title: Rick Wakeman

text: In October 1997, Wakeman received a Golden Badge Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA), given for outstanding contributions to the British music and entertainment industry. In 1998, he started work on "Return to the Centre of the Earth", a sequel album to commemorate the 25th anniversary of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth". The idea first came to Wakeman in 1991 during a tour of Italy, which led to discussions about the project with Atlantic Records that year about a re-recording of the original album with new equipment and arrangements, but the idea was rejected. It was revived in 1996 when Wakeman received offers from three record companies willing to fund and release a new "epic" album. After a deal with EMI Classics was made, a story based on three unnamed travellers and their attempt to follow the original route was finalised, and recording began in 1998 with a band, the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Choir, Patrick Stewart as the narrator, and guest performances from Trevor Rabin, Ozzy Osbourne, and Bonnie Tyler. Released in 1999, the album went to number 34 in the UK, Wakeman's first album to enter the chart in 12 years. Recording was temporarily disrupted because of Wakeman's health. In December 1998, Wakeman was featured on an episode of "This Is Your Life".


title: Rick Wakeman

text: Wakeman accepted an invitation to revive his English Rock Ensemble for a South American tour in September 2000, following a renewed interest in progressive rock there. The band featured a new line-up of Fernandez, Damian Wilson on vocals, Adam Wakeman on keyboards, Ant Glynne on guitar, and Lee Pomeroy on bass. Wakeman was particularly pleased with his playing, calling it his "best in a long time." The group returned in April 2001, followed by several European dates. Later that year, Wakeman entered discussions with Keith Emerson regarding a potential music project, but the idea was shelved. In 2001, Wakeman performed in his first pantomime role as Abanazar in a production of "Aladdin" in Truro, for the Christmas season. He made a cameo appearance in the 2002 thriller horror film "Alone" as a hospital patient. In 2003, Wakeman starred in the BBC television show "Grumpy Old Men", and stayed on as a regular until the show ended in 2006. The show increased his national profile and made him a regular in the after dinner speech circuit.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In April 2002, Wakeman rejoined Yes for the fifth and final time, and said it took eight months to get the necessary paperwork to make it happen. The band toured worldwide with the Full Circle Tour and 35th Anniversary Tours, which ran from 2002 to 2004. Wakeman described the band's playing during his return: "It was far and away the best the band had ever been ... there was no staleness, there was a lot of freshness." The only new studio material worked on during this time were bonus tracks on "". After the 2004 tour Yes entered a four-year hiatus, during which Wakeman retired from large scale tours following ongoing health problems. When the band regrouped in 2008, Wakeman's son Oliver replaced him on keyboards.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In April 2005, Wakeman and his band performed three shows in Havana, Cuba, including an outdoor show attended by an estimated 10,000 people. They came about after Wakeman was offered to perform there to support a charitable foundation that supports a children's cancer hospital. The first two shows were filmed and released as "Made in Cuba", proceeds from which were given to the hospital. Cuban leader Fidel Castro greeted Wakeman, thanking him for his humanitarian support. Wakeman received some criticism following the visit, which upset him personally and made him consider retiring from live performance. He addressed the false accusations on his website, clarifying that the visit was not staged for political reasons. Wakeman later revealed that Castro gave him some earth surrounding Che Guevara's grave. In June 2006, Wakeman toured the US with a solo piano tour. This was followed by a performance of "Return to the Centre of the Earth" with his band, orchestra, and choir in Quebec, Canada. The show featured Jon Anderson as a guest performer, which led to the pair touring the UK together as Anderson/Wakeman. Wakeman toured the UK in 2007 with a new production, the Grumpy Old Picture Show. Inspired by his appearances on "Grumpy Old Men", the show combined live performances and stories with visual accompaniments including old photos and pre-recorded sketches. The initial run of 14 dates were so successful, Wakeman completed a further 24 dates in the following year.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In May 2009, Wakeman performed his debut album "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" in its entirety for the first time at Hampton Court Palace, as part of the 500th anniversary celebrations of Henry VIII's assesion to the throne. He had originally asked to perform there in 1973, but was declined until he was invited 36 years later. The shows were released on CD and DVD as "The Six Wives of Henry VIII Live at Hampton Court Palace". In 2010, Wakeman was awarded the Spirit of Prog Award at the annual Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In 2012, Wakeman recorded a new and extended version of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", following the discovery of the original conductor's score three years prior which was considered lost. As the original album was shortened to fit a single LP, Wakeman re-recorded the album with the previously cut parts which expanded the work to 54 minutes. It features his English Rock Ensemble, the Orion Orchestra and English Chamber Choir conducted by Guy Protheroe, and narration by actor Peter Egan. In April and May 2014, Wakeman performed the expanded album on a 14-date UK tour to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the original. The re-recording of "Journey" became the catalyst for a new and expanded version of "King Arthur", following a request from a South American concert promoter, for which Wakeman wrote new music based on additional Arthurian legends. The re-record version runs for 88 minutes, and features actor Ian Lavender as narrator. It was Wakeman's first album produced via online direct-to-fan support, and released on 19 June 2016, the same day that Wakeman performed it live at London's O2 Arena for the Stone Free Festival.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In January 2016, Wakeman, Anderson, and Trevor Rabin announced the formation of their new band, Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman (ARW). The three toured from 2016 to 2018, performing Yes music across the band's history. Also in January 2016, Wakeman performed a live piano version of "Life on Mars?" on BBC Radio 2 as a tribute following the death of his old friend David Bowie. The strong reception from listeners and viewers of the YouTube video led Wakeman to release a single of the track with a piano version of "Space Oddity" and an original song, "Always Together", in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. The reception from the single and YouTube video inspired Wakeman to produce a solo piano album of tracks that he had played on in his career, plus original tunes and adaptations of classical pieces. "Piano Portraits" was released in January 2017 and peaked at No. 7 in the UK, Wakeman's highest-charting album since 1975. It also reached gold certification from the British Phonographic Institute. In 2018, Wakeman released a follow-up album, "Piano Odyssey", which also reached No. 7 in the UK.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In September and October 2019, Wakeman embarked on his first solo tour of the US in 13 years, playing piano shows. This was followed by the release of "Christmas Portraits", a Christmas-themed piano album. In 2020, Wakeman returned to his progressive rock roots with "The Red Planet", an instrumental album inspired by Mars and features his English Rock Ensemble. His next album will be "A Gallery of the Imagination", featuring tracks of varied styles including songs and instrumentals, set for release in 2022. Wakeman plans to have listeners produce artwork inspired by the music that will be displayed in a gallery, allowing visitors to hear the music as they walk around the exhibit.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In February 2023, Wakeman will perform two shows at the London Palladium which will include performances of "The Six Wives of Henry VIII", "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", "King Arthur", and a selection of Yes music.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: Although Wakeman is a noted player of the grand piano, electric piano, pipe organ, Hammond organ, Minimoog and many later models of synthesiser, he is well known as a proponent (for a time) of the Mellotron – an analogue electronic musical instrument that uses a bank of pre-recorded magnetic tape strips, each of which is activated by a separate key on its keyboard and lasts approximately 8 seconds. Wakeman featured playing this instrument, to varying degrees, on the David Bowie track "Space Oddity", the Yes albums "Fragile", "Close to the Edge" and "Tales From Topographic Oceans", as well as the solo albums "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" and "White Rock". An urban legend claims that Wakeman got so frustrated with one Mellotron that he poured petrol on it and set fire to it, but this was debunked in a 2010 interview. Wakeman did however confirm the urban legend in a 2016 interview. He subsequently worked with David Biro to develop the Birotron, which used the then popular 8-track cassette format rather than tape strips. Because of the advent of digital keyboards at that time, and expensive components used in the instruments' manufacture, the Birotron was never a commercial or technical success. Only 35 Birotrons were produced. These days, he can be found with more modern instruments such as the Korg Kronos, Yamaha Montage, and the Memotron, a new digital version of the original Mellotron.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In 2011 MusicRadar included Wakeman among "The 27 greatest keyboard players of all time". In 2019 readers of "Prog" voted him the second greatest progressive rock keyboard player, with the magazine stating, "Wakeman's time with Yes helped define prog as we know it, being filled with timeless brilliance [...] The man's style is fluent, and underlines a love of many genres, all cohesively brought into focus." Keyboardists who have cited Wakeman as an influence included Dave Greenfield of the Stranglers and Mark Kelly of Marillion, who cited Wakeman as his primary influence. Keith Emerson was also a close friend of Wakeman's and expressed admiration for his work.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: Wakeman has been married four times and has six children. At the age of 20, he married Rosaline Woolford on 28 March 1970 and had two sons, Oliver (b. 26 February 1972) and Adam (b. 11 March 1974). They divorced in 1977. Wakeman then married Swiss-born Danielle Corminboeuf, a recording studio secretary, in January 1980 in the West Indies and lived with her in Montreux. They had one son, Benjamin (b. 1978), before they divorced in late 1980. In 1981, Wakeman met former Page 3 model Nina Carter and had a daughter, Jemma Kiera (b. 1983), before they married in November 1984 and had a son, Oscar (b. 1986). The couple separated in 2000 and divorced in 2004.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In 2004, Wakeman revealed that he had had an extramarital affair with American-born designer Denise Gandrup, who first met Wakeman in 1972 and made several of his capes. After they split in 1981, they reconnected in 1985 and had one daughter, Amanda (b. 1986). Wakeman felt it best to keep the relationship and child secret to protect his family, but continued to financially support his daughter.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: Wakeman has faced a number of health issues. In his twenties he suffered three heart attacks due to his unhealthy lifestyle of smoking and heavy drinking. The first two were minor and he was told they may not have been noticed. The third occurred soon after a performance of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" at Crystal Palace Park in July 1974. Wakeman quit smoking in 1979. In 1985, Wakeman's drinking led to cirrhosis of the liver and alcoholic hepatitis, and he has been teetotal since. In 1999, Wakeman suffered from a case of double pneumonia and pleurisy and was placed in an induced coma. At one point during his stay in hospital, his doctors gave him 24 hours to live. In 2016, Wakeman announced he has diabetes.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In the 1970s, Wakeman met Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and bought Tropical Saint, a racehorse that belonged to her. After it died, he bought Balinloning, a small horse that he had in care for a year and entered in races. In 1979, he became a director of Brentford F.C., a post which he held for a year. In 1983, he became chairman of Camberley Town F.C.; he quit in 1987 due to his busy work schedule, but remained active as an honourary vice-president. In 2009, he became a patron of Tech Music Schools.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: He had a renewal of his Christian faith which began at around the time of his 1984 marriage to Carter.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: Wakeman is a supporter of the British Conservative Party, saying he was "unique in [Yes] as a card-carrying Conservative".


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In September 2005, Wakeman began a weekly three-hour radio show on Planet Rock called "Rick's Place", broadcasting Saturday mornings. The show ended in December 2010.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In late 2020, Wakeman launched "Rick's Plaice", a subscription-based video series based on the format of his former Planet Rock show. The show lasted for six episodes.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In 2007, Wakeman became a Freemason, joining the Chelsea Lodge No. 3098 which is made up of entertainers. His father was a member of the Brent Valley Lodge No. 3940, and the support that Wakeman and his mother received from his friends at the Lodge following his death was a catalyst for Wakeman to learn more about Freemasonry. In 2019, Wakeman was elected as an honorary member of his late father's Lodge. In 2011, Wakeman joined the Knights Templar fraternity, and is also a member of the Vaudeville Lodge. In 2014, he was installed as the 110th Worshipful Master of the Chelsea Lodge and elected as the 125th King Rat in the showbusiness fraternity and charity organisation, the Grand Order of Water Rats. Wakeman was the first person to hold both titles. He hosted the Grumpy Old Rockstar's Chelsea Lodge Ladies Festival in the following year. Wakeman appears in his Masonic apron in the 2017 documentary series "Inside the Freemasons".


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In a 2010 interview, he was critical of Wikipedia, saying it has too many inaccuracies and mistakes, and that he would love to see it "closed down".


title: Rick Wakeman

text: In June 2017, he was the castaway for the BBC Radio 4 programme "Desert Island Discs". His favourite piece was Giuseppe Verdi's "Anvil Chorus" and his book choice was "Principles of Orchestration" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: Wakeman was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to music and broadcasting.


title: Rick Wakeman

text: Wakeman's agent for TV and media work is entertainer Roger De Courcey, best known for performing with his puppet Nookie Bear.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. It is the center of the Columbia metropolitan statistical area, which had a population of 829,470 in 2020 and is the 72nd-largest metropolitan statistical area in the nation. The name Columbia is a poetic term used for the United States, derived from the name of Christopher Columbus, who explored for the Spanish Crown. Columbia is often abbreviated as Cola, leading to its nickname as "Soda City."


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The city is located about northwest of the geographic center of South Carolina, and is the primary city of the Midlands region of the state. It lies at the confluence of the Saluda River and the Broad River, which merge at Columbia to form the Congaree River. As the state capital, Columbia is the site of the South Carolina State House, the center of government for the state. In 1860, the South Carolina Secession Convention took place in Columbia; delegates voted for secession, making South Carolina the first state to leave the Union in the events leading up to the Civil War.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia is home to the University of South Carolina, the state's flagship public university and the largest in the state. The area has benefited from Congressional support for Southern military installations. Columbia is the site of Fort Jackson, the largest United States Army installation for Basic Combat Training. Twenty miles to the east of the city is McEntire Joint National Guard Base, which is operated by the U.S. Air Force and is used as a training base for the 169th Fighter Wing of the South Carolina Air National Guard.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In May 1540, a Spanish expedition led by Hernando de Soto traversed what is now Columbia while moving northward on exploration of the interior of the Southeast. The expedition produced the earliest written historical records of this area, which was part of the regional Cofitachequi chiefdom of the Mississippian culture.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: During the colonial era, European settlers encountered the Congaree in this area, who inhabited several villages along the Congaree River. The settlers established a frontier fort and fur trading post named after the Congaree, on the west bank of the Congaree River. It was at the fall line and the head of navigation in the Santee River system.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In 1754 the colonial government in South Carolina established a ferry to connect the fort with the growing European settlements on the higher ground on the east bank.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Like many other significant early settlements in colonial America, Columbia is on the fall line of the Piedmont region. The fall line is often marked by rapids at the places where the river cuts sharply down to lower levels in the Tidewater or Low Country of the coastal plain. Beyond the fall line, the river is unnavigable for boats sailing upstream. Entrepreneurs and later industrialists established mills in such areas, as the water flowing downriver, often over falls, provided power to run equipment.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: After the American Revolutionary War and United States independence, State Senator John Lewis Gervais of the town of Ninety Six introduced a bill that was approved by the legislature on March 22, 1786, to create a new state capital. Considerable argument occurred over the name for the new city. According to published accounts, Senator Gervais said he hoped that "in this town we should find refuge under the wings of COLUMBIA", for that was the name which he wished it to be called. One legislator insisted on the name "Washington", but "Columbia" won by a vote of 11–7 in the state senate.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The site was chosen as the new state capital in 1786 due to its central location in the state. The State Legislature first met there in 1790. After remaining under the direct government of the legislature for the first two decades of its existence, Columbia was incorporated as a village in 1805 and then as a city in 1854.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia received a large stimulus to development when it was connected in a direct water route to Charleston by the Santee Canal. This connected the Santee and Cooper rivers in a section. It was first chartered in 1786 and completed in 1800, making it one of the earliest canals in the United States. With competition later from faster railroad traffic, it ceased operation around 1850.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The commissioners designed a town of 400 blocks in a square along the river. The blocks were divided into lots of and sold to speculators and prospective residents. Buyers had to build a house at least long and wide within three years, or face an annual 5% penalty. The perimeter streets and two through streets were wide. The remaining squares were divided by thoroughfares wide. As the capital and one of the first planned cities in the United States, Columbia began to grow rapidly. Its population was nearing 1,000 shortly after the start of the 19th century.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The commissioners constituted the local government until 1797, when a Commission of Streets and Markets was created by the General Assembly. Three main issues occupied most of their time: public drunkenness, gambling, and poor sanitation.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In 1801, South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) was founded in Columbia. The original building survives. The city was chosen as the site of the state college in an effort to unite residents of the Upcountry and the Lowcountry and to discourage elite youth from traveling to England for their higher education. At the time, South Carolina planter families sent more young men to England than did men of any other state. The leaders of South Carolina kept a close eye on the new college: for many years after its founding, commencement exercises were held in December while the state legislature was in session.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia received its first charter as a town in 1805. An intendant and six wardens governed the town. John Taylor, the first elected intendant, later served in both houses of the General Assembly, both houses of Congress, and eventually was elected as governor. By 1816, some 250 homes had been built in the town and a population was more than 1000.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In 1828, the South Carolina Female "Collegiate" Institute was founded by Elias Marks for the higher education of young women. (The word "Collegiate" was added to its charter in 1835.) Since the school was located on 500 acres in the Barhamville area of Columbia, it was often informally called Barhamville Institute or Barhamville Academy. "...it was the first and only school of its character at the South. It was of a very high class..." The Barhamville Institute closed in 1867 due to the economic dislocation of the Civil War.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia became chartered as a city in 1854, with an elected mayor and six aldermen. Two years later, Columbia had a police force consisting of a full-time chief and nine patrolmen. The city continued to grow at a rapid pace, and throughout the 1850s and 1860s, Columbia was the largest inland city in the Carolinas. Railroad transportation served as a significant cause of population expansion in Columbia during this time. Rail lines that reached the city in the 1840s primarily transported cotton bales, not passengers, from there to major markets and the port of Charlestown. Cotton was the chief commodity of the state and lifeblood of the Columbia community; in 1850, virtually all of the city's commercial and economic activity was related to cotton. Cotton was sent to New York and New England's textile mills, as well as to England and Europe, where demand was high.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: "In 1830, around 1,500 slaves lived and worked in Columbia; this population grew to 3,300 by 1860. Some members of this large enslaved population worked in their masters' households. Masters also frequently hired out slaves to Columbia residents and institutions, including South Carolina College. Hired-out slaves sometimes returned to their owners' homes daily; others boarded with their temporary masters." During this period,


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia's First Baptist Church hosted the South Carolina Secession Convention on December 17, 1860. The white delegates drafted a resolution in favor of secession, 159–0. Columbia's location made it an ideal location for other conventions and meetings within the Confederacy.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: On February 17, 1865, in the last months of the Civil War, much of Columbia was destroyed by fire while Union troops under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman approached. Jeff Goodwyn, mayor of Columbia, sent William B. Stanley and Thomas W. Radcliffe to surrender the city to Sherman's troops. According to legend, the First Baptist Church was nearly torched by Sherman's troops. The soldiers marched up to the church and asked the sexton if he could direct them to the First Baptist Church. The sexton directed the men to the nearby Washington Street Methodist Church. First Baptist was saved at the expense of another historic church.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The controversy surrounding the burning of the city started soon after the war ended. General Sherman blamed the high winds and retreating Confederate soldiers for firing bales of cotton, which had been stacked in the streets. Sherman denied ordering the burning, though he did order destruction of militarily significant structures, such as the Confederate Printing Plant. Today, tourists can follow the path General Sherman's army took to enter the city and see structures or remnants of structures that survived the fire.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: During the Reconstruction era, when African-American Republicans were among the legislators elected to state government, Columbia became the focus of considerable attention. Reporters, journalists, travelers, and tourists flocked here to see a Southern state legislature whose members included freedmen (former slaves), as well as men of color who had been free before the war. The city began to rebuild and recover from the devastating fire of 1865; a mild construction boom took place within the first few years of Reconstruction. In addition, repair of railroad tracks in outlying areas created more jobs for residents.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: By the late nineteenth century, culture was expanding in the city. In 1897 the Columbia Music Festival Association (CMFA) was founded by Mayor William McB. Sloan and the city aldermen. It was headquartered in the Opera House on Main Street, which also served as City Hall. Its role was to book and manage concerts and events in the opera house for the city.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: During the early 20th century, Columbia developed as a regional textile manufacturing center. In 1907, Columbia had six mills in operation: Richland, Granby, Olympia, Capital City, Columbia, and Palmetto. Combined, they employed over 3,400 workers with an annual payroll of $819,000, giving the Midlands an economic boost of over $4.8 million. Columbia had no paved streets until 1908, when 17 blocks of Main Street were surfaced. But, it had 115 publicly maintained street crossings, boardwalks placed at intersections to keep pedestrians from having to wade through a sea of mud between wooden sidewalks. As an experiment, Washington Street was once paved with wooden blocks. This proved to be the source of much local amusement when they buckled and floated away during heavy rains. The blocks were replaced with asphalt paving in 1925.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: During the years 1911 and 1912, some $2.5 million worth of construction occurred in the city, as investors used revenues generated by the mills. New projects included construction of the Union Bank Building at Main and Gervais, the Palmetto National Bank, a shopping arcade, and large hotels at Main and Laurel (the Jefferson) and at Main and Wheat (the Gresham). In 1917, the city was selected by the US Army to be developed as the site of Camp Jackson, a U.S. military installation that was officially classified as a "Field Artillery Replacement Depot". The first recruits arrived at the camp on September 1, 1917. In the first several decades of the 20th century, white Democrats of the Solid South controlled an outsize amount of power in the House and Senate. The former Confederate states had effectively disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites through passage of discriminatory laws and constitutions that made voter registration and voting more difficult. But they controlled all the seats in Congress related to the total state populations.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In 1930, Columbia was the hub of a trading area with about 500,000 potential customers. It had 803 retail establishments, 280 of them being food stores. The city also had 58 clothing and apparel outlets, 57 restaurants and lunch rooms, 55 filling stations, 38 pharmacies, 20 furniture stores, 19 auto dealers, 11 shoe stores, nine cigar stands, five department stores, and one book store. Wholesale distributors located within the city numbered 119, with one-third of them dealing in food.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In 1934, the federal courthouse at the corner of Main and Laurel streets was purchased by the city for use as City Hall. Built of granite from nearby Winnsboro, Columbia City Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by Alfred Built Mullett, President Ulysses S. Grant's federal architect, the building was completed in 1876. Mullet, best known for his design of the Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, had originally designed the courthouse with a clock tower. It was not constructed, perhaps because of large cost overruns on the project. Copies of Millet's original drawings can be seen on the walls of City Hall alongside historic photos of other Columbia beginnings. Federal offices were moved to the new J. Bratton Davis United States Bankruptcy Courthouse.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In 1940 Camp Jackson was reactivated after war started in Europe, and was designated as Fort Jackson. City leaders and the congressional delegation had lobbied to gain such a permanent military installation. In the early 1940s, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which catalyzed the entry of the US into World War II, Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his group of now-famous pilots began training for the 1942 Doolittle Raid over Tokyo at what is now Columbia Metropolitan Airport. They trained in B-25 Mitchell bombers, the same model as the plane that is installed at Columbia's Owens Field in the Curtiss-Wright hangar.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: During the 1940s African Americans increased activism for their civil rights: seeking to reverse Jim Crow laws and racial discrimination that pushed them into second-class status in Columbia and the state. In 1945, a federal judge ruled that the city's black teachers were entitled to equal pay to that of their white counterparts. But, in following years, the state attempted to strip many blacks of their teaching credentials. Other issues in which the blacks of the city sought equality concerned voting rights and segregation (particularly regarding public schools). In 1954, in "Brown v. Board of Education", the US Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: On August 21, 1962, eight downtown chain stores served blacks at their lunch counters for the first time. The University of South Carolina, a public institution, admitted its first black students in 1963. Around that same time, many vestiges of segregation began to disappear from the city: blacks attained membership on various municipal boards and commissions, and the city adopted a non-discriminatory hiring policy. These and other such signs of racial progress helped earn the city the 1964 All-America City Award for the second time (the first being in 1951). A 1965 article in "Newsweek" lauded Columbia as a city that had "liberated itself from the plague of doctrinal apartheid".


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Since the late 20th century, historic preservation has played a significant part in the city. The historic Robert Mills House was restored in 1967, which inspired the renovation and restoration of other historic structures, such as the Hampton-Preston House and others associated with President Woodrow Wilson, Maxcy Gregg, Mary Boykin Chesnut, and noted free black Celia Mann. In the early 1970s, the University of South Carolina initiated the refurbishment of its "Horseshoe". Several area museums also benefited from the increased historical interest of that time, among them the Fort Jackson Museum, the McKissick Museum on the campus of the University of South Carolina, and most notably the South Carolina State Museum, which opened in 1988.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Mayor Kirkman Finlay, Jr., was the driving force behind the refurbishment of Seaboard Park, now known as Finlay Park, in the historic Congaree Vista district. His administration developed the $60 million Palmetto Center package, which resulted in construction of an office tower, parking garage, and the Columbia Marriott hotel, which opened in 1983. In 1980, the Columbia metropolitan population reached 410,088, and in 1990, this figure had hit roughly 470,000. During the 1970s and 1980s skyscrapers were constructed and other real-estate development took place throughout Columbia. To meet demand of businesses, the city constructed The Tower at 1301 Gervais in 1973. In 1983, Hub at Columbia was constructed. In 1987, the Capitol Center was built, which became the tallest building in South Carolina. The Bank of America Plaza was built in 1989.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: During the 1990s and early 2000s the city worked to revitalize the downtown, as businesses had been pulled out to the suburbs. The Congaree Vista district along Gervais Street, once known as a warehouse district, became an area of art galleries, shops, and restaurants. The Colonial Life Arena (formerly known as the Colonial Center) opened in 2002, and brought several major entertainers and shows to Columbia. EdVenture, the largest children's museum in the Southeast, opened in 2003. The Village at Sandhill shopping center opened in 2004 in Northeast Richland County.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center opened in 2004, and a new convention center hotel opened in September 2007. A public-private City Center Partnership has been formed to implement the downtown revitalization and boost downtown growth. In 2009, Columbia's most recent skyscraper, the Tower at Main and Gervais, was completed. Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin started his first term in July 2010, elected as the first African-American mayor in the city's history.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Founders Park, home of USC baseball, opened in 2009. The South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team won two NCAA national championships in 2010 and in 2011. The 2010 South Carolina Gamecocks football team, under coach Steve Spurrier, earned their first appearance in the SEC championship. Historic flooding in the city in October 2015 forced the Gamecocks football team to move their October 10 home game. Segra Park (formerly Spirit Communications Park), home of the Columbia Fireflies, opened in April 2016. In 2017, the Gamecocks women's basketball team (under coach Dawn Staley) won their first NCAA championship, and the men's basketball team went to the Final Four for the first time. They won their second national championship in 2022.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: A Mast General Store was opened in 2011. The Music Farm opened a location in Columbia on Senate Street in 2014. In 2000, the Confederate battle flag was moved from the South Carolina State House to the Confederate monument. On July 10, 2015, the flag was removed from the monument to a museum. In 2017, the central path of a total solar eclipse passed directly over the city and state capitol.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In March 2019, the murder of Samantha Josephson gained national attention. In Five Points, a neighborhood in Columbia known for its late-night bars, Samantha Josephson mistakenly entered into a car she believed was her Uber. The driver, Nathaniel Rowland, killed Josephson, sparking laws around the United States to further regulate rideshare companies. In South Carolina, the Samantha L. Josephson Ridesharing Act requires rideshare drivers to display identifying lights and prohibits the misrepresentation of non-rideshare drivers as such. Similar laws passed in New Jersey, North Carolina, and New York State. Rowland was caught, convicted, and sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In May 2019, 10,000 people marched at the Statehouse in the "All Out Rally" to protest issues surrounding education, including low teacher pay, high student-to-teacher ratios, and the general underfunding of education. The protest was led by SC for Ed, a left-learning state advocacy group for teachers.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, protests spread to Columbia, which included the burning of several police cars and the breaking of business' windows.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In 2021, Republican Daniel Rickenmann was elected mayor of Columbia, defeating Tameika Devine. He succeeded Stephen K. Benjamin, who did not seek reelection, in January 2022.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: On April 16, 2022, a mass shooting at the Columbiana Centre in the Lexington County portion of the city resulted in the injuries of 14 people. 10 were struck by gunfire while four sustained stampede-related injuries. Three men were arrested; Columbia police declared that the shooting was the result of an argument, not a random attack or terrorism.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: One of Columbia's more prominent geographical features is the fall line, the boundary between the upland Piedmont region and the Atlantic Coastal Plain, across which rivers drop as falls or rapids. Columbia developed at the fall line of the Congaree River, which is formed by the confluence of the Broad and Saluda rivers. The Congaree was the farthest inland point of river navigation. The energy of falling water also powered Columbia's early mills.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The city has capitalized on this location, which includes three rivers, by identifying as "The Columbia Riverbanks Region". Columbia is located roughly halfway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Blue Ridge Mountains, at an elevation around .


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Soils in Columbia are well drained in most cases, with grayish brown loamy sand topsoil. The subsoil may be yellowish-red, sandy clay loam (Orangeburg series), yellowish-brown sandy clay loam (Norfolk series), or strong brown sandy clay (Marlboro series). All belong to the Ultisol soil order.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water (2.01%). Approximately ⅔ of Columbia's land area, , is contained within the Fort Jackson Military Installation, much of which consists of uninhabited training grounds. The actual inhabited area for the city is slightly more than .


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen "Cfa"), with relatively cool to mild winters and hot and humid summers. The area averages 55 nights below freezing and is subject to temporary cold spells during the winter, but extended cold or days where the temperature fails to rise above freezing are both rare. These cold snaps usually result from atmospheric troughs that bring in cold air from Canada across the Eastern part of the country. The USDA places Columbia in the 8a Hardiness Zone.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: With an annual average of 5 days with + and 72 days with + temperatures, the city's current promotional slogan describes Columbia as "Famously Hot". In the summer months, Columbia usually has the greatest high temperature in the state. One reason for this is its low elevation in comparison to other cities at similar latitudes. For example, Atlanta has a significantly higher elevation, which helps to moderate its summer temperatures. Secondly, the city lies in the heart of the Sandhills region. Since the region's soils are more sandy, they contain less water and can warm up more quickly. This explains why usually only the high temperatures and not the low temperatures are much different from across the state. Thirdly, because of its distance from the Atlantic Ocean, it does not receive the same moderating effects of coastal cities like Charleston. Lastly, the city experiences the urban heat island effect, making it significantly warmer than some surrounding towns and cities.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Precipitation, at annually, peaks in the summer months largely because of afternoon thunderstorms, and is the least during spring and fall. Snowfall averages , but is largely variable depending on the year. Snow flurries usually do fall at least once during the winter season during its coldest periods. Like much of the southeastern U.S., the city is prone to inversions, which trap ozone and other pollutants over the area.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Official extremes in temperature at the main weather station have ranged from on June 29 and 30, 2012 down to , set on February 14, 1899. Only one other sub-zero temperature has been recorded in Columbia: on January 21, 1985. A weather station at the University of South Carolina campus measured a reading of on June 29, 2012, which is the highest temperature ever recorded in South Carolina.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The metropolitan statistical area of Columbia is the second-largest in South Carolina; it has a population of 817,488 according to the 2016 Census estimates.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 136,632 people, 45,474 households, and 22,243 families residing in the city.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 129,272 people, 52,471 total households, and 22,638 families residing in the city. The population density was 928.6 people per square mile (358.5/km). There were 46,142 housing units at an average density of 368.5 per square mile (142.3/km). The racial makeup of the city was 51.27% White, 42.20% Black, 2.20% Asian, 0.25% Native American, 0.30% Pacific Islander, 1.50% from other races, and 2.00% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.30% of the population.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: There were 45,666 households, out of which 22.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 28.7% were married couples living together, 17.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.4% were nonfamilies. 38.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 2.94.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 20.1% under the age of 18, 22.9% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 16.6% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.4 males.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The median income for a household in the city was $31,141, and the median income for a family was $39,589. Males had a median income of $30,925 versus $24,679 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,853. About 17.0% of families and 22.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.7% of those under the age of 18 and 16.9% ages 65 or older.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The Southern Baptist Convention has 241 congregations and 115,000 members. The United Methodist Church has 122 congregations and 51,000 members. The Evangelical Lutheran Church has 71 congregations and 25,400 members. The PC (USA) has 34 congregations and 15,000 members; the Presbyterian Church in America has 22 congregations and 8,000 members. Columbia is see city of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina, and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is located across the street from the state capitol. The Catholic Church has 14 parishes, including the Basilica of Saint Peter, the state's only minor basilica and the 85th church in the U.S. to receive this designation from the Vatican. There are three Jewish synagogues. There are three different Islamic musjids providing places of worship for more than 600 Muslim families living in Columbia. There is one Greek Orthodox Church in Columbia. There are two Hindu Temples in the city, Hindu Temple of South Carolina and BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Columbia.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia enjoys a diversified economy, with the major employers in the area being South Carolina state government, the Palmetto Health hospital system, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, Palmetto GBA, and the University of South Carolina. Other major employers in the Columbia area include Computer Sciences Corporation, Fort Jackson, the U.S. Army's largest and most active initial entry training installation, Richland School District One, Humana/TriCare, and the United Parcel Service, which operates its Southeastern Regional Hub at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. Major manufacturers such as Square D, CMC Steel, Spirax Sarco, Michelin, International Paper, Pirelli Cables, Honeywell, Westinghouse Electric, Harsco Track Tech, Trane, Intertape Polymer Group, Union Switch & Signal, FN Herstal, Solectron, and Bose Technology have facilities in the Columbia area. There are over 70 foreign affiliated companies and fourteen Fortune 500 companies in the region.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Several companies have their global, continental, or national headquarters in Columbia, including Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company, the second-largest supplemental insurance company in the nation; the Ritedose Corporation, a pharmaceutical industry services company; AgFirst Farm Credit Bank, the largest bank headquartered in the state with over $30 billion in assets (the non-commercial bank is part of the Farm Credit System, the largest agricultural lending organization in the United States which was established by Congress in 1916); South State Bank, the largest commercial bank headquartered in South Carolina; Nexsen Pruet, LLC, a multi-specialty business law firm in the Carolinas; Spectrum Medical, an international medical software company; Wilbur Smith Associates, a full-service transportation and infrastructure consulting firm; and Nelson Mullins, a major national law firm. CSC's Financial Services Group, a major provider of software and outsourcing services to the insurance industry, is headquartered in the Columbia suburb of Blythewood.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The city of Columbia has recently accomplished a number of urban redevelopment projects and has several more planned. The historic Congaree Vista, a district running from the central business district toward the Congaree River, features a number of historic buildings that have been rehabilitated since its revitalization begun in the late 1980s. Of note is the adaptive reuse of the Confederate Printing Plant on Gervais and Huger, used to print Confederate bills during the American Civil War. The city cooperated with Publix grocery stores to preserve the look. This won Columbia an award from the International Downtown Association. The Vista district is also where the region's convention center and anchor Hilton hotel with a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse restaurant are located. Other notable developments under construction and recently completed include high-end condos and townhomes, hotels, and mixed-use structures.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The older buildings lining the Vista's main thoroughfare, Gervais Street, now house art galleries, restaurants, unique shops, and professional office space. Near the end of Gervais is the South Carolina State Museum and the EdVenture Children's Museum. Private student housing and some residential projects are going up nearby; the CanalSide development at the site of the old Central Correctional Institution, is the most high-profile. Completed in 2018, CanalSide is a 23-acre mixed-use development in the Vista on the Congaree River and is home to 750 residential rental apartments: townhomes, condominiums and lofts. Lady Street between Huger and Assembly streets in the Vista and the Five Points neighborhood have undergone beautification projects, which mainly consisted of replacing curbs and gutters, and adding brick-paved sidewalks and angled parking.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Special revitalization efforts are being aimed at Main Street, which began seeing an exodus of department and specialty stores in the 1990s. The goal is to re-establish Main Street as a vibrant commercial and residential corridor, and the stretch of Main Street home to most businesses—-from Gervais to Blanding streets—-has been streetscaped in recent years. Notable developments completed in recent years along Main Street include an 18-story, $60 million tower at the high-profile corner of Main and Gervais streets, the renovation of the 1441 Main Street office building as the new Midlands headquarters for Wells Fargo Bank (formerly Wachovia Bank), a new sanctuary for the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, the location of Mast General store in the historic Efird's building, and the relocation of the Nickelodeon theater. A façade improvement program for the downtown business district, implemented in 2011, has resulted in the restoration and improvement of the façades of several historic Main Street shopfronts. One of the most ambitious development projects in the city's history is currently underway which involves old state mental health campus downtown on Bull Street. Known formally as Columbia Common, this project will consist of rehabbing several historic buildings on the campus, as well as constructing new buildings, for residential, hospitality, and retail use. A minor league baseball stadium was built on the campus in 2016. Named Segra Park, it is home to the Columbia Fireflies.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In November 2005, the Soda City Market, an outdoor market, was established as part of Main Street's revitalization. Every Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 1 p.m., Main Street is closed to vehicular traffic. On average, 150 vendors sell at the market each week, and it is estimated that approximately 5,000 shoppers attend. The market contributes approximately 5 million dollars in sales annually. Items sold are typically handmade and local, including produce, cuisine, paintings, jewelry, and other crafted items.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Movies filmed in the Columbia area include "The Program", "Renaissance Man", "Chasers", "Death Sentence", "A Guy Named Joe", and "Accidental Love/Nailed".


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, which opened in September 2004 as South Carolina's only downtown convention center, is a , modern, state-of-the-art facility designed to host a variety of meetings and conventions. Located in the historic Congaree Vista district, this facility is close to restaurants, antique and specialty shops, art galleries, and various nightlife venues. The main exhibit hall contains almost of space; the Columbia Ballroom over ; and the five meeting rooms ranging in size from 1500 to add another of space. The facility is located next to the Colonial Life Arena.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Koger Center for the Arts provides Columbia with theatre, music, and dance performances that range from local acts to global acts. The facility seats 2,256 persons. The center is named for philanthropists Ira and Nancy Koger, who made a substantial donation from personal and corporate funds for construction of the $15 million center. The first performance at the Koger Center was given by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and took place on Saturday, January 14, 1989. The facility is known for hosting diverse events, from the State of the State Address to the South Carolina Body Building Championship and the South Carolina Science Fair.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Carolina Coliseum, which opened in 1968, is a 12,401-seat facility which initially served as the home of the USC Gamecocks' basketball teams. The arena could be easily adapted to serve other entertainment purposes, including concerts, car shows, circuses, ice shows, and other events. The versatility and quality of the coliseum at one time allowed the university to use the facility for performing arts events such as the Boston Pops, Chicago Symphony, Feld Ballet, and other performances by important artists. An acoustical shell and a state-of-the-art lighting system assisted the coliseum in presenting such activities. The coliseum was the home of the Columbia Inferno, an ECHL team. However, since the construction of the Colonial Life Arena in 2002, the coliseum now is the center for the men's and women's basketball programs, with the center arena now housing the two main practice courts.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Township Auditorium seats 3,099 capacity and is located in downtown Columbia. The Georgian Revival building was designed by the Columbia architectural firm of Lafaye and Lafaye and constructed in 1930. The Township has hosted thousands of events from concerts to conventions to wrestling matches. The auditorium was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on September 28, 2005, and has recently undergone a $12 million extensive interior and exterior renovation.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The most popular sports in Columbia are the sports programs at the University of South Carolina. Columbia also offers minor league, semi-pro, and amateur sports. In April 2017 the women's Gamecocks basketball team won the NCAA national championship, defeating Mississippi State 67–55.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia has also hosted the women's U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 1996 and 2000 and the 2007 Junior Wildwater World Championships, which featured many European canoe and kayak racers. The Colonial Life Arena has also hosted NBA exhibition games.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Williams-Brice Stadium is the home of the USC Gamecocks' football team and is the 24th largest college football stadium in the nation. It seats 80,250 people and is located just south of downtown Columbia. The stadium was built in 1934 with the help of federal Works Progress Administration funds, and initially seated 17,600. The original name was Carolina Stadium, but on September 9, 1972, it was renamed to honor the Williams and Brice families. Mrs. Martha Williams-Brice had left much of her estate to the university for stadium renovations and expansions. Her late husband, Thomas H. Brice, played football for the university from 1922 to 1924.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Colonial Life Arena, opened in 2002; it has 18,000 seats for college basketball, it is the largest arena in the state of South Carolina, serving as the home of the men's and women's USC Gamecocks basketball teams. Located on the University of South Carolina campus, this facility features 41 suites, four entertainment suites, and the Frank McGuire Club, a full-service hospitality room with a capacity of 300. The facility has padded seating, a sound system, and a four-sided video scoreboard.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The $13 million Charlie W. Johnson Stadium is the home of Benedict College football and soccer. The structure was completed and dedicated in 2006 and seats 11,000 with a maximum capacity of 16,000.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The Founders Park opened in 2009. Seating 8,400 permanently for college baseball and an additional 1,000 for standing room only, it is the largest baseball stadium in the state of South Carolina. It serves as the home of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks' baseball team. Located near Granby Park near downtown Columbia, this facility features entertainment suites, a picnic terrace, and a dining deck. The facility also features a sound system and scoreboard.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: On January 6, 2015, developers broke ground on the $37 million Segra Park. The stadium is the home for the Columbia Fireflies, a Minor League Baseball team playing in the Low-A East. It opened in April 2016 and can seat up to 7,501 people. Columbia had been without minor league baseball since the Capital City Bombers relocated to Greenville, South Carolina, in 2004.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Finlay Park has hosted events from festivals and political rallies to road races and Easter Sunrise services. This park has had two lives; first dedicated in 1859 as Sidney Park, named in honor of Algernon Sidney Johnson, a Columbia City Councilman, the park experienced an illustrious but short tenure. The park fell into disrepair after the Civil War and served as a site for commercial ventures until the late 20th century. In 1990, the park was reopened. It serves as the site for such events as Kids Day, The Summer Concert Series, plus many more activities. In 1992, the park was renamed Finlay Park, in honor of Kirkman Finlay, a past mayor of Columbia who had a vision to reenergize the historic Congaree Vista district, between Main Street and the river, and recreate the site that was formerly known as Sidney Park. The city has plans for an $18 million upgrade of the park in the near future which will include a redesigned parking lot near Laurel Street; a significant overhaul of the pond; construction of a pair of scenic streams; brand new shelters, restrooms, plazas, and performance stage; new waterfall features; and a new, large playground with a splash pad.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Memorial Park is a tract of land in the Congaree Vista between Main Street and the river. The property is bordered by Hampton, Gadsden, Washington, and Wayne Streets and is one block south of Finlay Park. This park was created to serve as a memorial to those who served their country and presently has monuments honoring the USS Columbia warship and those that served with her during World War II, the China-Burma-India Theater Veterans of WWII, casualties of the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941, who were from South Carolina, Holocaust survivors who live in South Carolina as well as concentration camp liberators from South Carolina, and the State Vietnam War Veterans. The park was dedicated in November 1986 along with the unveiling of the South Carolina Vietnam Monument. In June 2000, the Korean War Memorial was dedicated at Memorial Park. In November 2014, Columbia native and resident of Boston, Henry Crede, gave a bronze statue and plaza in the park dedicated to his WWII comrades who served in the Navy from South Carolina.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Granby Park opened in November 1998 as a gateway to the rivers of Columbia, adding another access to the many river activities available to residents. Granby is part of the Three Rivers Greenway, a system of green spaces along the banks of the rivers in Columbia, adding another piece to the long-range plan and eventually connecting to the existing Riverfront Park. Granby is a linear park with canoe access points, fishing spots, bridges, and ½ mile of nature trail along the banks of the Congaree River.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In the Five Points district of downtown Columbia is the park dedicated to the legacy and memory of civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. Formerly known as Valley Park, it was renamed in the late 1980s. The park features a water sculpture and a community center. An integral element of the park is the Stone of Hope monument, unveiled in January 1996. The monument is inscribed with a portion of King's 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech: "History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued that self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solutions of the problems of the world."


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: One of Columbia's greatest assets is Riverbanks Zoo & Garden. Riverbanks Zoo is a sanctuary for more than 2,000 animals housed in natural habitat exhibits along the Saluda River. Just across the river, the botanical garden is devoted to gardens, woodlands, plant collections, and historic ruins. Riverbanks has been named one of America's best zoos and the No. 1 travel attraction in the Southeast. It attracted over one million visitors in 2009.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Situated along the meandering Congaree River in central South Carolina, Congaree National Park is home to champion trees, primeval forest landscapes, and diverse plant and animal life. This park protects the largest contiguous tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the United States. The park is an international biosphere reserve. Known for its giant hardwoods and towering pines, the park's floodplain forest includes one of the highest canopies in the world and some of the tallest trees in the eastern United States. Congaree National Park provides a sanctuary for plants and animals, a research site for scientists, and a place to walk and relax in a tranquil wilderness setting.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Sesquicentennial State Park is a park, featuring a lake surrounded by trails and picnic areas. The park's proximity to downtown Columbia and three major interstate highways attracts both local residents and travelers. Sesquicentennial is often the site of family reunions and group campouts. Interpretive nature programs are a major attraction to the park. The park also contains a two-story log house, dating back to the mid 18th century, which was relocated to the park in 1969. This house is believed to be the oldest building still standing in Richland County. The park was originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Evidence of their craftsmanship is still present today.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: In November 1996, the River Alliance proposed that a linear park system be created to link people to their rivers. This was named the Three Rivers Greenway, and the $18 million estimated cost was agreed to by member governments (the cities of Cayce, Columbia, and West Columbia) with the proviso that the Alliance recommend an acceptable funding strategy.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: While the funding process was underway, an existing city of Columbia site located on the Congaree River offered an opportunity to be a pilot project for the Three Rivers Greenway. The Alliance was asked to design and permit for construction by a general contractor this component. This approximately one-half-mile segment of the system was opened in November 1998. It is complete with wide concrete pathways, vandal-proof lighting, trash receptacles, water fountains, picnic benches, overlooks, bank fishing access, canoe/kayak access, a public restroom and parking. These set the standards for the common elements in the rest of the system. Eventually, pathways will run from Granby to the Riverbanks Zoo. Boaters, sportspeople, and fisherpeople will have access to the area, and additional recreational uses are being planned along the miles of riverfront.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Running beside the historic Columbia Canal, Riverfront Park hosts a two and a half-mile trail. Spanning the canal is an old railway bridge that now is a pedestrian walkway. The park is used for walking, running, bicycling, and fishing. Picnic tables and benches dot the walking trail. Markers are located along the trail so that visitors can measure distance. The park is part of the Palmetto Trail, a hiking and biking trail that stretches the entire length of the state, from Greenville to Charleston.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The city of Columbia has a council-manager form of government. The mayor and city council are elected every four years, with no term limits. Elections are held in the spring. Unlike other mayors in council-manager systems, the Columbia mayor has the power to veto ordinances passed by the council; vetoes can be overridden by a two-thirds majority of the council, which appoints a city manager to serve as chief administrative officer. The current mayor is Daniel Rickenmann, who succeeded Stephen K. Benjamin on January 4, 2022.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The city council consists of six members, four from districts and two elected at-large. The city council is responsible for making policies and enacting laws, rules, and regulations in order to provide for future community and economic growth, in addition to providing the necessary support for the orderly and efficient operation of city services.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The city's police force is the Columbia Police Department. The chief of police answers to the city manager. Presently, the chief of police is W.H. "Skip" Holbrook; Holbrook was sworn in on April 11, 2014.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The South Carolina Department of Corrections, headquartered in Columbia, operates several correctional facilities in Columbia. They include the Broad River Correctional Institution, the Goodman Correctional Institution, the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution, the Stevenson Correctional Institution, and the Campbell Pre-Release Center. Graham houses the state's female death row. The state of South Carolina's execution chamber is located at Broad River. From 1990 to 1997, Broad River housed the state's male death row.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia is home to the main campus of the University of South Carolina, which was chartered in 1801 as South Carolina College and in 1906 as the University of South Carolina. The university has 350 degree programs and enrolls 31,964 students throughout fifteen degree-granting colleges and schools. It is an urban university, located in downtown Columbia. It is home to the Darla Moore School of Business, which has had the No. 1 undergraduate international business degree for 20 consecutive years.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia is also the site of several extension campuses, including those for Erskine Theological Seminary, South University, and the University of Phoenix.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Most of the city of Columbia is within Richland County School District One. Portions in Fort Jackson are served by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) for elementary grades, with Richland County School District Two serving that area for secondary grades. Small portions are within Richland County School District Two for grades K-12, and Lexington & Richland County School District Five.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: South Carolina Japanese Language Supplementary School (サウスカロライナ日本語補習校 "Sausu Karoraina Nihongo Hoshūkō")/Matsuba Gakuen (松葉学園) is a weekend school for Japanese children, operating with Japanese government funds, held on the USC Campus in Columbia. "Matsuba" means "Pine Needle". In April 1985 the school was established. In 1989 its students were ages 3–16.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia's daily newspaper is "The State". The Post and Courier of Charleston, which bought the alt weekly "Free Times," also circulates in the city, and the "Free Times" has become an insert in its editions.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: "Cola Daily", is a digital newsroom affiliated with Midlands Media Group, which also owns two radio stations.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Alternative newspapers include "The Columbia Star", "Carolina Panorama Newspaper", and "SC Black News".


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: "Columbia Metropolitan Magazine" is a bi-monthly publication about news and events in the metropolitan area. "Greater Columbia Business Monthly" highlights economic development, business, education, and the arts. "Q-Notes", a bi-weekly newspaper serving the LGBT community and published in Charlotte, is distributed to locations in Columbia and via home delivery.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia is home to the headquarters and production facilities of South Carolina Educational Television and South Carolina Public Radio, the state's public television and public radio networks.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia has the 78th largest television market in the United States. Network affiliates include WIS (NBC), WLTX (CBS), WACH (Fox) and WOLO (ABC).


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The Comet, officially the Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority, is the agency responsible for operating mass transit in the greater Columbia area including Cayce, West Columbia, Forest Acres, Arcadia Lakes, Springdale, Lexington and the St. Andrews area. COMET operates express shuttles, as well as bus service serving Columbia and its immediate suburbs. The authority was established in October 2002 after SCANA released ownership of public transportation back to the city of Columbia. Since 2003, COMET has provided transportation for more than 2 million passengers, has expanded route services, and introduced 43 new ADA accessible buses offering a safer, more comfortable means of transportation. CMRTA has also added 10 natural gas powered buses to the fleet. Comet went under a name change and rebranding project in 2013. Before then, the system was called the Columbia Metropolitan Rapid Transit Association or "CMRTA". Additionally, Blue Cross Blue Shield provides rental bicycles in downtown Columbia.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The Central Midlands Council of Governments is in the process of investigating the potential for rail transit in the region. Routes into downtown Columbia originating from Camden, Newberry, and Batesburg-Leesville are in consideration, as is a potential line between Columbia and Charlotte connecting the two mainlines of the future Southeastern High Speed Rail Corridor.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia's central location between the population centers of South Carolina has made it a transportation focal point with three interstate highways and one interstate spur.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The city and its surroundings are served by Columbia Metropolitan Airport . The airport itself is serviced by American Eagle, Delta Connection, and United Express airlines. In addition, the city is also served by the much smaller Jim Hamilton–L.B. Owens Airport located in the Rosewood neighborhood. It serves as the county airport for Richland County and offers general aviation.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The city is served daily by Amtrak station, with the Silver Star trains connecting Columbia with New York City, Washington, DC, Savannah, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and Miami. The station is located at 850 Pulaski St.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Until 1959 the Southern Railway's "Skyland Special" (Asheville, North Carolina - Jacksonville, Florida) made a stop in Columbia's Union Station. Until 1966 the Southern Railway's "Augusta Special" went north from Columbia Union Station to New York City via Charlotte, North Carolina and went west to Augusta, Georgia's Union Station, where passengers could make connections to Georgia Railroad trains to Atlanta, Georgia. The Charleston branch of the Southern's "Carolina Special" made a stop in Columbia. Until 1954 a regional Atlantic Coast Line Railroad train went to Florence and Wilmington.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Greyhound Lines formerly operated a station on Gervais Street, in the eastern part of downtown, providing Columbia with intercity bus transportation. The station relocated to 710 Buckner Road in February 2015.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: MegaBus began operations in Columbia in 2015. There routes include stops in Atlanta, Fayetteville, North Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, Washington, DC, and New York City, New York. The station is located on Sumter Street.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The Sisters of Charity Providence Hospitals is sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Augustine Health System, a non-profit organization licensed for 304 beds which operates four hospitals, including Providence Hospital in downtown Columbia founded in 1938, Providence Heart Institute, Providence Hospital Northeast, and Providence Orthopaedic and NeuroSpine Institute.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Prisma Health is a private nonprofit health company and the largest healthcare organization in South Carolina that was formed by the joining of Palmetto Health and Greenville Health System in 2019. The company has 29,500 team members, 18 acute and specialty hospitals, 2,947 beds, 300 outpatient sites, and more than 5,100 employed and independent clinicians across its clinically integrated inVio Health Network. Prisma Health serves almost 1.5 million unique patients annually in its 21-county market area that covers 50% of South Carolina. Prisma Health hospitals in Columbia include the Midlands' only Level 1 trauma center and academic medical center, Richland Hospital, as well as Children's Hospital and the Heart Hospital also on the Richland Campus, Baptist Hospital and Baptist Parkridge Hospital.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Lexington Medical Center, opened in 1971, is a network of hospitals and urgent care centers located throughout Lexington County, with one location in Columbia.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: The Wm. Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center is a 216-bed facility, encompassing acute medical, surgical, psychiatric, and long-term care.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Attaining 100 percent clean and renewable energy by 2036 is incorporated into the city's 67 climate goals. Projects include a solar farm to provide power for the wastewater treatment plant, an updated water metering system, reduction of water leaks, and replacement of polluting, city-owned vehicles.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: Columbia has been the recipient of several awards and achievements. In October 2009, Columbia was listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of the best places to retire, citing location and median housing price as key contributors. As of July 2013 Columbia was named one of "10 Great Cities to Live In" by Kiplinger Magazine. Most recently, the city has been named a top mid-sized market in the nation for relocating families, as well as one of 30 communities named "America's Most Livable Communities," an award given by the non-profit Partners for Livable Communities.


title: Columbia, South Carolina

text: An eighth sister city, Columbia, Mississippi, was added after mutual aid took place between the two cities following natural disasters and recognition of their linked histories.


title: Barry Humphries

text: John Barry Humphries (born 17 February 1934) is an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He is also a film producer and script writer, a star of London's West End musical theatre, a writer, and a landscape painter. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time … [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin".


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries' characters have brought him international renown, and he also appeared in numerous stage productions, films, and television shows. Originally conceived as a dowdy Moonee Ponds housewife who caricatured Australian suburban complacency and insularity, Dame Edna Everage has evolved over four decades to become a satire of stardom – a gaudily dressed, acid-tongued, egomaniacal, internationally fêted Housewife "Gigastar".


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries' other satirical characters include the "priapic and inebriated cultural attaché" Sir Les Patterson, who has "continued to bring worldwide discredit upon Australian arts and culture, while contributing as much to the Australian vernacular as he has borrowed from it"; gentle, grandfatherly "returned gentleman" Sandy Stone; iconoclastic 1960s underground film-maker Martin Agrippa; Paddington socialist academic Neil Singleton; sleazy trade union official Lance Boyle; high-pressure art salesman Morrie O'Connor; failed tycoon Owen Steele; and archetypal Australian bloke Barry McKenzie.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries was born on 17 February 1934 in the suburb of Kew in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of Eric Humphries ( John Albert Eric Humphries), a construction manager, and his wife Louisa Agnes ( Brown). His grandfather was an emigrant to Australia from Manchester, England. His father was well-to-do and Barry grew up in a "clean, tasteful, and modern home" on Christowel Street, Camberwell, then one of Melbourne's new "garden suburbs". His early home life set the pattern for his eventual stage career; his parents bought him everything he wanted, but his father in particular spent little time with him, and Humphries spent hours playing at dressing-up in the back garden.


title: Barry Humphries

text: His parents nicknamed him "Sunny Sam", and his early childhood was happy and uneventful. However, in his teens Humphries began to rebel against the strictures of conventional suburban life by becoming "artistic", much to the dismay of his parents who, despite their affluence, distrusted "art". A key event took place when he was nine – his mother gave all his books to The Salvation Army, cheerfully explaining: "But you've read them, Barry".


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries responded by becoming a voracious reader, a collector of rare books, a painter, a theatre fan and a surrealist. Dressing up in a black cloak, black homburg and mascaraed eyes, he invented his first sustained character, "Dr Aaron Azimuth", agent provocateur, dandy and Dadaist.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Educated firstly at Camberwell Grammar School, Humphries has been awarded his place in the Gallery of Achievement there. As his father's building business prospered, Humphries was sent to Melbourne Grammar School where he spurned sport, detested mathematics, shirked cadets "on the basis of conscientious objection" and matriculated with brilliant results in English and Art. Humphries himself described this schooling, in a "Who's Who" entry, as "self-educated, attended Melbourne Grammar School".


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries spent two years studying at the University of Melbourne, where he studied Law, Philosophy and Fine Arts. During this time he was a Private in the Melbourne University Regiment, serving a period of National Service in the CMF of the Australian Army. He did not graduate from university (although he would receive an honorary doctorate almost 50 years later). During this time he became Australia's leading exponent of the deconstructive and absurdist art movement, Dada. The Dadaist pranks and performances he mounted in Melbourne were experiments in anarchy and visual satire which have become part of Australian folklore. An exhibit entitled "Pus in Boots" consisted of a pair of Wellington boots filled with custard; a mock pesticide product called "Platytox" claimed on its box to be effective against the platypus, a beloved and protected species in Australia. He was part of a group that made a series of Dada-influenced recordings in Melbourne from 1952 to 1953. "Wubbo Music" (Humphries has said that "wubbo" is a pseudo-Aboriginal word meaning "nothing") is thought to be one of the earliest recordings of experimental music in Australia. Other exhibits include "Creche Bang", a pram covered in meat and "Eye and Spoon Race", a spoon with a sheep's eye.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries was legendary for his provocative public pranks. One infamous example involved Humphries dressing as a Frenchman, with an accomplice dressed as a blind person; the accomplice would board a tram, followed soon after by Humphries. At the appropriate juncture Humphries would force his way past the "blind" man, yelling "Get out of my way, you disgusting blind person", kicking him viciously in the shins and then jumping off the tram and making his escape in a waiting car.


title: Barry Humphries

text: An even more extreme example was his notorious "sick bag" prank. This involved carrying on to an aircraft a tin of Heinz Russian Salad, which he would then surreptitiously empty into an air-sickness bag. At the appropriate point in the flight, he would pretend to vomit loudly and violently into the bag. Then, to the horror of passengers and crew, he would proceed to eat the contents. One April Fools' Day Humphries placed a roast dinner and glass of champagne in an inner-city rubbish bin. Later in the morning, when there were many businesspeople queuing at a nearby building, Humphries approached the group as a dirty, dishevelled man. He walked to the bin, opened the lid and proceeded to lift the roast and glass of champagne and drink from the glass. Much to the amazement of those watching, he found a suitable seating area and began to eat the meal. Such stunts were the early manifestations of a lifelong interest in the bizarre, discomforting, and subversive.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries had written and performed songs and sketches in university revues, so after leaving university he joined the newly formed Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC). It was at this point that he created the first incarnation of what became his best-known character, Edna Everage. The first stage sketch to feature Mrs Norm Everage, called "Olympic Hostess", premiered at Melbourne University's Union Theatre on 12 December 1955.


title: Barry Humphries

text: In his award-winning autobiography, "More Please" (1992), Humphries relates that he had created a character similar to Edna in the back of a bus while touring country Victoria in "Twelfth Night" with the MTC at the age of 20. He credited his then mentor, Peter O'Shaughnessy, that without his "nurturing and promotion, the character of Edna Everage would have been nipped in the bud after 1956 and never come to flower, while the character of Sandy Stone would never have taken shape as a presence on the stage".


title: Barry Humphries

text: In 1957 Humphries moved to Sydney and joined Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre, which became Australia's leading venue for revue and satirical comedy over the next decade. His first appearance at Phillip Street was in the satirical revue "Two to One", starring veteran Australian musical star Max Oldaker, with a cast including Humphries and future "Number 96" star Wendy Blacklock. Although he had originally assumed Edna's debut Melbourne appearance would be a one-off, Humphries decided to revive "Olympic Hostess" for Phillip Street and its success helped to launch what became a fifty-year career for the self-proclaimed "Housewife Superstar" (later Megastar, then Gigastar).


title: Barry Humphries

text: The next Phillip Street revue was "Around the Loop", which again teamed Oldaker, Gordon Chater, Blacklock and Humphries, plus newcomer June Salter. Humphries revived the Edna character (for what he said would be the last time) and the revue proved to be a major hit, playing eight shows a week for 14 months. During this period Humphries was living near Bondi and while out walking one day he had a chance meeting with an elderly man who had a high, scratchy voice and a pedantic manner of speech; this encounter inspired the creation of another of Humphries' most enduring characters, Sandy Stone.


title: Barry Humphries

text: In September 1957, Humphries appeared as Estragon in "Waiting for Godot", in Australia's first production of the Samuel Beckett play at the Arrow Theatre in Melbourne directed by Peter O'Shaughnessy who played Vladimir.


title: Barry Humphries

text: In 1958, Humphries and O'Shaughnessy collaborated on and appeared in the "Rock'n'Reel Revue" at the New Theatre in Melbourne where Humphries brought the characters of Mrs Everage and Sandy Stone into the psyche of Melbourne audiences. In the same year, Humphries made his first commercial recording, the EP "Wild Life in Suburbia", which featured liner notes by his friend, the Modernist architect and writer Robin Boyd.


title: Barry Humphries

text: In 1959 Humphries moved to London, where he lived and worked throughout the 1960s. He became a friend of leading members of the British comedy scene including Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, Spike Milligan, Willie Rushton and fellow Australian expatriate comedian-actors John Bluthal and Dick Bentley. Humphries performed at Cook's comedy venue The Establishment, where he became a friend of and was photographed by leading photographer Lewis Morley, whose studio was located above the club. He contributed to the satirical magazine "Private Eye", of which Cook was publisher, his best-known work being the cartoon strip "The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie". The bawdy cartoon satire of the worst aspects of Australians abroad was written by Humphries and drawn by New Zealand born cartoonist Nicholas Garland. The book version of the comic strip, published in the late '60s, was for some time banned in Australia.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries appeared in numerous West End stage productions including the musicals "Oliver!" and "Maggie May", by Lionel Bart, and in stage and radio productions by his friend Spike Milligan. At one time he was invited to play the leading role of Captain Martin Bules in "The Bedsitting Room" which had already opened successfully at the Mermaid Theatre and was transferring to the West End. Humphries performed with Milligan in the 1968 production of "Treasure Island" in the role of Long John Silver. He described working with Milligan as "one of the strangest and most exhilarating experiences of my career".


title: Barry Humphries

text: In 1961 when Humphries was in Cornwall with his wife, he fell over a cliff near Zennor and landed on a ledge 50 m (150 ft) below, breaking bones. The rescue by helicopter was filmed by a news crew from ITN. The footage of the rescue was shown to Humphries for the first time on a 2006 BBC show, "Turn Back Time".


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries' first major break on the British stage came when he was cast in the role of the undertaker Mr Sowerberry for the original 1960 London stage production of "Oliver!" He recorded Sowerberry's feature number "That's Your Funeral" for the original London cast album (released on Decca Records) and reprised the role when the production moved to Broadway in 1963. However, the song "That's Your Funeral" was omitted from the RCA Victor original Broadway cast album so Humphries is not heard at all on it. In 1967 he starred as Fagin in the Piccadilly Theatre's revival of "Oliver!" which featured a young Phil Collins as the Artful Dodger. In 1997 Humphries reprised the role of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh's award-winning revival at the London Palladium.


title: Barry Humphries

text: In 1967 his friendship with Cook and Moore led to his first film role, a cameo as "Envy" in the film "Bedazzled" starring Cook and Moore with Eleanor Bron and directed by Stanley Donen. The following year he appeared in "The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom" with Shirley MacLaine.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries contributed to BBC Television's "The Late Show" (1966–67), but Humphries found his true calling with his one-man satirical stage revues, in which he performed as Edna Everage and other character creations, including Les Patterson and Sandy Stone. "A Nice Night's Entertainment" (1962) was the first such revue. It and "Excuse I: Another Nice Night's Entertainment" (1965) were only performed in Australia. In 1968 Humphries returned to Australia to tour his one-man revue "Just a Show"; this production transferred to London's Fortune Theatre in 1969. Humphries gained considerable notoriety with "Just a Show". It polarised British critics but was successful enough to lead to a short-lived BBC television series, "The Barry Humphries Scandals", one of the precursors to the Monty Python series.


title: Barry Humphries

text: In 1970 Humphries returned to Australia, where Edna Everage made her movie debut in John B. Murray's "The Naked Bunyip". In 1971–72 he teamed up with producer Phillip Adams and writer-director Bruce Beresford to create a film version of the Barry McKenzie cartoons. "The Adventures of Barry McKenzie" starred singer Barry Crocker in the title role and featured Humphries—who co-wrote the script with Beresford—playing three different parts. It was filmed in England and Australia with an all-star cast including Spike Milligan, Peter Cook, Dennis Price, Dick Bentley, Willie Rushton, Julie Covington, Clive James and broadcaster Joan Bakewell. Like several other films of the time which have since been categorised as belonging to the Ocker genre of Australian film, it was almost unanimously panned by Australian film critics, but became a huge hit with audiences. In fact, the film became the most successful locally made feature ever released in Australia up to that time, paving the way for the success of subsequent locally made feature films such as "Alvin Purple" and "Picnic at Hanging Rock".


title: Barry Humphries

text: Another artistic production undertaken at this time was a 1972 collaboration between Humphries and the Australian composer Nigel Butterley. Together they produced "First Day Covers", a collection of poems about suburbia – read in performance by Edna Everage – with accompanying music by Butterley. It included poems with titles such as "Histoire du Lamington" and "Morceau en forme de 'meat pie'".


title: Barry Humphries

text: Since the late 1960s Humphries has appeared in numerous films, mostly in supporting or cameo roles. His credits include "Bedazzled" (1967), the UK sex comedy "Percy's Progress" (1974), David Baker's "The Great Macarthy" (1975), and Bruce Beresford's "Barry McKenzie Holds His Own" (1974), in which Edna was made a Dame by then Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Other film credits include "Side by Side" (1975) and "The Getting of Wisdom" (1977). The same year, he had a cameo as Edna in the Robert Stigwood musical film "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (which became infamous as one of the biggest film flops of the decade), followed in 1981 by his part as the fake-blind TV-show host Bert Schnick in "Shock Treatment", the sequel to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries was more successful with his featured role as Richard Deane in "Dr. Fischer of Geneva" (1985); this was followed by "Howling III" (1987), a cameo as Rupert Murdoch in the miniseries "Selling Hitler" (1991) with Alexei Sayle, a three-role cameo in Philippe Mora's horror satire "Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills" (1995), the role of Count Metternich in "Immortal Beloved" (1994), as well as roles in "The Leading Man" (1996), the Spice Girls' film "Spice World", the Australian feature "Welcome to Woop Woop" (1997), and "Nicholas Nickleby" (2002), in which he donned female garb to play Nathan Lane's wife.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries has featured in various roles in comedy performance films including "The Secret Policeman's Other Ball" (1982) and "A Night of Comic Relief 2" (1989). In 1987, he starred as Les Patterson in one of his own rare flops, the disastrous "Les Patterson Saves the World", directed by George T. Miller of "Man From Snowy River" fame and co-written by Humphries with his third wife, Diane Millstead.


title: Barry Humphries

text: In 2003, Humphries voiced the shark Bruce in the Pixar animated film "Finding Nemo", using an exaggerated baritone Australian accent.


title: Barry Humphries

text: During 2011, Humphries travelled to New Zealand to perform the role of the Great Goblin in the first instalment of Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". At the press conference in Wellington, NZ, just before the film's world premiere, Humphries commented:


title: Barry Humphries

text: In 2016, he appeared in a dual role in "" as Charlie, a rich former lover of Patsy Stone, and in a nonspeaking cameo as Dame Edna.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries' forte has always been his one-man satirical stage revues, in which he appears as Edna Everage and other character creations, most commonly Les Patterson and Sandy Stone. The remarkable longevity he has enjoyed with Dame Edna has endured for more than sixty years, but in 2012 he announced his retirement from live performance.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries' one-man shows, which are typically two and a half hours long, alternate satirical monologues and musical numbers and consist of entirely original material, laced with ad-libbing, improvisation and audience participation segments. Humphries mostly performs solo, but he is occasionally joined on stage by supporting dancers and an accompanist during the musical numbers. Only one actor ever regularly shared the stage with Humphries, and this was during the Edna segments: English actress Emily Perry played Edna's long-suffering bridesmaid from New Zealand, Madge Allsop, whose character never spoke.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries has presented many successful shows in London, most of which he subsequently toured internationally. Although he eventually gained worldwide popularity, he encountered stiff resistance in the early years of his career: his first London one-man show, "A Nice Night's Entertainment" (1962), received scathing reviews, and it was several years before he made a second attempt. He gained considerable notoriety with his next one-man revue, "Just a Show", staged at London's Fortune Theatre in 1969. It polarised the critics but was a hit with audiences and became the basis of a growing cult following in the UK. He built on this with his early '70s shows, including "A Load of Olde Stuffe" (1971) and "At Least You Can Say You've Seen It" (1974–75).


title: Barry Humphries

text: He finally broke through to widespread critical and audience acclaim in Britain with his 1976 London production "Housewife, Superstar!" at the Apollo Theatre. Its success in Britain and Australia led Humphries to try his luck with the show in New York in 1977 at the off-Broadway Theatre Four (now called the Julia Miles Theatre), but it proved to be a disastrous repeat of his experience with "Just a Show". Humphries later summed up his negative reception by saying: "When "The New York Times" tells you to close, you close."


title: Barry Humphries

text: His next show was "Isn't It Pathetic at His Age" (1978), and, like many of his shows, the title derives from the sarcastic remarks his mother often made when she took Humphries to the theatre to see superannuated overseas actors touring in Australia during his youth.


title: Barry Humphries

text: He has made numerous theatrical tours in Germany, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and in the Far and Middle East. In 2003 he toured Australia with his show "Getting Back to My Roots (and Other Suckers)".


title: Barry Humphries

text: In March 2012, Humphries announced his retirement from live entertainment, stating that he was "beginning to feel a bit senior" and was planning to retire from show business. Humphries announced his Australian "Farewell Tour", titled "Eat, Pray, Laugh!", to begin in Canberra on 22 July 2012 and to conclude in Perth on 3 February 2013, although it was extended until 10 February. The show included appearances by Dame Edna, Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone, and introduced a new character called Gerard Patterson, Sir Les's brother and paedophilic Catholic priest.


title: Barry Humphries

text: The tour was widely praised. Dan Ilic of "Time Out Sydney" stated that Humphries delivered "a show that almost feels like a blue print for the foundations for the last fifty years of Australian comedy". Helen Musa of "CityNews" gave a similarly positive review, referring to Humphries being "as virile, as vulgar and as magnificent as ever" thanks to a "well researched" script. Arts blog "Critter Away" referred to Humphries' characters as being "still fresh" and "a testament to laugh-out-loud satire".


title: Barry Humphries

text: The same show opened in the United Kingdom at the Milton Keynes Theatre in October 2013 prior to a season of shows at the London Palladium and a national tour.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Humphries emceed a programme of Weimar Republic cabaret songs performed by chanteuse Meow Meow and accompanied by the Australian Chamber Orchestra in July–August 2016 and then by the Aurora Orchestra in July 2018.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Dame Edna Everage is one of the most enduring Australian comic characters of all time. Originally conceived in 1956, Edna has evolved from a satire of Australian suburbia to become, in the words of journalist Caroline Overington:


title: Barry Humphries

text: Like her ever-present bunches of gladioli, one of the most popular and distinctive features of Edna's stage and TV appearances has been her extravagant wardrobe, with gaudy, custom-made gowns. Her costumes, most of which were created for her by Australian designer Bill Goodwin, routinely incorporate Aussie kitsch icons such as the flag, Australian native animals and flowers, the Sydney Opera House and the boxing kangaroo. Her outlandish spectacles were inspired by the glasses worn by Melbourne eccentric, beautician, radio broadcaster, actor and dancer Stephanie Deste; as were many other aspects of Dame Edna's personality.


title: Barry Humphries

text: As the character evolved, Edna's unseen family became an integral part of the satire, particularly the travails of her disabled husband Norm, who had an almost lifelong onslaught of an unspecified prostate ailment. Her daughter Valmai and her gay-hairdresser son Kenny became intrinsic elements of the act, as did her long-suffering best friend and New Zealand bridesmaid, Madge Allsop.


title: Barry Humphries

text: Throughout Edna's career, Madge Allsop was played by English actress Emily Perry until her death in 2008. Perry was the only other actor ever to appear on stage with Humphries in his stage shows, as well as making regular appearances in Dame Edna's TV programmes.