title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was a British entertainer and presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series "Sunday Night at the London Palladium". He went on to host several game shows, including "The Generation Game", "Play Your Cards Right", "The Price Is Right" and "You Bet!". He co-presented "Strictly Come Dancing" from 2004 to 2013. In 2012, "Guinness World Records" recognised Forsyth as having the longest television career for a male entertainer.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth was born on Victoria Road in Edmonton, Middlesex on 22 February 1928, the son of Florence Ada ("née" Pocknell) and John Thomas Forsyth-Johnson. His family owned a car repair garage and, as members of the Salvation Army, his parents played brass instruments; his mother was a singer.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: His great-grandfather Joseph Forsyth Johnson (1840–1906) was a landscape architect who worked in multiple countries, and great-great-great-great-grandfather William Forsyth (1737–1804) was a founder of the Royal Horticultural Society and the namesake of the plant genus "Forsythia".


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Forsyth was evacuated to Clacton-on-Sea. Shortly after he arrived, Forsyth's parents allowed him to return to London as a result of his feeling homesick. In 1943, Forsyth's older brother John, who served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, was killed during a training exercise at RAF Turnberry. Forsyth attended the Latymer School. After watching Fred Astaire in films at the age of eight, he trained in dance in Tottenham and then Brixton.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth started his live public performances aged 14, with a song, dance and accordion act called Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom. His first appearance was at the Theatre Royal in Bilston, with The Great Marzo at the top of the bill. He had made his television debut in 1939 as a child, singing and dancing on BBC talent show "Come and Be Televised", broadcast from Radiolympia and introduced by Jasmine Bligh.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: After the war, with the goal of joining Moss Empires theatres, he spent years on stage with little success and travelled the UK working seven days a week, doing summer seasons, pantomimes and circuses, where he became renowned for his strong-man act. His act was interrupted by his National Service when he was conscripted into the Royal Air Force.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In 1958, an appearance with the comedian Dickie Henderson led to his being offered the job of compère of Val Parnell's weekly TV variety show, "Sunday Night at the London Palladium". He hosted the show for two years, followed by a year's break, then returned for another year. His schedule of stage performances, which continued throughout the 1960s, forced him to give up the job of host.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth appeared in the London production of "Little Me", along with Avril Angers in 1964. In the musical film "Star!" (1968), a biopic of stage actress Gertrude Lawrence, he played alongside lead performer Julie Andrews as Lawrence's father.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In January 1968 Pye Records issued as a single "I'm Backing Britain", supporting the campaign of the same name, written by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent, and sung by Forsyth. The chorus included "The feeling is growing, so let's keep it going, the good times are blowing our way". All involved in making the single took cuts in their fees or royalties so that the single sold for 5s. instead of the going rate of 7s. 4½d. Forsyth happily endorsed the campaign, saying "The country has always done its best when it is up against the wall. If everyone realises what we are up against we can get out of trouble easily." The song did not make the charts, selling only 7,319 copies.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: On 7 October 1968, he was top of the bill on the opening night of the Golden Garter nightclub, Wythenshawe. Two years later, he played Swinburne in the Disney fantasy film "Bedknobs and Broomsticks". In 1976, he appeared on "The Muppet Show", where he took on the duo Statler and Waldorf.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: During his spell of hosting "Sunday Night at the London Palladium" as part of the show he hosted the 15-minute game show "Beat the Clock". Forsyth's next success was "The Generation Game" (BBC1, 1971–1977, 1990–1994), which proved popular and attracted huge Saturday evening audiences. It was on this show that Forsyth introduced his "The Thinker" pose, emulating Rodin's sculpture, appearing in silhouette each week after the opening titles. This pose is reminiscent of the circus strong-man attitude. He also wrote and sang the theme for the show "Life is the Name of the Game." Millions of viewers became familiar with the rasp of Forsyth's north London accented voice and his "distinctively pointy" chin that he emphasised in poses such as the "human question mark", with chin over raised knee. He was replaced on "The Generation Game" by Larry Grayson.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In 1977 he announced that he was leaving television to take the star role in a new musical, "The Travelling Music Show", based on the songs of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. The show did reasonably well in provincial theatre, but received poor reviews when it moved to London and it closed after four months in July 1978.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: London Weekend Television persuaded him to return to the screen later that year to present "Bruce Forsyth's Big Night", a two-hour Saturday-night show on ITV encompassing a variety of different entertainment formats (later reduced to 90 minutes). However, the show was not a success and lasted for just one series. Forsyth remained with ITV, hosting the game show "Play Your Cards Right", which was the UK version of the US original "Card Sharks", from 1980 to 1987, 1994 to 1999, and a brief period from 2002 to 2003, before the show was cancelled mid-run due to low ratings.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In 1986, he went to the United States to host a game show on ABC, "Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak", which ran for 65 episodes from January to April that year. Forsyth starred in the Thames Television sitcom "Slinger's Day" in 1986 and 1987, a sequel to "Tripper's Day" which had starred Leonard Rossiter, whom Forsyth replaced in the new show. He was the original host of "You Bet!" (1988 to 1990).


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth fronted the third version of "The Price Is Right" (1995 to 2001). His unsuccessful gameshows include "Takeover Bid" (1990 to 1991), "Hollywood Or Bust" (1984), and "Didn't They Do Well!" (2004). During the 1970s Forsyth featured in the Stork margarine adverts on television, and then during the 1980s and 1990s he appeared in an advertising campaign for the furniture retailer Courts, in which he dressed as a judge.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth celebrated his 70th birthday in 1998 and appeared in a week-long run of his one-man show at the London Palladium. In 2000, Forsyth hosted a revived series called "Tonight at the London Palladium".


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In 2003, and again in 2010, Forsyth was a guest presenter on the news and satire quiz show "Have I Got News for You". Forsyth had called Paul Merton, one of the team captains on the show, to suggest himself as a guest presenter. He co-presented "Strictly Come Dancing" from 2004 to 2013, formally stepping down from hosting the regular live show in April 2014. This decision was made to reduce his workload and for the preparation of pre-recorded specials.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: On 7 April 2010, Forsyth became one of the first three celebrities to be subjected to the British version of the American institution of a comedy roast, on Channel 4's "A Comedy Roast". Forsyth was the subject of the BBC genealogy series "Who Do You Think You Are?", broadcast on 19 July 2010. On 20 March 2010, Forsyth appeared on the autobiography-interview programme "Piers Morgan's Life Stories", which was broadcast on ITV.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In 2011, Forsyth released a collection of songs on CD called "These Are My Favourites". He chose the songs for their personal and musical importance, including a duet with his granddaughter, Sophie Purdie. "These Are My Favourites" also includes a recording of "Paper Moon" with Nat King Cole.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth's showbiz awards include Variety Club Show Business Personality of the Year in 1975; "TV Times" Male TV Personality of the Year, in 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1978; and BBC TV Personality of the Year in 1991.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: On 7 June 1959 Forsyth was inducted into the elite entertainers' fraternity, the Grand Order of Water Rats, Water Rat number 566.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In 1987, a fan club was created – the Great Bruce Forsyth Social Club. They would later go on to assist Forsyth in singing his opening number, "It's Never Too Late", at his "Audience With" show. He repaid this favour by adding the society to his busy schedule in June 1997 and appeared at their 10th annual general meeting in Plymouth.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1998 Birthday Honours, and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2006 New Year Honours.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: On 27 February 2005, the BBC screened "A BAFTA Tribute to Bruce Forsyth" to mark the entertainer's 60 years in show business. He had a bronze bust of himself unveiled at the London Palladium in May 2005. The sculpture was created by his son-in-law and is on display in the theatre's Cinderella Bar.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In 2008, Forsyth received the BAFTA Fellowship. In 2009, he was awarded the Theatre Performer's Award at the annual Carl Alan Awards. Hosted by the International Dance Teachers' Association, the awards are voted for by the leading dance organisations in the United Kingdom and recognise those who have made an exceptional contribution to the world of dance and theatre.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth received a Royal Television Society Lifetime Achievement Award on 17 March 2009. On 26 January 2011 he received the National Television Awards special recognition award.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to entertainment and charity. This followed a years-long public campaign to award him a knighthood. His investiture, by the Queen, took place on 12 October 2011 and he became Sir Bruce Forsyth CBE.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In July 2012, Forsyth was given the honour of carrying the Olympic flame through London, as it finally reached the city on the penultimate day of the London 2012 Torch Relay.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth earned a place in the 2013 "Guinness Book of World Records" as the male TV entertainer having had the longest career, calling it a "wonderful surprise". He also appeared at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival on the Avalon stage, becoming the oldest performer to ever play at the festival. In 2018 the NTAs honoured the memory of Sir Bruce by naming an NTA award after him.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth was married to Penny Calvert from 1953 until their divorce in 1973, with whom he had three daughters named Debbie, Julie, and Laura. Julie is a songwriter, who composed the UK’s entry in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In 1973, he married Anthea Redfern, the hostess on "The Generation Game". They had two daughters named Charlotte and Louisa, before divorcing in 1979. Asked to judge the 1980 Miss World competition, Forsyth met Puerto Rican beauty queen Wilnelia Merced, who was the 1975 winner and a fellow judge. They were married from 1983 until his death in 2017. They had one son together named Jonathan Joseph (who is better known as "JJ"). By his six children, Forsyth had nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth was a supporter and ambassador for the children's charity Caudwell Children, regularly appearing at many of their fundraising events.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: In August 2014, Forsyth was one of 200 public figures who signed a letter to "The Guardian" expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Forsyth lived on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey. Until 2000, he also occupied a flat in Nell Gwynn House, Sloane Avenue, Chelsea.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Towards the end of his life, Forsyth suffered from ill health, which reduced his appearances in public. On 8 October 2015, he was admitted to hospital for cuts and minor concussion after tripping over a rug at his home and hitting his head. A month later, he made his last full TV appearance on "Strictly Children in Need Special", with filming for this taking place prior to him undergoing surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm on 12 November. As a result of his surgery, Forsyth was unable to host that year's "Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special" as planned, but a spokesman representing him later stated he would play a part in the production, recording a special video message for it.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: After 2015, Forsyth made no further public appearances, as his health began to decline, with his wife commenting that he struggled to move easily following his surgery. On 26 February 2017, he was again admitted to hospital with a severe chest infection and spent five days in intensive care, before returning home on 3 March 2017.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: On 18 August 2017, Forsyth died of bronchial pneumonia at his Wentworth Estate home in Virginia Water, aged 89. Several celebrities paid tribute to Forsyth following his death, including his former "Strictly Come Dancing" co-host Tess Daly; his friends Michael Parkinson, Jimmy Tarbuck, and Des O'Connor, the BBC director general Tony Hall and the then Prime Minister, Theresa May. BBC One aired "Sir Bruce Forsyth – Mr Entertainment", in place of the scheduled "The One Show", in tribute. Forsyth was cremated on 5 September 2017 in a private ceremony attended only by close family and friends.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: A few days later, on 9 September 2017, when that year's series of "Strictly Come Dancing" began, it paid tribute to Forsyth with a special ballroom dance routine from their professional dancers. On 14 December 2017, the BBC announced that it would produce a tribute show to Forsyth at the London Palladium on 21 February 2018. Hosted by Tess Daly, "Sir Bruce: A Celebration" was broadcast on BBC One on 11 March 2018. On 18 August 2018, exactly a year after he died, Forsyth's ashes were laid to rest beneath the stage at the London Palladium in a private ceremony.


title: Bruce Forsyth

text: Neopets, a virtual pet website, had a collectible character which was originally a direct representation of Forsyth himself. The pet was later renamed to just "Bruce" and his appearance changed to that of a penguin to better fit with the other pets on the platform. Despite the change, the pet retained Forsyth's iconic bow tie.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: The 86th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2013 and took place on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after its usual late-February date to avoid conflicting with the 2014 Winter Olympics. During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories. The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC, and produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan and directed by Hamish Hamilton. Actress Ellen DeGeneres hosted the show for the second time, having previously hosted the 79th ceremony held in 2007.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: In related events, the academy held its 5th annual Governors Awards ceremony at the Grand Ballroom of the Hollywood and Highland Center on November 16, 2013. On February 15, 2014, in a ceremony at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by hosts Kristen Bell and Michael B. Jordan.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: "12 Years a Slave" won three awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included "Gravity" with seven awards, "Dallas Buyers Club" with three, "Frozen" and "The Great Gatsby" with two, and "Blue Jasmine", "The Great Beauty", "Helium", "Her", "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life", "Mr Hublot", and "20 Feet from Stardom" with one. The telecast garnered nearly 44 million viewers in the United States, making it the most watched Oscar ceremony since the 72nd Academy Awards in 2000.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: The nominees for the 86th Academy Awards were announced on January 16, 2014, at 5:38 a.m. PST (13:38 UTC), at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, by Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the academy, and actor Chris Hemsworth. "American Hustle" and "Gravity" tied for the most nominations with ten each.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 2, 2014. "American Hustle" became David O. Russell's second consecutive film to earn nominations in all acting categories and the fifteenth film overall in Oscar history to achieve this distinction. It also was the third film after "Gangs of New York" and "True Grit" to lose all ten of its nominations. Steve McQueen became the first black director to direct a Best Picture winner and the third such person to receive a nomination for directing. Alfonso Cuarón became the first person of Mexican descent to win Best Director. With Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto's respective wins in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories, "Dallas Buyers Club" was the fifth film to win both male acting awards. Additionally, 3 other films ("American Hustle", "12 Years a Slave", and "The Wolf of Wall Street") also received nominations for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. Cate Blanchett became the sixth actress to have won both female acting awards in her career. Lupita Nyong'o was the sixteenth Oscar acting winner to win for a debut film performance and the ninth Best Supporting Actress recipient to achieve this feat. Best Original Song co-winner Robert Lopez became the youngest individual to win an Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award and the twelfth person overall to earn these accolades.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: The academy held its 5th Annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 16, 2013, during which the following awards were presented.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: The following individuals and groups, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: Despite the mixed reception received from the preceding year's ceremony, the academy rehired Neil Meron and Craig Zadan as producers for the second consecutive year. However, actor Seth MacFarlane announced that he would not host the Oscars for a second time. In a statement released through Twitter, he wrote "Traumatized critics exhale: I'm unable to do the Oscars again. Tried to make it work schedule-wise, but I need sleep." Furthermore, actress and comedian Tina Fey, who co-hosted the 70th Golden Globe Awards more than a month earlier with fellow "Saturday Night Live" alumnus Amy Poehler, told "Huffington Post" columnist Mike Ryan that she would reject any offer to host an Oscar telecast commenting, "I just feel like that gig is so hard. Especially for, like, a woman – the amount of months that would be spent trying on dresses alone – no way."


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: Shortly after the election of AMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs in August 2013, Meron and Zadan announced that comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres would host the 2014 ceremony. They explained their decision to bring back DeGeneres as host saying, "As a longtime friend, we had always hoped to find a project for us to do together and nothing could be more exciting than teaming up to do the Oscars. There are few stars today who have Ellen's gift for comedy, with her great warmth and humanity. She is beloved everywhere and we expect that the audience at the Dolby Theatre and in homes around the globe will be as excited by this news as we are." DeGeneres expressed that she was thrilled to be selected to emcee the gala again, commenting, "I am so excited to be hosting the Oscars for the second time. You know what they say – the third time's the charm."


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: As with last year's theme of music and the movies, Meron and Zadan centered the show around a theme. This year, they christened the show with a theme of saluting movie heroes commenting, "By celebrating the gamut of heroes who have enriched our movie-going experience, we hope to create an evening of fun and joy. And that includes the filmmakers and actors who take risks and stimulate us with provocative subjects and daring characters. They are all heroes in the cinematic landscape." To coincide with the theme, AMPAS presented an exhibition in the lobby of its Beverly Hills headquarters titled "The Oscars Celebrate Movie Heroes". The exhibit featured posters, photographs, and artifacts from 70 different films featuring literary, comic book, and real life heroes. Furthermore, actor Andrew Garfield, who portrayed the titular character in "The Amazing Spider-Man", was scheduled to appear onstage with five-year-old cancer survivor Miles Scott with Garfield christening Scott as an "official superhero". The segment was scrapped, however, due to time constraints.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: Several other people were involved with the telecast and its promotion. Tony Award-winning art director Derek McLane designed a new set and stage design for the show. Filmmaker Paul Feig produced and directed a one-minute trailer promoting the event featuring DeGeneres and 250 dancers dancing and lip-synching to the song "The Walker" by rock band Fitz and the Tantrums. During the ceremony, actor Channing Tatum introduced a group called "Team Oscar". The team consisted of six young film students from colleges across the country selected by AMPAS whose role was to deliver Oscar statuettes to the presenters during the gala. Television personality and former Miss USA titleholder Rachel Smith hosted "Inside the Oscars", a behind-the-scenes video blog on the Oscar ceremony website.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: At the time of the nominations announcement on January 16, 2014, the combined gross of the nine Best Picture nominees at the American and Canadian box offices was $645 million, with an average of $72 million per film. When the nominations were revealed, "Gravity" was the highest-grossing film among the Best Picture nominees with $256 million in domestic box office receipts. "Captain Phillips" was the second-highest-grossing film with $105.5 million; this was followed by "American Hustle" ($105.4 million), "The Wolf of Wall Street" ($80.7 million), "12 Years a Slave" ($39 million), "Philomena" ($22.3 million), "Dallas Buyers Club" ($16.8 million), "Her" ($9.9 million), and finally "Nebraska" ($8.5 million).


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: Of the top 50 grossing movies of the year, 47 nominations went to 14 films on the list. Only "Frozen" (1st), "Despicable Me 2" (3rd), "Gravity" (7th), "The Croods" (14th), "Captain Phillips" (29th), "American Hustle" (30th), and "The Wolf of Wall Street" (42nd) were nominated for Best Picture, Best Animated Feature or any of the directing, acting or screenwriting awards. The other top 50 box office hits that earned nominations were "Iron Man 3" (2nd), "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" (8th), "Star Trek Into Darkness" (11th), "The Great Gatsby" (17th), "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" (31st), "The Lone Ranger" (38th), and "Saving Mr. Banks" (48th).


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: Prior to the introduction of the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement montage, DeGeneres and several ceremony attendees such as Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Channing Tatum, Lupita Nyong'o, and Peter Nyong'o (Lupita's brother) participated in a group selfie. The resulting tweet initially disabled the site and was eventually retweeted on Twitter over 3.4 million times. It surpassed the previous record retweet of Barack and Michelle Obama's post-election hug photo, which had been retweeted 778,000 times, in just 35 minutes.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: While introducing the performance of "Let It Go" from "Frozen", actor John Travolta accidentally mispronounced singer Idina Menzel's name as "Adele Dazeem". As a result, Travolta became the subject of mockery and ridicule in the media. According to a source for E!, Menzel revealed that she was not upset about the mishap. Afterwards, Menzel reportedly printed up satirical playbills that promoted her name as Adele Dazeem, noting her past work in "Nert" ("Rent"), "Wicked-ly" ("Wicked") and "Farfignugen" ("Frozen"). Three days after the ceremony, Travolta publicly apologized to Menzel for mispronouncing her name. The following year, Menzel and Travolta appeared onstage together as award presenters, with the former introducing the latter as "Glom Gozingo".


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: The show received a mixed reception from media publications. Some media outlets were more critical of the show. "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" television critic Rob Owen wrote, "Ms. DeGeneres brought predictable respectability to Sunday's 86th Academy Awards. Too bad this particular brand of predictable respectability was a bore." He also criticized the clip packages saluting movie heroes as "big a waste of time as Oscar montages almost always are." Columnist Alan Sepinwall of HitFix commented, "It was a long, disjointed ceremony, and what was fun and likely to endure came entirely from the winners and their speeches." He went on to say that many of DeGeneres's stunts fell flat and that "The Wizard of Oz" 75th anniversary tribute "felt much too random." Tim Goodman of "The Hollywood Reporter" said, "It was a turgid affair, badly directed, poorly produced and featuring an endless string of either tired or wince-inducing moments by DeGeneres, who, by the last 30 or so minutes, seemed to have given up entirely." In addition, he noted that the show was overstuffed with montages and stunts that dragged down the pacing of the telecast.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: Other media outlets received the broadcast more positively. Television critic Matt Roush of "TV Guide" commented that DeGeneres "made the Oscars' inevitable dull patches felt less painful than usual." He also praised the cast and several musical numbers from the show. Frazier Moore of the Associated Press lauded DeGeneres's performance writing that, "She seemed to be committed to an unspoken theme for the evening: Humanize Hollywood's glitterati for the viewers. In return, the stars were on their best behavior." He concluded, "All in all, a sleek show was the Oscarcast. Few bombshells, fewer embarrassments, from fade-in to fade-out." Entertainment editor Marlow Stern of "The Daily Beast" raved, "DeGeneres followed in the footsteps of the most successful awards show hosts—Billy Crystal, the duo of Fey & Poehler, etc.—who have taken advantage of the audience, engaging in gleeful interactions with the plethora of A-listers there (when they're not mocking them)."


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 43.74 million people over its length, which was a 6% increase from the previous year's ceremony. An estimated 72 million total viewers watched all or part of the awards. The show also earned higher Nielsen ratings compared to the previous telecast with 24.7% of households watching over a 38 share. In addition, the program scored a higher 18-49 demo rating with a 13.3 rating over a 33 share among viewers in that demographic. It is the second highest-rated Oscars telecast on 21st-century U.S. television, trailing only behind the 72nd ceremony held in 2000.


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: In July 2014, the ceremony presentation received eight nominations for the 66th Primetime Emmys. The following month, the ceremony won one of those nominations for Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety, Nonfiction, Reality, or Reality-Competition Program (Derek McLane, Joe Celli, and Gloria Lamb).


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: The annual "In Memoriam" tribute was presented by actress Glenn Close. The montage featured an excerpt of the main title from "Somewhere in Time" by composer John Barry. At the conclusion of the tribute, singer Bette Midler performed her song "Wind Beneath My Wings" from the film "Beaches". Before "In Memoriam" and while co-presenting Best Cinematography, Bill Murray paid an additional tribute to Harold Ramis. After co-presenter Amy Adams presented the nominees, Murray says "Oh, we forgot one. Harold Ramis for "Caddyshack", "Ghostbusters" and "Groundhog Day"."


title: 86th Academy Awards

text: Shortly after Midler finished singing, camera assistant Sarah Jones, who died more than a week prior to the ceremony, was briefly mentioned before the commercial break.


title: Cybele

text: Cybele ( ; Phrygian: "Matar Kubileya/Kubeleya" "Kubileya/Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian "Kuvava"; "Kybele", "Kybebe", "Kybelis") is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forerunner in the earliest neolithic at Çatalhöyük, where statues of plump women, sometimes sitting, accompanied by lionesses, have been found in excavations. Phrygia's only known goddess, she was probably its national deity. Greek colonists in Asia Minor adopted and adapted her Phrygian cult and spread it to mainland Greece and to the more distant western Greek colonies around the 6th century BC.


title: Cybele

text: In Greece, Cybele met with a mixed reception. She became partially assimilated to aspects of the Earth-goddess Gaia, of her possibly Minoan equivalent Rhea, and of the harvest–mother goddess Demeter. Some city-states, notably Athens, evoked her as a protector, but her most celebrated Greek rites and processions show her as an essentially foreign, exotic mystery-goddess who arrives in a lion-drawn chariot to the accompaniment of wild music, wine, and a disorderly, ecstatic following. Uniquely in Greek religion, she had a eunuch mendicant priesthood. Many of her Greek cults included rites to a divine Phrygian castrate shepherd-consort Attis, who was probably a Greek invention. In Greece, Cybele became associated with mountains, town and city walls, fertile nature, and wild animals, especially lions.


title: Cybele

text: In Rome, Cybele became known as Magna Mater ("Great Mother"). The Roman state adopted and developed a particular form of her cult after the Sibylline oracle in 205 BC recommended her conscription as a key religious ally in Rome's second war against Carthage (218 to 201 BC). Roman mythographers reinvented her as a Trojan goddess, and thus an ancestral goddess of the Roman people by way of the Trojan prince Aeneas. As Rome eventually established hegemony over the Mediterranean world, Romanized forms of Cybele's cults spread throughout Rome's empire. Greek and Roman writers debated and disputed the meaning and morality of her cults and priesthoods, which remain controversial subjects in modern scholarship.


title: Cybele

text: No contemporary text or myth survives to attest the original character and nature of Cybele's Phrygian cult. She may have evolved from a statuary type found at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia and accompanied by lionesses, dated to the 6th millennium BC, who is identified by some as a mother goddess. In Phrygian art of the 8th century BC, the cult attributes of the Phrygian mother-goddess include the attendant lions, a bird of prey, and a small vase for her libations or other offerings.


title: Cybele

text: The inscription "Matar Kubileya/Kubeleya" at a Phrygian rock-cut shrine, dated to the first half of the 6th century BC, is usually read as "Mother of the mountain", a reading supported by ancient classical sources, and consistent with Cybele as any of several similar tutelary goddesses, each known as "mother" and associated with specific Anatolian mountains or other localities: a goddess thus "born from stone". She is ancient Phrygia's only known goddess, the divine companion or consort of its mortal rulers, and was probably the highest deity of the Phrygian state. Her name, and the development of religious practices associated with her, may have been influenced by the Kubaba cult of the deified Sumerian queen Kubaba.


title: Cybele

text: In the 2nd century AD, the geographer Pausanias attests to a Magnesian (Lydian) cult to "the mother of the gods", whose image was carved into a rock-spur of Mount Sipylus. This was believed to be the oldest image of the goddess, and was attributed to the legendary Broteas. At Pessinos in Phrygia, the mother goddess—identified by the Greeks as Cybele—took the form of an unshaped stone of black meteoric iron, and may have been associated with or identical to Agdistis, Pessinos' mountain deity. This was the aniconic stone that was removed to Rome in 204 BC.


title: Cybele

text: Images and iconography in funerary contexts, and the ubiquity of her Phrygian name "Matar" ("Mother"), suggest that she was a mediator between the "boundaries of the known and unknown": the civilized and the wild, the worlds of the living and the dead. Her association with hawks, lions, and the stone of the mountainous landscape of the Anatolian wilderness, seem to characterize her as mother of the land in its untrammeled natural state, with power to rule, moderate or soften its latent ferocity, and to control its potential threats to a settled, civilized life. Anatolian elites sought to harness her protective power to forms of ruler-cult; in Phrygia, the Midas monument connects her with king Midas, as her sponsor, consort, or co-divinity. As protector of cities, or city states, she was sometimes shown wearing a mural crown, representing the city walls. At the same time, her power "transcended any purely political usage and spoke directly to the goddess' followers from all walks of life".


title: Cybele

text: Some Phrygian shaft monuments are thought to have been used for libations and blood offerings to Cybele, perhaps anticipating by several centuries the pit used in her taurobolium and criobolium sacrifices during the Roman imperial era. Over time, her Phrygian cults and iconography were transformed, and eventually subsumed, by the influences and interpretations of her foreign devotees, at first Greek and later Roman.


title: Cybele

text: From around the 6th century BC, cults to the Anatolian mother-goddess were introduced from Phrygia into the ethnically Greek colonies of western Anatolia, mainland Greece, the Aegean islands and the westerly colonies of Magna Graecia. The Greeks called her "Mātēr" or "Mētēr" ("Mother"), or from the early 5th century "Kubelē"; in Pindar, she is "Mistress Cybele the Mother". In Homeric Hymn 14 she is "the Mother of all gods and all human beings." Cybele was readily assimilated with several Greek goddesses, especially Rhea, as "Mētēr theōn" ("Mother of the gods"), whose raucous, ecstatic rites she may have acquired. As an exemplar of devoted motherhood, she was partly assimilated to the grain-goddess Demeter, whose torchlight procession recalled her search for her lost daughter, Persephone; but she also continued to be identified as a foreign deity, with many of her traits reflecting Greek ideas about barbarians and the wilderness, as "Mētēr oreia" ("Mother of the Mountains"). She is depicted as a Potnia Theron ("Mistress of animals"), with her mastery of the natural world expressed by the lions that flank her, sit in her lap, or draw her chariot. This schema may derive from a goddess figure from Minoan religion. Walter Burkert places her among the "foreign gods" of Greek religion, a complex figure combining a putative Minoan-Mycenaean tradition with the Phrygian cult imported directly from Asia Minor.


title: Cybele

text: Cybele's early Greek images are small votive representations of her monumental rock-cut images in the Phrygian highlands. She stands alone within a naiskos, which represents her temple or its doorway, and is crowned with a "polos", a high, cylindrical hat. A long, flowing chiton covers her shoulders and back. She is sometimes shown with lions in attendance. Around the 5th century BC, Agoracritos created a fully Hellenised and influential image of Cybele that was set up in the Metroon in the Athenian agora. It showed her enthroned, with a lion attendant, holding a "phiale" (a dish for making libations to the gods) and a "tympanon" (a hand drum). Both were Greek innovations to her iconography and reflect key features of her ritual worship introduced by the Greeks which would be salient in the cult's later development.


title: Cybele

text: For the Greeks, the tympanon was a marker of foreign cults, suitable for rites to Cybele, her close equivalent Rhea, and Dionysus; of these, only Cybele holds the tympanon. She appears with Dionysus, as a secondary deity in Euripides' "Bacchae", 64 – 186, and Pindar's "Dithyramb" II.6 – 9. In the "Bibliotheca" formerly attributed to Apollodorus, Cybele is said to have cured Dionysus of his madness.


title: Cybele

text: Their cults shared several characteristics: the foreigner-deity arrived in a chariot, drawn by exotic big cats (Dionysus by tigers or panthers, Cybele by lions), accompanied by wild music and an ecstatic entourage of exotic foreigners and people from the lower classes. At the end of the 1st century BC Strabo notes that Rhea-Cybele's popular rites in Athens were sometimes held in conjunction with Dionysus' procession. Both were regarded with caution by the Greeks, as being foreign, to be simultaneously embraced and "held at arm's length".


title: Cybele

text: Cybele was also the focus of mystery cult, private rites with a chthonic aspect connected to hero cult and exclusive to those who had undergone initiation, although it is unclear who Cybele's initiates were. Reliefs show her alongside young female and male attendants with torches, and with vessels for purification. Literary sources describe joyous abandonment to the loud, percussive music of tympanon, castanets, clashing cymbals, and flutes, and to the frenzied "Phrygian dancing", perhaps a form of circle-dancing by women, to the roar of "wise and healing music of the gods".


title: Cybele

text: In literary sources, the spread of Cybele's cult is presented as a source of conflict and crisis. Herodotus says that when Anacharsis returned to Scythia after traveling and acquiring knowledge among the Greeks in the 6th century BC, his brother, the Scythian king, put him to death for celebrating Cybele's mysteries. The historicity of this account and that of Anacharsis himself are widely questioned. In Athenian tradition, the city's Metroon was founded to placate Cybele, who had visited a plague on Athens when one of her wandering priests was killed for his attempt to introduce her cult. The earliest source is the "Hymn to the Mother of the Gods" (362 AD) by the Roman emperor Julian, but references to it appear in scholia from an earlier date. The account may reflect real resistance to Cybele's cult, but Lynne Roller sees it as a story intended to demonstrate Cybele's power, similar to myth of Dionysus' arrival in Thebes recounted in "The Bacchae". Many of Cybele's cults were funded privately, rather than by the polis, but she also had publicly established temples in many Greek cities, including Athens and Olympia. Her "vivid and forceful character" and association with the wild, set her apart from the Olympian deities. Her association with Phrygia led to particular unease in Greece after the Persian Wars, as Phrygian symbols and costumes were increasingly associated with the Achaemenid empire.


title: Cybele

text: Conflation with Rhea led to Cybele's association with various male demigods who served Rhea as attendants, or as guardians of her son, the infant Zeus, as he lay in the cave of his birth. In cult terms, they seem to have functioned as intercessors or intermediaries between goddess and mortal devotees, through dreams, waking trance, or ecstatic dance and song. They include the armed Curetes, who danced around Zeus and clashed their shields to amuse him; their supposedly Phrygian equivalents, the youthful Corybantes, who provided similarly wild and martial music, dance and song; and the dactyls and Telchines, magicians associated with metalworking.


title: Cybele

text: Cybele's major mythographic narratives attach to her relationship with Attis, who is described by ancient Greek and Roman sources and cults as her youthful consort, and as a Phrygian deity. In Phrygia, "Attis" was not a deity, but both a commonplace and priestly name, found alike in casual graffiti, the dedications of personal monuments, as well as at several of Cybele's Phrygian shrines and monuments. His divinity may therefore have begun as a Greek invention based on what was known of Cybele's Phrygian cult. His earliest certain image as deity appears on a 4th-century BC Greek stele from Piraeus, near Athens. It shows him as the Hellenised stereotype of a rustic, eastern barbarian; he sits at ease, sporting the Phrygian cap and shepherd's crook of his later Greek and Roman cults. Before him stands a Phrygian goddess (identified by the inscription as Agdistis) who carries a tympanon in her left hand. With her right, she hands him a jug, as if to welcome him into her cult with a share of her own libation. Later images of Attis show him as a shepherd, in similar relaxed attitudes, holding or playing the syrinx (panpipes). In Demosthenes' "On the Crown" (330 BC), "attes" is "a ritual cry shouted by followers of mystic rites".


title: Cybele

text: Attis seems to have accompanied the diffusion of Cybele's cult through Magna Graecia; there is evidence of their joint cult at the Greek colonies of Marseilles (Gaul) and Lokroi (southern Italy) from the 6th and 7th centuries BC. After Alexander the Great's conquests, "wandering devotees of the goddess became an increasingly common presence in Greek literature and social life; depictions of Attis have been found at numerous Greek sites". When shown with Cybele, he is always the younger, lesser deity, or perhaps her priestly attendant. In the mid 2nd century, letters from the king of Pergamum to Cybele's shrine at Pessinos consistently address its chief priest as "Attis".


title: Cybele

text: Romans knew Cybele as "Magna Mater" ("Great Mother"), or as "Magna Mater deorum Idaea" ("great Idaean mother of the gods"), equivalent to the Greek title "Meter Theon Idaia" ("Mother of the Gods, from Mount Ida"). Rome officially adopted her cult during the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC), after dire prodigies, including a meteor shower, a failed harvest, and famine, seemed to warn of Rome's imminent defeat. The Roman Senate and its religious advisers consulted the Sibylline oracle and decided that Carthage might be defeated if Rome imported the "Magna Mater" ("Great Mother") of Phrygian Pessinos. As this cult object belonged to a Roman ally, the Kingdom of Pergamum, the Roman Senate sent ambassadors to seek the king's consent; en route, a consultation with the Greek oracle at Delphi confirmed that the goddess should be brought to Rome. The goddess arrived in Rome in the form of Pessinos' black meteoric stone. Roman legend connects this voyage, or its end, to the matron Claudia Quinta, who was accused of unchastity but proved her innocence with a miraculous feat on behalf of the goddess. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, supposedly the "best man" in Rome, was chosen to meet the goddess at Ostia; and Rome's most virtuous matrons (including Claudia Quinta) conducted her to the temple of Victoria, to await the completion of her temple on the Palatine Hill. Pessinos' stone was later used as the face of the statue of the goddess. In due course, the famine ended and Hannibal was defeated.


title: Cybele

text: Most modern scholarship agrees that Cybele's consort, Attis, and her eunuch Phrygian priests (Galli) would have arrived with the goddess, along with at least some of the wild, ecstatic features of her Greek and Phrygian cults. The histories of her arrival deal with the piety, purity, and status of the Romans involved, the success of their religious stratagem, and power of the goddess herself; she has no consort or priesthood, and seems fully Romanised from the first. Some modern scholars assume that Attis must have followed much later; or that the Galli, described in later sources as shockingly effeminate and flamboyantly "un-Roman", must have been an unexpected consequence of bringing the goddess in blind obedience to the Sibyl; a case of "biting off more than one can chew". Others note that Rome was well versed in the adoption (or sometimes, the "calling forth", or seizure,) of foreign deities, and the diplomats who negotiated Cybele's move to Rome would have been well-educated, and well-informed.


title: Cybele

text: Romans believed that Cybele, considered a Phrygian outsider even within her Greek cults, was the mother-goddess of ancient Troy (Ilium). Some of Rome's leading patrician families claimed Trojan ancestry; so the "return" of the Mother of all Gods to her once-exiled people would have been particularly welcome, even if her spouse and priesthood were not; its accomplishment would have reflected well on the principals involved and, in turn, on their descendants. The upper classes who sponsored the Magna Mater's festivals delegated their organisation to the plebeian aediles, and honoured her and each other with lavish, private festival banquets from which her Galli would have been conspicuously absent. Whereas in most of her Greek cults she dwelt outside the "polis", in Rome she was the city's protector, contained within her Palatine precinct, along with her priesthood, at the geographical heart of Rome's most ancient religious traditions. She was promoted as patrician property; a Roman matron – albeit a strange one, "with a stone for a face" – who acted for the clear benefit of the Roman state.


title: Cybele

text: Augustan ideology identified Magna Mater with Imperial order and Rome's religious authority throughout the empire. Augustus claimed a Trojan ancestry through his adoption by Julius Caesar and the divine favour of Venus; in the iconography of Imperial cult, the empress Livia was Magna Mater's earthly equivalent, Rome's protector and symbolic "Great Mother"; the goddess is portrayed with Livia's face on cameos and statuary. By this time, Rome had absorbed the goddess's Greek and Phrygian homelands, and the Roman version of Cybele as Imperial Rome's protector was introduced there.


title: Cybele

text: Imperial Magna Mater protected the empire's cities and agriculture — Ovid "stresses the barrenness of the earth before the Mother's arrival. Virgil's "Aeneid" (written between 29 and 19 BC) embellishes her "Trojan" features; she is "Berecyntian Cybele", mother of Jupiter himself, and protector of the Trojan prince Aeneas in his flight from the destruction of Troy. She gives the Trojans her sacred tree for shipbuilding, and begs Jupiter to make the ships indestructible. These ships become the means of escape for Aeneas and his men, guided toward Italy and a destiny as ancestors of the Roman people by Venus Genetrix. Once arrived in Italy, these ships have served their purpose and are transformed into sea nymphs.


title: Cybele

text: Stories of Magna Mater's arrival were used to promote the fame of its principals, and thus their descendants. Claudia Quinta's role as Rome's "castissima femina" (purest or most virtuous woman) became "increasingly glorified and fantastic"; she was shown in the costume of a Vestal Virgin, and Augustan ideology represented her as the ideal of virtuous Roman womanhood. The emperor Claudius claimed her among his ancestors. Claudius promoted Attis to the Roman pantheon and placed his cult under the supervision of the quindecimviri (one of Rome's priestly colleges).


title: Cybele

text: The "Megalesia" festival to Magna Mater commenced on April 4, the anniversary of her arrival in Rome. The festival structure is unclear, but it included ludi scaenici (plays and other entertainments based on religious themes), probably performed on the deeply stepped approach to her temple; some of the plays were commissioned from well-known playwrights. On April 10, her image was taken in public procession to the Circus Maximus, and chariot races were held there in her honour; a statue of Magna Mater was permanently sited on the racetrack's dividing barrier, showing the goddess seated on a lion's back.


title: Cybele

text: Roman bystanders seem to have perceived Megalesia as either characteristically "Greek"; or Phrygian. At the cusp of Rome's transition to Empire, the Greek Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes this procession as wild Phrygian "mummery" and "fabulous clap-trap", in contrast to the Megalesian sacrifices and games, carried out in what he admires as a dignified "traditional Roman" manner; Dionysius also applauds the wisdom of Roman religious law, which forbids the participation of any Roman citizen in the procession, and in the goddess's mysteries; Slaves are forbidden to witness any of this. In the late republican era, Lucretius vividly describes the procession's armed "war dancers" in their three-plumed helmets, clashing their shields together, bronze on bronze, "delighted by blood"; yellow-robed, long-haired, perfumed Galli waving their knives, wild music of thrumming tympanons and shrill flutes. Along the route, rose petals are scattered, and clouds of incense arise. The goddess's image, wearing the Mural Crown and seated within a sculpted, chariot drawn by lions, is carried high on a bier. The Roman display of Cybele's Megalesia procession as an exotic, privileged public pageant offers signal contrast to what is known of the private, socially inclusive Phrygian-Greek mysteries on which it was based.


title: Cybele

text: The Principate brought the development of an extended festival or "holy week" for Cybele and Attis in March (Latin "Martius)", from the Ides to nearly the end of the month. Citizens and freedmen were allowed limited forms of participation in rites pertaining to Attis, through their membership of two colleges, each dedicated to a specific task; the "Cannophores" ("reed bearers") and the "Dendrophores" ("tree bearers").


title: Cybele

text: Scholars are divided as to whether the entire series was more or less put into place under Claudius, or whether the festival grew over time. The Phrygian character of the cult would have appealed to the Julio-Claudians as an expression of their claim to Trojan ancestry. It may be that Claudius established observances mourning the death of Attis, before he had acquired his full significance as a resurrected god of rebirth, expressed by rejoicing at the later "Canna intrat" and by the Hilaria. The full sequence at any rate is thought to have been official in the time of Antoninus Pius (reigned 138–161), but among extant "fasti" appears only in the Calendar of Philocalus (354 AD).


title: Cybele

text: Significant anniversaries, stations, and participants in the 204 arrival of the goddess – including her ship, which would have been thought a sacred object – may have been marked from the beginning by minor, local, or private rites and festivals at Ostia, Rome, and Victoria's temple. Cults to Claudia Quinta are likely, particularly in the Imperial era. Rome seems to have introduced evergreen cones (pine or fir) to Cybele's iconography, based at least partly on Rome's "Trojan ancestor" myth, in which the goddess gave Aeneas her sacred tree for shipbuilding. The evergreen cones probably symbolised Attis' death and rebirth. Despite the archaeological evidence of early cult to Attis at Cybele's Palatine precinct, no surviving Roman literary or epigraphic source mentions him until Catullus, whose poem 63 places him squarely within Magna Mater's mythology, as the hapless leader and prototype of her Galli.


title: Cybele

text: Rome's strictures against castration and citizen participation in Magna Mater's cult limited both the number and kind of her initiates. From the 160s AD, citizens who sought initiation to her mysteries could offer either of two forms of bloody animal sacrifice – and sometimes both – as lawful substitutes for self-castration. The Taurobolium sacrificed a bull, the most potent and costly victim in Roman religion; the Criobolium used a lesser victim, usually a ram. A late, melodramatic and antagonistic account by the Christian apologist Prudentius has a priest stand in a pit beneath a slatted wooden floor; his assistants or junior priests dispatch a bull, using a sacred spear. The priest emerges from the pit, drenched with the bull's blood, to the applause of the gathered spectators. This description of a Taurobolium as blood-bath is, if accurate, an exception to usual Roman sacrificial practice; it may have been no more than a bull sacrifice in which the blood was carefully collected and offered to the deity, along with its organs of generation, the testicles.


title: Cybele

text: The Taurobolium and Criobolium are not tied to any particular date or festival, but probably draw on the same theological principles as the life, death, and rebirth cycle of the March "holy week". The celebrant personally and symbolically took the place of Attis, and like him was cleansed, renewed or, in emerging from the pit or tomb, "reborn". These regenerative effects were thought to fade over time, but they could be renewed by further sacrifice. Some dedications transfer the regenerative power of the sacrifice to non-participants, including emperors, the Imperial family and the Roman state; some mark a "dies natalis" (birthday or anniversary) for the participant or recipient. Dedicants and participants could be male or female.


title: Cybele

text: The sheer expense of the Taurobolium ensured that its initiates were from Rome's highest class, and even the lesser offering of a Criobolium would have been beyond the means of the poor. Among the Roman masses, there is evidence of private devotion to Attis, but virtually none for initiations to Magna Mater's cult. In the religious revivalism of the later Imperial era, Magna Mater's notable initiates included the deeply religious, wealthy, and erudite praetorian prefect Praetextatus; the quindecimvir Volusianus, who was twice consul; and possibly the Emperor Julian. Taurobolium dedications to Magna Mater tend to be more common in the Empire's western provinces than elsewhere, attested by inscriptions in (among others) Rome and Ostia in Italy, Lugdunum in Gaul, and Carthage in Africa.


title: Cybele

text: "Attis" may have been a name or title of Cybele's priests or priest-kings in ancient Phrygia. Most myths of the deified Attis present him as founder of Cybele's Galli priesthood but in Servius' account, written during the Roman Imperial era, Attis castrates a king to escape his unwanted sexual attentions, and is castrated in turn by the dying king. Cybele's priests find Attis at the base of a pine tree; he dies and they bury him, emasculate themselves in his memory, and celebrate him in their rites to the goddess. This account might attempt to explain the nature, origin, and structure of Pessinus' theocracy. A Hellenistic poet refers to Cybele's priests in the feminine, as "Gallai". The Roman poet Catullus refers to Attis in the masculine until his emasculation, and in the feminine thereafter. Various Roman sources refer to the Galli as a middle or third gender ("medium genus" or "tertium sexus"). The Galli's voluntary emasculation in service of the goddess was thought to give them powers of prophecy.


title: Cybele

text: Pessinus, site of the temple whence the Magna Mater was brought to Rome, was a theocracy whose leading Galli may have been appointed via some form of adoption, to ensure "dynastic" succession. The highest ranking Gallus was known as "Attis", and his junior as "Battakes". The Galli of Pessinus were politically influential; in 189 BC, they predicted or prayed for Roman victory in Rome's imminent war against the Galatians. The following year, perhaps in response to this gesture of goodwill, the Roman senate formally recognised Illium as the ancestral home of the Roman people, granting it extra territory and tax immunity. In 103, a Battakes traveled to Rome and addressed its senate, either for the redress of impieties committed at his shrine, or to predict yet another Roman military success. He would have cut a remarkable figure, with "colourful attire and headdress, like a crown, with regal associations unwelcome to the Romans". Yet the senate supported him; and when a plebeian tribune who had violently opposed his right to address the senate died of a fever (or, in the alternative scenario, when the prophesied Roman victory came) Magna Mater's power seemed proven.


title: Cybele

text: In Rome, the Galli and their cult fell under the supreme authority of the pontifices, who were usually drawn from Rome's highest ranking, wealthiest citizens. The Galli themselves, although imported to serve the day-to-day workings of their goddess's cult on Rome's behalf, represented an inversion of Roman priestly traditions in which senior priests were citizens, expected to raise families, and personally responsible for the running costs of their temples, assistants, cults, and festivals. As eunuchs, incapable of reproduction, the Galli were forbidden Roman citizenship and rights of inheritance; like their eastern counterparts, they were technically mendicants whose living depended on the pious generosity of others. For a few days of the year, during the Megalesia, Cybele's laws allowed them to leave their quarters, located within the goddess' temple complex, and roam the streets to beg for money. They were outsiders, marked out as Galli by their regalia, and their notoriously effeminate dress and demeanour, but as priests of a state cult, they were sacred and inviolate. From the start, they were objects of Roman fascination, scorn, and religious awe. No Roman, not even a slave, could castrate himself "in honour of the Goddess" without penalty; in 101 BC, a slave who had done so was exiled. Augustus selected priests from among his own freedmen to supervise Magna Mater's cult, and brought it under Imperial control. Claudius introduced the senior priestly office of Archigallus, who was not a eunuch and held full Roman citizenship.


title: Cybele

text: The religiously lawful circumstances for a Gallus's self-castration remain unclear; some may have performed the operation on the Dies Sanguinis ("Day of Blood") in Cybele and Attis' March festival. Pliny describes the procedure as relatively safe, but it is not known at what stage in their career the Galli performed it, or exactly what was removed, or even whether all Galli performed it. Some Galli devoted themselves to their goddess for most of their lives, maintained relationships with relatives and partners throughout, and eventually retired from service. Galli remained a presence in Roman cities well into the Empire's Christian era. Some decades after Christianity became the sole Imperial religion, St. Augustine saw Galli "parading through the squares and streets of Carthage, with oiled hair and powdered faces, languid limbs and feminine gait, demanding even from the tradespeople the means of continuing to live in disgrace".


title: Cybele

text: The earliest known temple for Cybele in the Greek world is the Daskalopetra monument on Chios, which dates to the sixth or early fifth centuries BC. In Greek, a temple to Cybele was often called a "Metroon". Several Metroa were established in Greek cities from the fifth century BC onward. The Metroon at Athens was established in the early fifth century BC on the west side of the Athenian Agora, next to the Boule (town council). It was a rectangular building with three rooms and an altar in front. It was destroyed during the Persian sack of Athens in 480 BC, but repaired around 460 BC. The cult was deeply integrated into civic life; the Metroon was used as the state archive and Cybele was one of the four main deities, to whom serving councillors sacrificed, along with Zeus, Athena, and Apollo. The highly influential fifth-century BC statue of Cybele enthroned by Agoracritus was located in this building. The building was rebuilt around 150 BC, with separate rooms for cult worship and archival storage, and it remained in use until Late Antiquity. A second Metroon in the Athenian suburb of Agrae was associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries. At the end of the fifth century BC, a Metroon was established at Olympia. It is a small hexastyle temple, the third to be built on the site after the archaic Heraion and the mid-fifth century Temple of Zeus. In the Roman period it was used for the Imperial cult. In the fourth century, further Metroa are attested at Smyrna and Colophon, where they also served as state archives, as in Athens.


title: Cybele

text: Magna Mater's temple stood high on the slope of the Palatine, overlooking the valley of the Circus Maximus and facing the temple of Ceres on the slopes of the Aventine. It was accessible via a long upward flight of steps from a flattened area or proscenium below, where the goddess's festival games and plays were staged. At the top of the steps was a statue of the enthroned goddess, wearing a mural crown and attended by lions. Her altar stood at the base of the steps, at the proscenium's edge. The first temple was damaged by fire in 111 BC, and was repaired or rebuilt. It burnt down in the early Imperial era, and was restored by Augustus; it burned down again soon after, and Augustus rebuilt it in more sumptuous style; the Ara Pietatis relief shows its pediment. The goddess is represented by her empty throne and crown, flanked by two figures of Attis reclining on tympanons; and by two lions who eat from bowls, as if tamed by her unseen presence. The scene probably represents a "sellisternium", a form of banquet usually reserved for goddesses, in accordance with "Greek rite" as practiced in Rome. This feast was probably held within the building, with attendance reserved for the aristocratic sponsors of the goddesses rites; the flesh of her sacrificial animal provided their meat.


title: Cybele

text: From at least 139 AD, Rome's port at Ostia, the site of the goddess's arrival, had a fully developed sanctuary to Magna Mater and Attis, served by a local Archigallus and college of "dendrophores" (the ritual tree-bearers of "Holy Week").


title: Cybele

text: Ground preparations for the building of St. Peter's basilica on the Vatican Hill uncovered a shrine, known as the Phrygianum, with some 24 dedications to Magna Mater and Attis. Many are now lost, but most that survive were dedicated by high-status Romans after a taurobolium sacrifice to Magna Mater. None of these dedicants were priests of the Magna Mater or Attis, and several held priesthoods of one or more different cults.


title: Cybele

text: Near Setif (Mauretania), the "dendrophores" and the faithful ("religiosi") restored their temple of Cybele and Attis after a disastrous fire in 288 AD. Lavish new fittings paid for by the private group included the silver statue of Cybele and her processional chariot; the latter received a new canopy with tassels in the form of fir cones. Cybele drew ire from Christians throughout the Empire; when St. Theodore of Amasea was granted time to recant his beliefs, he spent it by burning a temple of Cybele instead.


title: Cybele

text: Rome characterised the Phrygians as barbaric, effeminate orientals, prone to excess. While some Roman sources explained Attis' death as punishment for his excess devotion to Magna Mater, others saw it as punishment for his lack of devotion, or outright disloyalty. Only one account of Attis and Cybele (related by Pausanias) omits any suggestion of a personal or sexual relationship between them; Attis achieves divinity through his support of "Meter"'s cult, is killed by a boar sent by Zeus, who is envious of the cult's success, and is rewarded for his commitment with godhead.


title: Cybele

text: The most complex, vividly detailed, and lurid accounts of Magna Mater and Attis were produced as anti-pagan polemic in the late 4th century by the Christian apologist Arnobius, who presented their cults as a repulsive combination of blood-bath, incest, and sexual orgy, derived from the myths of Agdistis. This has been presumed the most ancient, violent, and authentically Phrygian version of myth and cult, closely following an otherwise lost orthodox, approved version preserved by the priest-kings at Pessinous and imported to Rome. Arnobius claimed several scholarly sources as his authority; but the oldest versions are also the most fragmentary and, during an interval of several centuries, apt to diverge into whatever version suited a new audience, or potentially, new acolytes. Greek versions of the myth recall those concerning the mortal Adonis and his divine lovers, - Aphrodite, who had some claim to cult as a 'Mother of all", or her rival for Adonis' love, Persephone - showing the grief and anger of a powerful goddess, mourning the helpless loss of her mortal beloved.


title: Cybele

text: The emotionally charged literary version presented in Catullus 63 follows Attis' initially ecstatic self-castration into exhausted sleep, and a waking realisation of all he has lost through his emotional slavery to a domineering and utterly self-centered goddess; it is narrated with a rising sense of isolation, oppression, and despair, virtually an inversion of the liberation promised by Cybele's Anatolian cult. Contemporaneous with this, more or less, Dionysius of Halicarnassos pursues the idea that the "Phrygian degeneracy" of the Galli, personified in Attis, be removed from the Megalensia to reveal the dignified, "truly Roman" festival rites of the Magna Mater. Somewhat later, Vergil expresses the same deep tension and ambivalence regarding Rome's claimed Phrygian, Trojan ancestors, when he describes his hero Aeneas as a perfumed, effeminate Gallus, a half-man who would, however, "rid himself of the effeminacy of the Oriental in order to fulfill his destiny as the ancestor of Rome." This would entail him and his followers shedding their Phrygian language and culture, to follow the virile example of the Latins. In Lucretius' description of the goddess and her acolytes in Rome, her priests provide an object lesson in the self-destruction wrought when passion and devotion exceed rational bounds; a warning, rather than an offer.


title: Cybele

text: For Lucretius, Roman Magna Mater "symbolised the world order": her image held reverentially aloft in procession signifies the Earth, which "hangs in the air". She is the mother of all, ultimately the Mother of humankind, and the yoked lions that draw her chariot show an otherwise ferocious offspring's duty of obedience to the parent. She herself is uncreated, and thus essentially separate from and independent of her creations.


title: Cybele

text: In the early Imperial era, the Roman poet Manilius inserts Cybele as the thirteenth deity of an otherwise symmetrical, classic Greco-Roman zodiac, in which each of twelve zodiacal houses (represented by particular constellations) is ruled by one of twelve deities, known in Greece as the Twelve Olympians and in Rome as the Di Consentes. Manilius has Cybele and Jupiter as co-rulers of Leo (the Lion), in astrological opposition to Juno, who rules Aquarius. Modern scholarship remarks that as Cybele's Leo rises above the horizon, Taurus (the Bull) sets; the lion thus dominates the bull. Some of the possible Greek models for Cybele's Megalensia festival include representations of lions attacking and dominating bulls. The festival date coincided, more or less, with events of the Roman agricultural calendar (around April 12) when farmers were advised to dig their vineyards, break up the soil, sow millet, "and – curiously apposite, given the nature of the Mother's priests – castrate cattle and other animals."


title: Hassan Jameel

text: Hassan Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel is a Saudi businessman and philanthropist. He is Deputy President and Vice Chairman of Saudi Arabia operations of the family-owned international conglomerate business Abdul Latif Jameel, which, among numerous business operations, has distribution rights to Toyota vehicles in Saudi Arabia and other countries. His philanthropy work promotes health and safety, and assists job-seekers and those in need in Saudi Arabia.


title: Hassan Jameel

text: Hassan is the middle son of Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, who has been the chairman and president of the diversified international business Abdul Latif Jameel since 1993. He is the grandson of Abdul Latif Jameel (1909–1993), who founded the eponymous company in 1945 and acquired distribution rights to Toyota vehicles in Saudi Arabia in 1955.


title: Hassan Jameel

text: Jameel spent his early school career in Japan. He received a BA in International Economics from Sophia University in Tokyo in 2001. He subsequently obtained an MBA from the London Business School.


title: Hassan Jameel

text: In 2004, Jameel trained at the Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan, in their domestic kaizen department.


title: Hassan Jameel

text: Following his period at Toyota, he returned to Saudi Arabia to work in the family-owned business Abdul Latif Jameel. The company is a diversified conglomerate consisting of independent businesses that cover automotive distribution, auto parts manufacturing, financial services, renewable energy, environmental services, land and real estate development, logistics, electronics retailing, and media services. It has operations in over a dozen countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, Asia Pacific, and Europe. It is one of the largest independent distributors of Toyota, Daihatsu, and Lexus vehicles in the world.


title: Hassan Jameel

text: Jameel is currently Deputy President and Vice Chairman of domestic Saudi Arabia operations of Abdul Latif Jameel, with responsibility for operations such as automotive, land and real estate, and machinery.


title: Hassan Jameel

text: He is on the Global Advisory Board, previously known as the President's Council, of the University of Tokyo. He is also on the board of directors of Family Business Council-Gulf, the GCC chapter of the global family business organization Family Business Network.


title: Hassan Jameel

text: Jameel is President of Community Jameel in Saudi Arabia, a consortium of Abdul Latif Jameel philanthropies formerly known as Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives and founded in 2003. The nonprofit organization has a wide range of social and economic initiatives, including refugee education, job creation, poverty alleviation, food and water security, healthcare improvement, and education and training that supports students beyond the classroom. It also invests in businesses aimed at helping communities transform themselves. Community Jameel also supports artists showcasing their work, and promotes arts and culture. It partners with MIT on global challenges such as health treatment, water and food safety, education for refugees, and poverty elimination, and launched the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab in 2003. Bab Rizq Jameel Saudi Arabia, a division of Community Jameel, creates job opportunities for, and offers guidance to, young Saudi men and women, and also offers interest-free microfinance loans for entrepreneurship and job creation. Jameel is particularly involved in Community Jameel's road safety initiative, which promotes safe driving through education and awareness campaigns.


title: Hassan Jameel

text: In 2012 Jameel married Tunisian art critic, art curator, and Sotheby's international contemporary art specialist Lina Lazaar. An activist promoter of Middle Eastern art, she founded Jeddah Art Week and co-founded "Ibraaz". The marriage ended in divorce in 2017.


title: Hassan Jameel

text: He was in a relationship with Rihanna from 2017 to 2020. Prior to that he was briefly linked to Naomi Campbell.


title: Hassan Jameel

text: Jameel is fluent in Arabic, English, and Japanese. He is an art collector and a keen supporter of the arts.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: "Yesterday" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was first released on the album "Help!" in August 1965, except in the United States, where it was issued as a single in September. The song reached number one on the US charts. It subsequently appeared on the UK EP "Yesterday" in March 1966 and made its US album debut on "Yesterday and Today", in June 1966.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: McCartney's vocal and acoustic guitar, together with a string quartet, essentially made for the first solo performance of the band. It remains popular today and, with more than 2,200 cover versions, is one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. "Yesterday" was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners and was also voted the No. 1 pop song of all time by MTV and "Rolling Stone" magazine the following year. In 1997, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: "Yesterday" is a melancholy ballad about the break-up of a relationship. The singer nostalgically laments for yesterday when he and his love were together, before she left because of something he said. McCartney is the only member of the Beatles to appear on the track. The final recording was so different from other works by the Beatles that the band members vetoed the release of the song as a single in the United Kingdom, although other artists were quick to record versions of it for single release. The Beatles recording was issued as a single there in 1976 and peaked at number 8.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: According to biographers of McCartney and the Beatles, McCartney composed the entire melody in a dream one night in his room at the Wimpole Street home of his then girlfriend Jane Asher and her family. Upon waking, he hurried to a piano and played the tune to avoid forgetting it. Initially concerned though if he had subconsciously plagiarised someone else's work, as he put it: "For about a month I went round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before. Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it."


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: Upon being convinced that he had not copied the melody, McCartney began writing lyrics to suit it. As Lennon and McCartney were known to do at the time, a substitute working lyric, titled "Scrambled Eggs" (the working opening verse was "Scrambled eggs/Oh my baby how I love your legs/Not as much as I love scrambled eggs"), was used for the song until something more suitable was written.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: During the shooting of "Help!", a piano was placed on one of the stages where filming was being conducted and McCartney took advantage of this opportunity to tinker with the song. Richard Lester, the director, was eventually greatly annoyed by this and lost his temper, telling McCartney to finish writing the song or he would have the piano removed. The patience of the other Beatles was also tested by McCartney's work in progress; George Harrison summed this up when he said: "Blimey, he's always talking about that song. You'd think he was Beethoven or somebody!"


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: McCartney originally claimed he had written "Yesterday" during the Beatles' tour of France in 1964; however, the song was not released until the summer of 1965. During the intervening time, the Beatles released two albums, "A Hard Day's Night" and "Beatles for Sale", each of which could have included "Yesterday". Although McCartney has never elaborated on his claims, a delay may have been due to a disagreement between McCartney and George Martin regarding the song's arrangement, or the opinion of the other Beatles who felt it did not suit their image.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: On 27 May 1965, McCartney and Asher flew to Lisbon for a holiday in Albufeira, Algarve, and he borrowed an acoustic guitar from Bruce Welch, in whose house they were staying, and completed the work on "Yesterday". The song was offered as a demo to Chris Farlowe before the Beatles recorded it, but he turned it down as he considered it "too soft". In a March 1967 interview with Brian Matthew, McCartney said that Lennon came up with the word that would replace "scrambled eggs": Yesterday.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: In 2001, Ian Hammond speculated that McCartney subconsciously based "Yesterday" on Ray Charles' version of Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia on My Mind". Hammond concluded his article by saying that, despite the similarities, "Yesterday" is a "completely original and individual [work]".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: In July 2003, British musicologists stumbled upon superficial similarities between the lyric and rhyming schemes of "Yesterday" and Nat King Cole's and Frankie Laine's "Answer Me, My Love"; originally a German song by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch called "Mütterlein", it was a number 1 hit for Laine on the UK charts in 1953 as "Answer Me, O Lord", leading to speculation that McCartney had been influenced by the song. McCartney's publicists denied any resemblance between "Answer Me, My Love" and "Yesterday". "Yesterday" begins with the lines: "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay." In its second stanza, "Answer Me, My Love" has the lines: "You were mine yesterday. I believed that love was here to stay. Won't you tell me where I've gone astray".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: Ostensibly simple, featuring only McCartney playing an Epiphone Texan steel-string acoustic guitar backed by a string quartet in one of the Beatles' first uses of session musicians, "Yesterday" has two contrasting sections, differing in melody and rhythm, producing a sense of variety and fitting contrast. The main melody is seven bars in length, extremely rare in popular song, while the bridge, or "middle eight", is the more standard form of eight bars; often two four-bar phrases combined.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: The first section ("Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away ...") opens with an F chord (the 3rd of the chord is omitted), then moving to Em before proceeding to A and then to D minor. In this sense, the opening chord is a decoy; as musicologist Alan Pollack points out, the home key (F major) has little time to establish itself before "heading towards the relative D minor". He points out that this diversion is a compositional device commonly used by Lennon and McCartney, which he describes as "deferred gratification".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: The second section ("Why she had to go I don't know ...") is, according to Pollack, less musically surprising on paper than it sounds. Starting with Em, the harmonic progression quickly moves through the A major, D minor, and (closer to F major) B, before resolving back to F major, and at the end of this, McCartney holds F while the strings descend to resolve to the home key to introduce the restatement of the first section, before a brief hummed closing phrase.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: Pollack described the scoring as "truly inspired", citing it as an example of "[Lennon & McCartney's] flair for creating stylistic hybrids"; in particular, he praises the "ironic tension drawn between the schmaltzy content of what is played by the quartet and the restrained, spare nature of the medium in which it is played".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: The tonic key of the song is F major (although, since McCartney tuned his guitar down a whole step, he was playing the chords as if it were in G), where the song begins before veering off into the key of D minor. It is this frequent use of the minor, and the ii–V7 chord progression (Em and A chords in this case) leading into it, that gives the song its melancholy aura. The A chord is an example of a secondary dominant, specifically a V/vi chord. The G chord in the bridge is another secondary dominant, in this case a V/V chord, but rather than resolve it to the expected chord, as with the A to Dm in the verse, McCartney instead follows it with the IV chord, a B. This motion creates a descending chromatic line of C–B–B–A to accompany the title lyric.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: The string arrangement reinforces the song's air of sadness, in the groaning cello line that connects the two halves of the bridge, notably the "blue" seventh in the second bridge pass (the E played after the vocal line "I don't know / she wouldn't say") and in the descending run by the viola that segues the bridge back into the verses, mimicked by McCartney's vocal on the second pass of the bridge. This viola line, the "blue" cello phrase, the high A sustained by the violin over the final verse and the minimal use of vibrato are elements of the string arrangement attributable to McCartney rather than George Martin.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: When the song was performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show", it was done in the above-mentioned key of F, with McCartney as the only Beatle to perform, and the studio orchestra providing the string accompaniment. However, all of the Beatles played in a G-major version when the song was included in tours in 1965 and 1966.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: When McCartney appeared on "The Howard Stern Show", he stated that he owns the original lyrics to "Yesterday" written on the back of an envelope. McCartney later performed the original "Scrambled Eggs" version of the song, plus additional new lyrics, with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: When asked whether some of the lyrics from "Yesterday" are a reference to his early loss of his mother, Mary McCartney, he stated that "I didn't mean it to be, but ... it could be".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: The track was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on 14 June 1965, immediately following the taping of "I'm Down", and four days before McCartney's 23rd birthday. There are conflicting accounts of how the song was recorded. Some sources state that McCartney and the other Beatles tried a variety of instruments, including drums and an organ, and that George Martin later persuaded them to allow McCartney to play his Epiphone Texan steel-string acoustic guitar, later overdubbing a string quartet for backup. Regardless, none of the other band members were included in the final recording.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: McCartney performed two takes of "Yesterday" on 14 June 1965. Take 2 was deemed better and used as the master take. On 17 June, an additional vocal track by McCartney and a string quartet were overdubbed on take 2 and that version was released.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: Take 1, without the string overdub, was later released on the "Anthology 2" compilation. On take 1, McCartney can be heard giving chord changes to Harrison before starting, but while Harrison does not appear to actually play, he was most certainly present because his voice is captured on the session tapes. Take 2 had two lines transposed from the first take: "There's a shadow hanging over me"/"I'm not half the man I used to be", though it seems clear that their order in take 2 was the correct one, because McCartney can be heard, in take 1, suppressing a laugh at his mistake.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: In 2006, just before the album "Love" was released, George Martin elaborated on the recording set-up of the song:


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: The leakage of sound from one track to another caused concern when the surround version of the song was mixed for "Love", but it was decided to include the track nevertheless. As Martin explained in the liner notes of "Love":


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: We agonised over the inclusion of "Yesterday" in the show. It is such a famous song, the icon of an era, but had it been heard too much? The story of the addition of the original string quartet is well known, however, few people know how limited the recording was technically, and so the case for not including it was strong, but how could we ignore such a marvellous work? We introduced it with some of Paul's guitar work from "Blackbird", and hearing it now, I know it was right to include it. Its simplicity is so direct; it tugs at the heartstrings.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: Concerning the debate on how the song should be released, Martin later said: "['Yesterday'] wasn't really a Beatles record and I discussed this with Brian Epstein: 'You know this is Paul's song ... shall we call it Paul McCartney?' He said 'No, whatever we do we are not splitting up the Beatles.'" Since "Yesterday" was unlike the Beatles' previous work and did not fit in with their image, the Beatles refused to permit the release of a single in the United Kingdom. This did not prevent Matt Monro from recording the first of many cover versions of "Yesterday". His version made it into the top ten in the UK charts soon after its release in the autumn of 1965.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: The Beatles' influence over their US record label, Capitol, was not as strong as it was over EMI's Parlophone label in Britain. A single was released in the US, pairing "Yesterday" with "Act Naturally", a track which featured vocals by Starr. The single was released on 13 September 1965 and topped the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart for four weeks, beginning on 9 October. The song spent a total of 11 weeks on the chart, selling a million copies within five weeks. The single was also number one for three weeks on the US "Cash Box" pop singles chart the same year.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: "Yesterday" was the fifth of six number one Beatles' singles in a row on the American charts, a record at the time. The other singles were "I Feel Fine", "Eight Days a Week", "Ticket to Ride", "Help!" and "We Can Work It Out". On 4 March 1966, the song was issued as the title track of the British EP "Yesterday". On 26 March, the EP went to number one, a position it held for two months. Later that year, "Yesterday" was included as the title track of the North American album "Yesterday and Today".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: "Yesterday" was released on the album "A Collection of Beatles Oldies", a compilation album released in the United Kingdom in December 1966, featuring hit singles and other songs issued by the group between 1963 and 1966.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: On 8 March 1976, "Yesterday" was released by Parlophone as a single in the UK, featuring "I Should Have Known Better" on the B-side. The single peaked at number 8 on the UK Singles Chart. The release came about due to the expiration of the Beatles' contract with EMI, which allowed the company to repackage the Beatles' recordings as they wished. EMI reissued all 22 of the Beatles' UK singles, plus "Yesterday", on the same day, leading to six of them placing on the UK chart.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: In 2006, a version of the song was included on the album "Love". The version begins with the acoustic guitar intro from the song "Blackbird" transposed down a whole step to F major from its original key G to transition smoothly into "Yesterday".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: "Yesterday" is one of the most recorded songs in the history of popular music. Its entry in "Guinness World Records" states that, by January 1986, 1,600 cover versions had been made. After Muzak switched in the 1990s to programs based on commercial recordings, its inventory grew to include about 500 "Yesterday" covers. In his 1972 article on the development of rock music, Joel Vance of "Stereo Review" magazine credited the song with originating the vogue for classical and baroque rock, anticipating the Rolling Stones' recording of "As Tears Go By" and works by artists such as the Moody Blues and the Classics IV.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: "Yesterday" won the Ivor Novello Award for "Outstanding Song of 1965", and came second in the "Most Performed Work of the Year" category, behind the Lennon–McCartney composition "Michelle". More recently, "Rolling Stone" ranked "Yesterday" at number 13 on its 2004 list "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and fourth on its 2010 list of "The Beatles' 100 Greatest Songs". In 1999, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) placed "Yesterday" third on its list of songs of the 20th century most performed on American radio and television, with approximately seven million performances. "Yesterday" was surpassed only by the Association's "Never My Love" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". "Yesterday" was voted Best Song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1997. Although it was nominated for Song of the Year at the 1966 Grammy Awards, it lost out to Tony Bennett's "The Shadow of Your Smile". "Yesterday" was nominated for six Grammys in total that year, and "Help!" was also nominated in four categories. After the band had failed to win any of the ten awards, Alan Livingston, the head of Capitol Records, officially protested about the results, saying that "Yesterday" being passed over for the Song of the Year "makes a mockery of the whole event".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: Chuck Berry said that "Yesterday" was the song that he wished that he had written. "Yesterday" has also been criticised for being mundane and mawkish. Bob Dylan had a marked dislike for the song, stating that "If you go into the Library of Congress, you can find a lot better than that. There are millions of songs like 'Michelle' and 'Yesterday' written in Tin Pan Alley." Accompanied by Harrison, Dylan recorded his own version of "Yesterday" four years later, but it was never released.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: Shortly before his death in 1980, Lennon commented that "Although the lyrics don't resolve into any sense, they're good lines. They certainly work ... but if you read the whole song, it doesn't say anything" and added the song was "beautiful – and I never wished I'd written it". Lennon made reference to "Yesterday" in his song "How Do You Sleep?" on his 1971 album "Imagine". The song appears to attack McCartney with the line "The only thing you done was yesterday, but since you've gone you're just another day", a reference to McCartney's recent hit "Another Day".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: In 2001, McCartney said that he had asked Yoko Ono to agree to change the writing credit for "Yesterday" from "Lennon/McCartney" to "McCartney/Lennon". He said that Ono refused, which was one of the reasons for their poor relationship at the time.


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: At the 2006 Grammy Awards, McCartney performed "Yesterday" live as a mash-up with Linkin Park and Jay Z's "Numb/Encore".


title: Yesterday (Beatles song)

text: In 2012, the BBC reported that "Yesterday" remained the fourth most successful song of all time in terms of royalties paid, having amassed a total of £19.5 million in payments.


title: Ron Funches

text: Ronald Kyle Funches (born March 12, 1983) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Born in California, Funches spent his early life in Chicago before relocating to Salem, Oregon, as a teenager. He began his comedy career in Portland, Oregon, at age 23. After moving to Los Angeles in 2012, he began appearing as a guest on several comedy series, including "@midnight", "Mulaney", and "Kroll Show".


title: Ron Funches

text: From 2014 to 2016, Funches starred as a regular on the NBC series "Undateable", and in 2015, began performing as a voice actor on such series as "BoJack Horseman", "The Adventures of Puss in Boots", and "Adventure Time". He subsequently performed the voice role of Cooper in the animated film "Trolls" (2016). He also had guest-starring roles on a number of television series, including "Transparent" (2016), "Black-ish" (2017), and reprised the role of Cooper in the "Trolls" spin-off series "" (2018).


title: Ron Funches

text: Beginning in 2019, he began voicing the roles of King Shark in the DC Comics TV series "Harley Quinn" and Fox in the TBS/Adult Swim TV series "Final Space". In 2020, Funches again reprised the role of Cooper in the sequel film "Trolls World Tour". Starting in 2020, Funches voiced Ron on the Netflix series "Hoops".


title: Ron Funches

text: Ronald Kyle Funches was born March 12, 1983 in Carson, California, but spent his early life with his mother and sister in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Funches' mother was a social worker. When he was 13 years old, he moved to Salem, Oregon to live with his father, who was employed there as a pipefitter.


title: Ron Funches

text: He graduated from Douglas McKay High School in Salem, where he took English courses, and was inspired by writers such as Molière, J. D. Salinger, William Faulkner, and Erich Maria Remarque. After high school, Funches relocated to Portland, Oregon, where he worked a variety of jobs, including at a bank call center and as a clerk at a Grocery Outlet store.


title: Ron Funches

text: Funches began pursuing stand-up comedy at the age of 23 in Portland. After having a small role on an episode of "Portlandia" in 2011, he relocated to Los Angeles in 2012. Beginning in 2013, he was a regular panelist on the comedy series "@midnight", had a recurring role in the comedy series "Crash & Bernstein" (2013), and worked as a writer on "The Eric Andre Show" and Comedy Central's "The Half Hour" (2014). Also in 2014, Funches performed as a regular comic panelist on "Chelsea Lately".


title: Ron Funches

text: Beginning in 2014, Funches appeared in several episodes of "Drunk History", and in 2015, performed numerous guest-starring voice roles on the animated series "BoJack Horseman", "The Adventures of Puss in Boots", and "Adventure Time".


title: Ron Funches

text: Funches subsequently starred as Shelly on the NBC comedy series "Undateable" from 2014 until the series' conclusion in 2016. Funches also had a supporting role in the 2015 comedy film "Get Hard".


title: Ron Funches

text: In 2016, he voiced the role of Cooper in the animated film "Trolls", Also in 2016, Funches guest-starred on numerous series, such as "Another Period", "Take My Wife", and "Transparent".


title: Ron Funches

text: Beginning in 2019, he began voicing the role of King Shark in the DC Comics TV series "Harley Quinn" and the role of Fox in the TBS series "Final Space". He played the recurring character "Funchy" in season 3 (2019) of the CBS sitcom "Man with a Plan". Funches reprised his role of Cooper in the "Trolls" sequel, "Trolls World Tour" (2020). Funches also voiced Shag Rugg on the 2021 HBO Max television series "Jellystone!."


title: Ron Funches

text: On April 20, 2021, Funches became host of a new spinoff of the iconic "Chopped" cooking competition series. The new show, streaming on Discovery+, is called "Chopped: 420." Where the cheftestants have to make cannibis infused gourmet meals.


title: Ron Funches

text: Funches has cited Lucille Ball, Dave Chappelle, and Mitch Hedberg as major influences on his comedy. Commenting on Ball, he said: ""I Love Lucy" was kind of my introduction to the world of comedy in general. And when you look at the history of Lucille Ball, and the work that she did for women in Hollywood, having her own production company, and also showing an interracial marriage on TV in the ’50s, to me, she’s just one of my biggest influences overall as a human being. That's what it means to be a professional and what it means to stand up for yourself."


title: Ron Funches

text: As of 2020, Funches lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son. He is open about his son being autistic in his comedy and welcomes fans sharing their stories with him.


title: Ron Funches

text: Funches is an avid video gamer. He told Adam Carolla that he had once weighed 360 pounds. Funches said that over a few years he lost around 140 pounds.


title: Southern Gothic

text: Southern Gothic is an artistic subgenre of fiction, country music, film and television that are heavily influenced by Gothic elements and the American South. Common themes of Southern Gothic include storytelling of deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters who may be involved in hoodoo, decayed or derelict settings, grotesque situations, and other sinister events relating to or stemming from poverty, alienation, crime, or violence.


title: Southern Gothic

text: Elements of a Gothic treatment of the South were first apparent during the ante- and post-bellum 19th century in the grotesques of Henry Clay Lewis and in the de-idealized representations of Mark Twain. The genre was consolidated, however, only in the 20th century, when dark romanticism, Southern humor, and the new literary naturalism merged in a new and powerful form of social critique. The thematic material was largely a reflection of the culture existing in the South following the collapse of the Confederacy as a consequence of the Civil War, which left a vacuum in its cultural and religious values. The resulting poverty and lingering bitterness over the loss of the Civil War in the region during Reconstruction exacerbated the racism, excessive violence, and religious extremism endemic to the region.


title: Southern Gothic

text: The term "Southern Gothic" was originally pejorative and dismissive. Ellen Glasgow used the term in this way when she referred to the writings of Erskine Caldwell and William Faulkner. She included the authors in what she called the "Southern Gothic School" in 1935, stating that their work was filled with "aimless violence" and "fantastic nightmares". It was so negatively viewed at first that Eudora Welty said: "They better not call me that!"