title: Labor Day

text: An alternative theory maintains that the idea of Labor Day was the brainchild of Peter J. McGuire, a vice president of the American Federation of Labor, who, after a visit to Toronto where he saw parades celebrating labor that May, had put forward the initial proposal in the spring of 1882. According to McGuire, on May 8, 1882, he made a proposition to the fledgling Central Labor Union in New York City that a day be set aside for a "general holiday for the laboring classes". According to McGuire he further recommended that the event should begin with a street parade as a public demonstration of organized labor's solidarity and strength, with the march followed by a picnic, to which participating local unions could sell tickets as a fundraiser. According to McGuire he suggested the first Monday in September as an ideal date for such a public celebration, owing to optimum weather and the date's place on the calendar, sitting midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving public holidays.


title: Labor Day

text: Labor Day picnics and other public gatherings frequently featured speeches by prominent labor leaders.


title: Labor Day

text: In 1909, the American Federation of Labor convention designated the Sunday preceding Labor Day as "Labor Sunday", to be dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement. This secondary date failed to gain significant traction in popular culture, although some churches continue to acknowledge it.


title: Labor Day

text: The popularity of the event spread across the country. In 1887, Oregon became the first state of the United States to make Labor Day an official public holiday. By 1894, thirty U.S. states were already officially celebrating Labor Day. In that year, Congress passed a bill recognizing the first Monday of September as Labor Day and making it an official federal holiday. President Grover Cleveland signed the bill into law on June 28. The federal law, however, only made it a holiday for federal workers. As late as the 1930s, unions were encouraging workers to strike to make sure they got the day off. All U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the United States territories have subsequently made Labor Day a statutory holiday. Labor Day became a federal holiday shortly after the Pullman Strike.


title: Labor Day

text: The date of May 1 (an ancient European folk holiday known as May Day) emerged in 1886 as an alternative holiday for the celebration of labor, later becoming known as International Workers' Day. The date had its origins at the 1885 convention of the American Federation of Labor, which passed a resolution calling for adoption of the eight-hour day effective May 1, 1886. While negotiation was envisioned for achievement of the shortened work day, use of the strike to enforce this demand was recognized, with May 1 advocated as a date for coordinated strike action. The proximity of the date to the bloody Haymarket affair of May 4, 1886, further accentuated May First's radical reputation.


title: Labor Day

text: There was disagreement among labor unions at this time about when a holiday celebrating workers should be, with some advocating for continued emphasis of the September march-and-picnic date while others sought the designation of the more politically charged date of May 1. Conservative Democratic President Grover Cleveland was one of those concerned that a labor holiday on May 1 would tend to become a commemoration of the Haymarket affair and would strengthen socialist and anarchist movements that backed the May 1 commemoration around the globe. In 1887, he publicly supported the September Labor Day holiday as a less inflammatory alternative, formally adopting the date as a United States federal holiday through a law that he signed in 1894.


title: Labor Day

text: Since the mid-1950s, the United States has celebrated Loyalty Day and Law Day on May 1. Unlike Labor Day, neither are legal public holidays (in that government agencies and most businesses do not shut down to celebrate them) and therefore have remained relatively obscure. Loyalty Day is formally celebrated in a few cities, while some bar associations hold Law Day events to celebrate the rule of law.


title: Labor Day

text: Labor Day is called the "unofficial end of summer" because it marks the end of the cultural summer season. Many take their two-week vacations during the two weeks ending Labor Day weekend. Many fall activities, such as school and sports, begin about this time.


title: Labor Day

text: In the United States, many school districts resume classes around the Labor Day holiday weekend (see First day of school). Some begin the week before, making Labor Day weekend the first three-day weekend of the school calendar, while others return the Tuesday following Labor Day. Many districts across the Midwest are opting to begin school after Labor Day.


title: Labor Day

text: In the U.S. state of Virginia, the amusement park industry has successfully lobbied for legislation requiring most school districts in the state to have their first day of school after Labor Day, in order to give families another weekend to visit amusement parks in the state. The relevant statute has been nicknamed the "Kings Dominion law" after one such park. This law was repealed in 2019.


title: Labor Day

text: In the U.S. state of Minnesota, the State Fair ends on Labor Day. Under state law, public schools normally do not begin until after the holiday. One reason given for this timing was to allow time for schoolchildren to show 4-H projects at the Fair.


title: Labor Day

text: In U.S. sports, Labor Day weekend marks the beginning of many fall sports. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) teams usually play their first games that weekend, and the National Football League (NFL) traditionally play their kickoff game the Thursday following Labor Day. The Southern 500 NASCAR auto race has been held on Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina from 1950 to 2003 and since 2015. At Indianapolis Raceway Park, the National Hot Rod Association hold their finals of the NHRA U.S. Nationals drag race that weekend. Labor Day is the middle point between weeks one and two of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships held in Flushing Meadows, New York.


title: Labor Day

text: In fashion, Labor Day is (or was) considered the last day when it is acceptable to wear white or seersucker.


title: Labor Day

text: There are numerous events and activities organized in major cities. For example, New York offers the Labor Day Carnival, and fireworks over Coney Island. In Washington, one popular event is the Labor Day Concert at the U.S. Capitol featuring the National Symphony Orchestra with free attendance.


title: Labor Day

text: To take advantage of large numbers of potential customers with time to shop, Labor Day has become an important weekend for discounts and allowances by many retailers in the United States, especially for back-to-school sales. Some retailers claim it is one of the largest sale dates of the year, second only to the Christmas season's Black Friday.


title: The Highwaymen (country supergroup)

text: The Highwaymen were an American country music supergroup, composed of four of country music's biggest artists who pioneered the outlaw country subgenre: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. Between 1985 and 1995, the group recorded three major label albums as The Highwaymen: two on Columbia Records and one for Liberty Records. Their Columbia works produced three chart singles, including the number one "Highwayman" in 1985.


title: The Highwaymen (country supergroup)

text: Between 1996 and 1999, Nelson, Kristofferson, Cash, and Jennings provided the voice and dramatization for the "Louis L'Amour Collection", a four-CD box set of seven Louis L'Amour stories published by the HighBridge Company, although the four were not credited as "The Highwaymen" in this work.


title: The Highwaymen (country supergroup)

text: Besides the four formal members of the group, one other vocal artist appeared on a Highwaymen recording: Johnny Rodriguez, who provided Spanish vocal on "Deportee", a Woody Guthrie composition, from the album "Highwayman".


title: The Highwaymen (country supergroup)

text: In 1990, the original members of the 1950s-'60s folk group of the same name sued The Highwaymen over their use of the name, which was inspired by a Jimmy Webb ballad the country stars had recorded. The suit was dropped when all parties agreed that the folk group owned the name but that the earlier group would grant a nonexclusive, nontransferable license to the supergroup to use the name. The two groups then shared the stage at a 1990 concert in Hollywood.


title: The Highwaymen (country supergroup)

text: Formed in 1985, the group did not have an official name when they released their first two albums on Columbia Records. The first album, "Highwayman", was credited to "Nelson, Jennings, Cash, Kristofferson". The single "Highwayman", a Jimmy Webb composition, became a #1 country hit. Their cover of Guy Clark's "Desperados Waiting for a Train" reached the Top 20. The album was produced by Chips Moman.


title: The Highwaymen (country supergroup)

text: In 1990, the 4 members reunited for a second effort, titled "Highwayman 2", which reached #4 on the country album chart. The Lee Clayton-penned song "Silver Stallion" was the first single and made the country Top 40. The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Collaboration. "Highwayman 2" was produced, once again, by Moman. Six of the songs were written or co-written by members of the group.


title: The Highwaymen (country supergroup)

text: The group's final release (now listed as "Highway"men"") prior to Jennings's death in 2002 was 1995's Don Was-produced album "The Road Goes on Forever", (a Robert Earl Keen cover), with the single, "It Is What It Is". A tenth-anniversary edition of "The Road Goes on Forever" appeared in 2005, with several bonus tracks added as well as, in some versions, a DVD containing the video for "It Is What It Is" and a documentary titled "Live Forever – In the Studio with the Highwaymen".


title: The Highwaymen (country supergroup)

text: The band continued to tour into the late 1990s, before Jennings and Cash both started to decline in health, which prevented them from maintaining a full touring schedule. All four continued to perform as solo artists, with Jennings briefly joining Old Dogs; Jennings died in 2002 and Cash died in 2003.


title: The Highwaymen (country supergroup)

text: "Those tours and the records we made were a great time," recalled Kristofferson in 2010. "I just wish I was more aware of how lucky I was to share a stage with those people. I had no idea that two of them would be done so soon. Hell, I was up there and I had all my heroes with me. These are guys whose ashtrays I used to clean. I'm kinda amazed I wasn't more amazed."


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: Warner Bros. Animation Inc. is an American animation studio which is part of the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a flagship of Warner Bros. Discovery. As the successor to Warner Bros. Cartoons, which was active from 1933 to 1969, the studio is closely associated with the "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" characters, among others. Warner Bros. re-established its animation division in 1980 to produce "Looney Tunes"–related works, and Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner (later Warner Bros. Discovery) in 1996. In March 2001, Hanna-Barbera Cartoons and its IP were absorbed into the studio.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: In recent years, Warner Bros. Animation has specialized in producing television and direct-to-video animation featuring characters from other properties owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, including Turner Entertainment and the MGM cartoon studio, Hanna-Barbera, and DC Entertainment.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: The original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, as well as all of Warner Bros.'s short subject production divisions, closed its doors on October 10, 1969 due to the rising costs and declining returns of short subject production. Outside animation companies were hired to produce new "Looney Tunes"-related animation for TV specials and commercials at irregular intervals. In 1975, Warner Bros. Cartoon alumnus Chuck Jones began producing a series of "Looney Tunes" specials at his Chuck Jones Productions animation studio, the first of which was "Carnival of the Animals". These specials, and a 1975 "Looney Tunes" retrospective feature film titled "" (distributed by United Artists, the previous owner of the pre-1950 Warner Bros. library), led Jones to produce "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie" for Warner Bros. in 1979. This film blended classic "Looney Tunes"/"Merrie Melodies" shorts with newly produced wraparounds of Bugs Bunny introducing each cartoon. Warner Bros. responded to the success of this film by reestablishing its own cartoon studio.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: Warner Bros. Animation opened its doors on March 15, 1980 to produce compilation films and television specials starring the "Looney Tunes" characters. The studio's initial head was Hal Geer, who had been the original studio's sound effects editor during its final days, and he was soon joined by Friz Freleng, who left DePatie–Freleng (which became Marvel Productions after being sold to Marvel Comics), and returned to Warner as executive producer. The new wraparounds for "The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie" (1981), "" (1982) and "Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island" (1983) featured footage by a new Warner Bros. Animation staff, composed mainly of veterans from the golden age of WB cartoons, including writers John Dunn and Dave Detiege.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: By 1986, Freleng had departed, and Hal Geer also stepped down the following year. Geer was briefly replaced by Steven S. Greene, who in turn was replaced by Freleng's former secretary Kathleen Helppie-Shipley, who would spearhead a major revival of the "Looney Tunes" brand in the years that followed. The studio continued production on special projects starring the "Looney Tunes" characters, sporadically producing new "Looney Tunes"/"Merrie Melodies" shorts for theaters such as "The Duxorcist" (1987), "Night of the Living Duck" (1988), "Box-Office Bunny" (1990), and "Carrotblanca" (1995). Many of these shorts, as well as the new footage in the compilation film "Daffy Duck's Quackbusters" (which includes "The Duxorcist"), were directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon, as well as Darrell Van Citters.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: Beginning in 1986, Warner Bros. moved into regular television animation production. Warners' television division was established by WB Animation President Jean MacCurdy, who brought in producer Tom Ruegger and much of his staff from Hanna-Barbera Productions' "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" series (1988–1991). A studio for the television unit was set up in the office tower of the Imperial Bank Building adjacent to the Sherman Oaks Galleria northwest of Los Angeles. Darrell Van Citters, who used to work at Disney, would work at Warner Bros. on the newer Bugs Bunny shorts, before leaving to form Renegade Animation in 1992. The first Warner Bros. original animated TV series "Tiny Toon Adventures" (1990–1995) was produced in conjunction with Amblin Entertainment, and featured young cartoon characters based upon specific "Looney Tunes" stars, and was a success. Later Amblin/Warner Bros. television shows, including "Animaniacs" (1993–1998), its spin-off "Pinky and the Brain" (1995–1998), and "Freakazoid!" (1995–1997) followed in continuing the "Looney Tunes" tradition of cartoon humor.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: Warner Bros. Animation also began developing shows based upon comic book characters owned by sister company DC Comics. These programs, including "" (1992–1995), "" (1996–2000), "The New Batman Adventures" (1997–1999), "Batman Beyond" (1999–2001), and "Justice League/Justice League Unlimited" (2001–2006) proved popular among both children and adults. These shows were part of the DC animated universe. A "Batman" spin-off feature, "", was produced in 1993 and bumped up to theatrical release. The film was near universally-well received by critics but performed poorly at the box-office, though it eventually became a commercial success through its subsequent home video releases. In 2003, Warner Bros. Television Animation was folded and was subsequently merged with Warner Bros. Animation.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: During the rise of the animation renaissance in the early 1990s, Warner Bros. distributed its first animated films: "The Nutcracker Prince" in 1990, which is a Canadian-produced feature film based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's classic holiday tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"; and "Rover Dangerfield" in 1991, whose title character is a dog whose look and mannerisms are inspired by his voice actor Rodney Dangerfield. Both films received negative and mixed reviews respectively and under-performed at the box office due to lack of promotion. Three years later after the release of "Rover Dangerfield", Warner distributed Don Bluth's "Thumbelina", which also received mixed reviews from critics and under-performed at the box office.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: That same year, Warner Bros., as well as several other Hollywood studios, moved into feature animation following the success of Walt Disney Feature Animation's "The Lion King". Max Howard, a Disney alumnus, was brought in to head the new division, which was set up in Sherman Oaks near the television studio in nearby Glendale. Turner Feature Animation, later merged and named Warner Bros. Feature Animation, like all of the in-house feature animation studios, proved an unsuccessful venture, as six of the seven films, under-performed during its original theatrical releases (due to lack of promotion).


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: The first of Warner’s animated features was "Space Jam" (1996), a live-action/animated hybrid which starred NBA star Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny (Jordan had previously appeared with the Looney Tunes in a number of Nike commercials). The film featured live-action sequences directed by Joe Pytka and animated sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone. "Space Jam" received mixed reviews from critics but proved to be a success at the box office. Animation production for "Space Jam" was primarily done at the new Sherman Oaks studio, although much of the work was outsourced to animation studios around the world.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: Before the success of "Space Jam", a Turner Entertainment-run studio that spun off from Hanna-Barbera were already producing animated features following the success of the Disney features. The first was "The Pagemaster", a fantasy adventure directed by Joe Johnston (live-action) and Maurice Hunt (animation) that starred the performances of Macaulay Culkin and Christopher Lloyd with the live-action segments serving as bookends for the film's story. Released by 20th Century Fox, the film under-performed and received negative reviews from critics during its holiday release of 1994. After the merger with Turner and Warner Bros.'s parent company Time Warner in 1996, Turner Feature Animation completed its second and last feature, "Cats Don't Dance" (1997), directed by Mark Dindal, which was met with warm critical and audience reception but under-performed due to little marketing and fanfare. By the time of the film's release, however, Turner Feature Animation had merged with Warner Feature Animation and transferred a majority of its staff from said studio.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: The following year, its next film, Frederik Du Chau's "Quest for Camelot" (1998), underwent production difficulties and also received mixed reviews from critics. However, its soundtrack (such as one of the songs, "The Prayer") received some praise and accolades, including an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: The third animated feature from Warner Feature Animation, Brad Bird's "The Iron Giant" (1999), received widespread acclaimed reception from critics and audiences. However, the studio decided to rush its release to the end of the summer with a rushed marketing push.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: The studio's next film, "Osmosis Jones" (2001), was another animated/live-action mix that suffered through another troubled production. This time, the animation sequences, directed by Piet Kroon and Tom Sito, were completed long before the live-action parts were filmed, eventually directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly and starring Bill Murray. The resulting film received mixed reviews and underperformed, although it was successful enough on home video for Warner's Television Animation department to produce a related Saturday morning cartoon, "Ozzy & Drix" (2002–2004) for its WB broadcast network.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: Following the releases of "The Iron Giant" and "Osmosis Jones", the feature animation staff was scaled back, and the entire animation staff – feature and television – were moved to the larger Sherman Oaks facility.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: Warner Bros. Feature Animation's final project, "" was released in 2003. It was intended to be the starting point for a reestablishment of the classic cartoons brands, including a planned series of new "Looney Tunes" theatrical shorts, produced by "Back in Action" writer and producer Larry Doyle. After "Back in Action", directed by Joe Dante (live-action) and Eric Goldberg (animation), received mixed reviews from critics and under-performed at the box office, production was shut down on the new shorts, and, in 2004, Warner Bros. Feature Animation was folded and merged into Warner Bros. Animation, and "Looney Tunes" has been mostly relegated on television until 2021's "".


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: Warners' parent company Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting System in 1996, not only regaining the rights to the previously sold "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" shorts but also taking on two more animation studios: Turner Feature Animation and Hanna-Barbera Productions. Turner Feature was immediately folded into Warner Bros. Feature Animation, while Hanna-Barbera merged with Warner Bros. Animation itself. Until 1998, Hanna-Barbera operated on its original lot at 3400 Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood, California, one of the last "big name" studios with a Hollywood zip code. Studio operations, archives, and its extensive animation art collection were then moved northwest to Sherman Oaks. Hanna-Barbera occupied space in the office tower adjacent to the Sherman Oaks Galleria along with Warner Bros. Animation.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: Following the death of William Hanna in 2001, Warner fully took over production of H-B related properties such as "Scooby-Doo", producing a steady stream of "Scooby" direct-to-video films and two new series, "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" (2002–2006) and "Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!" (2006–2008). The Turner merger also gave WB access to the pre-May 1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library, which included its classic cartoon library (including such characters as Tom and Jerry (originally created by the H-B duo), Droopy, Barney Bear, Screwy Squirrel, and George and Junior). WBA has since co-produced a series of direct-to-video films with Turner which starred Tom and Jerry. Besides producing content for the daytime market, Warner Bros. Animation also produced "Baby Blues" with sister company Warner Bros. Television and "3 South" with MTV Animation for primetime.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: The series which Hanna-Barbera had been producing for Turner's Cartoon Network before and during the Time Warner/Turner merger were shifted to production at Cartoon Network Studios, a sister company to Warner Bros. Animation. WBA is today exclusively involved in the production of animated television programming and direct-to-video features. It produced many of the shows airing on the Kids' WB Saturday morning programming block of The CW until May 24, 2008. These programs included "Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!", "Krypto the Superdog", "Xiaolin Showdown", "The Batman", and the aforementioned "Loonatics Unleashed" and "Tom and Jerry Tales". By 2007, the studio had downsized significantly from its size during the late 1990s. Warner Bros. downsized the studio further in June, shut down the Sherman Oaks studio, and had Warner Bros. Animation moved to the Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, California. In early 2008 after the demise of Kids' WB!, Warner Bros. Animation became almost dormant with only "" in production at the time.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: To expand the company's online content presence, Warner Bros. Animation launched the new KidsWB.com (announced as T-Works) on April 28, 2008. The website gathers its core animation properties in a single online environment that is interactive and customizable for site visitors. The Kids WB offers both originally produced content along with classic animated episodes, games, and exploration of virtual worlds. Some of the characters to be used in the project from the Warner libraries include those of Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, pre-1986 MGM animated characters and DC Comics.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: In 2009, sister network Cartoon Network announced "Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated" in the Fall 2009–2010 season by Warner Bros. Animation. Warner Bros. Animation recently announced several new projects, such as "The Looney Tunes Show" (formerly called "Laff Riot"); a reboot of "ThunderCats", and several series based on DC Comics properties such as "MAD", "", and "Young Justice".


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: Warner Bros. Animation is also producing "DC Showcase", a series of short subjects featuring lesser-known comic book superheroes, to be released in tandem with direct-to-video films based on DC Comics properties.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: On July 30, 2010, "Coyote Falls", a 3D cartoon featuring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner was released, being the first time WB Animation produced theatrically released content since "The Karate Guard" (the last Tom and Jerry short) in 2005, and the first time the animation studio used full CGI and stereoscopic 3D. Two more theatrical Road Runner cartoons have followed during the year ("Fur of Flying" and "Rabid Rider"). On June 8, 2011, three more shorts were announced: "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat" with Sylvester, Tweety, and Granny, which was released with "Happy Feet Two"; "Daffy's Rhapsody" with Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd, which was released with ""; and "Flash in the Pain" starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. All of these 6 shorts, directed by Matthew O'Callaghan and produced by Reel FX Creative Studios are available on the official Warner Bros. Animation YouTube channel.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: On October 27, 2014, Warner Bros. Animation collaborated with sister studio Williams Street for the first time for its first production for Adult Swim, "Mike Tyson Mysteries", which satirizes the style and conventions of cartoons from the 1970s (such as "Scooby-Doo)" and celebrity-driven series such as "Mister T". Warner Bros. Animation also produced "—"a stop-motion animated adaptation of the New Line Cinema film "Elf" and its musical adaptation—as a Christmas special for NBC, starring Jim Parsons


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: On June 11, 2018, a new series of shorts, "Looney Tunes Cartoons", was announced by Warner Bros. Animation. Set for release in 2019 on both linear and streaming television platforms, its first "season" would feature 1,000 minutes (or 16 hours and 40 minutes) of new one-to-six minute cartoons featuring the brand's marquee characters, voiced by their current voice actors in “simple, gag-driven and visually vibrant stories” that are rendered by multiple artists employing “a visual style that will resonate with fans.” Sam Register, president of Warner Bros. Animation, and Peter Browngardt, creator of "Secret Mountain Fort Awesome" and "Uncle Grandpa", would serve as executive producers.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: In August 2021, it was announced that Jason DeMarco had been named SVP Anime & Action Series/Longform for Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: On May 11, 2022, Warner Bros. Animation was moved under Warner Bros. Television after the dissolution of the Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics division by new owner Warner Bros. Discovery.


title: Warner Bros. Animation

text: On October 11, 2022, Warner Bros. Animation merged its development and production teams with Cartoon Network Studios as part of a further restructuring by Warner Bros. Discovery; the merger will not affect the studios' output or branding.


title: Breadth-first search

text: Breadth-first search (BFS) is an algorithm for searching a tree data structure for a node that satisfies a given property. It starts at the tree root and explores all nodes at the present depth prior to moving on to the nodes at the next depth level. Extra memory, usually a queue, is needed to keep track of the child nodes that were encountered but not yet explored.


title: Breadth-first search

text: For example, in a chess endgame a chess engine may build the game tree from the current position by applying all possible moves, and use breadth-first search to find a win position for white. Implicit trees (such as game trees or other problem-solving trees) may be of infinite size; breadth-first search is guaranteed to find a solution node if one exists.


title: Breadth-first search

text: In contrast, (plain) depth-first search, which explores the node branch as far as possible before backtracking and expanding other nodes, may get lost in an infinite branch and never make it to the solution node. Iterative deepening depth-first search avoids the latter drawback at the price of exploring the tree's top parts over and over again. On the other hand, both depth-first algorithms get along without extra memory.


title: Breadth-first search

text: Breadth-first search can be generalized to graphs, when the start node (sometimes referred to as a 'search key') is explicitly given, and precautions are taken against following a vertex twice.


title: Breadth-first search

text: BFS and its application in finding connected components of graphs were invented in 1945 by Konrad Zuse, in his (rejected) Ph.D. thesis on the Plankalkül programming language, but this was not published until 1972. It was reinvented in 1959 by Edward F. Moore, who used it to find the shortest path out of a maze, and later developed by C. Y. Lee into a wire routing algorithm (published 1961).


title: Breadth-first search

text: This non-recursive implementation is similar to the non-recursive implementation of depth-first search, but differs from it in two ways:


title: Breadth-first search

text: If is a tree, replacing the queue of this breadth-first search algorithm with a stack will yield a depth-first search algorithm. For general graphs, replacing the stack of the iterative depth-first search implementation with a queue would also produce a breadth-first search algorithm, although a somewhat nonstandard one.


title: Breadth-first search

text: Nodes can be labelled as explored by storing them in a set, or by an attribute on each node, depending on the implementation.


title: Breadth-first search

text: The "parent" attribute of each node is useful for accessing the nodes in a shortest path, for example by backtracking from the destination node up to the starting node, once the BFS has been run, and the predecessors nodes have been set.


title: Breadth-first search

text: Breadth-first search produces a so-called "breadth first tree". You can see how a "breadth first tree" looks in the following example.


title: Breadth-first search

text: The following is an example of the breadth-first tree obtained by running a BFS on German cities starting from "Frankfurt":


title: Breadth-first search

text: The time complexity can be expressed as formula_1, since every vertex and every edge will be explored in the worst case. formula_2 is the number of vertices and formula_3 is the number of edges in the graph.


title: Breadth-first search

text: Note that formula_4 may vary between formula_5 and formula_6, depending on how sparse the input graph is.


title: Breadth-first search

text: When the number of vertices in the graph is known ahead of time, and additional data structures are used to determine which vertices have already been added to the queue, the space complexity can be expressed as formula_7, where formula_2 is the number of vertices. This is in addition to the space


title: Breadth-first search

text: required for the graph itself, which may vary depending on the graph representation used by an implementation of the algorithm.


title: Breadth-first search

text: When working with graphs that are too large to store explicitly (or infinite), it is more practical to describe the complexity of breadth-first search in different terms: to find the nodes that are at distance from the start node (measured in number of edge traversals), BFS takes time and memory, where is the "branching factor" of the graph (the average out-degree).


title: Breadth-first search

text: In the analysis of algorithms, the input to breadth-first search is assumed to be a finite graph, represented as an adjacency list, adjacency matrix, or similar representation. However, in the application of graph traversal methods in artificial intelligence the input may be an implicit representation of an infinite graph. In this context, a search method is described as being complete if it is guaranteed to find a goal state if one exists. Breadth-first search is complete, but depth-first search is not. When applied to infinite graphs represented implicitly, breadth-first search will eventually find the goal state, but depth first search may get lost in parts of the graph that have no goal state and never return.


title: Breadth-first search

text: An enumeration of the vertices of a graph is said to be a BFS ordering if it is the possible output of the application of BFS to this graph.


title: Breadth-first search

text: Let formula_9 be a graph with formula_10 vertices. Recall that formula_11 is the set of neighbors of formula_12.


title: Breadth-first search

text: Let formula_13 be a list of distinct elements of formula_14, for formula_15, let formula_16 be the least formula_17 such that formula_18 is a neighbor of formula_12, if such a formula_17 exists, and be formula_21 otherwise.


title: Breadth-first search

text: The enumeration formula_24 is said to be a BFS ordering (with source formula_25) if, for all <math>1, formula_18 is the vertex formula_27 such that formula_28 is minimal. Equivalently, formula_24 is a BFS ordering if, for all formula_30 with formula_31, there exists a neighbor formula_32 of formula_33 such that <math>m.


title: Sing Sing

text: Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of New York City on the east bank of the Hudson River. It holds about 1,700 inmates and housed the execution chamber for the State of New York until the abolition of capital punishment in New York in 2004.


title: Sing Sing

text: The name "Sing Sing" was derived from the Sintsink Native American tribe from whom the land was purchased in 1685, and was formerly the name of the village. In 1970, the prison's name was changed to the Ossining Correctional Facility, but it reverted to its original name in 1985. There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block into a period museum.


title: Sing Sing

text: Sing Sing was the fifth prison constructed by New York state authorities. In 1824, the New York Legislature gave Elam Lynds, warden of Auburn Prison and a former United States Army captain, the task of constructing a new, more modern prison. Lynds spent months researching possible locations for the prison, considering Staten Island, the Bronx, and Silver Mine Farm, an area in the town of Mount Pleasant on the banks of the Hudson River.


title: Sing Sing

text: By May, Lynds had decided to build a prison on Mount Pleasant, near (and thus named after) a small village in Westchester County named Sing Sing, whose name came from the Wappinger (Native American) words "sinck sinck" which translates to 'stone upon stone'. In March 1825, the legislature appropriated $20,100 to purchase the site, and the project received the official stamp of approval. Lynds selected 100 inmates from the Auburn prison for transfer and had them transported by barge via the Erie Canal and down the Hudson River to freighters. On their arrival on May 14, the site was "without a place to receive them or a wall to enclose them"; "temporary barracks, a cook house, carpenter and blacksmith's shops" were rushed to completion.


title: Sing Sing

text: When it was opened in 1826, it was considered a model prison because it turned a profit for the state. By October 1828 Sing Sing was completed. Lynds employed the Auburn system, which imposed absolute silence on the prisoners; the system was enforced by whipping and other punishments. It was John Luckey, the Prison Chaplain around 1843, who held the Principal Keeper of Sing Sing, Elam Lynds, accountable to New York Governor William H. Seward and President of the Board of Inspectors, John Edmonds, to have Lynds removed. Chaplain Luckey proceeded to create a great religious library. His purpose was to teach correct moral principles. His religious library was challenged in 1844 when John Edmonds placed Eliza Farnham in charge of the women's ward at Sing Sing. In 1844, the New York Prison Association was inaugurated to monitor state prison administration. The NY Prison Association was made up of reformers interested in the rehabilitation and humane treatment of prisoners. Farnham was able to obtain the job largely on the recommendation of these reformers. Farnham overturned the strictly silent practice in prison and introduced social engagement to shift concern more toward the future instead of dwelling on the criminal past. She included novels by Charles Dickens in Chaplain Luckey's religious library, novels the chaplain did not approve of. This was the first documented expansion of the prison library to include moral teachings from secular literature.


title: Sing Sing

text: Thomas Mott Osborne's tenure as warden of Sing Sing was brief but dramatic. Osborne arrived in 1914 with a reputation as a radical prison reformer. His report of a week-long incognito stay inside New York's Auburn Prison indicted traditional prison administration in merciless detail.


title: Sing Sing

text: Prisoners who had bribed officers and intimidated other inmates lost their privileges under Osborne's regime. One of them conspired with powerful political allies to destroy Osborne's reputation, even succeeding in getting him indicted for a variety of crimes and maladministration. After Osborne triumphed in court, his return to Sing Sing was a cause for wild celebration by the inmates.


title: Sing Sing

text: Another notable warden was Lewis Lawes. He was offered the position of warden in 1919, accepted in January 1920, and remained for 21 years as Sing Sing's warden. While warden, Lawes brought about reforms and turned what was described as an "old hellhole" into a modern prison with sports teams, educational programs, new methods of discipline, and more. Several new buildings were constructed during the years Lawes was warden. Lawes retired in 1941 and died six years later.


title: Sing Sing

text: In 1989, the institution was accredited for the first time by the American Correctional Association, which established a set of national standards by which it judged every correctional facility. , Sing Sing houses approximately 1,500 inmates, employs about 900 people, and has hosted over 5,000 visitors per month. The original 1825 cell block is no longer used and in 2002 plans were announced to turn it into a museum. In April 2011 there were talks of closing the prison to take advantage of its valuable real estate.


title: Sing Sing

text: In total, 614 men and women – including four inmates under federal death sentences – were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing until the abolition of the death penalty in 1972. After a series of escapes from death row, a new Death House was built in 1920 and began executions in 1922. High profile executions in Sing Sing's electric chair, nicknamed "Old Sparky", include Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on June 19, 1953, for espionage for the Soviet Union on nuclear weapon research; and Gerhard Puff on August 12, 1954, for the murder of an FBI agent. The last person executed in New York state was Eddie Lee Mays, for murder, on August 15, 1963.


title: Sing Sing

text: In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled in "Furman v. Georgia" that the death penalty was unconstitutional if its application was inconsistent and arbitrary. This led to a temporary "de facto" nationwide moratorium (executions resumed in other states in 1977), but the electric chair at Sing Sing remained. In the early 1970s, the electric chair was moved to Green Haven Correctional Facility in working condition, but was never used again.


title: Sing Sing

text: In 2013, Sing Sing Superintendent Michael Capra and NBC producer Dan Slepian working with a group of 12 incarcerated men to start a program called "Voices From Within", in an effort to "redefine what it means to pay a debt to society"


title: Sing Sing

text: Their first project was an emotional video about gun violence, where the men spoke directly to the youth in the communities from which they came. Slepian released the video in 2014 TEDxTalk at Sing Sing. The video is currently being used by various non-profits and law enforcement agencies to help prevent gun violence.


title: Sing Sing

text: In 1996, Katherine Vockins founded Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) at Sing Sing, enabling theater professionals to provide prisoners with a curriculum of year-round theater-related workshops. It has produced several plays at Sing Sing open to prisoners and community guests and has shown that the use of dramatic techniques leads to significant improvements in the cognitive behavior of the program's participants and a reduction in recidivism once paroled. Its impact on social and institutional behavior was formally evaluated by the John Jay College for Criminal Justice, in collaboration with the NY State Department of Corrections. Led by Dr. Lorraine Moller, Professor of Speech and Drama at John Jay, the study found that it had a positive impact on prisoner Pavle Stanimirovic, one of the program's first participants, that "the longer the inmate was in the program, the fewer violations he committed." RTA currently operates at five other New York state prisons.


title: Sing Sing

text: The organization, Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, provides college courses to incarcerated people to help reduce recidivism and poverty and strengthen families and communities. In 1998, as part of the get-tough-on-crime campaign, state and federal funding for college programs inside the prison was stopped. Understanding the positive effects of education in the transformation and rehabilitation of incarcerated people, inmates at Sing Sing Correctional Facility reached out to religious and academic volunteers to develop a college degree-granting program. Under Anne Reissner, Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison was founded to restore college education at Sing Sing through private funding.


title: Sing Sing

text: In 1931, new prison reforms permitted Sing Sing State Penitentiary prisoners to partake in recreation opportunities. The baseball and football teams, and the vaudeville presentations and concerts, were funded through revenue from paid attendance. Tim Mara, the owner of the New York Giants, sponsored the Sing Sing Black Sheep, Sing Sing's football team. Mara provided equipment and uniforms and players to tutor them in fundamentals. He helped coach them the first season. Known as the Black Sheep, they were also sometimes called the Zebras. All games were "home" games, played at Lawes Stadium, named for Warden Lewis E. Lawes. In 1935, the starting quarterback and two other starters escaped the morning before a game.


title: Sing Sing

text: Alabama Pitts was their starting quarterback and star for the first four seasons, but then finished his sentence. Upon release, Alabama Pitts played for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1935. In 1932, "graduate" Jumbo Morano was signed by the Giants and played for the Paterson Nighthawks of the Eastern Football League. In 1934, State Commissioner of Correction, Walter N. Thayer banned the advertising of activities at the prison, including football games. On November 19, 1936, a new rule banned ticket sales. No revenues would be derived from show and sports event ticketing. These funds had been paying for disbursements to prisoners' families, especially the kin of those executed, and for equipment and coaches' salaries. With this new edict, the season ended and prisoners were no longer allowed to play football outside Sing Sing.


title: Sing Sing

text: Plans to turn a portion of Sing Sing into a museum date back to 2002, when local officials sought to turn the old powerhouse into the museum, linked by a tunnel to a retired cell block, for $5 million. In 2007, the village of Ossining applied for $12.5 million in federal money for the project, at the time expected to cost $14 million. The proposed museum would display the Sing Sing story as it unfolded over time.


title: Sing Sing

text: The expression "up the river" to describe someone in prison or heading to prison derives from the practice of sentencing people convicted in New York City to serve their terms in Sing Sing, which is located up the Hudson River from the city. The slang expression dates from 1891.


title: The Family International

text: The Family International (TFI) is a Christian New Religious Movement founded in Huntington Beach, California, USA, in 1968 by David Berg that has been criticized as an authoritarian cult. Originally named Teens for Christ, it has gone under a number of different names. It gained notoriety as The Children of God (COG). It was later renamed and reorganized as The Family of Love (1978–1981), which was eventually shortened to The Family. As of 2004, it has gone by The Family International.


title: The Family International

text: Former members have accused the group of child sexual abuse, physical abuse, exploitation, the targeting of vulnerable people, and creating lasting trauma among children raised in the group.


title: The Family International

text: According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "at its height" the Family movement had "tens of thousands of members, including River and Joaquin Phoenix, Rose McGowan and Jeremy Spencer".


title: The Family International

text: TFI initially spread a message of salvation, apocalypticism, spiritual "revolution and happiness" and distrust of the outside world, which the members called "The System". Like some other fundamentalist groups, it "foretold the coming of a dictator called the anti-Christ, the rise of a brutal One World Government and its eventual overthrow by Jesus Christ, in the Second Coming".


title: The Family International

text: In 1976, it began a method of evangelism called Flirty Fishing that used sex to "show God's love and mercy" and win converts, resulting in controversy. TFI's founder and prophetic leader, David Berg (who was first called "Moses David" in the Texas press, and was also referred to "Father David" by members), gave himself the titles of "King", "The Last Endtime Prophet", "Moses", and "David".


title: The Family International

text: Berg communicated with his followers via "Mo Letters"—letters of instruction and counsel on myriad spiritual and practical subjects—until his death in late 1994. After his death, his widow Karen Zerby became the leader of TFI, taking the titles of "Queen" and "Prophetess". Zerby married Steve Kelly (also known as Peter Amsterdam), an assistant of Berg's whom Berg had handpicked as her "consort". Kelly took the title of "King Peter" and became the face of TFI, speaking in public more often than either Berg or Zerby. There have been multiple allegations of child sexual abuse made by past members.


title: The Family International

text: Berg preached a combination of traditional Christian evangelism, with elements popular with the Counterculture of the 1960s. There was much "end-of-the-world imagery" found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, preaching of impending doom for America and the ineffectiveness of established churches. Berg "urged a return to the early Christian community described in the Bible's Book of Acts, in which believers lived together and shared all", resembling communal living of late 1960s hippies.


title: The Family International

text: The founder of the movement, David Brandt Berg (1919–1994), was a former Christian and Missionary Alliance pastor. Berg started in 1968 as an evangelical preacher with a following of "born-again hippies" who gathered at a coffeehouse in Huntington Beach, in Orange County, California. In 1969, after having a revelation "that California would be hit by a major earthquake", he left Huntington Beach and "took his followers on the road".


title: The Family International

text: They would proselytize in the streets and distribute pamphlets. Leaders within COG were referred to as "The Chain". Members of The Children of God (COG) founded communes, first called colonies (now referred to as homes), in various cities.


title: The Family International

text: Berg communicated with his followers by writing letters. He published nearly 3,000 letters over a period of 24 years, referred to as the "Mo Letters". In a letter written in January 1972, Berg stated that he was God's prophet for the contemporary world, attempting to further solidify his spiritual authority within the group. Berg's letters also contained public acknowledgement of his own failings and weaknesses, (for example, he issued a Mo Letter entitled "My confession -- I was an alcoholic!" (ML #1406 Summer 1982) relating his depression after some of his closest supporters quit in 1978.


title: The Family International

text: In 1972, a Mo Letter reportedly entitled "Flee as a Bird to Your Mountain" was interpreted by some members (such as Ruth Gordon) as a warning to leave America. "God was going to destroy the U.S. ... and we had to get out." This, along with the pressure members felt that parents were trying to "rescue" children who had joined CoG, encouraged members to "[migrate] abroad -- first to Europe, eventually to Latin America and East Asia".


title: The Family International

text: By 1972, COG stated it had 130 communities around the world, and by the mid-1970s, it had "colonies" in an estimated 70 countries. BBC reported 10,000 full-time COG members in the 1970s.


title: The Family International

text: In 1976, Berg had introduced a new proselytizing method called Flirty Fishing (or FFing), which encouraged female members to "show God's love" through sexual relationships with potential converts. Flirty Fishing was practiced by members of Berg's inner circle starting in 1973, and was introduced to the general membership in 1976.


title: The Family International

text: The Children of God was abolished in February 1978, and Berg renamed his group "The Family of Love" In what Berg called the "Re-organization Nationalization Revolution" (or RNR). Berg reorganized the movement, dismissing "more than 300 leading members after hearing unspecified 'reports of serious misconduct and abuse of their positions." Reportedly involved were The Chain's abuse of authority, and disagreements within it about the continued use of Flirty Fishing. The group was also accused of sexually abusing and raping minors within the organization, with considerable evidence to support this claim. One eighth of the total membership left the movement. Those who remained became part of a reorganized movement called the Family of Love, and later, The Family. The majority of the group's beliefs remained the same.


title: The Family International

text: After 1978 Flirty Fishing "increased drastically" and became common practice within the group. A Mo Letter from 1980 (ML #999 May 1980) for example was headlined "The Devil Hates Sex! --- But God Loves It!".


title: The Family International

text: In some areas flirty fishers used escort agencies to meet potential converts. According to TFI "over 100,000 received God's gift of salvation through Jesus, and some chose to live the life of a disciple and missionary" as a result of Flirty Fishing. Researcher Bill Bainbridge obtained data from TFI suggesting that, from 1974 until 1987, members had sexual contact with 223,989 people while practicing Flirty Fishing.


title: The Family International

text: According to the Family's official history, the group had "far fewer common standards of conduct" during The Family of Love stage than it had previously. In the late 1980s the group "tightened its standards" "to ensure that all member communities provide a very wholesome environment for all, particularly the children", and changed its name to "The Family". In March 1989, TF issued a statement that, in "early 1985", an urgent memorandum had been sent to all members "reminding them that any such activities [adult–child sexual contact] are within our group" (emphasis in original), and such activities were grounds for immediate excommunication from the group. In January 2005, Claire Borowik, a spokesperson for TFI, stated:


title: The Family International

text: In the early 1990s, the group broke "years of virtual silence" and began "inviting reporters and religious scholars" to visit its commune in La Habra, California, where at least a "Washington Post" journalist (Gustav Niebuhr) found its members to be "a clean-cut bunch, friendly and courteous". At that time The Family claimed to have "about 9,000 members worldwide, with about 750 scattered across the United States". The group emphasized its mainstream Christian opposition to abortion, homosexuality, drugs and drunkenness and its respect for Rev. Billy Graham.


title: The Family International

text: After Berg's death in October 1994, Karen Zerby (known in the group as Mama Maria, Queen Maria, Maria David, or Maria Fontaine) assumed leadership of the group.


title: The Family International

text: In February 1995, the group introduced the "Love Charter", which defined the rights and responsibilities of Charter Members and Homes. The Charter also included the "Fundamental Family Rules", a summary of rules and guidelines from past TF publications which were still in effect.


title: The Family International

text: In the 1994–95 British court case, the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Alan Ward ruled that the group, including some of its top leaders, had in the past engaged in abusive sexual practices involving minors and had also used severe corporal punishment and sequestration of minors. He found that by 1995 TF had abandoned these practices and concluded that they were a safe environment for children. Nevertheless, he did require that the group cease all corporal punishment of children in the United Kingdom and denounce any of Berg's writings that were "responsible for children in TF having been subjected to sexually inappropriate behaviour".


title: The Family International

text: The Love Charter is The Family's set governing document that entails each member's rights, responsibilities and requirements, while the "Missionary Member Statutes" and "Fellow Member Statutes" were written for the governance of TFI's Missionary member and Fellow Member circles, respectively. FD Homes were reviewed every six months against a published set of criteria. The Love Charter increased the number of single family homes as well as homes that relied on jobs such as self-employment.


title: The Family International

text: TFI's recent teachings are based on beliefs which they term the "new [spiritual] weapons". TFI members believe that they are soldiers in the spiritual war of good versus evil for the souls and hearts of men.


title: The Family International

text: "Spirit Helpers" include angels, other religious and mythical figures, and departed humans, including celebrities; for example the goddess Aphrodite, the Snowman, Merlin, the Sphinx, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Richard Nixon, and Winston Churchill.


title: The Family International

text: TFI believes that the Biblical passage "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven", () refers to an increasing amount of spiritual authority that was given to Peter and the early disciples. According to TFI beliefs, this passage refers to keys that were hidden and unused in the centuries that followed, but were again revealed through Karen Zerby as more power to pray and obtain miracles. TFI members call on the various Keys of the Kingdom for extra effect during prayer. The Keys, like most TFI beliefs, were published in magazines that looked like comic-books in order to make them teachable to children. These beliefs are still generally held and practiced, even after the "reboot" documents of 2010.


title: The Family International

text: "Loving Jesus" is a term TFI members use to describe their intimate, sexual relationship with Jesus. TFI describes its "Loving Jesus" teaching as a radical form of bridal theology. They believe the church of followers is Christ's bride, called to love and serve him with wifely fervor; however, this bridal theology is taken further, encouraging members to imagine Jesus is joining them during sexual intercourse and masturbation. Male members are cautioned to visualize themselves as women, in order to avoid a homosexual relationship with Jesus. Many TFI publications, and spirit messages claimed to be from Jesus himself, elaborate this intimate, sexual relation they believe Jesus desires and needs. TFI imagines itself as his special "bride" in graphic poetry, guided visualizations, artwork, and songs. Some TFI literature is not brought into conservative countries for fear it may be classified at customs as pornography. The literature outlining this view of Jesus and his desire for a sexual relationship with believers was edited for younger teens, then further edited for children.


title: The Family International

text: Anti-TFI sentiment has been publicly expressed by some who have left the group; examples include sisters Celeste Jones, Kristina Jones, and Juliana Buhring, who wrote a book on their lives in TFI.


title: The Family International

text: TFI members are expected to respect legal and civil authorities where they live. Members have typically cooperated with appointed authorities, even during the police and social-service raids of their communities in the early 1990s.


title: The Family International

text: The Family has been criticized by the press and the anti-cult movement. Ex-members have accused the Family's leadership of following "a policy of lying to outsiders," being "steeped in a history of sexual deviance" and even meddling "in Third World politics". The Family replies that it is a victim of "persecution."


title: The Family International

text: In 1971, an organization called FREECOG was founded by concerned parents and others, including deprogrammer Ted Patrick to "free" members of the COG from their involvement in the group.


title: The Family International

text: At least one individual growing up in the family (Verity Carter) during the Children of God era described being sexually abused "from the age of four by members of the... cult, including her own father". She blames the philosophy of David Berg, who told members that "God was love and love was sex", so that sex should not be limited by age or relationship. Carter also complains of being "repeatedly beaten and whipped for the smallest of transgressions", being denied "music or television or culture," or other "contact with the outside world," so that she had "no idea how the world worked" other than how to manipulate the "systemites" (outsiders), like social workers.


title: The Family International

text: Author Don Lattin interviewed numerous members of the Family for his book "Jesus Freaks". In a review of his book, Paul Burgarino describes Berg as "drawing from the remnants of hippie life—people with nothing to lose, nowhere to go, and no Christian background" to alert them to deviations in Berg's preaching. One ex-Children of God member, Jerry Golland, describes himself at the time of joining the group as penniless and so depressed that the Children of God scraped him "off the street". Members would "learn to spot, you know... a vulnerable person. We called them sheep", Golland told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.


title: The Family International

text: Pressure to raise money could also be intense. Ex-member Golland says that members who were good at raising money and distributing the pamphlets were called "Shiners". Those with poor sales were called "Shamers". "If you missed your quota you could not come home for dinner", he said.


title: Robert Conrad

text: Robert Conrad (born Conrad Robert Falk; March 1, 1935 – February 8, 2020) was an American film and television actor, singer, and stuntman. He is best known for his role in the 1965–1969 television series "The Wild Wild West", playing the sophisticated Secret Service agent James T. West. He portrayed World War II ace Pappy Boyington in the television series "Baa Baa Black Sheep" (later syndicated as "Black Sheep Squadron"). In addition to acting, he was a singer and recorded several pop/rock songs in the late 1950s and early 1960s as Bob Conrad. He hosted a weekly two-hour national radio show ("The PM Show with Robert Conrad") on CRN Digital Talk Radio beginning in 2008.


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad was born Conrad Robert Falk in Chicago. His father, Leonard Henry Falk, was 17 years old at the time of Conrad's birth and was of German descent. His mother, Alice Jacqueline Hartman (daughter of Conrad and Hazel Hartman), was 15 years old when she gave birth, and named her son after her father. She became the first publicity director of Mercury Records, where she was known as Jackie Smith. She married twice, including once to Chicago radio personality Eddie Hubbard in 1948. Eddie Hubbard and Jackie Smith reportedly had a child together (born ) before splitting up in 1958.


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad attended Chicago schools including South Shore High School, Hyde Park High School, the YMCA Central School, and New Trier High School. He dropped out of school at age 15 to work full-time, including loading trucks for Consolidated Freightways and Eastern Freightways, and driving a milk truck for Chicago's Bowman Dairy.


title: Robert Conrad

text: After working in Chicago for several years and studying theater arts at Northwestern University, Conrad pursued an acting career. One of his first paying roles was a week-long job posing outside a Chicago theater where the film "Giant" (1956) was screened; Conrad bore a resemblance to the film's lead, actor James Dean, so his mother used her entertainment industry contacts to help him get the part intended as a publicity stunt to boost attendance at the theater. Conrad also studied singing; his vocal coach was Dick Marx, the father of singer Richard Marx.


title: Robert Conrad

text: In 1957, Conrad met actor Nick Adams while visiting James Dean's gravesite in Fairmount, Indiana. They became friends and Adams suggested that Conrad move to California to pursue acting.


title: Robert Conrad

text: Adams got a bit part for Conrad in the film "Juvenile Jungle" (1958). Adams was supposed to appear in it, but withdrew so he could take a part in a different movie. Conrad's brief non-speaking role in "Juvenile Jungle" enabled him to join the Screen Actors Guild. He had a small role in the film "Thundering Jets", also in 1958.


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad was soon signed to an acting contract by Warner Bros. He also sang, and released several recordings with Warner Bros. Records on a variety of LPs, EPs, and SPs 33-1/3 and 45 rpm records during the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1961, he had a minor "Billboard" hit song in "Bye Bye Baby" which reached No. 113.


title: Robert Conrad

text: At Warner, he appeared in the second season of the James Garner series "Maverick" (episode: "Yellow River", 1959). He was featured in other shows, either for Warner or Ziv Television, including "Highway Patrol", "Lawman", "Colt .45" (playing Billy the Kid), "Sea Hunt", "The Man and the Challenge", and "Lock Up".


title: Robert Conrad

text: Warner Brothers had a big success with its detective show "77 Sunset Strip", then made "Hawaiian Eye", a follow-up series. Conrad starred as detective Tom Lopaka. He was introduced on "Strip", then spun off into a series that ran from 1959 to 1963, both in the U.S. and overseas. During the series' run, Conrad appeared on an episode of the Warner Brothers series "The Gallant Men". After "Hawaiian Eye" was over, Conrad starred in "Palm Springs Weekend" (1963), Warners' attempt to repeat the success of "Where the Boys Are" (1960) with its young contract players.


title: Robert Conrad

text: In Mexico, Conrad signed a recording contract with the Orfeon label. He released two albums with a few singles sung in Spanish. In 1964, he guest-starred on an episode of "Temple Houston", then performed in the comedic film "La Nueva Cenicienta" (also known as "The New Cinderella"). The next year, he was in the episode "Four into Zero" of "Kraft Suspense Theatre", and portrayed Pretty Boy Floyd in "Young Dillinger" alongside his old friend Nick Adams.


title: Robert Conrad

text: In 1965, Conrad began his starring role as government agent James West on the weekly series "The Wild Wild West", which aired on CBS until its cancellation in 1969. He made $5,000 a week. He did most of his own stunts and fight scenes during the series, and while filming the season four episode "The Night of the Fugitives", he was injured and rushed to the hospital after he dove from the top of a saloon staircase, lost his grip on a chandelier, fell 12 feet, and landed on his head.


title: Robert Conrad

text: In addition to starring in "The Wild Wild West", Conrad found time to work on other projects. He went to Mexico in 1967 to appear in "Ven a cantar conmigo" ("Come, sing with me"), a musical. He also formed his own company, Robert Conrad Productions, and under its auspices he wrote, starred in, and directed the Western film "The Bandits" (also 1967).


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad appeared in episodes of "Mannix" and "". In 1969, he signed a three-picture deal with Bob Hope's Doan Productions. The first two films were slated to be "Keene" then "No Beer in Heaven" but only the first movie was ever produced.


title: Robert Conrad

text: In 1969, he debuted as prosecutor Paul Ryan in the TV movie "" (1969). He reprised the movie in "" (1971) and the short-lived 1971 series "The D.A.". In 1971, He also played Deputy D.A. Paul Ryan on Adam-12, (Episode: The Radical). He was also in such made-for-television movies as "Weekend of Terror" (1970) and "Five Desperate Women" (1971). He tried another TV series as American spy Jake Webster in "Assignment Vienna" (1972), which lasted only eight episodes. He was a murderous fitness franchise promoter in a fourth season episode of "Columbo" ("An Exercise in Fatality", 1974). Conrad starred in the feature films "Murph the Surf" (1975) and "Sudden Death" (1977). He reprised his role as Paul Ryan in the TV movie "Confessions of the D.A. Man".


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad found ratings success again from 1976 to 1978 as legendary tough-guy World War II fighter ace Pappy Boyington in "Baa Baa Black Sheep", retitled for its second season and in later syndication as "Black Sheep Squadron". He directed three episodes.


title: Robert Conrad

text: The show's success led Conrad to win a People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. He followed it with a lead part in the television miniseries "Centennial" (1978).


title: Robert Conrad

text: In 1978, Conrad starred in the short-lived TV series "The Duke" as Duke Ramsey, a boxer turned private eye. Conrad directed some episodes. In the late 1970s, he served as the captain of the NBC team for six editions of "Battle of the Network Stars". Around this time reprised the role of West in a pair of made-for-TV films which reunited him with his "West" co-star, Ross Martin, "The Wild Wild West Revisited" (1979) and "More Wild Wild West" (1980).


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad was identified in the late 1970s with his television commercials for Eveready batteries, particularly his placing of the battery on his shoulder and prompting the viewer to challenge its long-lasting power: "Come on, I dare ya". The commercial was parodied frequently on American television comedies such as Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show" and "The Carol Burnett Show".


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad made the occasional feature such as "The Lady in Red" (1979) for Roger Corman's New World Pictures, where he played John Dillinger from a script by John Sayles. Conrad later played a modern-day variation of James West in the short-lived series "A Man Called Sloane" in 1979. Conrad directed some episodes.


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad spent most of the 1980s starring in television movies. He played a paraplegic coach in "Coach of the Year" (1980), and the title role in "" (1982). Both were for his own company, A Shane Productions.


title: Robert Conrad

text: In 1984 Conrad and his production company produced the film, "Hard Knox". He played the lead role of U.S. Marine Colonel Joseph Knox. The story reveals a senior Marine aviator who has reached his pinnacle as a flyer and now must face the decision of accepting a promotion to brigadier general with a new ‘ground’ focused future in the Marines, or the possibility of retiring from the Corps and moving on in a different direction with his life. He makes the decision to return to the home of his youth – Mount Carroll, Illinois to visit his alma mater, a local military prep academy, and look up his mentor from more than 30 years ago. It is there, where the story of ‘Hard Knox’ begins to unfold. The film was shot in Mount Carroll at the former Shimer College.


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad played a Police Chief in the theatrically released comedy film "Moving Violations" (1985), and in the following TV movies; "The Fifth Missile" (1986), "Assassin" (1986) and "Charley Hannah's War" (1986).


title: Robert Conrad

text: In 1986, Conrad served as special guest referee for the main event of WrestleMania 2 between Hulk Hogan and King Kong Bundy in a Steel Cage Match for the WWF Championship.


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad appeared in the music video for Richard Marx's "Hazard", which was a No. 1 hit in 13 countries including the United States. He had a supporting role in "Jingle All the Way" (1996) with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Conrad's later credits include an episode of "Nash Bridges" and the film "Dead Above Ground" (2002).


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad appeared in the movie "Samurai Cowboy" in 1994. The following year, he created the TV movie "Search and Rescue", in which he starred, which in turn led to a short-lived TV series, also created by Conrad.


title: Robert Conrad

text: In 2005, he ran for President of the Screen Actors Guild. In 2006, Conrad recorded audio introductions for every episode of the first season of "The Wild Wild West" for its North American DVD release on June 6. The DVD set also included one of Conrad's Eveready battery commercials; in his introduction, Conrad stated he was flattered to be parodied by Carson. He was inducted into the Hollywood Stuntmen's Hall of Fame for his work on "The Wild Wild West" series.


title: Robert Conrad

text: Beginning in 2008, he hosted a weekly two-hour national radio show ("The PM Show with Robert Conrad") on CRN Digital Talk Radio. He appeared in the documentary film "Pappy Boyington Field" (released in July 2010 on DVD) where he recounted his personal insights about the legendary Marine Corps aviator he portrayed in the television series. His last appearance on the radio show was July 18, 2019, and Mike Garey was his co-host.


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad and his first wife Joan were married for 25 years and had five children. They divorced amicably in 1977. That same year he met his second wife LaVelda Ione Fann. He was 43 when he emceed the Miss National Teenager Pageant, which she won. Their marriage produced three children before their divorce in 2010. His two families were said to "get along famously". Conrad was joined on some television shows by his sons, Shane and Christian, and his daughter, Nancy. Another daughter, Joan, became a television producer.


title: Robert Conrad

text: In a 2008 interview, Conrad described Chicago Outfit associate and burglar Michael Spilotro as his "best friend". Spilotro's murder was featured in the movie "Casino". In 1984, Conrad was awarded a star on the Walk of Western Stars in Newhall, California (now a part of Santa Clarita).


title: Robert Conrad

text: Conrad was involved with a volunteer organization in Bear Valley, California, known as Bear Valley Search and Rescue, which later formed the basis for "High Mountain Rangers".


title: Robert Conrad

text: On March 31, 2003, while on Highway 4 in California's Sierra Nevada foothills near his Alpine County home, Conrad drove his Jaguar over the center median and slammed head-on into a Subaru driven by 26-year-old Kevin Burnett. Both men suffered serious injuries. Tried on felony charges, Conrad pleaded no contest, and he was convicted of drunk driving.


title: Robert Conrad

text: He was sentenced to six months of house confinement, alcohol counseling, and five years' probation. A civil suit filed by Kevin Burnett against Conrad was settled the following year for an undisclosed amount. In 2005, Burnett died at age 28 from perforated ulcers; his family attributed them to his difficult recovery from the crash. Conrad suffered severe nerve injuries from the crash, leaving his right side partially paralyzed.


title: An American Tail

text: An American Tail is a 1986 American animated musical adventure film directed by Don Bluth from a screenplay by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss and a story by David Kirschner, Freudberg and Geiss. The film features the voices of Phillip Glasser, John Finnegan, Amy Green, Nehemiah Persoff, Dom DeLuise, and Christopher Plummer. It tells the story of Fievel Mousekewitz and his family as they emigrate from Russia to the United States for freedom. However, he gets lost and must find a way to reunite with them.


title: An American Tail

text: The film was released in the United States on November 21, 1986, by Universal Pictures, four months after Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective" was released. It received mixed-to-positive reviews and was a box office hit, making it the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film at the time. Its success, along with that of fellow Bluth film "The Land Before Time" and Disney's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (both 1988), and Bluth's departure from their partnership, prompted executive producer Steven Spielberg to establish his own animation studio, Amblimation, in London, England.


title: An American Tail

text: The film spawned a franchise that included a sequel, "" (1991); a CBS TV series based on the movie, "Fievel's American Tails", premiered in 1992, and two additional direct-to-video sequels set between the first two films, "" (1998) and "" (1999). It is currently Don Bluth's second highest-grossing animated film, only behind "Anastasia" (1997).


title: An American Tail

text: In 1885 Shostka, Russia, the Mousekewitzes, a Russian-Jewish family of mice who live with a human family named Moskowitz, are having a celebration of Hanukkah where Papa gives his hat to his seven year-old son, Fievel, and tells him about the United States, a country in which he believes there are no cats. The celebration is interrupted when a battery of Cossacks ride through the village square in an anti-Jewish arson attack and their cats attack the village mice. Because of this, the Moskowitz home, along with that of the Mousekewitzes, is destroyed, while Fievel has a narrow escape from the cats. They flee the village in search of a better life.


title: An American Tail

text: In Hamburg, Germany, the Mousekewitzes board a tramp steamer setting sail for New York City. All the mice aboard are ecstatic at the process of going to America believing that there are "no cats" there. During a thunderstorm on their journey, Fievel suddenly finds himself separated from his family and washed overboard. Thinking that he has died, they proceed to the city as planned, though they become depressed at his loss.


title: An American Tail

text: However, Fievel floats to New York City in a bottle and, after a pep talk from a French pigeon named Henri, embarks on a quest to find his family. He encounters conman Warren T. Rat, who sells him to a sweatshop. He escapes with Tony Toponi, a street-smart Italian mouse, and they join up with Bridget, an Irish mouse trying to rouse her fellow mice to fight the cats. When a gang of them called the Mott Street Maulers attacks a mouse marketplace, the immigrant mice learn that the tales of a cat-free country are not true.


title: An American Tail

text: Bridget takes Fievel and Tony to see Honest John, an alcoholic (but reliable) politician who knows the city's voting mice. However, he can't help Fievel search for his family, as they have not yet registered to vote. Meanwhile, his older sister, Tanya, tells her gloomy parents that she has a feeling he is still alive, but they tell her to let go of these feelings as it does not seem possible that Fievel could still be alive.


title: An American Tail

text: Led by the rich and powerful Gussie Mausheimer, the mice hold a rally to decide what to do about the cats. Warren is extorting them all for protection that he never provides. No one knows what to do about it until Fievel whispers a plan to Gussie. Although his family also attends, they stand well in the back of the audience and they are unable to recognize Fievel onstage with her.


title: An American Tail

text: The mice take over an abandoned museum on the Chelsea Piers and begin constructing their plan. On the day of launch, Fievel gets lost and stumbles upon Warren's lair. He discovers that he is actually a cat in disguise and the leader of the Maulers. They capture and imprison Fievel, but his guard is a reluctant member of the gang, a goofy, soft-hearted long-haired orange vegetarian tabby cat called Tiger, who becomes friends and frees him.


title: An American Tail

text: Fievel races back to the pier with the cats chasing after him and exposes Warren as a cat when Gussie orders the mice to release the secret weapon. A huge mechanical mouse, inspired by the bedtime tales Papa told Fievel of the "Giant Mouse of Minsk", chases Warren T. Rat and his gang down the pier and into the water. A tramp steamer bound for Hong Kong picks them up on its anchor and carries them away. However, a pile of leaking kerosene cans has caused a torch lying on the ground to ignite the pier, and the mice are forced to flee when the fire department arrives to extinguish it.


title: An American Tail

text: During the fire, Fievel is once again separated from his family and ends up at an orphanage. Papa and Tanya overhear Bridget and Tony calling out to Fievel, but Papa is sure that there is another "Fievel" somewhere, until Mama finds his hat.


title: An American Tail

text: Joined by Gussie, Tiger allows them to ride him in a final effort to find Fievel and they are successful. Papa returns Fievel's hat, commenting that it now fits him and he has grown up into a mouse. Henri ends the journey by taking everyone to see his newly completed project—the Statue of Liberty, which appears to smile and wink at Fievel and Tanya, and the Mouskewitzes' new life in the United States begins.


title: An American Tail

text: Production began in December 1984 as a collaboration between Spielberg, Bluth, and Universal, based on a concept by David Kirschner. Originally, the idea was conceived as a television special, but Spielberg felt it had potential as a feature film. Spielberg had asked Bluth to "make me something pretty like you did in "NIMH"...make it beautiful". In a 1985 interview, he described his role in the production as "first in the area of story, inventing incidents for the script, and now consists of looking, every three weeks to a month, at the storyboards that Bluth sends me and making my comments". Bluth later commented that "Steven has not dominated the creative growth of "Tail" at all. There is an equal share of both of us in the picture". Nevertheless, this was Spielberg's first animated feature, and it took some time for him to learn that adding a two-minute scene would take dozens of people months of work. In 1985 he stated: "At this point, I'm enlightened, but I still can't believe it's so complicated". It was Universal Pictures' first animated feature film since "Pinocchio in Outer Space" in 1965 and the first animated film that they co-produced.


title: An American Tail

text: Originally, the concept consisted of an all-animal world, like Disney's "Robin Hood", but Bluth suggested featuring an animal world existing as a hidden society from the human world, like his own "NIMH" and Disney's "The Rescuers". After viewing "The Rescuers", Spielberg agreed. Emmy Award-winning writers Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss (known for their work on "Sesame Street") were brought in to expand the script. When the initial script was complete, it was extremely long and was heavily edited before its final release. Bluth felt uncomfortable with the main character's name, thinking "Fievel" was too foreign-sounding, and he felt audiences wouldn't remember it. Spielberg disagreed. The character was named after his maternal grandfather, Philip Posner, whose Yiddish name was Fievel. The scene in which he presses up against a window to look into a classroom filled with American "school mice" is based on a story Spielberg remembered about his grandfather, who told him that Jews were only able to listen to lessons through open windows while sitting outside in the snow. Spielberg eventually won out, though something of a compromise was reached by having Tony refer to Fievel as "Filly". Spielberg also had some material cut that he felt was too intense for children, including a scene Bluth was developing revolving around wave monsters while the family was at sea.


title: An American Tail

text: Bluth described the process of voice casting as "sometimes you can select a 'name' voice [i.e., a well-known actor] because it fits the essence of the character so well. Other times, you need to seek an obscure voice, close your eyes, and just listen to it. If it has the highs and lows in the deliverance of lines and it captures the focus of the character, it allows the animators to get a true fix on the action."


title: An American Tail

text: Will Ryan (Digit), Neil Ross (Honest John), Cathianne Blore (Bridget), and Hal Smith (Moe) are all voice actors well known in the animation industry.


title: An American Tail

text: In designing the look of the film and its characters, Bluth worked with Amblin Entertainment and the Sears marketing department (Sears had a major marketing push on the main character). He decided to make a stylistic shift from the more angular "modern style" of animation of the time to a style similar to Disney animation from the 1940s, where the characters have a more soft and cuddly feel. This proved successful, and at release many critics praised the "old fashioned style" of the film's look and feel. This was during a period when the market for nostalgia was particularly strong among baby boomers, who at this time were seeking products for their young children, and only three years before the beginning of the Disney Renaissance for the studio Bluth once worked for.


title: An American Tail

text: Bluth preferred to storyboard an entire picture, but it soon proved to be an enormous task. Larry Leker was brought in to assist, turning Bluth's rough sketches into final storyboard panels. Bluth commented that he would then "send them over to [Spielberg]. Often I brought them over myself, so that I could explain them. Steven would get very excited by what he saw, and we'd edit the boards right there...adding more drawings, or trimming some back". A large crew of animators was pulled together from around the world, utilizing cel painters in Ireland. Discussion arose about moving the entire production to Ireland, but Spielberg balked at the idea of a story called "An American Tail" being produced overseas.


title: An American Tail

text: At this time, Bluth and his crew discovered that using a video printer greatly increased their productivity. They could videotape an action, then print out small black and white thermal images from the tape for reference for both human and animal characters, a shorthand method similar to the rotoscoping technique (called in fact xerography) used since the earliest days of animation, in which sequences are shot in live action and traced onto animation cels. They also utilized the process of building models and photographing them, particularly the ship at sea, and the "Giant Mouse of Minsk", a technique also used in many Disney films.


title: An American Tail

text: During production, Amblin and Universal expected to view the dailies and approve all major work on the film, and various outside parties also requested changes here and there. The production buckled under the excessive oversight, and Bluth felt that he was losing freedom of control over the production process. As the release deadline approached, pressure grew among the crew and numerous problems arose, ranging from slower-than-expected cel painting in Ireland to low footage output by some animators. Also, the songwriters had written the score much later than originally desired. Suddenly scenes had to be dropped to save time and money and new, shorter scenes had to be created to help pick up the story points lost in the process, sometimes making the story line look jumbled. Notable cuts include the Mousekewitzes' journey across Europe, a scene in which they first meet Tiger and he gets stuck up in a tree, an upbeat song that Fievel was planned to sing while imprisoned in the sweatshop, and a scene that gave greater explanation of the changing of names at Ellis Island. Cuts are also responsible for baby Yasha's apparent disappearance after the boat trip.


title: An American Tail

text: The film was also plagued by union difficulties. Bluth had agreed to accept $6.5 million to get it produced (which later grew to $9 million), at a time when Disney was spending around $12 million per film. He knew it would be difficult, but felt it was worth the sacrifice to work with Spielberg on a major project. With the agreement of his employees, salaries were frozen for a year and half. Unlike the former Bluth studios, the new Sullivan Bluth studios were non-union, and when many workers attempted to withdraw from the union, it sparked a battle between Bluth and the union that continued through most of production. It was mostly this struggle that later compelled Bluth to relocate to Ireland, which he felt offered a more supportive atmosphere.


title: An American Tail

text: Spielberg's original vision for the film was as a musical. It is said he wanted a "Heigh-Ho" of his own (referring to the popular song from Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"). Jerry Goldsmith who had worked on "The Secret of NIMH" with Bluth was initially supposed to work on the score, but had to drop out of the film due to a busy schedule. After he completed "Aliens", James Horner composed the score for the film, which was recorded in England and performed by The London Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of King's College. Two excerpts of period music also appear in the film: "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa and "Poor Wand'ring One" from the 1880 comic opera "The Pirates of Penzance" by Gilbert and Sullivan. There is also a musical reference to the 1947 song "Galway Bay" popularized by Bing Crosby. Initially, Bluth and his team were disappointed with the first score recording, but once edited, they found the music worked quite well. The final score became one of the film's strongest points.


title: An American Tail

text: The initial songs were written by Tom Bahler, who had worked as a music supervisor and composer. Bahler left the project, in which Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann were later brought on to compose new songs, collaborating with Horner. After the first round of songs were written, it was decided a special song would be written for Linda Ronstadt to sing over the end credits with James Ingram. Titled "Somewhere Out There", it later went on to win two Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television. It would become one of the most popular songs from an animated feature since the 1950s.


title: An American Tail

text: An official soundtrack containing 14 tracks from the film was first released on November 21, 1986, by MCA Records, and was made available on audio cassette, vinyl record, and CD. It was later released digitally by Geffen Records on February 5, 2013.


title: An American Tail

text: The film has grossed up to $47 million in the United States and Canada, and $84 million worldwide. At the time of its domestic release, it became the highest-grossing animated feature for an initial release and the highest-grossing non-Disney produced animated feature. It was also one of the first animated films to outdraw a Disney one, beating out "The Great Mouse Detective" (another traditionally animated film involving mice that was released in 1986 but four months earlier) by over US$22 million. However, "The Great Mouse Detective" was more successful with critics, most notably Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. The inexpensive success of "The Great Mouse Detective" played a large role in the Disney Renaissance; due to the fact that it was both a critical and financial success, which saved Walt Disney Animation Studios from going bankrupt after "The Black Cauldron" had flopped at the box office a year earlier. It would later be outgrossed by Bluth's next film, 1988's "The Land Before Time", which marginally outperformed "Oliver & Company"; the latter did beat out "The Land Before Time" at the domestic box office by $5,000,000.


title: An American Tail

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 72% approval rating based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The consensus is: "Exquisitely animated, "An American Tail" is a sweet, melancholy immigrants story". On Metacritic, it has a score of 38% based on reviews from 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave it "two thumbs down" on a November 22, 1986, episode of their television program "At the Movies", calling it "the most downbeat children's movie since "Return to Oz"", and that it was "way too depressing for young audiences". Both reviewers also criticized how it gave little mention that the main characters were Jewish, or that the attack on their home at the beginning was an antisemitic one. They called it "a Jewish parable that doesn't want to declare itself" and felt that it "chickened out on its ethnic heritage". In his own review for the "Chicago Sun-Times", Roger Ebert gave it two stars out of four, giving credit to the animation, calling it "full and detailed, enhanced by computers and an improvement on so much recent animation that cuts corners", but that the story was too "dark and gloomy".


title: An American Tail

text: The film's writing garnered a mixed response. "Halliwell's Film Guide" claimed it didn't have "much in the way of narrative interest or indeed humor". Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called it "witless if well-meaning", adding that its high points were scenes involving the characters Gussie Mausheimer and Tiger. In his review for the "Chicago Reader", Pat Graham panned its "flimsy characterizations" but said that "the overall quality of the animation—baroquely executed if rather conventionally conceived—makes it worth a look". Common Sense Media gave it largely positive reviews, as the group stated: "This is a heartwarming animated tale about the experience of immigrants coming to America. Told from the perspective of an adorable young mouse, "An American Tail" should engage kids in an important part of U.S. history". Rita Kempley of "The Washington Post" called it "a bright-eyed tale of Jewish triumphs that will find a place in many young hearts", adding that "it reiterates the happiness of homogeneity, prepares the pups for both brotherhood and the free enterprise system. And it's as pretty as a cascade of soap bubbles".


title: An American Tail

text: Roger Harlburt, reviewing for the "Sun-Sentinel", also praised the character of Fievel: "You'll discover in gentle Fievel a endearing character that manages to be lovable without undue sentiment. His eyes may tear up once in a while and his lower lip quiver, but mostly he's ready to face the situation. Still, the superb animation makes you believe Fievel is a small boy lost in a big world". Harlburt later summarized: "Laced with action scenes and peppered with amusing dialogue, the film moves along briskly. Little ones won't be bored. Original songs – including Never Say Never, Somewhere Out There and We're a Duo – are also entertaining. You'll marvel over the quality of Plummer's singing voice and be convulsed by DeLuise's feline antics".


title: An American Tail

text: In September 1987, "An American Tail" was first released on VHS and became one of MCA Home Video's biggest sellers with sales of 1.4 million. It was later released on LaserDisc in both regular and CAV play editions in November 1991 by MCA Universal Home Video in North America, and CIC Video internationally. On August 11, 1998, both the film and its sequel "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West" were digitally restored and re-released onto VHS in a 2-pack box set with both videos having clamshell cases. A DVD version was first made available on January 20, 2004, by Universal Studios, which was presented in fullscreen aspect ratio only, and contained a number of changes from earlier versions, including re-dubbing certain character's voices in the Orphan Alley scene, the addition of new voices where there was previously no dialog, and new "humorous" sound effects. This version was reprinted along with other Universal films such as , "The Land Before Time", and "Balto". It was released in widescreen on Blu-ray for the first time on March 4, 2014, which included a digital HD and UltraViolet copy. It had the same changes as the DVD, although part of the film's end credits music score was 9% sped-up this time (due to time constrictions). A re-release of the fullscreen DVD version with new cover artwork followed on February 3, 2015. All four "American Tail" films were re-released on a combination pack DVD released on June 13, 2017. That release marked the first widescreen debut of the first two films on a Region 1 DVD.


title: An American Tail

text: The film gave rise to a number of follow-up media of which Don Bluth had no direct involvement. The theatrical sequel "", directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells and produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Watts, was released in 1991 and follows the adventures of Fievel and his family as they move from New York to the Wild West. A 13-episode TV series based on it called "Fievel's American Tails" aired on the CBS network between September and December 1992. Two direct-to-video films were also later produced by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment: "" in 1998, and "" in 1999. The Mousekewitz family would also be parodied, somewhat, as a family of Italian-American fleas in a few episodes of "Tiny Toon Adventures", also produced by Steven Spielberg.


title: An American Tail

text: A video game based on this movie was released for PlayStation 2 only in Europe in 2007 by Data Design Interactive.


title: An American Tail

text: Fievel would also serve as the mascot for Spielberg's Amblimation animation production company in London, England, appearing in its production logo until the studio's dissolution in 1997. In March 2000, Fievel became the official children's spokesman for UNICEF, with the organization's director of communications Craig Kornblau remarking that "Fievel Mousekewitz is a popular endearing character for children everywhere" and "his immigration experiences reflect the adventures and triumphs of all cultures and their children".


title: An American Tail

text: The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis is adapting the film into a stage musical, set to premiere April 25, 2023. An American Tail the Musical will include music and lyrics by Alan Schmuckler and Michael Mahler and Tony Award-winning playwright Itamar Moses writing the book.


title: An American Tail

text: Art Spiegelman accused Spielberg of plagiarism due to the fact that the Jews are depicted as mice in the film just as in Spiegelman's earlier "Maus", a metaphor he had adopted from Nazi propaganda. Instead of pursuing copyright litigation, he opted to beat its release date by convincing his publishers to split "Maus" into two volumes and publish the first before he even finished the second.


title: Rule of law

text: The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the "Encyclopedia Britannica" as "the mechanism, process, institution, practice, or norm that supports the equality of all citizens before the law, secures a nonarbitrary form of government, and more generally prevents the arbitrary use of power." The term "rule of law" is closely related to constitutionalism as well as "Rechtsstaat" and refers to a political situation, not to any specific legal rule.