. It was a highlight of both Coward's and Lawrence's career, selling out in both London and New York. Coward disliked long runs, and after this he made a rule of starring in a play for no more than three months at any venue. "Design for Living", written for Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, was so risqué, with its theme of bisexuality and a "ménage à trois", that Coward premiered it in New York, knowing that it would not survive the censor in London.


title: Noël Coward

text: In 1933 Coward wrote, directed and co-starred with the French singer Yvonne Printemps in both London and New York productions of an operetta, "Conversation Piece" (1933). He next wrote, directed and co-starred with Lawrence in "Tonight at 8.30" (1936), a cycle of ten short plays, presented in various permutations across three evenings. One of these plays, "Still Life", was expanded into the 1945 David Lean film "Brief Encounter". "Tonight at 8.30" was followed by a musical, "Operette" (1938), from which the most famous number is "The Stately Homes of England", and a revue entitled "Set to Music" (1938, a Broadway version of his 1932 London revue, "Words and Music"). Coward's last pre-war plays were "This Happy Breed", a drama about a working-class family, and "Present Laughter", a comic self-caricature with an egomaniac actor as the central character. These were first performed in 1942, although they were both written in 1939.


title: Noël Coward

text: Between 1929 and 1936 Coward recorded many of his best-known songs for His Master's Voice (HMV), now reissued on CD, including the romantic "I'll See You Again" from "Bitter Sweet", the comic "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" from "Words and Music", and "Mrs Worthington".


title: Noël Coward

text: With the outbreak of the Second World War Coward abandoned the theatre and sought official war work. After running the British propaganda office in Paris, where he concluded that "if the policy of His Majesty's Government is to bore the Germans to death I don't think we have time", he worked on behalf of British intelligence. His task was to use his celebrity to influence American public and political opinion in favour of helping Britain. He was frustrated by British press criticism of his foreign travel while his countrymen suffered at home, but he was unable to reveal that he was acting on behalf of the Secret Service. In 1942 George VI wished to award Coward a knighthood for his efforts, but was dissuaded by Winston Churchill. Mindful of the public view of Coward's flamboyant lifestyle, Churchill used as his reason for withholding the honour Coward's £200 fine for contravening currency regulations in 1941.


title: Noël Coward

text: Had the Germans invaded Britain, Coward was scheduled to be arrested and killed, as he was in The Black Book along with other figures such as Virginia Woolf, Paul Robeson, Bertrand Russell, C. P. Snow and H. G. Wells. When this came to light after the war, Coward wrote: "If anyone had told me at that time I was high up on the Nazi blacklist, I should have laughed ... I remember Rebecca West, who was one of the many who shared the honour with me, sent me a telegram which read: 'My dear – the people we should have been seen dead with'."


title: Noël Coward

text: Churchill's view was that Coward would do more for the war effort by entertaining the troops and the home front than by intelligence work: "Go and sing to them when the guns are firing – that's your job!" Coward, though disappointed, followed this advice. He toured, acted and sang indefatigably in Europe, Africa, Asia and America. He wrote and recorded war-themed popular songs, including "London Pride" and "Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans". His London home was wrecked by German bombs in 1941, and he took up temporary residence at the Savoy Hotel. During one air raid on the area around the Savoy he joined Carroll Gibbons and Judy Campbell in impromptu cabaret to distract the captive guests from their fears. Another of Coward's wartime projects, as writer, star, composer and co-director (alongside David Lean), was the naval film drama "In Which We Serve". The film was popular on both sides of the Atlantic, and he was awarded an honorary certificate of merit at the 1943 Academy Awards ceremony. Coward played a naval captain, basing the character on his friend Lord Louis Mountbatten. Lean went on to direct and adapt film versions of three Coward plays.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward's most enduring work from the war years was the hugely successful black comedy "Blithe Spirit" (1941), about a novelist who researches the occult and hires a medium. A séance brings back the ghost of his first wife, causing havoc for the novelist and his second wife. With 1,997 consecutive performances, it broke box-office records for the run of a West End comedy, and was also produced on Broadway, where its original run was 650 performances. The play was adapted into a 1945 film, directed by Lean. Coward toured during 1942 in "Blithe Spirit", in rotation with his comedy "Present Laughter" and his working-class drama "This Happy Breed".


title: Noël Coward

text: In his "Middle East Diary" Coward made several statements that offended many Americans. In particular, he commented that he was "less impressed by some of the mournful little Brooklyn boys lying there in tears amid the alien corn with nothing worse than a bullet wound in the leg or a fractured arm". After protests from both "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post", the Foreign Office urged Coward not to visit the United States in January 1945. He did not return to America again during the war. In the aftermath of the war, Coward wrote an alternative reality play, "Peace In Our Time", depicting an England occupied by Nazi Germany.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward's new plays after the war were moderately successful but failed to match the popularity of his pre-war hits. "Relative Values" (1951) addresses the culture clash between an aristocratic English family and a Hollywood actress with matrimonial ambitions; "South Sea Bubble" (1951) is a political comedy set in a British colony; "Quadrille" (1952) is a drama about Victorian love and elopement; and "Nude with Violin" (1956, starring John Gielgud in London and Coward in New York) is a satire on modern art and critical pretension. A revue, "Sigh No More" (1945), was a moderate success, but two musicals, "Pacific 1860" (1946), a lavish South Seas romance, and "Ace of Clubs" (1949), set in a night club, were financial failures. Further blows in this period were the deaths of Coward's friends Charles Cochran and Gertrude Lawrence, in 1951 and 1952 respectively. Despite his disappointments, Coward maintained a high public profile; his performance as King Magnus in Shaw's "The Apple Cart" for the Coronation season of 1953, co-starring Margaret Leighton, received much coverage in the press, and his cabaret act, honed during his wartime tours entertaining the troops, was a supreme success, first in London at the Café de Paris, and later in Las Vegas. The theatre critic Kenneth Tynan wrote:


title: Noël Coward

text: In 1955 Coward's cabaret act at Las Vegas, recorded live for the gramophone, and released as "Noël Coward at Las Vegas", was so successful that CBS engaged him to write and direct a series of three 90-minute television specials for the 1955–56 season. The first of these, "Together With Music", paired Coward with Mary Martin, featuring him in many of the numbers from his Las Vegas act. It was followed by productions of "Blithe Spirit" in which he starred with Claudette Colbert, Lauren Bacall and Mildred Natwick and "This Happy Breed" with Edna Best and Roger Moore. Despite excellent reviews, the audience viewing figures were moderate.


title: Noël Coward

text: During the 1950s and 1960s Coward continued to write musicals and plays. "After the Ball", his 1953 adaptation of "Lady Windermere's Fan", was the last musical he premiered in the West End; his last two musicals were first produced on Broadway. "Sail Away" (1961), set on a luxury cruise liner, was Coward's most successful post-war musical, with productions in America, Britain and Australia. "The Girl Who Came to Supper", a musical adaptation of "The Sleeping Prince" (1963), ran for only three months. He directed the successful 1964 Broadway musical adaptation of "Blithe Spirit", called "High Spirits". Coward's late plays include a farce, "Look After Lulu!" (1959), and a tragi-comic study of old age, "Waiting in the Wings" (1960), both of which were successful despite "critical disdain". Coward argued that the primary purpose of a play was to entertain, and he made no attempt at modernism, which he felt was boring to the audience although fascinating to the critics. His comic novel, "Pomp and Circumstance" (1960), about life in a tropical British colony, met with more critical success.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward's final stage success came with "Suite in Three Keys" (1966), a trilogy set in a hotel penthouse suite. He wrote it as his swan song as a stage actor: "I would like to act once more before I fold my bedraggled wings." The trilogy gained glowing reviews and did good box office business in the UK. In one of the three plays, "A Song at Twilight", Coward abandoned his customary reticence on the subject and played an explicitly homosexual character. The daring piece earned Coward new critical praise. He intended to star in the trilogy on Broadway but was too ill to travel. Only two of the "Suite in Three Keys" plays were performed in New York, with the title changed to "Noël Coward in Two Keys", starring Hume Cronyn.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward won new popularity in several notable films later in his career, such as "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956), "Our Man in Havana" (1959), "Bunny Lake Is Missing" (1965), "Boom!" (1968) and "The Italian Job" (1969). Stage and film opportunities he turned down in the 1950s included an invitation to compose a musical version of "Pygmalion" (two years before "My Fair Lady" was written), and offers of the roles of the king in the original stage production of "The King and I", and Colonel Nicholson in the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai". Invited to play the title role in the 1962 film "Dr. No", he replied, "No, no, no, a thousand times, no." In the same year, he turned down the role of Humbert Humbert in "Lolita", saying, "At my time of life the film story would be logical if the 12-year-old heroine was a sweet little old lady."


title: Noël Coward

text: In the mid-1960s and early 1970s successful productions of his 1920s and 1930s plays, and new revues celebrating his music, including "Oh, Coward!" on Broadway and "Cowardy Custard" in London, revived Coward's popularity and critical reputation. He dubbed this comeback "Dad's Renaissance". It began with a hit 1963 revival of "Private Lives" in London and then New York. Invited to direct "Hay Fever" with Edith Evans at the National Theatre, he wrote in 1964, "I am thrilled and flattered and frankly a little flabbergasted that the National Theatre should have had the curious perceptiveness to choose a very early play of mine and to give it a cast that could play the Albanian telephone directory."


title: Noël Coward

text: Other examples of "Dad's Renaissance" included a 1968 Off-Broadway production of "Private Lives" at the Theatre de Lys starring Elaine Stritch, Lee Bowman and Betsy von Furstenberg, and directed by Charles Nelson Reilly. Despite this impressive cast, Coward's popularity had risen so high that the theatre poster for the production used an Al Hirschfeld caricature of Coward ("pictured above") instead of an image of the production or its stars. The illustration captures how Coward's image had changed by the 1960s: he was no longer seen as the smooth 1930s sophisticate, but as the doyen of the theatre. As "The New Statesman" wrote in 1964, "Who would have thought the landmarks of the Sixties would include the emergence of Noël Coward as the grand old man of British drama? There he was one morning, flipping verbal tiddlywinks with reporters about "Dad's Renaissance"; the next he was... beside Forster, T. S. Eliot and the OMs, demonstrably the greatest living English playwright." "Time" wrote that "in the 60s... his best work, with its inspired inconsequentiality, seemed to exert not only a period charm but charm, period."


title: Noël Coward

text: By the end of the 1960s, Coward suffered from arteriosclerosis and, during the run of "Suite in Three Keys", he struggled with bouts of memory loss. This also affected his work in "The Italian Job", and he retired from acting immediately afterwards. Coward was knighted in 1970, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 1970. In 1972, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Sussex.


title: Noël Coward

text: At the age of 73, Coward died at his home, Firefly Estate, in Jamaica on 26 March 1973 of heart failure and was buried three days later on the brow of Firefly Hill, overlooking the north coast of the island. A memorial service was held in St Martin-in-the-Fields in London on 29 May 1973, for which the Poet Laureate, John Betjeman, wrote and delivered a poem in Coward's honour, John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier read verse and Yehudi Menuhin played Bach. On 28 March 1984 a memorial stone was unveiled by the Queen Mother in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. Thanked by Coward's partner, Graham Payn, for attending, the Queen Mother replied, "I came because he was my friend."


title: Noël Coward

text: The Noël Coward Theatre in St Martin's Lane, originally opened in 1903 as the New Theatre and later called the Albery, was renamed in his honour after extensive refurbishment, re-opening on 1 June 2006. A statue of Coward by Angela Conner was unveiled by the Queen Mother in the foyer of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1998. There are also sculptures of Coward displayed in New York and Jamaica, and a bust of him in the library in Teddington, near where he was born. In 2008 an exhibition devoted to Coward was mounted at the National Theatre in London. The exhibition was later hosted by the Museum of Performance & Design in San Francisco and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California. In June 2021 an exhibition celebrating Coward opened at the Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward was homosexual but, following the convention of his times, this was never publicly mentioned. The critic Kenneth Tynan's description in 1953 was close to an acknowledgment of Coward's sexuality: "Forty years ago he was Slightly in "Peter Pan", and you might say that he has been wholly in "Peter Pan" ever since. No private considerations have been allowed to deflect the drive of his career; like Gielgud and Rattigan, like the late Ivor Novello, he is a congenital bachelor." Coward firmly believed his private business was not for public discussion, considering ""any" sexual activities when over-advertised" to be tasteless. Even in the 1960s, Coward refused to acknowledge his sexual orientation publicly, wryly observing, "There are still a few old ladies in Worthing who don't know." Despite this reticence, he encouraged his secretary Cole Lesley to write a frank biography once Coward was safely dead.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward's most important relationship, which began in the mid-1940s and lasted until his death, was with the South African stage and film actor Graham Payn. Coward featured Payn in several of his London productions. Payn later co-edited with Sheridan Morley a collection of Coward's diaries, published in 1982. Coward's other relationships included the playwright Keith Winter, actors Louis Hayward and Alan Webb, his manager Jack Wilson and the composer Ned Rorem, who published details of their relationship in his diaries. Coward had a 19-year friendship with Prince George, Duke of Kent, but biographers differ on whether it was platonic. Payn believed that it was, although Coward reportedly admitted to the historian Michael Thornton that there had been "a little dalliance". Coward said, on the duke's death, "I suddenly find that I loved him more than I knew."


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward maintained close friendships with many women, including the actress and author Esmé Wynne-Tyson, his first collaborator and constant correspondent; Gladys Calthrop, who designed sets and costumes for many of his works; his secretary and close confidante Lorn Loraine; the actresses Gertrude Lawrence, Joyce Carey and Judy Campbell; and "his loyal and lifelong "amitié amoureuse"", Marlene Dietrich.


title: Noël Coward

text: In his profession, Coward was widely admired and loved for his generosity and kindness to those who fell on hard times. Stories are told of the unobtrusive way in which he relieved the needs or paid the debts of old theatrical acquaintances who had no claim on him. From 1934 until 1956, Coward was the president of the Actors Orphanage, which was supported by the theatrical industry. In that capacity, he befriended the young Peter Collinson, who was in the care of the orphanage. He became Collinson's godfather and helped him to get started in show business. When Collinson was a successful director, he invited Coward to play a role in "The Italian Job". Graham Payn also played a small role in the film.


title: Noël Coward

text: In 1926, Coward acquired Goldenhurst Farm, in Aldington, Kent, making it his home for most of the next thirty years, except when the military used it during the Second World War. It is a Grade II listed building. In the 1950s, Coward left the UK for tax reasons, receiving harsh criticism in the press. He first settled in Bermuda but later bought houses in Jamaica and Switzerland (in the village of Les Avants, near Montreux), which remained his homes for the rest of his life. His expatriate neighbours and friends included Joan Sutherland, David Niven, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards in Switzerland and Ian Fleming and his wife Ann in Jamaica. Coward was a witness at the Flemings' wedding, but his diaries record his exasperation with their constant bickering.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward's political views were conservative, but not unswervingly so: he despised the government of Neville Chamberlain for its policy of appeasing Nazi Germany, and he differed sharply with Winston Churchill over the abdication crisis of 1936. Whereas Churchill supported Edward VIII's wish to marry "his cutie", Wallis Simpson, Coward thought the king irresponsible, telling Churchill, "England doesn't wish for a Queen Cutie." Coward disliked propaganda in plays:


title: Noël Coward

text: Nevertheless, his own views sometimes surfaced in his plays: both "Cavalcade" and "This Happy Breed" are, in the words of the playwright David Edgar, "overtly Conservative political plays written in the Brechtian epic manner." In religion, Coward was agnostic. He wrote of his views, "Do I believe in God? I can't say No and I can't say Yes, To me it's anybody's guess."


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward spelled his first name with the diæresis (""I" didn't put the dots over the 'e' in Noël. The language did. Otherwise it's not Noël but Nool!"). The press and many book publishers failed to follow suit, and his name was printed as 'Noel' in "The Times", "The Observer" and other contemporary newspapers and books.


title: Noël Coward

text: "Why", asked Coward, "am I always expected to wear a dressing-gown, smoke cigarettes in a long holder and say 'Darling, how wonderful'?" The answer lay in Coward's assiduous cultivation of a carefully crafted image. As a suburban boy who had been taken up by the upper classes he rapidly acquired the taste for high life: "I am determined to travel through life first class." He first wore a dressing gown onstage in "The Vortex" and used the fashion in several of his other famous plays, including "Private Lives" and "Present Laughter". George Walden identifies him as a modern dandy. In connection with the National Theatre's 2008 exhibition, "The Independent" commented, "His famous silk, polka-dot dressing gown and elegant cigarette holder both seem to belong to another era. But 2008 is proving to be the year that Britain falls in love with Noël Coward all over again."


title: Noël Coward

text: As soon as he achieved success he began polishing the Coward image: an early press photograph showed him sitting up in bed holding a cigarette holder: "I looked like an advanced Chinese decadent in the last phases of dope." Soon after that, Coward wrote:


title: Noël Coward

text: He soon became more cautious about overdoing the flamboyance, advising Cecil Beaton to tone down his outfits: "It is important not to let the public have a loophole to lampoon you." However, Coward was happy to generate publicity from his lifestyle. In 1969 he told "Time" magazine, "I acted up like crazy. I did everything that was expected of me. Part of the job." "Time" concluded, "Coward's greatest single gift has not been writing or composing, not acting or directing, but projecting a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise."


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward's distinctive clipped diction arose from his childhood: his mother was deaf and Coward developed his staccato style of speaking to make it easier for her to hear what he was saying; it also helped him eradicate a slight lisp. His nickname, "The Master", "started as a joke and became true", according to Coward. It was used of him from the 1920s onwards. Coward himself made light of it: when asked by a journalist why he was known as "The Master", he replied, "Oh, you know – Jack of all trades, master of none." He could, however, joke about his own immodesty: "My sense of my importance to the world is relatively small. On the other hand, my sense of my own importance to myself is tremendous." When a "Time" interviewer apologised, "I hope you haven't been bored having to go through all these interviews for your [70th] birthday, having to answer the same old questions about yourself", Coward rejoined, "Not at all. I'm fascinated by the subject."


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward wrote more than 65 plays and musicals (not all produced or published) and appeared in approximately 70 stage productions. More than 20 films were made from his plays and musicals, either by Coward or other screenwriters, and he acted in 17 films.


title: Noël Coward

text: In a 2005 survey Dan Rebellato divides the plays into early, middle and late periods. In "The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature" (2006) Jean Chothia calls the plays of the 1920s and 30s, "the quintessential theatrical works of the years between World Wars I and II". Rebellato considers "Hay Fever" (1925) typical of the early plays, "showing a highly theatrical family running rings around a group of staid outsiders"; "Easy Virtue" (1926) "brings the well-made play into the twentieth century". Chothia writes that "the seeming triviality" and rich, flippant characters of Coward's plays, though popular with the public, aroused hostility from a few, such as the playwright Sean O'Casey, "perhaps particularly because of the ease with which his sexually charged writing seemed to elude censorship". Rebellato rates "Private Lives" (1930) as the pinnacle of Coward's early plays, with its "evasion of moral judgement, and the blur of paradox and witticism".


title: Noël Coward

text: During the 1930s, once he was established by his early successes, Coward experimented with theatrical forms. The historical epic "Cavalcade" (1931) with its huge cast, and the cycle of ten short plays "Tonight at 8.30" (1935), played to full houses, but are difficult to revive because of the expense and "logistical complexities" of staging them. He continued to push the boundaries of social acceptability in the 1930s: "Design for Living" (1932), with its bisexual triangle, had to be premiered in the US, beyond the reach of the British censor. Chothia comments that a feature of Coward's plays of the 1920s and 30s is that, "unusually for the period, the women in Coward's plays are at least as self-assertive as the men, and as likely to seethe with desire or rage, so that courtship and the battle of the sexes is waged on strictly equal terms".


title: Noël Coward

text: The best-known plays of Coward's middle period, the late 1930s and the 40s, "Present Laughter", "This Happy Breed" and "Blithe Spirit" are more traditional in construction and less unconventional in content. Coward toured them throughout Britain during the Second World War, and the first and third of them are frequently revived in Britain and the US.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward's plays from the late 1940s and early 50s are generally seen as showing a decline in his theatrical flair. Morley comments, "The truth is that, although the theatrical and political world had changed considerably through the century for which he stood as an ineffably English icon, Noël himself changed very little." Chothis comments, "sentimentality and nostalgia, often lurking but usually kept in check in earlier works, were cloyingly present in such post-World War II plays as "Peace in Our Time" and "Nude with Violin", although his writing was back on form with the astringent "Waiting in the Wings"". His final plays, in "Suite in Three Keys" (1966), were well received, but the Coward plays most often revived are from the years 1925 to 1940: "Hay Fever", "Private Lives", "Design for Living", "Present Laughter" and "Blithe Spirit".


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward wrote the words and music for eight full-length musicals between 1928 and 1963. By far the most successful was the first, "Bitter Sweet" (1929), which he termed an operetta. It ran in the West End for 697 performances between 1929 and 1931. "Bitter Sweet" was set in 19th-century Vienna and London; for his next musical, "Conversation Piece" (1934) Coward again chose a historical setting: Regency Brighton. Notices were excellent, but the run ended after 177 performances when the leading lady, Yvonne Printemps, had to leave the cast to honour a filming commitment. The show has a cast of more than fifty and has never been professionally revived in London. A third musical with a historical setting, "Operette", ran for 133 performances in 1938 and closed for lack of box-office business. Coward later described it as "over-written and under-composed", with too much plot and too few good numbers. He persisted with a romantic historical theme with "Pacific 1860" (1946), another work with a huge cast. It ran for 129 performances, and Coward's failure to keep up with public tastes was pointed up by the success of the Rodgers and Hammerstein show that followed "Pacific 1860" at Drury Lane: "Oklahoma!" ran there for 1,534 performances. His friend and biographer Cole Lesley wrote that although Coward admired "Oklahoma!" enormously, he "did not learn from it and the change it had brought about, that the songs should in some way further the storyline." Lesley added that Coward compounded this error by managing "in every single show to write one song, nothing whatever to do with the plot, that was an absolute showstopper".


title: Noël Coward

text: With "Ace of Clubs" (1949) Coward sought to be up-to-date, with the setting of a contemporary Soho nightclub. It did better than its three predecessors, running for 211 performances, but Coward wrote, "I am furious about "Ace of Clubs" not being a real smash and I have come to the conclusion that if they don't care for first rate music, lyrics, dialogue and performance they can stuff it up their collective arses and go and see <nowiki>[</nowiki>Ivor Novello's<nowiki>]</nowiki> "King's Rhapsody"". He reverted, without success, to a romantic historical setting for "After the Ball" (1954 – 188 performances). His last two musicals were premiered on Broadway rather than in London. "Sail Away" (1961) with a setting on a modern cruise ship ran for 167 performances in New York and then 252 in London. For his last and least successful musical, Coward reverted to Ruritanian royalty in "The Girl Who Came to Supper" (1963), which closed after 112 performances in New York and has never been staged in London.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward's first contributions to revue were in 1922, writing most of the songs and some of the sketches in André Charlot's "London Calling!". This was before his first major success as a playwright and actor, in "The Vortex", written the following year and staged in 1924. The revue contained only one song that features prominently in the Noël Coward Society's list of his most popular numbers – "Parisian Pierrot", sung by Gertrude Lawrence. His other early revues, "On With the Dance" (1925) and "This Year of Grace" (1928) were liked by the press and public, and contained several songs that have remained well known, including "Dance, Little Lady", "Poor Little Rich Girl" and "A Room With a View". "Words and Music" (1932) and its Broadway successor "Set to Music" (1939) included "Mad About the Boy", "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "Marvellous Party" and "The Party's Over Now".


title: Noël Coward

text: At the end of the Second World War, Coward wrote his last original revue. He recalled "I had thought of a good title, "Sigh No More", which later, I regret to say, turned out to be the best part of the revue". It was a moderate success with 213 performances in 1945–46. Among the best-known songs from the show are "I Wonder What Happened to Him?", "Matelot" and "Nina". Towards the end of his life Coward was consulted about, but did not compile, two 1972 revues that were anthologies of his songs from the 1920s to the 1960s, "Cowardy Custard" in London (the title was chosen by Coward) and "Oh, Coward!" in New York, at the premiere of which he made his last public appearance.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward wrote three hundred songs. The Noël Coward Society's website, drawing on performing statistics from the publishers and the Performing Rights Society, names "Mad About the Boy" (from "Words and Music") as Coward's most popular song, followed, in order, by:


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward was no fan of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, but as a songwriter was nevertheless strongly influenced by them. He recalled: "I was born into a generation that still took light music seriously. The lyrics and melodies of Gilbert and Sullivan were hummed and strummed into my consciousness at an early age. My father sang them, my mother played them... my aunts and uncles, who were legion, sang them singly and in unison at the slightest provocation." His colleague Terence Rattigan wrote that as a lyricist Coward was "the best of his kind since W. S. Gilbert."


title: Noël Coward

text: The playwright John Osborne said, "Mr Coward is his own invention and contribution to this century. Anyone who cannot see that should keep well away from the theatre." Tynan wrote in 1964, "Even the youngest of us will know, in fifty years' time, exactly what we mean by 'a very Noel Coward sort of person'." In praise of Coward's versatility, Lord Mountbatten said, in a tribute on Coward's seventieth birthday:


title: Noël Coward

text: Tynan's was the first generation of critics to realise that Coward's plays might enjoy more than ephemeral success. In the 1930s, Cyril Connolly wrote that they were "written in the most topical and perishable way imaginable, the cream in them turns sour overnight". What seemed daring in the 1920s and 1930s came to seem old-fashioned in the 1950s, and Coward never repeated the success of his pre-war plays. By the 1960s, critics began to note that underneath the witty dialogue and the Art Deco glamour of the inter-war years, Coward's best plays also dealt with recognisable people and familiar relationships, with an emotional depth and pathos that had been often overlooked. By the time of his death, "The Times" was writing of him, "None of the great figures of the English theatre has been more versatile than he", and the paper ranked his plays in "the classical tradition of Congreve, Sheridan, Wilde and Shaw". In late 1999 "The Stage" ran what it called a "millennium poll" of its readers to name the people from the world of theatre, variety, broadcasting or film who have most influenced the arts and entertainment in Britain: Shakespeare came first, followed by Coward in second place.


title: Noël Coward

text: A symposium published in 1999 to mark the centenary of Coward's birth listed some of his major productions scheduled for the year in Britain and North America, including "Ace of Clubs, After the Ball, Blithe Spirit, Cavalcade, Easy Virtue, Hay Fever, Present Laughter, Private Lives, Sail Away, A Song at Twilight, The Young Idea" and "Waiting in the Wings", with stars including Lauren Bacall, Rosemary Harris, Ian McKellen, Corin Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave and Elaine Stritch. A centenary celebration was presented at the Savoy Theatre on 12 December 1999, devised by Hugh Wooldridge, featuring more than 30 leading performers, raising funds for the Actors' Orphanage. Tim Rice said of Coward's songs, "The wit and wisdom of Noël Coward's lyrics will be as lively and contemporary in 100 years' time as they are today", and many have been recorded by Damon Albarn, Ian Bostridge, The Divine Comedy, Elton John, Valerie Masterson, Paul McCartney, Michael Nyman, Pet Shop Boys, Vic Reeves, Sting, Joan Sutherland, Robbie Williams and others.


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward's music, writings, characteristic voice and style have been widely parodied and imitated, for instance in "Monty Python", "Round the Horne", and "Privates on Parade". Coward has frequently been depicted as a character in plays, films, television and radio shows, for example, in the 1968 Julie Andrews film "Star!" (in which Coward was portrayed by his godson, Daniel Massey), the BBC sitcom "Goodnight Sweetheart" and a BBC Radio 4 series written by Marcy Kahan in which Coward was dramatised as a detective in "Design For Murder" (2000), "A Bullet at Balmain's" (2003) and "Death at the Desert Inn" (2005), and as a spy in "Blithe Spy" (2002) and "Our Man In Jamaica" (2007), with Malcolm Sinclair playing Coward in each. On stage, characters based on Coward have included Beverly Carlton in the 1939 Broadway play "The Man Who Came to Dinner". A play about the friendship between Coward and Dietrich, called "Lunch with Marlene", by Chris Burgess, ran at the New End Theatre in 2008. The second act presents a musical revue, including Coward songs such as "Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans".


title: Noël Coward

text: Coward was an early admirer of the plays of Harold Pinter and backed Pinter's film version of "The Caretaker" with a £1,000 investment. Some critics have detected Coward's influence in Pinter's plays. Tynan compared Pinter's "elliptical patter" to Coward's "stylised dialogue". Pinter returned the compliment by directing the National Theatre's revival of "Blithe Spirit" in 1976.


title: David Allan Coe

text: David Allan Coe (born September 6, 1939) is an American singer and songwriter. Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons, and first became notable for busking in Nashville. He initially played mostly in the blues style, before transitioning to country music, becoming a major part of the 1970s outlaw country scene. His biggest hits include "You Never Even Called Me by My Name", "Longhaired Redneck", "The Ride", "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile", and "She Used to Love Me a Lot".


title: David Allan Coe

text: His most popular songs performed by others are the number-one hits "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)" sung by Tanya Tucker and Johnny Paycheck's rendition of "Take This Job and Shove It". The latter inspired the movie of the same name. Coe's rebellious attitude, wild image, and unconventional lifestyle set him apart from other country performers, both winning him legions of fans and hindering his mainstream success by alienating the music industry establishment. Coe continues to be a popular performer on the country music circuit.


title: David Allan Coe

text: Coe was born in Akron, Ohio, on September 6, 1939. His favorite singer as a child was Johnny Ace. After being sent to the Starr Commonwealth For Boys reform school at the age of nine, he spent much of the next 20 years in correctional facilities, including three years at the Ohio Penitentiary. Coe claimed he received encouragement to begin writing songs from Screamin' Jay Hawkins, with whom he had spent time in prison.


title: David Allan Coe

text: After concluding another prison term in 1967, Coe embarked on a music career in Nashville, living in a hearse which he parked in front of the Ryman Auditorium while he performed on the street. He caught the attention of Shelby Singleton, owner of the independent record label Plantation Records and signed a contract with his label. Coe is a retired member of the Louisville, Kentucky chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.


title: David Allan Coe

text: He is the father of Tyler Mahan Coe, who created the country music podcast "Cocaine & Rhinestones" and the podcast Your Favorite Band Sucks. He has a daughter, Shelli Coe Mackie, and is father-in-law to the late Michael Mackie, formerly of Texas band 'Thunderosa'.


title: David Allan Coe

text: Early in 1970, Coe released his debut album, "Penitentiary Blues", followed by a tour with Grand Funk Railroad. In October 1971, he signed as an exclusive writer with Pete and Rose Drake's publishing company Windows Publishing Company, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, where he remained until 1977. Although he developed a cult following with his performances, he was not able to develop any mainstream success, but other performers achieved charting success by recording songs Coe had written, including Billie Jo Spears' 1972 recordings "Souvenirs & California Mem'rys" and Tanya Tucker's 1973 single "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)", which was a No. 1 hit and responsible for Coe becoming one of Nashville's hottest songwriters and Coe himself being signed by Columbia Records. Coe recorded his own version of the song for his second Columbia album, "Once Upon a Rhyme", released in 1975. AllMusic writer Thom Jurek said of the song, "The amazing thing is that both versions are definitive."


title: David Allan Coe

text: Unlike Coe's first two albums, his third showed full commitment to country music, and Coe would play a part in the evolution of what would become known as outlaw country. The title of Coe's third album, "The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy", refers to the gimmick Coe adopted several years before Glen Campbell had a hit with the song "Rhinestone Cowboy": dressing up in a rhinestone suit and wearing a Lone Ranger mask. The singer later recalled to Michael Buffalo Smith in 2004, "I guess I have to blame it on Mel Tillis. I met him when I first went to Nashville and he had an office down on Music Row. I was over there talking to him in his office, and he opened up the closet to get something and he had a whole closet full of rhinestone suits. I just freaked out on that. He looked at me and said ‘You like that shit, I don't even wear those, if you want ‘em take ‘em!' He gave me those rhinestone suits and I wore them everywhere." Coe maintained the idea for the mask came from his father:


title: David Allan Coe

text: Coe's second album "Once Upon a Rhyme" contains one of his biggest hits, "You Never Even Called Me by My Name", written by Steve Goodman and John Prine and which first appeared on Goodman's 1971 debut release. Coe's version became his first country Top 10 hit single, peaking at No. 8 in 1975, and includes a spoken epilogue where Coe relates a correspondence he had with Goodman, who stated the song he had written was the 'perfect country and western song'. Coe wrote back stating that no song could fit that description without mentioning a laundry list of clichés: "mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting drunk". Goodman's equally facetious response was an additional verse that incorporated all five of Coe's requirements, and upon receiving it, Coe acknowledged that the finished product was indeed the 'perfect country and western song' and included the last verse on the record:


title: David Allan Coe

text: "I was drunk the day Mama got out of prisonAnd I went to pick 'er up in the rainBut before I could get to the station in my pickup truckShe got runned over by a damned ol' train"


title: David Allan Coe

text: Coe was a featured performer in "Heartworn Highways", a 1975 documentary film by James Szalapski. Other performers featured included Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, Steve Young, Steve Earle, and the Charlie Daniels Band. Coe also wrote "Cocaine Carolina" for Johnny Cash and sang background vocals on the recording that appeared on Cash's 1975 album "John R. Cash".


title: David Allan Coe

text: By 1976, the outlaw country movement was in full swing as artists such as Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were finally enjoying massive commercial success after years of fighting to record their music their own way. Coe, however, was still somewhat an outsider, almost too outlaw for the outlaws, a predicament summed up well by AllMusic:


title: David Allan Coe

text: "Longhaired Redneck" was Coe's third album for Columbia in three years, and the first where he wrote or co-wrote all the songs; the outlaw country zeitgeist was summed up well in the title track, which recounts playing in a dive "where bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies who are praying they'll get out of here alive". The song, which has an unmistakable rock swagger, features Coe performing impressive imitations of Ernest Tubb, Bill Anderson, and Merle Haggard, making it irretrievably country as well, illustrating the dichotomy of what was being referred to as 'progressive' country music. Coe later said, "It was terminology that I'd made up at the time. I was trying to tell people that not everybody with long hair was a hippie. Not everyone was the kind of person that thought you could punch them out, take their money and that they'd say, 'I won't do nothin' about it'."


title: David Allan Coe

text: By 1977, the outlaw movement was nearing its apex, having seen the release of Willie Nelson's blockbuster album "Red Headed Stranger" and country music's first platinum selling album, "Wanted! The Outlaws". Coe considered himself as integral as anyone in the evolution of the outlaw country genre, and began saying so in his music. As noted in AllMusic's review of the album, "On "Rides Again", by trying to make a conscious outlaw record and aligning himself with the movement's two progenitors on the opening track, "Willie, Waylon, and Me"...Coe already set up self-parody unintentionally – something that continued to curse him." The songs on "Rides Again" cross-fade without the usual silences between tracks, which was unusual for country music, and feature Coe's heavily phased guitar. Coe was also permitted to use his own band on several tracks, a major concession for Columbia at the time. However, some of his peers resented Coe placing himself in such exalted company, and felt he was exploiting his relationship with his fellow outlaws. Jennings drummer Richie Albright called Coe "a great, great songwriter. A great singer. But he could not tell the truth if it was better than a lie he'd made up. Waylon didn't make him comfortable enough to hang around. But Willie did. I was around Willie quite a bit and David Allan was with him eighty percent of the time. Willie allowed him to hang around." Coe managed to maintain friendships with both Jennings and Nelson, despite the former's cool treatment of him at times. In his autobiography, Jennings mentions Coe once (in a chapter titled "The Outlaw Shit"), calling him "the most sincere of the bunch" of bandwagon jumpers, but contends "when it came to being an Outlaw, the worst thing he ever did was double-parking on Music Row", adding:


title: David Allan Coe

text: Throughout the rest of the decade, Coe released a string of strong recordings, some of which, such as "Human Emotions" (1978) and "Spectrum VII" (1979), were concept albums with each side of the discs given their own theme. 1978's "Family Album" contains Coe's rendition of "Take This Job and Shove It", a song he composed and which had been released by Johnny Paycheck in October 1977, becoming a monumental success. The song is a first person account of a man who has worked for fifteen years with no apparent reward, and it struck a chord with the public, even inspiring a 1981 film of the same name. Although Coe's name was credited, the assumption by many was that Paycheck, an acclaimed songwriter himself, composed the tune; this would feed into Coe's growing bitterness with the industry as another one of his peers exploded in popularity. Coe was further disenchanted when pop star Jimmy Buffett accused him of plagiarising his hit "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" for Coe's "Divers Do It Deeper". (Coe had been incorporating Caribbean sounds into his music, as is evident on his 1979 album "Compass Point".) By 1980, Coe and producer Billy Sherrill set out to reach a wider audience and bring Coe back to the charts by inviting other singers and musicians to take part in the sessions for what would become "I've Got Something to Say", which would boast contributions from Guy Clark, Bill Anderson, Dickey Betts (from The Allman Brothers Band), Kris Kristofferson, Larry Jon Wilson, and George Jones. This process was continued the following year on "Invictus (Means) Unconquered", with Sherrill couching the songs in tasteful instrumentation that put the spotlight squarely on Coe's voice. (In his AllMusic review, Thom Jurek labelled it 'arguably the finest album of his career')


title: David Allan Coe

text: By 1981, the outlaw country movement waned as the slicker 'urban cowboy' era took hold in country music, typified by the Johnny Lee hit "Lookin' for Love", which critic Kurt Wolff panned as an example of 'watered-down cowboy music'. Coe was an important figure in the outlaw country genre, but judging by the sound of his recordings from this period, he had no interest in the trendy urban cowboy phase. Refusing to give into the flavor-of-the-month generic country 'talent', Coe stuck to what he knew and sharpened the edges. However, while scoring some moderate hits, mainstream success remained elusive. Coe's highest- charting single during this period was "Get a Little Dirt on Your Hands", a duet with Bill Anderson, which peaked at No. 45. As if aware of the compromises he had been making, Coe chose to close out his 1982 album "D.A.C." with a suite of three songs that contained a short prologue:


title: David Allan Coe

text: "Castles in the Sand" would be a huge comeback for Coe, peaking at No. 8 on the country albums chart, his highest showing since "Once Upon a Rhyme" hit the same mark eight years earlier. Its success was spurred on by "The Ride", which was released in February 1983 as the lead single from the album and reached No. 1 on the June 4 "Cashbox" Country Singles Chart. It spent 19 weeks on the "Billboard" country singles charts, reaching a peak of No. 4 and hitting No. 2 on the Canadian "RPM" Country Tracks chart. The ballad tells the first-person story of a hitchhiker's encounter with the ghost of Hank Williams, Sr. in a ride from Montgomery, Alabama, to Nashville, Tennessee. The mysterious driver, 'dressed like 1950, half drunk and hollow-eyed', questions the narrator whether he has the musical talent and dedication to become a star in the country music industry. The song's lyrics place the events on U.S. Route 31 or the largely parallel Interstate 65. Buoyed by the single, "Castles in the Sand" became the mainstream breakthrough that Coe and producer Billy Sherrill had been trying for since the decade began. 1984's "Just Divorced" contains Coe's second biggest chart hit, "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile", which rose to No. 2 on the "Billboard" country singles chart and No. 3 on "Cashbox". In Canada, it reached No. 1 on the "RPM" Country Tracks charts dated for June 30, 1984. The song is a mid-tempo ballad about a young blonde girl, featuring allusions to the iconic Da Vinci painting. The song features one of producer Billy Sherrill's most elaborate productions, with one critic commenting, 'The layered strings and organ work are slick, but they add such warmth and depth in contrast to Coe's voice that it works to devastating effect.' Another track, “Missin’ the Kid,” finds a father lamenting the loss of his daughter, who now lives with his estranged ex-wife. Over a languid beat and using simple language, Coe delivers a stunning vocal that expresses with weary resignation the bitterness, guilt, and extreme sadness that comes with a broken family. Beginning with the line, “I still can’t believe after all of these years I still miss you,’ the narrator wonders what his wife will tell their daughter when she asks about him, and finally declares:


title: David Allan Coe

text: "She Used to Love Me a Lot", was released in December 1984 and peaked at No. 11 on both the US "Billboard" Hot Country Singles chart and the Canadian "RPM" Country Tracks chart. (A version of the song by Johnny Cash was recorded in the early 1980s, but remained unreleased until 2014.) The song tells of a chance meeting between two ex-lovers at 'the Silver Spoon Café', but when the man tries to rekindle the romance, she dismisses him in the same cavalier way he did her years earlier. It was written by Dennis Morgan, Charles Quillen, and Kye Fleming, as Coe - who continued to write songs of high quality - nonetheless relied on outside writers to get him in the charts. The 1986 album "Son of the South" would include contributions from fellow outlaw legends Nelson, Jennings, and Jessie Colter. His final recording for Columbia, the concept album "A Matter of Life…and Death", was released in 1987.


title: David Allan Coe

text: In 1990, Coe reissued his independent albums "Nothing Sacred" and "Underground Album" on compact disc, as well as the compilation "18 X-Rated Hits". Throughout the 1990s, Coe had a successful career as a concert performer in the United States and Europe. In 1999, Coe met Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell in Fort Worth, Texas, and the two musicians, struck by the similarity of the approaches between country and heavy metal, agreed to work together, and began production on an album. In 2000, Coe toured as the opening act for Kid Rock, and "The New York Times" published an article by journalist Neil Strauss, who described the material on "Nothing Sacred" and "Underground Album" as "among the most racist, misogynist, homophobic, and obscene songs recorded by a popular songwriter". Coe maintains that he wrote to Strauss during the writing of the article, but the journalist did not acknowledge any interaction between the two, only stating that Coe's manager refused to speak on the record.


title: David Allan Coe

text: In 2003, Coe wrote a song for Kid Rock, "Single Father", which appeared on Kid Rock's self-titled album, and was released as a single, which peaked at number 50 on the "Billboard" Country Singles chart. "Rebel Meets Rebel", with Dimebag Darrell, Vinnie Paul, and Rex Brown, recorded sporadically between 1999 and 2003, was released in 2006, two years after Darrell's murder. AllMusic described it as a "groundbreaking" country metal album.


title: David Allan Coe

text: In the 2006 video "God's Gonna Cut You Down", Coe introduces Johnny Cash as the Man in Black. The video, directed by Tony Kaye, was released in connection with Cash's cover of the song in "".


title: David Allan Coe

text: In 2017, he was featured singing "Take This Job" on the album "Baptized in Bourbon" by the Moonshine Bandits. He also sings in the video.


title: David Allan Coe

text: Coe's integrity was called into question after his previous claim that he had spent time on death row for killing an inmate who tried to rape him was debunked when a Texas documentarian discovered Coe had done time for possessing burglary tools and indecent materials – but never murder. Criticisms such as these notwithstanding, Coe always maintained he was integral to the outlaw country movement getting its name, stating in 2003:


title: David Allan Coe

text: The cover of the 1986 release "Son of the South", which displayed Coe holding a baby with a Confederate flag draped over his shoulders, galled many industry insiders, although Coe did print a message on the back of the album to defuse any potential backlash:


title: David Allan Coe

text: In another interview, Coe said, "Anyone that would look at me and say I was a racist, would have to be out of their mind. I have dreadlocks down to my waist with earrings in both ears and my beard is down to my waist and it is in braids...I was in prison with 87% black people, I hung around with black people, and I learned to sing music with black people. It was ironic that in prison the white guys called me a 'nigger lover' and now I write the word 'nigger' in a song and I am all of a sudden a racist. It is pretty ironic."


title: David Allan Coe

text: While Coe lived in Key West, Shel Silverstein played his comedy album "Freakin' at the Freakers Ball" for Coe, spurring him to perform his own comedic songs for Silverstein, who encouraged Coe to record them, leading to the production of the independently released "Nothing Sacred". Jimmy Buffett accused Coe of plagiarizing the melody of "Divers Do It Deeper" from Buffett's "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes", stating, "I would have sued him, but I didn't want to give Coe the pleasure of having his name in the paper." In response to the success of Buffett's song, Coe wrote a song insulting Buffett, and it appeared on "Nothing Sacred". The album was released by mail order in 1978, through the back pages of the biker magazine "Easyriders".


title: David Allan Coe

text: Coe's 1979 Columbia album "Spectrum VII" contained a note stating "Jimmy Buffett does not live in Key West anymore", a lyric from a song from "Nothing Sacred". The album's songs are profane, often sexually explicit, and describe an orgy in Nashville's Centennial Park and sex with pornographic film star Linda Lovelace. The album also contains a song targeting Anita Bryant, a musician notable for her strong opposition to LGBT rights, specifically her fight to repeal an LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance in Miami-Dade County. In the song, bluntly titled "Fuck Aneta Briant" , Coe calls out Bryant as being hypocritical for her opposition to the lifestyles of gay people, stating that "In fact Anita Bryant, some act just like you".


title: David Allan Coe

text: In 1982, Coe released another independent album, "Underground Album", which contained his most controversial song, "Nigger Fucker". Written from the perspective of a man whose lover left him for an African American man, the sexually explicit song resulted in Coe being accused of racism. Primarily because of this song, the material recorded by singer and white supremacist Johnny Rebel has also been mistakenly attributed to Coe. (Rebel, whose real name is Clifford Joseph Trahan, died in 2016.) AllMusic, which did not review "Underground Album", gave it three out of five stars. Coe responded to the accusations by saying "Anyone that hears this album and says I'm a racist, is full of shit." Coe's drummer, Kerry Brown, is black and married to a white woman. Brown is the son of legendary blues musician Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. When asked about Coe's X-rated albums, Brown stated “David Allan Coe was controversial. Some of the songs are really out there. But it's my life. When you live in the David Allan Coe world, you learn to be controversial.


title: David Allan Coe

text: Like Willie Nelson and Jerry Lee Lewis, Coe has battled the IRS costing him the publishing rights to his compositions, including "Take This Job and Shove It". He stated in 2003:


title: David Allan Coe

text: In another interview, Coe added, "All the songs on the X-rated albums were sold. I don't own that stuff anymore. I have nothing to do with that stuff. They have to give me credit as the songwriter, but I don't make one cent."


title: David Allan Coe

text: Coe's musical style derives from blues, rock, and country music traditions. His vocal style is described as a 'throaty baritone'. His lyrical content is often humorous or comedic, with William Ruhlmann describing him as a 'near-parody of a country singer'. Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes Coe as "a great, unashamed country singer, singing the purest honky-tonk and hardest country of his era […] he may not be the most original outlaw, but there is none more outlaw than him".


title: David Allan Coe

text: Coe's lyrics frequently include references to alcohol and drug use, and are often boisterous and cocky. Coe's debut album "Penitentiary Blues" was described as "voodoo blues" and "redneck music" by Allmusic's Thom Jurek. It focused on themes such as working for the first time, blood tests from veins used to inject heroin, prison time, hoodoo imagery, and death. The album's influences included Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Tony Joe White. Coe later explained to Kristofer Engelhardt of "Review": "I didn't really care for some of the country music until people like Kris Kristofferson and some of those people started writing songs. They had a little more to say than just, 'Oh baby I miss you', or whatever. I don't do anything halfway. Once I got into country music, I went back and researched it, and learned everything there was to know about it. I could do impersonations of Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Marty Robbins, just about anybody. I knew just about all there was to know about country music."


title: David Allan Coe

text: Coe's first country album, "The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy", has been described as alt-country, 'pre-punk' and "a hillbilly version of Marc Bolan's glitz and glitter". Credited influences on the album include Merle Haggard. In his early career, Coe was known for his unpredictable live performances, in which he would ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle onto the stage and curse at his audience. Coe has also performed in a rhinestone suit and a mask which resembled that of the Lone Ranger, calling himself the 'Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy'.


title: David Allan Coe

text: The album "Rebel Meets Rebel" featured a song, "Cherokee Cry", which criticizes the United States government's treatment of Native Americans. When asked why he did not write more political songs, Coe replied, "I live in my own world, not "thee" world. I just write songs about what affects me in everyday life. At one point I wrote a song that was sort of a protest about when they were talking about drafting women into the military. It was about my son making it past the draft, but my daughter didn't. And I've done Farm Aid."


title: David Allan Coe

text: In his review of Coe's 1987 album "A Matter of Life...and Death", Allmusic's Thom Jurek wrote, "Coe may have had some hits, but it is records like this that make one wonder if there was not a conspiracy to marginalize him and make him fail. Coe is a brilliant songwriter well into the 21st century, and deserves to be lauded along with the likes of [Willie] Nelson and [Waylon] Jennings and Kristofferson and Newbury – and even Cash."


title: Gwar

text: Gwar, often stylized as GWAR, is an American heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia in 1984, composed of and operated by a frequently rotating line-up of musicians, artists and filmmakers collectively known as Slave Pit Inc. After the death of frontman and lead singer Dave Brockie in 2014, the group has continued without any of its founding members.


title: Gwar

text: Identified by their distinctively grotesque costumes, Gwar's core thematic and visual concept revolves around an elaborate science fiction-themed mythology which portrays the band members as barbaric interplanetary warriors, a narrative which serves as the basis for all of the band's albums, live shows and media. With over-the-top violent, sexual, and scatological humor typically incorporating social and political satire, Gwar has attracted both acclaim and controversy for its music and stage shows, the latter of which notoriously showcase enactments of graphic violence that result in the audience being sprayed with fake blood, urine, and semen. Such stagecraft regularly leads Gwar to be labeled a "shock rock" band by the media.


title: Gwar

text: Since its formation, Gwar has released 13 studio albums, two live albums, and numerous singles among other recordings, and has sold over 820,000 records in the United States. Fueled largely by the controversies surrounding their concerts, Gwar experienced brief mainstream notoriety during the first half of the 1990s, receiving regular airplay on MTV as well as frequent in-character guest appearances on daytime talk shows, satirizing the topics of censorship and media violence. Though the band's mainstream popularity declined by the end of the 1990s, Gwar has retained a dedicated cult following. The band's extensive videography consists of both live recordings and long-form feature films, most notably 1992's "Phallus in Wonderland", which earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Long Form Music Video. Gwar has also expanded its brand into other areas such as books, comic books board games, beer, whisky barbecue sauce, CBD, e-liquids, toy collectibles,and sex toys.


title: Gwar

text: Gwar is the result of two separate projects merged into one. Dave Brockie was the vocalist and bassist for a punk band named Death Piggy that staged mini-plays and used crude props to punctuate its music. Bands would occasionally practice in a room at the Richmond Dairy, a deserted bottling plant that had been taken over by hippies. The hippies rented out interior areas to various artists and musicians. It was at the Richmond Dairy that Death Piggy met Hunter Jackson (Techno Destructo) and Chuck Varga (Sexecutioner), both attendees of Virginia Commonwealth University who had set up "The Slave Pit", a production space for "Scumdogs of the Universe", a movie they intended to make.


title: Gwar

text: Jackson created props for Death Piggy to use on stage. Brockie had an idea to use the costumes made for "Scumdogs of the Universe" and have Death Piggy open for itself as a barbaric band from Antarctica, playing nonsense songs while sacrificing fake animals. The name of the joke group was "Gwaaarrrgghhlllgh". The members of Death Piggy began noticing that more people were coming to see Gwaaarrrgghhlllgh and leaving immediately after the set. After several refinements, including shortening the band's name, Death Piggy was phased out in favor of the band now named Gwar.


title: Gwar

text: The first known line-up for Gwar consisted of Ben Eubanks (vocals), Brockie (guitar), Steve Douglas (guitar), Chris Bopst (bass guitar), Jim Thomson (drums) and Jackson. However, this line-up was short-lived and would suffer multiple changes in the following months, with Eubanks quitting after just one or two shows and being replaced by Joe Annaruma, who went on to record several demo tracks with the band. Annaruma soon quit and was replaced by Brockie. The band solidified into a line-up consisting of Jackson, Don Drakulich, Varga, Mike Delaney, Mike Bonner, Scott Krahl, Dave Musel and Brockie.


title: Gwar

text: Mike Delaney left in 1987. Dewey Rowell (Flattus Maximus), Michael Bishop (Beefcake the Mighty) and Rob Mosby (Nippleus Erectus) were recruited in 1987, along with Steve Douglas (Balsac the Jaws of Death), who rejoined the band after having previously left. Danielle Stampe (alias: Slymenstra Hymen) joined in 1988 as the first full-time female member of Gwar for the first U.S. tour supporting Gwar's debut album "Hell-O" and toured consistently with the band until 2000.The band has also recruited, and lost, three other female members: The Temptress, Heather Broome (1986); Amazina, Colette Miller (1986–87); and Gwar Woman, Lisa Harrelson (1987–88).