title: Charlottesville car attack

text: On June 27, 2018, as reported by the DOJ's Office of Public Affairs, a W.D. Va. federal grand jury charged Fields under two hate crime statutes with multiple federal hate crimes:


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Attorney General Jeff Sessions said of the indictment, "Last summer's violence in Charlottesville cut short a promising young life and shocked the nation. Today's indictment should send a clear message to every would-be criminal in America that we aggressively prosecute violent crimes of hate that threaten the core principles of our nation." W.D. Va. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen called the indictment "the culmination of a 10-month investigation that involved searching the social media accounts where Mr. Fields showed an interest in harming minorities." Adam S. Lee, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Richmond Division, said, "Heyer did not go to the event looking for a fight. She was looking to lend her voice to her cause. Peaceful protest without intimidation, without the threat of violence is every American's birthright."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: On March 27, 2019, Fields altered his plea. Having originally pleaded not guilty on all charges, this was changed to guilty on 29 of 30 hate crime charges. It was speculated that this plea bargain was taken to avoid the possibility of the death penalty, as the option of capital punishment was removed from his potential sentence as a result of the alteration. In addition, Heyer's mother stated that she opposed the death penalty option and did not want Fields to die, saying, "There's no point in killing him. It would not bring back Heather." For the hate crime convictions, Fields was sentenced to life in prison on June 28, 2019.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Fields was initially charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of hit and run. Fields appeared in court on August 14, via video from jail, and was denied bail. Fields said that he could not afford a lawyer; a private attorney was appointed by the judge, as a public defender could not be appointed due to a conflict of interest (a person linked to the public defender's office had been injured in the crash). By August 17, he was represented by Denise Y. Lunsford, replacing Charles L. Weber. The next hearing for Fields was set for August 25.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: On August 19, Fields was charged with two additional counts of malicious wounding, and three counts of aggravated malicious wounding. Charlottesville Police Lieutenant Steve Upman said in a release, "The victims related to these charges suffered serious injuries and in some cases permanent physical disabilities." The investigation remained under the Charlottesville police, the FBI and the DOJ. It was also reported on August 19 that the FBI had been attempting to identify individuals who were near Fields a few minutes before the attack, and that the city police had stated multiple times that Fourth Street Southeast had not been "supposed to be open at that time" and that they were "still investigating how the street was opened and why vehicles were directed toward it."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: At the preliminary hearing in December 2017, State District Court Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. certified all ten charges to a grand jury. The certified charges were one count of first-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, three counts of aggravated malicious wounding, two counts of felonious assault and one count of hit and run. Video footage of the surveying helicopter and surveillance video footage from a restaurant near the mall crossing were shown. Surveillance video footage from the restaurant reportedly showed the Dodge Challenger zooming past "a string of vehicles" heading south on Fourth Street Southeast.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: On January 3, 2018, Fields waived his right to a speedy trial, and his trial was scheduled to begin on November 26, 2018, and lasted three weeks. On December 7, Fields was found guilty of first-degree murder, hit and run, and eight counts of malicious wounding. On December 11, the jury recommended life in prison for the killing of Heather Heyer along with an additional 419 years for the other crimes committed: 70 years for each of five malicious wounding charges, 20 for each of three malicious wounding charges, and nine years on one charge of leaving the scene of an accident. On July 15, 2019, Fields was given a second life sentence for the murder of Heyer, with an additional 419 years for the other crimes.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Fields was one of the defendants in "Sines v. Kessler", a civil trial against various organizers, promoters, and participants in the Unite the Right rally. On November 23, 2021, jurors awarded $12million in damages against Fields, who they found liable for assault and battery and intentional infliction of harm. Jurors also found that Fields, along with all other defendants, had engaged in civil conspiracy under Virginia state law. Total damages in the suit, including those against Fields, totaled approximately $25million.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: A memorial service was held at the Paramount Theater, two blocks from the attack location, on August 16. More than a thousand people attended the service, many of them wearing sashes and ribbons. Present were Governor Terry McAuliffe (D-VA), Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) and former Counselor to the President Ed Gillespie (R-VA).


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Heyer's mother Susan Bro delivered a speech calling for people to fight "as Heather would do." A standing ovation lasted nearly a minute and a half after Bro said, "They tried to kill my child to shut her up, but guess what, you just magnified her." Bro said that she had received hundreds of messages from people inspired by Heyer asking for advice. A woman played "Amazing Grace" and "America the Beautiful" on a saxophone. Heyer's father Mark Heyer said that Heather had been "defiant, strong-willed and compassionate" and that she "always argued for what she thought was right."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Several people with purple shields, pink bats and pink helmets with a heart drawn on each were observing outside the theater to stop any "fascist groups" that might disrupt the event. No problems were reported outside the theater. As the service ended, Bro asked someone in the audience to stop criticizing President Trump.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Politicians were confronted outside the memorial service. After being asked about it, McAuliffe told a man that Virginia law leaves the removal of Confederate statues to local communities. Kaine was asked why the Charlottesville police "had failed to head off the weekend's violent clashes" and he said that, "city officials had promised an independent review of the police response."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: A vigil in remembrance of Heyer was planned for August 13 night, but was cancelled due to a "credible threat from white supremacists." People gathered and prayed at the site of the attack in spite of the cancellation.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Hundreds of people gathered at the University of Virginia and in other U.S. cities, including Philadelphia and Akron, Ohio.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Michael Wilson, Principal of the Randall K. Cooper High School that Fields had attended, said: "As educators, we are always using teachable moments and providing guidance to students to create college, career and life ready students to make good and sound choices. ... We're all educators and we all are reflecting on what did we miss, or what could we do better. We do that with any student who may have made a wrong choice." He said that his staff sent thoughts and prayers to Charlottesville. Wilson said that the faculty members were worried about the victims and concerned about Fields.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Principal Wilson called Fields a "quiet and reserved student." Fields was described as "shy" and "quiet" by his ex-classmates and neighbors. A woman who went to school with Fields told "The New York Times" that he "mostly kept to himself" and "didn't start fights or try to fight," but described him as "exceptionally odd and an outcast to be sure." However, Fields's roommate on a class trip to Europe in 2015 told the Associated Press, "He had friends, he had people who would chat with him, it wasn't like he was an outcast."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Boone County Schools spokeswoman Barbara Brady said that school officials "were not aware of any situation at Cooper High regarding Fields's behavior at the time of his enrollment." Brady questioned the trustworthiness of reports by Fields's ex-classmates, criticizing them for not reporting incidents.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: The city of Charlottesville and its City Council published a statement: "This senseless act of violence rips a hole in our collective hearts. While it will never make up for the loss of a member of our community, we will pursue charges against the driver of the vehicle that caused her death and are confident justice will prevail." Mayor Michael Signer called the attack domestic terrorism and blamed white supremacists. In a statement on August 18, Mayor Michael Signer called on the City Council to "take concrete steps to memorialize Heather's name and legacy." Signer asked the governor to convene an emergency General Assembly session to allow Charlottesville to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement, "The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice. When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated. Justice will prevail."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: On August 17, White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters said that Trump would meet with Heyer's family.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: U.S. President Donald Trump praised Heyer as "an incredible young woman." Heyer's mother Susan Bro thanked Trump for his August 14 remarks on the event. She wrote in a statement: "Thank you, President Trump, for those words of comfort and for denouncing those who promote violence and hatred. My condolences, also, to the grieving families of the two state troopers and quick recovery for those injured."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Bro initially declined to respond to Trump's August 15 statement as she was busy and tired. After Bro saw Trump's August 15 statement, she said that she would not talk to Trump.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Trump tweeted about the memorial service the morning of the day that it occurred. No Trump administration officials were present at the service.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Jason Kessler, the organizer of the Unite the Right rally, said that none of the organizers knew Fields. After being unable to hold a press conference due to violence, he accused the city of "shutting down" speech and said that the city officials "failed to separate the protest groups and were ill-equipped to handle the melee that resulted." White supremacist rally speaker Richard B. Spencer placed the blame for the attack on authorities, who "failed to keep order." Spencer refused to condemn Fields, saying, "This man could have lost control because he felt in danger and slammed on the accelerator and unintentionally killed someone."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: On August 18, 2017, Kessler tweeted that Heyer "was a fat, disgusting Communist. Communists have killed 94 million. Looks like it was payback time." Kessler deleted the tweet the next day, initially saying he was hacked, but later claiming he had been on a mixture of drugs. Other white nationalists criticized Kessler for the tweet, including Richard Spencer, who wrote: "I will no longer associate w/ Jason Kessler; no one should. Heyer's death was deeply saddening. 'Payback' is a morally reprehensible idea."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Other white supremacists, such as James Allsup and Andrew Auernheimer, went on to claim that Heyer's death was the result of a weight-related heart attack, a conspiracy theory which stemmed from a statement by Susan Bro in an NBC News interview and was pushed by white supremacist media outlets such as "Occidental Dissent" and "The Daily Stormer", the latter which had its services suspended by their domain registrar following a blog post mocking Heyer.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Other debunked claims and conspiracy theories suggested that a Michigan man was driving the car during the ramming; that Fields was under assault and acted in self-defense, and that a protester threatened Fields with an AR-15 rifle prior to his committing the attack. According to Mark Fenster, those conspiracy theories are "part of a self-sustaining narrative created by white nationalists who might be worried that the violence that took place delegitimized their cause."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Heyer's mother Susan Bro said that she did not want people to hate Fields. She said that it was not what her daughter would have wanted.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Heyer's father urged people to "stop the hate" and said he was proud of her for taking a stand to help others. He expressed he had forgiven his daughter's killer, saying that "My thoughts with all of this stuff are that people need to stop hating and they need to forgive each other. I include myself in that forgiving the guy that did this. He doesn't know [any] better. I just think about what the Lord said on the cross. Lord, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing."


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Felicia Correa, Heyer's childhood friend, launched a crowdfunding page for her funeral expenses following her death. She stated that she was speaking for Heyer's mother when she set up the page, expressing that she was not ready to speak in public. Felicia said "She died doing what was right. My heart is broken, but I am forever proud of her." The GoFundMe campaign created to support Heyer's family surpassed in a day. Fundraising websites removed campaigns that had sought to fund Fields's legal defense. The Democratic Socialists of America quickly raised , but were criticized for the convoluted application process for victims and timeliness in addressing their applications. The money raised was eventually transferred to the National Compassion Fund for management and disbursement.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Her mother said she wanted Heather's name to become "a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion". Heyer's memorial service was held at Charlottesville's Paramount Theater on August 16; her mother spoke to hundreds of mourners, asking them to honor her by acting against injustice and turning "anger into righteous action". On the last day of his job, photojournalist Ryan Kelly took a photograph of the attack for "The Daily Progress", the sole daily newspaper in the vicinity of Charlottesville. On April 16, 2018, Kelly won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Photographer Jeremiah Knupp also took a photograph of the attack, working for "The News Leader", a daily newspaper serving Staunton, Virginia and the surrounding areas. Knupp took the photograph from a pole on the parking garage, south-west of the intersection of Water Street and Fourth Street Southeast.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Heyer's mother Susan Bro started the nonprofit Heather Heyer Foundation. It was funded from the GoFundMe campaign and from new donations. Bro said that the foundation would be devoted to civil rights and provide scholarships to people who want social justice. She quit her job as a secretary and bookkeeper for a Virginia Cooperative Extension office after the attack, and became the president and chair of the board of the Heather Heyer Foundation.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: On August 15, 2017, Tadrint and Micah Washington, who were in the white sedan that was hit during the attack, filed a US$3 million lawsuit in damages against Jason Kessler, James Alex Fields Jr., Richard Spencer and 30 other groups and individuals.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: In September 2017, New York's 25th Assembly district Representative Nily Rozic, a Democrat, filed a bill and petitioned the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to rename the Donald J. Trump State Park in honor of Heyer.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: On December 20, 2017, a part of Fourth Street Southeast in Charlottesville, where the attack occurred, was designated Honorary Heather Heyer Way.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: On the afternoon of May 12, 2018, Heyer's close friend Marissa Blair married her fiancé Marcus Martin, who pushed her out of the car's way and was injured in the attack himself. During the ceremony, Blair led a butterfly release in remembrance of Heyer.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: Director Spike Lee dedicated his 2018 film "BlacKkKlansman" in Heyer's memory, featuring video footage of the attack.


title: Charlottesville car attack

text: "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times" claim in retrospective articles that the attack was instrumental in the alt-right's decline in power, with both leading figures in the alt-right and anti-extremism experts noting that membership in alt-right affiliated groups fell afterwards and rallies organized by these groups became more sparse. "The Guardian" also contended that the event motivated anti-fascist activists to more extensive coordinate counter-protests against these groups, further facilitating their declines.


title: Peter Marc Jacobson

text: Peter Marc Jacobson (born October 27, 1957) is an American television writer, director, producer, and actor. He is best known as the showrunner of the popular sitcom "The Nanny", which he created and produced with his then-wife, Fran Drescher, who also starred in the series. He was often credited as Peter Marc in his early acting roles.


title: Peter Marc Jacobson

text: Jacobson and Fran Drescher married in 1978 and moved to Los Angeles to launch their careers. Both are Jewish.


title: Peter Marc Jacobson

text: The couple divorced in 1999, after being separated for years. The couple had no children. He came out as gay to her after their marriage ended. The couple developed the 2011 television series "Happily Divorced" for TV Land based on their lives.


title: Gary Kemp

text: Gary James Kemp (born 16 October 1959) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the New Romantic band Spandau Ballet.


title: Gary Kemp

text: Kemp wrote the lyrics and music for all 23 of Spandau Ballet's hit singles, including "To Cut a Long Story Short", "True", "Gold", "Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)", "Through the Barricades" and "Only When You Leave". Spandau Ballet became one of the biggest British bands of the 1980s, generating over 25 million record sales worldwide. In 2012, Kemp was an Ivor Novello Award winner for Outstanding Song Collection. His brother Martin Kemp plays bass guitar in the band and is also an actor. Since 2018, Kemp has also toured the US and Europe with Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets.


title: Gary Kemp

text: Gary James Kemp was on born 16 October 1959, to parents Eileen and Frank Kemp in St Bartholomew's Hospital, Smithfield, London, within the sound of St Mary-le-Bow's bells and grew up in Islington, London, in a working-class family. He attended Rotherfield Junior School and Dame Alice Owen's grammar school in Islington and later in the sixth form relocated to Potters Bar.


title: Gary Kemp

text: He was active in the Anna Scher Children's Theatre drama club, along with his brother Martin. He acted in various Children's Film Foundation television and film productions beginning with "Junket 89" in 1970, which starred Richard Wilson (later known for "One Foot in the Grave"). Kemp played the lead role in the 1972 film "Hide and Seek" alongside Roy Dotrice which was given a Royal premiere for the CFF's 21st anniversary, attended by the Duchess of Kent. Gary was interviewed about his role for Film 72.


title: Gary Kemp

text: Kemp had a love for glam rock and also an interest in progressive rock. His first musical collaboration was with Anna Scher regulars Phil Daniels and Peter Hugo Daly. He performed with them on the children's television show "You Must Be Joking!" in 1975. Aged 14, Kemp played guitar with Islington-based The Same Band and future Spandau Ballet session keyboard player Ian 'Jess' Bailey.


title: Gary Kemp

text: The first band he formed with Alice Owen's schoolmates Steve Norman, John Keeble and Tony Hadley was called Roots after Kemp and Norman saw the Sex Pistols perform at The Screen on the Green in August 1976. The band changed its name to The Cut then became power pop group The Makers, favourably reviewed by "New Musical Express" in Dec 1977. Martin Kemp joined as bass player when they became Gentry in July 1978 before transforming into Spandau Ballet and playing live for the first time at Blitz on 5 December 1979. The band's early success was driven by London's burgeoning nightclubbing scene in which Gary Kemp identified Spandau's role: "We are making the most contemporary statement in fashion and music."


title: Gary Kemp

text: After recording Spandau Ballet's final album "Heart Like a Sky", in 1989, Kemp and his brother returned to acting. He earned criticism from his fellow band members Tony Hadley, Steve Norman and John Keeble, but received good reviews for his performance as Ronnie Kray in "The Krays" (1990). The success of this film was the death-knell for Spandau Ballet.


title: Gary Kemp

text: Spandau played the final live show of their 10th anniversary tour at the Edinburgh Playhouse on 6 March 1990. They would not perform live together again for 19 years.


title: Gary Kemp

text: In 1999, Hadley, Norman and Keeble attempted to sue Kemp for alleged unpaid royalties. They claimed that an agreement had existed between him and the rest of the band, whereby Kemp, who was the main songwriter in the band, would pay his bandmates a share of the royalties earned. The claims were vigorously denied by Kemp; Hadley, Norman and Keeble subsequently lost their court case. Although initially vowing to appeal the verdict, they later decided against this.


title: Gary Kemp

text: After two decades apart the band reformed in 2009 with an announcement on HMS "Belfast", venue of one of their earliest secret gigs. Two world tours followed, including five nights at London O2 arena. Their story was documented by the critically acclaimed film "Soul Boys of the Western World" which premiered at SXSW in 2012 and was screened at film festivals all over the world including Cannes, Rome and NYC Doc.


title: Gary Kemp

text: On 6 June 2018, Spandau Ballet played their first show with new singer Ross William Wild at London's Subterania after Tony Hadley announced on social media that he had left the band. Spandau subsequently played six European shows in Rome, Milan, Padua, Utrecht and Tilburg with the last of those in London at Eventim Apollo Hammersmith on 29 October 2018. In May 2019 the new recruit Wild tweeted: "I have formally quit the band @SpandauBallet."


title: Gary Kemp

text: Kemp is a longtime fan of Pink Floyd, and in 2018 he was invited by the band's drummer Nick Mason to contribute guitar and vocals to Mason's psychedelic rock band Saucerful of Secrets, "capturing the spirit" of the early music of Pink Floyd. The band includes Guy Pratt on bass and vocals, Lee Harris on guitar and backing vocals, and Dom Beken on keyboards.


title: Gary Kemp

text: The band made their live debut in May 2018 at Dingwalls in London playing a selection of Pink Floyd material predating their 1973 album, "The Dark Side of the Moon". This was followed by three shows at The Half Moon, Putney and a European tour the same year.


title: Gary Kemp

text: In 2019 an extended tour of the US and Canada was announced starting in Vancouver at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 12 March. This was followed by five additional UK shows set to run from April to May and another European tour in July the same year. Another European tour, the Echoes tour, set to begin in April 2020 was postponed to April 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A second North American tour was postponed from January 2022 to September.


title: Gary Kemp

text: Kemp performed "Through the Barricades" solo in December 1985 at London's Dominion Theatre for the Snowball Review, a fund raiser organised by Pete Townshend for a women's domestic violence charity. He also played it at the Artists Against Apartheid festival at Clapham Common on 28 June 1986.


title: Gary Kemp

text: He released a solo album, "Little Bruises", in 1995, on Sony Records produced by Bow Wow Wow member and Malcolm McLaren producer Leigh Gorman. It was followed by a tour of the UK and Ireland.


title: Gary Kemp

text: Other musical collaborations include writing music and additional lyrics with Guy Pratt for the musical production "Bedbug", lyrics and book by Snoo Wilson, a reimagined adaptation of the Vladimir Mayakovsky play, as part of the Shell Connections Youth Drama in 2004 which was presented at the National Theatre and revived there in 2016. He has written another musical, "A Terrible Beauty," also with Pratt and Oscar nominated book writer Shane Connaughton (My Left Foot) based on the life of W. B. Yeats and Maud Gonne.


title: Gary Kemp

text: He released a second solo studio album, INSOLO, in 2021 on Columbia Records produced and mixed by Gary Kemp and keyboards player Toby Chapman.


title: Gary Kemp

text: His first adult acting role was playing Ronald Kray in "The Krays" (1990), with his brother Martin playing Ronald's twin brother Reginald. For research he visited Kray in Broadmoor hospital.


title: Gary Kemp

text: Kemp's first Hollywood movie was "The Bodyguard," in 1992, with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, directed by Mick Jackson and written by Lawrence Kasdan. He played Sy Spector, Whitney's character Rachel Marron's music business PR.


title: Gary Kemp

text: Other roles include argumentative band leader Jake Woodward in "The Larry Sanders Show", in 1993, and Oliver in heist movie, "Killing Zoe," directed by Roger Avary and produced by Quentin Tarantino in 1994, as well as "Dog Eat Dog", "Poppies" and "American Daylight." He has also had TV roles in "Murder in Mind", "Murder Investigation Team", and "Casualty".


title: Gary Kemp

text: He has continued acting on film, television and stage, taking the role of Serge in the West End production of "Art" in 2001, "Pignight" by Snoo Wilson at the Menier Theatre in May 2004 and as corrupt copper PC Collins in the revival of Lionel Bart's musical "Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be" directed by Terry Johnson at Theatre Royal Stratford East with Jessie Wallace in 2014. He played Teddy in "The Homecoming", directed by Jamie Lloyd, at Trafalgar Studios in 2015 and appeared in two plays, "Party Time/Celebration", from the Pinter at the Pinter season, which staged all 20 of Harold Pinter's one act plays in 2018/2019 with a cast including Anthony Sher, John Simm, Martin Freeman, Tamsin Greig and Danny Dyer.


title: Gary Kemp

text: In January 2008, Kemp appeared on a celebrity special of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" with his brother Martin, to raise awareness of and funds for the Encephalitis Society. In March 2008, Kemp starred in a low-budget 20-minute short film directed by his brother Martin, entitled "Karma Magnet". This was only released online.


title: Gary Kemp

text: In 2014 Kemp co-wrote and presented the documentary "Kick Out the Jams" for ITV's Perspectives about the arrival of Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and the YBAs (Young British Artists). He also co-wrote "Passions: Mick Ronson by Gary Kemp" for Sky Arts in 2017.


title: Gary Kemp

text: He has presented various radio documentaries on David Bowie and guitarist Mick Ronson for BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6.


title: Gary Kemp

text: In 2020, Kemp started "Rockonteurs", a podcast hosted with Guy Pratt, who has played as a session bass player with many bands including Pink Floyd. In each episode they interview a well known musician about their life and career.


title: Gary Kemp

text: On 1 August 2021 Kemp appeared with Johnnie Walker on the BBC Radio 2 show "Sounds of the 70s" choosing tracks which has inspired him, including "See Emily Play" by Pink Floyd, "Debris" by the Faces and "In The City" by The Jam. His final choice was "Come All Ye" by Fairport Convention, from their 1969 album "Liege & Lief", which he described as "one of the greatest albums ever made."


title: Gary Kemp

text: Kemp was married to actress Sadie Frost. They married on 7 May 1988. Their son, Finlay, was born in 1990. Frost and Kemp were married for five years and then separated, finally divorcing on 19 August 1995. In 2003, Kemp married costume designer Lauren Barber, with whom he has three sons: Milo Wolf (b. 2004), Kit (b. 2009), and Rex (b. 2012). They live in London.


title: Gary Kemp

text: Kemp is a keen cyclist and mountain walker, and a collector of the furniture produced by Edward William Godwin. In 2017, he nominated Godwin for BBC Radio 4's "Great Lives" show hosted by Matthew Parris.


title: Gary Kemp

text: In 2013, Kemp said in an interview that he was a Labour Party voter and had always been a supporter of the party because of his father. He supported David Miliband for the leadership of the party. In 1986, Kemp had performed in a show in support of the party at the Manchester Apollo with the collective of musicians Red Wedge, which included Billy Bragg, Johnny Marr and Paul Weller.


title: Benny the Butcher

text: Jeremie Damon Pennick (born November 27, 1984), known professionally as Benny the Butcher or simply Benny, is an American rapper. He is part of the hip hop collective Griselda with frequent collaborators and first-cousins Westside Gunn and Conway the Machine. He is also a part of the collective Black Soprano Family.


title: Benny the Butcher

text: Benny the Butcher self-released his mixtapes in the late 2000s as B.E.N.N.Y., including "The Mayor's Back" and "Chains Bond". In 2014, Westside Gunn founded Griselda Records, through which Benny, Conway and Westside Gunn would self-release their own projects. In 2016, Benny released his album titled "My First Brick" followed by the mixtape "Butcher on Steroids" with DJ Green Lantern in 2017.


title: Benny the Butcher

text: On March 3, 2017, Griselda (as a collective), as well as Pennick's cousins Westside Gunn and Conway the Machine, signed a deal with Eminem's Shady Records, a subsidiary of Interscope. In April 2017, Benny the Butcher and his collective Black Soprano Family signed a label deal with Entertainment One Music.


title: Benny the Butcher

text: On November 23, 2018, he released his debut studio album "Tana Talk 3", produced by The Alchemist and Griselda producer Daringer, and includes features from Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine and Royce da 5'9". The album was critically acclaimed and brought widespread attention to the rapper.


title: Benny the Butcher

text: June 21, 2019 marked the release of his fourth extended play, "The Plugs I Met" which included guest appearances from Black Thought, Pusha T, 38 Spesh, Jadakiss, and Conway the Machine. On August 6, it was announced that Pennick signed a management deal with Roc Nation. Writing about Benny the Butcher's 2019 project, Dan-O of Freemusicempire said "Benny The Butcher did an EP with the greatest guest list of the year. Right after the intro skit you hear him next to Black Thought. Next song Jadakiss, and closing out the project with Pusha T's second best guest appearance of 2019 on 18 Wheeler. No matter who was with him Benny blew like Sonny Rollins on the Sax, whether Conway or Eminem was coming on next...it didn't matter. The Butcher has a gift and no fear."


title: Benny the Butcher

text: On August 27, 2020, Benny the Butcher announced in an interview with Adam22 for No Jumper that he would release an album under eOne called "Burden of Proof" between late September and early October. The album was eventually released on October 16 to rave reviews.


title: Benny the Butcher

text: On March 19, 2021, Benny the Butcher released the sequel to "The Plugs I Met" EP, with a collaboration EP with Harry Fraud, named "The Plugs I Met 2". This EP received widespread critical acclaim from various music critics.


title: Benny the Butcher

text: On November 12, 2021, he officially signed a record deal with Def Jam Recordings for upcoming releases. The label's president, American rapper Snoop Dogg, made the announcement on Joe Rogan's podcast The Joe Rogan Experience a week after Benny the Butcher was featured on Snoop Dogg's single "Murder Music" alongside Jadakiss and Busta Rhymes.


title: Benny the Butcher

text: On January 28, 2022, Benny released the single, "Johnny P's Caddy", with rapper J. Cole. The song is the lead single from Benny's then-upcoming album, "Tana Talk 4", which he has labeled "album of the year". "Tana Talk 4" was eventually released on March 11 to generally favorable reviews.


title: Benny the Butcher

text: In November 2020, Benny the Butcher was shot in the leg during an attempted robbery in a Walmart parking lot.


title: Benny the Butcher

text: On October 27, 2021, Benny the Butcher cancelled a concert at Detroit's Saint Andrew's Hall after he was hospitalized with asthma, a condition he has both rapped and spoken about in interviews. In a verified annotation on Genius's lyric page for his song "Where Would I Go" off the 2020 album "Burden of Proof", he wrote he has lived with asthma for 25 years and the condition forces him to go to the emergency room two or three times a year: "I got to be careful, I got to make sure I wear my mask, I got to make sure I'm taking my medicine. Running the streets and being in and out of prison, it's probably something I haven't done the best of. But being older, that's something that I take care of".


title: Paint

text: Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many colors—and in many different types. Paint is typically stored, sold, and applied as a liquid, but most types dry into a solid. Most paints are either oil-based or water-based and each has distinct characteristics. For one, it is illegal in most municipalities to discard oil-based paint down household drains or sewers. Clean-up solvents are also different for water-based paint than they are for oil-based paint. Water-based paints and oil-based paints will cure differently based on the outside ambient temperature of the object being painted (such as a house.) Usually, the object being painted must be over , although some manufacturers of external paints/primers claim they can be applied when temperatures are as low as .


title: Paint

text: Paint was one of the earliest arts of humanity. Some cave paintings drawn with red or yellow ochre, hematite, manganese oxide, and charcoal may have been made by early "Homo sapiens" as long as 40,000 years ago. Paint may be even older. In 2003 and 2004, South African archeologists reported finds in Blombos Cave of a 100,000-year-old human-made ochre-based mixture that could have been used like paint. Further excavation in the same cave resulted in the 2011 report of a complete toolkit for grinding pigments and making a primitive paint-like substance.


title: Paint

text: Interior walls at the 5,000-year-old Ness of Brodgar have been found to incorporate individual stones painted in yellows, reds, and oranges, using ochre pigment made of haematite mixed with animal fat, milk or eggs.


title: Paint

text: Ancient colored walls at Dendera, Egypt, which were exposed for years to the elements, still possess their brilliant color, as vivid as when they were painted about 2,000 years ago. The Egyptians mixed their colors with a gummy substance and applied them separately from each other without any blending or mixture. They appear to have used six colors: white, black, blue, red, yellow, and green. They first covered the area entirely with white, then traced the design in black, leaving out the lights of the ground color. They used minium for red, generally of a dark tinge.


title: Paint

text: The oldest known oil paintings are Buddhist murals created circa 650 AD. The works are located in cave-like rooms carved from the cliffs of Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley, "using walnut and poppy seed oils." Pliny mentions some painted ceilings in his day in the town of Ardea, which had been made prior to the foundation of Rome. He expressed great surprise and admiration at their freshness, after the lapse of so many centuries.


title: Paint

text: In the 13th century, oil was used to detail tempera paintings. In the 14th century, Cennino Cennini described a painting technique utilizing tempera painting covered by light layers of oil. The slow-drying properties of organic oils were commonly known to early European painters. However, the difficulty in acquiring and working the materials meant that they were rarely used (and indeed the slow drying was seen as a disadvantage). Paint was made with the yolk of eggs and therefore, the substance would harden and adhere to the surface it was applied to. Pigment was made from plants, sand, and different soils. Most paints used either oil or water as a base (the diluent, solvent or vehicle for the pigment).


title: Paint

text: The Flemish-trained or influenced Antonello da Messina, who Vasari wrongly credited with the introduction of oil paint to Italy, does seem to have improved the formula by adding litharge, or lead (II) oxide. A still extant example of 17th-century house oil painting is Ham House in Surrey, England, where a primer was used along with several undercoats and an elaborate decorative overcoat; the pigment and oil mixture would have been ground into a paste with a mortar and pestle. The process was done by hand by the painters, which exposed them to lead poisoning, due to the white-lead powder.


title: Paint

text: In 1718, Marshall Smith invented a "Machine or Engine for the Grinding of Colours" in England. It is not known precisely how it operated, but it was a device that increased the efficiency of pigment grinding dramatically. Soon, a company called Emerton and Manby was advertising exceptionally low-priced paints that had been ground with labor-saving technology:


title: Paint

text: By the proper onset of the Industrial Revolution, in the mid-18th century, paint was being ground in steam-powered mills, and an alternative to lead-based pigments had been found in a white derivative of zinc oxide. Interior house painting increasingly became the norm as the 19th century progressed, both for decorative reasons and because the paint was effective in preventing the walls rotting from damp. Linseed oil was also increasingly used as an inexpensive binder.


title: Paint

text: In 1866, Sherwin-Williams in the United States opened as a large paint-maker and invented a paint that could be used from the tin without preparation.


title: Paint

text: It was not until the stimulus of World War II created a shortage of linseed oil in the supply market that artificial resins, or alkyds, were invented. Cheap and easy to make, they also held the color well and lasted for a long time.


title: Paint

text: The vehicle is composed of the binder; or, if it is necessary to thin the binder with a diluent like solvent or water, it is the combination of binder and diluent. In this case, once the paint has dried or cured very nearly all of the diluent has evaporated and only the binder is left on the coated surface. Thus, an important quantity in coatings formulation is the "vehicle solids", sometimes called the "resin solids" of the formula. This is the proportion of the wet coating weight that is binder, i.e. the polymer backbone of the film that will remain after drying or curing is complete. The volume of paint after it has dried, therefore only leaving the solids, is expressed as the volume solid.


title: Paint

text: The binder is the film-forming component of paint. It is the only component that is always present among all the various types of formulations. Many binders are too thick to be applied and must be thinned. The type of thinner, if present, varies with the binder.


title: Paint

text: Binders include synthetic or natural resins such as alkyds, acrylics, vinyl-acrylics, vinyl acetate/ethylene (VAE), polyurethanes, polyesters, melamine resins, epoxy, silanes or siloxanes or oils.


title: Paint

text: Binders can be categorized according to the mechanisms for film formation. Thermoplastic mechanisms include drying and coalescence. Drying refers to simple evaporation of the solvent or thinner to leave a coherent film behind. Coalescence refers to a mechanism that involves drying followed by actual interpenetration and fusion of formerly discrete particles. Thermoplastic film-forming mechanisms are sometimes described as "thermoplastic cure" but that is a misnomer because no chemical curing reactions are required to knit the film. Thermosetting mechanisms, on the other hand, are true curing mechanism that involve chemical reaction(s) among the polymers that make up the binder.


title: Paint

text: Thermoplastic mechanisms: Some films are formed by simple cooling of the binder. For example, encaustic or wax paints are liquid when warm, and harden upon cooling. In many cases, they re-soften or liquify if reheated.


title: Paint

text: Paints that dry by solvent evaporation and contain the solid binder dissolved in a solvent are known as lacquers. A solid film forms when the solvent evaporates. Because no chemical crosslinking is involved, the film can re-dissolve in solvent; as such, lacquers are unsuitable for applications where chemical resistance is important. Classic nitrocellulose lacquers fall into this category, as do non-grain raising stains composed of dyes dissolved in solvent. Performance varies by formulation, but lacquers generally tend to have better UV resistance and lower corrosion resistance than comparable systems that cure by polymerization or coalescence.


title: Paint

text: The paint type known as Emulsion in the UK and Latex in the United States is a water-borne dispersion of sub-micrometer polymer particles. These terms in their respective countries cover all paints that use synthetic polymers such as acrylic, vinyl acrylic (PVA), styrene acrylic, etc. as binders. The term "latex" in the context of paint in the United States simply means an aqueous dispersion; latex rubber from the rubber tree is not an ingredient. These dispersions are prepared by emulsion polymerization. Such paints cure by a process called coalescence where first the water, and then the trace, or coalescing, solvent, evaporate and draw together and soften the binder particles and fuse them together into irreversibly bound networked structures, so that the paint cannot redissolve in the solvent/water that originally carried it. The residual surfactants in paint, as well as hydrolytic effects with some polymers cause the paint to remain susceptible to softening and, over time, degradation by water. The general term of latex paint is usually used in the United States, while the term emulsion paint is used for the same products in the UK and the term latex paint is not used at all.


title: Paint

text: Thermosetting mechanisms: Paints that cure by polymerization are generally one- or two-package coatings that polymerize by way of a chemical reaction, and cure into a cross-linked film. Depending on composition they may need to dry first, by evaporation of solvent. Classic two-package epoxies or polyurethanes would fall into this category.


title: Paint

text: The "drying oils", counter-intuitively, actually cure by a crosslinking reaction even if they are not put through an oven cycle and seem to simply dry in air. The film formation mechanism of the simplest examples involve first evaporation of solvents followed by reaction with oxygen from the environment over a period of days, weeks and even months to create a crosslinked network. Classic alkyd enamels would fall into this category. Oxidative cure coatings are catalyzed by metal complex driers such as cobalt naphthenate though cobalt octoate is more common.


title: Paint

text: Recent environmental requirements restrict the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and alternative means of curing have been developed, generally for industrial purposes. UV curing paints, for example, enable formulation with very low amounts of solvent, or even none at all. This can be achieved because of the monomers and oligomers used in the coating have relatively very low molecular weight, and are therefore low enough in viscosity to enable good fluid flow without the need for additional thinner. If solvent is present in significant amounts, generally it is mostly evaporated first and then crosslinking is initiated by ultraviolet light. Similarly, powder coatings contain little or no solvent. Flow and cure are produced by the heating of the substrate after electrostatic application of the dry powder.


title: Paint

text: Combination mechanisms: So-called "catalyzed" lacquers" or "crosslinking latex" coatings are designed to form films by a combination of methods: classic drying plus a curing reaction that benefits from the catalyst. There are paints called plastisols/organosols, which are made by blending PVC granules with a plasticiser. These are stoved and the mix coalesces.


title: Paint

text: The main purposes of the diluent are to dissolve the polymer and adjust the viscosity of the paint. It is volatile and does not become part of the paint film. It also controls flow and application properties, and in some cases can affect the stability of the paint while in liquid state. Its main function is as the carrier for the non-volatile components. To spread heavier oils (for example, linseed) as in oil-based interior house paint, a thinner oil is required. These volatile substances impart their properties temporarily—once the solvent has evaporated, the remaining paint is fixed to the surface.


title: Paint

text: Solvent-borne, also called oil-based, paints can have various combinations of organic solvents as the diluent, including aliphatics, aromatics, alcohols, ketones and white spirit. Specific examples are organic solvents such as petroleum distillate, esters, glycol ethers, and the like. Sometimes volatile low-molecular weight synthetic resins also serve as diluents.


title: Paint

text: Pigments are granular solids incorporated in the paint to contribute color. Dyes are colorants that dissolve in the paint. Fillers are granular solids incorporated to impart toughness, texture, give the paint special properties, or to reduce the cost of the paint. During production, the size of such particles can be measured with a Hegman gauge. Rather than using only solid particles, some paints contain dyes instead of or in combination with pigments.


title: Paint

text: Pigments can be classified as either natural or synthetic. Natural pigments include various clays, calcium carbonate, mica, silicas, and talcs. Synthetics would include engineered molecules, calcined clays, blanc fixe, precipitated calcium carbonate, and synthetic pyrogenic silicas.


title: Paint

text: Hiding pigments, in making paint opaque, also protect the substrate from the harmful effects of ultraviolet light. Hiding pigments include titanium dioxide, phthalo blue, red iron oxide, and many others.


title: Paint

text: Fillers are a special type of pigment that serve to thicken the film, support its structure and increase the volume of the paint. Fillers are usually cheap and inert materials, such as diatomaceous earth, talc, lime, barytes, clay, etc. Floor paints that must resist abrasion may contain fine quartz sand as a filler. Not all paints include fillers. On the other hand, some paints contain large proportions of pigment/filler and binder.


title: Paint

text: Some pigments are toxic, such as the lead pigments that are used in lead paint. Paint manufacturers began replacing white lead pigments with titanium white (titanium dioxide), before lead was banned in paint for residential use in 1978 by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. The titanium dioxide used in most paints today is often coated with silica/alumina/zirconium for various reasons, such as better exterior durability, or better hiding performance (opacity) promoted by more optimal spacing within the paint film.


title: Paint

text: Micaceous iron oxide (MIO) is another alternative to lead for protection of steel, giving more protection against water and light damage than most paints. When MIO pigments are ground into fine particles, most cleave into shiny layers, which reflect light, thus minimising UV degradation and protecting the resin binder. Most pigments used in paint tend to be spherical, but lamellar pigments, such as glass flake and MIO have overlapping plates, which impede the path of water molecules. For optimum performance MIO should have a high content of thin flake-like particles resembling mica. ISO 10601 sets two levels of MIO content. MIO is often derived from a form of hematite.


title: Paint

text: Besides the three main categories of ingredients, paint can have a wide variety of miscellaneous additives, which are usually added in small amounts, yet provide a significant effect on the product. Some examples include additives to modify surface tension, improve flow properties, improve the finished appearance, increase wet edge, improve pigment stability, impart antifreeze properties, control foaming, control skinning, etc. Other types of additives include catalysts, thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers, texturizers, adhesion promoters, UV stabilizers, flatteners (de-glossing agents), biocides to fight bacterial growth and the like.


title: Paint

text: Additives normally do not significantly alter the percentages of individual components in a formulation.


title: Paint

text: Various technologies exist for making paints that change color. Thermochromic ink and coatings contain materials that change conformation when heat is applied or removed, and so they change color. Liquid crystals have been used in such paints, such as in the thermometer strips and tapes used in aquaria and novelty/promotional thermal cups and straws.


title: Paint

text: Photochromic materials are used to make eyeglasses and other products. Similar to thermochromic molecules, photochromic molecules change conformation when light energy is applied or removed, and so they change color.


title: Paint

text: Color-changing paints can also be made by adding halochromic compounds or other organic pigments. One patent cites use of these indicators for wall coating applications for light-colored paints. When the paint is wet it is pink in color but upon drying it regains its original white color. As cited in patent, this property of the paint enabled two or more coats to be applied on a wall properly and evenly. The previous coats having dried would be white whereas the new wet coat would be distinctly pink. Ashland Inc. introduced foundry refractory coatings with similar principle in 2005 for use in foundries.


title: Paint

text: Electrochromic paints change color in response to an applied electric current. Car manufacturer Nissan has been reportedly working on an electrochromic paint, based on particles of paramagnetic iron oxide. When subjected to an electromagnetic field the paramagnetic particles change spacing, modifying their color and reflective properties. The electromagnetic field would be formed using the conductive metal of the car body. Electrochromic paints can be applied to plastic substrates as well, using a different coating chemistry. The technology involves using special dyes that change conformation when an electric current is applied across the film itself. This new technology has been used to achieve glare protection at the touch of a button in passenger airplane windows.


title: Paint

text: Since the time of the Renaissance, siccative (drying) oil paints, primarily linseed oil, have been the most commonly used kind of paints in fine art applications; oil paint is still common today. However, in the 20th century, new water-based paints such acrylic paints, entered the market with the development of acrylic and other latex paints. Milk paints (also called casein), where the medium is derived from the natural emulsion that is milk, were common in the 19th century and are still used. Used by the earliest western artists, Egg tempera (where the medium is an emulsion of raw egg yolk mixed with oil) remains in use as well, as are encaustic wax-based paints. Gouache is an opaque variant of watercolor, which is based around varying levels of translucency; both paints use gum arabic as the carrier and water as a thinner. Gouache is also known as 'designer color' or 'body color'.


title: Paint

text: Poster paint is a distemper paint that has been used primarily in the creation of student works, or by children. There are varying brands of poster paint and depending on the brand, the quality will differ. More inexpensive brands will often crack or fade over time if they are left on a poster for an extended time.


title: Paint

text: Paint can be applied as a solid, a gaseous suspension (aerosol) or a liquid. Techniques vary depending on the practical or artistic results desired.


title: Paint

text: As a solid (usually used in industrial and automotive applications), the paint is applied as a very fine powder, then baked at high temperature. This melts the powder and causes it to adhere to the surface. The reasons for doing this involve the chemistries of the paint, the surface itself, and perhaps even the chemistry of the substrate (the object being painted). This is called "powder coating" an object.


title: Paint

text: As a gas or as a gaseous suspension, the paint is suspended in solid or liquid form in a gas that is sprayed on an object. The paint sticks to the object. This is called "spray painting" an object. The reasons for doing this include:


title: Paint

text: In the liquid application, paint can be applied by direct application using brushes, paint rollers, blades, scrapers, other instruments, or body parts such as fingers and thumbs.


title: Paint

text: Rollers generally have a handle that allows for different lengths of poles to be attached, allowing painting at different heights. Generally, roller application requires two coats for an even color. A roller with a thicker nap is used to apply paint on uneven surfaces. Edges are often finished with an angled brush.


title: Paint

text: After liquid paint is applied, there is an interval during which it can be blended with additional painted regions (at the "wet edge") called "open time". The open time of an oil or alkyd-based emulsion paint can be extended by adding white spirit, similar glycols such as Dowanol (propylene glycol ether) or open time prolongers. This can also facilitate the mixing of different wet paint layers for aesthetic effect. Latex and acrylic emulsions require the use of drying retardants suitable for water-based coatings. Depending on the quality and type of liquid paint used, the open time will vary. Oil paints for instance are renowned for their open time as oil paints allow for artists to blend the colors for extended periods of time without having to add any extending agents.


title: Paint

text: Paint application by spray is the most popular method in industry. In this, paint is aerosolized by the force of compressed air or by the action of high-pressure compression of the paint itself, and the paint is turned into small droplets that travel to the article to be painted. Alternate methods are airless spray, hot spray, hot airless spray, and any of these with an electrostatic spray included. There are numerous electrostatic methods available.


title: Paint

text: Dipping used to be the norm for objects such as filing cabinets, but this has been replaced by high-speed air turbine-driven bells with electrostatic spray. Car bodies are primed using cathodic elephoretic primer, which is applied by charging the body depositing a layer of primer. The unchanged residue is rinsed off and the primer stoved.


title: Paint

text: Many paints tend to separate when stored, the heavier components settling to the bottom, and require mixing before use. Some paint outlets have machines for mixing the paint by shaking the can vigorously for a few minutes.


title: Paint

text: Water-based paints tend to be the easiest to clean up after use; the brushes and rollers can be cleaned with soap and water.


title: Paint

text: Proper disposal of left over paint is a challenge. Sometimes it can be recycled: Old paint may be usable for a primer coat or an intermediate coat, and paints of similar chemistry can be mixed to make a larger amount of a uniform color.


title: Paint

text: To dispose of paint it can be dried and disposed of in the domestic waste stream, provided that it contains no prohibited substances (see container). Disposal of liquid paint usually requires special handling and should be treated as hazardous waste, and disposed of according to local regulations.


title: Paint

text: The main reasons for paint failure after application on the surface are the applicator and improper treatment of the surface.


title: Paint

text: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in paint are considered harmful to the environment and especially for people who work with them on a regular basis. Exposure to VOCs has been related to organic solvent syndrome, although this relation has been somewhat controversial. The controversial solvent 2-butoxyethanol is also used in paint production. Jurisdictions such as Canada, China, the EU, India, the United States, and South Korea have definitions for VOCs in place, along with regulations to limit the use of VOCs in consumer products such as paint.


title: Paint

text: In the US, environmental regulations, consumer demand, and advances in technology led to the development of low-VOC and zero-VOC paints and finishes. These new paints are widely available and meet or exceed the old high-VOC products in performance and cost-effectiveness while having significantly less impact on human and environmental health.


title: Paint

text: Globally, the most widely accepted standard for acceptable levels of VOC in paint is Green Seal’s GS-11 Standards from the US which defines different VOC levels acceptable for different types of paint based on use case and performance requirements.


title: Paint

text: A polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) was reported (published in 2009) in air samples collected in Chicago, Philadelphia, the Arctic, and several sites around the Great Lakes. PCB is a global pollutant and was measured in the wastewater effluent from paint production. The widespread distribution of PCB suggests volatilization of this compound from surfaces, roofs etc. PCB is present in consumer goods including newspapers, magazines, and cardboard boxes, which usually contain color pigments. Therefore, a hypothesis exists that PCB congeners are present as byproduct in some current commercial pigments.


title: Robbie Daymond

text: Robert Daymond Howard (né Niles; born March 11, 1982) is an American voice actor who is mostly known for his roles in audiobooks, video games, and animation, best known for voicing Jesse Cosay in the second season of "Infinity Train", Spider-Man in various Marvel media, Goro Akechi in "Persona 5", Young Cricket, Mike, and Orbulon in "WarioWare Gold", and the Eighth Brother in the "Star Wars" animated series "Star Wars Rebels".


title: Robbie Daymond

text: Robert Daymond Howard was born Robert Daymond Niles in Chesterfield, Missouri on March 11, 1982, the son of Laura Marks and Robert Niles. His mother is of German descent, while his father has Native American (Apache) ancestry. His father left the family when Daymond was an infant, leaving his mother to raise him with the help of her parents in Warrenton, Missouri. He took an interest in acting and in 1992, participated in the play "On Golden Pond".


title: Robbie Daymond

text: After Daymond's mother remarried, he changed his last name to Howard, his stepfather's surname, and his family moved to St. Charles, Missouri. In 2000, he attended Webster University, but later transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he graduated with a BFA in Theatre Performance in 2004. He taught and performed at the Nevada Conservatory Theatre, which was related to UNLV, and received his MFA at UNLV in 2007.


title: Robbie Daymond

text: In 2007, Daymond moved to Los Angeles, where he worked with the New York Film Company and Quixote Films. He also founded a voice-over company called Shock & Awesome Audio. In 2010, he started doing more voice-over work; by 2011, he was working full-time in voice acting for cartoons, anime, and video games.


title: Robbie Daymond

text: Daymond voiced the lead character in various cartoons: SwaySway in the Nickelodeon program "Breadwinners", Blake Myers in the Nick cartoon "Get Blake!", and the title character in "Marvel’s Spider-Man" which first aired on Disney XD in 2017.


title: Robbie Daymond

text: In anime and video games, Daymond's roles have included: Tuxedo Mask in the Viz Media re-dub of "Sailor Moon", Mumen Rider in "One-Punch Man", Hubert von Vestra in "", Sorey in "Tales of Zestiria", Goro Akechi in "Persona 5", Lloyd Bannings in "" and "", Joe Kido in "Digimon Adventure tri." and Prompto Argentum in "Final Fantasy XV", Smokey Brown in "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", Chrollo Lucilfer in "Hunter x Hunter", Kayn in "League of Legends" as well as "The Seven Deadly Sins" and Adam Bindewald in "", "", and "".


title: Robbie Daymond

text: From June to August 2021, Daymond appeared on "Exandria Unlimited", a spinoff limited series of the web series "Critical Role". He played Dorian Storm, an air genasi bard. He continued to play Dorian for several episodes of "Critical Role"'s third campaign for the first fourteen episodes. In March 2022, he reprised the role in the two part special "Exandria Unlimited: Kymal". Daymond is also one of the narrators for the audiobook edition of the novel "" (2021).


title: Robbie Daymond

text: Daymond met Megan Lynn Strand in 2004 while they were studying at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. They reside in Los Angeles, where they spent eight years in an on-and-off relationship before becoming engaged in 2017. They were married on April 7, 2019. Their first child, a daughter named Lynnyx Lola Ann Howard, was born on June 7, 2018. Their second child, a son named Rohan Eldon Howard, was born on January 9, 2021.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he was one of the most recognized cartoon characters in film history. Felix was the first animated character to attain a level of popularity sufficient to draw movie audiences.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Felix originated from the studio of Australian cartoonist-film entrepreneur Pat Sullivan. Either Sullivan himself or his lead animator, American Otto Messmer, created the character. What is certain is that Felix emerged from Sullivan's studio, and cartoons featuring the character became big in popular culture. Aside from the animated shorts, Felix starred in a comic strip (drawn by Sullivan, Messmer and later Joe Oriolo) beginning in 1923, and his image soon adorned merchandise such as ceramics, toys and postcards. Several manufacturers made stuffed Felix toys. Jazz bands such as Paul Whiteman's played songs about him (1923's "Felix Kept on Walking" and others). In 1926, Felix became the first high school mascot for the Logansport, Indiana, Berries.


title: Felix the Cat

text: By the late 1920s, with the arrival of sound cartoons, Felix's success was fading. The new Disney shorts of Mickey Mouse made the silent offerings of Sullivan and Messmer, who were then unwilling to move to sound production, seem outdated. In 1929, Sullivan decided to make the transition and began distributing Felix sound cartoons through Copley Pictures. The sound Felix shorts proved to be a failure and the operation ended in 1932. Felix saw a brief three-cartoon resurrection in 1936 by the Van Beuren Studios.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Felix cartoons began airing on American television in 1953. Joe Oriolo introduced a redesigned, "long-legged" Felix, with longer legs, a much smaller body, and a larger, rounder head with no whiskers and no teeth. Oriolo also added new characters and gave Felix a "Magic Bag of Tricks" that could assume an infinite variety of shapes at Felix's behest. The cat has since starred in other television programs and in two feature films. As of the 2010s, Felix is featured on a variety of merchandise from clothing to toys. Joe's son Don Oriolo later assumed creative control of Felix.


title: Felix the Cat

text: In 2002, "TV Guide" ranked Felix the Cat number 28 on its "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" list.


title: Felix the Cat

text: In 2014, Don Oriolo sold the rights to the character to DreamWorks Animation, which is now part of Comcast's NBCUniversal division via Universal Pictures.


title: Felix the Cat

text: On 9 November 1919, Master Tom, a prototype of Felix, debuted in a Paramount Pictures short titled "Feline Follies". Produced by the New York City-based animation studio owned by Pat Sullivan, the cartoon was directed by cartoonist and animator Otto Messmer. It was a success, and the Sullivan studio quickly set to work on producing another film featuring Master Tom, in "Musical Mews" (released 16 November 1919). It too proved to be successful with audiences. Messmer claimed that John King of Paramount Magazine suggested the name "Felix", for contrast of the felicity traditionally associated with a black cat. The name was first used for the third film starring the character, "The Adventures of Felix" (released on 14 December 1919). Sullivan claimed he named Felix after Australia Felix from Australian history and literature. In 1924, animator Bill Nolan redesigned the character, making him both rounder and cuter. Felix's new looks, coupled with Messmer's character animation, brought Felix to a higher profile.


title: Felix the Cat

text: The question of who created Felix remains a matter of dispute. Sullivan stated in numerous newspaper interviews that he created Felix and did the key drawings for the character. On a visit to Australia in 1925, Sullivan told "The Argus" newspaper that "[t]he idea was given to me by the sight of a cat which my wife brought to the studio one day". On other occasions, he claimed that Felix had been inspired by Rudyard Kipling's "The Cat that Walked by Himself" or by his wife's love for strays. Members of the Australian Cartoonist Association have claimed that lettering used in "Feline Follies" matches Sullivan's handwriting and that Sullivan lettered within his drawings. In addition, at roughly the 4:00 mark in "Feline Follies", the words 'Lo Mum' are used in a speech bubble by one of the kittens; this was a term for one's mother not used by Americans, but certainly by Australians. Yet Messmer claimed to have single-handedly drawn "Feline Follies" from home, raising questions as to why an American would use the term 'Mum' in a cartoon he solely drew himself. Sullivan's supporters also say the case is supported by his 18 March 1917 release of a cartoon short titled "The Tail of Thomas Kat" more than two years prior to "Feline Follies". Both an Australian ABC-TV documentary screened in 2004 and the curators of an exhibition at the State Library of New South Wales in 2005 suggested that Thomas Kat was a prototype or precursor of Felix. However, few details of Thomas have survived. His fur color has not been definitively established, and the surviving copyright synopsis for the short suggests significant differences between Thomas and the later Felix. For example, whereas the later Felix magically transforms his tail into tools and other objects, Thomas is a non-anthropomorphized cat who loses his tail in a fight with a rooster, never to recover it.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Sullivan was the studio proprietor and—as is the case with almost all film entrepreneurs—he owned the copyright to any creative work by his employees. In common with many animators at the time, Messmer was not credited. After Sullivan's death in 1933, his estate in Australia took ownership of the character, although Messmer told Harry Kopp that Sullivan promised him the rights to Felix in his will, no such will existed by the time he died. Kopp and the estate got the rights in 1934 from King Features Syndicate after numerous conferences with him.


title: Felix the Cat

text: It was not until after Sullivan's death that Sullivan staffers such as Hal Walker, Al Eugster, Gerry Geronimi, Rudy Zamora, George Cannata, and Sullivan's own lawyer, Harry Kopp, credited Messmer with Felix's creation. They claimed that Felix was based on an animated Charlie Chaplin that Messmer had animated for Sullivan's studio earlier on. The down-and-out personality and movements of the cat in "Feline Follies" reflect key attributes of Chaplin's, and, although blockier than the later Felix, the familiar black body is already there (Messmer found solid shapes easier to animate). Messmer himself recalled his version of the cat's creation in an interview with animation historian John Canemaker:


title: Felix the Cat

text: Further, Messmer told Canemaker that both he and Sullivan drew Felix based on models from the minstrel show tradition and the racist pickaninny caricature:


title: Felix the Cat

text: The tropes of minstrelsy were useful for creating a cartoon animal because they cued the audience to expect a lively, amusing and rebellious character.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Animation historians back Messmer's claims. Among them are Michael Barrier, Jerry Beck, Colin and Timothy Cowles, Donald Crafton, David Gerstein, Milt Gray, Mark Kausler, Leonard Maltin, and Charles Solomon. No animation historians outside of Australia have argued on behalf of Sullivan.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Sullivan marketed the cat relentlessly while Messmer continued to produce a prodigious volume of Felix cartoons. Messmer did the animation on white paper with inkers tracing the drawings directly. The animators drew backgrounds onto pieces of celluloid, which were then laid atop the drawings to be photographed. Any perspective work had to be animated by hand, as the studio cameras were unable to perform pans or trucks.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Paramount Pictures distributed the earliest films from 1919 to 1921. Margaret J. Winkler distributed the shorts from 1922 to 1925, the year when Educational Pictures took over the distribution of the shorts. Sullivan promised them one new "Felix" short every two weeks. The combination of solid animation, skillful promotion, and widespread distribution brought Felix's popularity to new heights.


title: Felix the Cat

text: References to alcoholism and Prohibition were also commonplace in many of the Felix shorts, particularly "Felix Finds Out" (1924), "Whys and Other Whys" (1927), and "Felix Woos Whoopee" (1930), to name a few. In "Felix Dopes It Out" (1924), Felix tries to help his hobo friend who is plagued with a red nose. By the end of the short, the cat finds the cure for the condition: "Keep drinking, and it'll turn blue".


title: Felix the Cat

text: Felix's great success also spawned a host of imitators. The appearances and personalities of other 1920s feline stars such as Julius of Walt Disney's "Alice Comedies", Waffles of Paul Terry's "Aesop's Film Fables", and especially Bill Nolan's 1925 adaptation of "Krazy Kat" (distributed by the eschewed Winkler) all seem to have been directly patterned after Felix. This influence also extended outside the United States, serving as inspiration for Suihō Tagawa in the creation of his character Norakuro, a dog with black fur.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Felix's cartoons were also popular among critics. They have been cited as imaginative examples of surrealism in filmmaking. Felix has been said to represent a child's sense of wonder, creating the fantastic when it is not there, and taking it in stride when it is. His famous pace—hands behind his back, head down, deep in thought—became a trademark that has been analyzed by critics around the world. Felix's expressive tail, which could be a shovel one moment, an exclamation mark or pencil the next, serves to emphasize that anything can happen in his world. Aldous Huxley wrote that the "Felix" shorts proved that "[w]hat the cinema can do better than literature or the spoken drama is to be fantastic".


title: Felix the Cat

text: By 1923, the character was at the peak of his film career. "Felix in Hollywood", a short released during that year, plays upon Felix's popularity, as he becomes acquainted with such fellow celebrities as Douglas Fairbanks, Cecil B. DeMille, Charlie Chaplin, Ben Turpin, and even censor Will H. Hays. His image could be seen on clocks (not to be confused with the Kit-Cat Klock) and Christmas ornaments. Felix also became the subject of several popular songs of the day, such as "Felix Kept Walking" by Paul Whiteman. Sullivan made an estimated $100,000 a year from toy licensing alone. With the character's success also emerged a handful of new costars. These included Felix's master Willie Jones, a mouse named Skiddoo, Felix's nephews Inky, Dinky, and Winky, and his girlfriend Kitty. Felix the Cat sheet music, with music by Pete Wendling and Max Kortlander and featuring lyrics by Alfred Bryan, was published in 1928 by Sam Fox Publishing Company. The cover art of Felix playing a banjo was done by Otto Messmer.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Most of the early Felix cartoons mirrored American attitudes of the "Roaring Twenties". Ethnic stereotypes appeared in such shorts as "Felix Goes Hungry" (1924). Recent events such as the Russian Civil War were depicted in shorts like "Felix All Puzzled" (1924). Flappers were caricatured in "Felix Strikes It Rich" (1923). He also became involved in union organizing with "Felix Revolts" (also 1923). In some shorts, Felix even performed a rendition of the Charleston.


title: Felix the Cat

text: In 1928, Educational ceased releasing the Felix cartoons, and several were reissued by First National Pictures. Copley Pictures distributed them from 1929 to 1930. There was a brief three-cartoon resurrection in 1936 by the Van Beuren Studios ("The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg", "Neptune Nonsense", and "Bold King Cole"). Sullivan did most of the marketing for the character in the 1920s. In these Van Beuren shorts, Felix spoke and sang in a high-pitched, childlike voice provided by then-21-year-old Walter Tetley, who was a popular radio actor in the 1930s, 1940s and even 1950s (Julius on "The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show", and Leroy on "The Great Gildersleeve"), but later best known in the 1960s as the voice of Sherman on "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show"s Mister Peabody segments.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Given the character's unprecedented popularity and the fact that his name was partially derived from the Latin word for "happy", some rather notable individuals and organizations adopted Felix as a mascot. The first of these was a Los Angeles Chevrolet dealer and friend of Pat Sullivan named Winslow B. Felix, who first opened his showroom in 1921. The three-sided neon sign of Felix Chevrolet, with its giant, smiling images of the character, is today one of LA's better-known landmarks, standing watch over both Figueroa Street and the Harbor Freeway. Others who adopted Felix included the 1922 New York Yankees and pilot and actress Ruth Elder, who took a Felix doll with her in an attempt to become the first woman to duplicate Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic crossing to Paris.


title: Felix the Cat

text: This popularity persisted. In the late 1920s, the U.S. Navy's Bombing Squadron Two (VB-2B) adopted a unit insignia consisting of Felix happily carrying a bomb with a burning fuse. They retained the insignia through the 1930s, when they became a fighter squadron under the designations VF-6B and, later, VF-3, whose members Edward O'Hare and John Thach became famous naval aviators in World War II. After the world war, a U.S. Navy fighter squadron currently designated VFA-31 replaced its winged meat-cleaver logo with the same insignia after the original Felix squadron had been disbanded. The carrier-based night-fighter squadron, nicknamed the "Tomcatters", remained active under various designations continuing to the present day, and Felix still appears on both the squadron's cloth jacket patches and aircraft, carrying his bomb with its fuse burning.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Felix is also the oldest high school mascot in the state of Indiana, chosen in 1926 after a Logansport High School player brought his plush Felix to a basketball game. When the team came from behind and won that night, Felix became the mascot of all the Logansport High School sports teams.


title: Felix the Cat

text: When television was in the experimental stages in 1928, the very first image to ever be seen was a toy Felix the Cat mounted to a revolving phonograph turntable. It remained on screen for hours while engineers used it as a test pattern.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Over a century after his debut on screen in 1919, he still makes occasional appearances in pop culture. The pop punk band The Queers also use Felix as a mascot, often drawn to reflect punk sensibilities and attributes such as scowling, smoking, or playing the guitar. Felix adorns the covers of both the "Surf Goddess" EP and the "Move Back Home" album. Felix also appears in the music video for the single "Don't Back Down". Besides appearing on the covers and liner notes of various albums, the iconic cat also appears in merchandise such as T-shirts and buttons. (In an interview with bassist B-Face, he asserts that Lookout! Records is responsible for the use of Felix as a mascot.) Felix was originally going to make a cameo in the 1988 film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" but the rights for him were not obtained. However he does appear on the tragedy and comedy keystone entrance to ToonTown and (as a giant puppet) at the 2015 Treefort Music Fest. For Felix the Cat's 100th anniversary, Universal Pictures dubbed 9 November "Felix the Cat Day" and released new merchandise, including a Pop! figure, Skechers brand shoes, clocks, a PEZ dispenser, shirts, bags, pillows, and pomade. Also for the anniversary, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) released an article detailing Felix the Cat's history with frames and clips from early animations.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Pat Sullivan began a syndicated comic strip on 19 August 1923 distributed by King Features Syndicate. In 1927 Messmer took over drawing duties of the strip. (The first "The Felix Annual" from 1924 issued in Great Britain shows the last two stories are not the usual Otto Messmer style, so a difference in Pat Sullivan-drawn cartoons can be noted.)


title: Felix the Cat

text: Messmer himself pursued the Sunday Felix comic strips until their discontinuance in 1943, when he began eleven years of writing and drawing Felix comic books for Dell Comics that were released every other month. Jack Mendelsohn was the ghostwriter of the Felix strip from 1948 to 1952. In 1954, Messmer retired from the Felix daily newspaper strips, and his assistant Joe Oriolo (the creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost) took over. The strip concluded in 1966.


title: Felix the Cat

text: After 35 years of not being in any comics, Source Point Press announced that Felix the Cat would get a new comic book series, with the permission by Dreamworks Animation to use the character, following a decade of owning the character and using him as a fashion brand. The comic is written by Mark Federali, illustrated by Trace Yardley, and was due to be released sometime in 2022. Yardley later said in February 2022 that production has been delayed and Source Point Press is no longer publishing the books. However, in September, Yardley said that the comic was not cancelled, and that it will be published by Rocketship Entertainment. A month later, Rocketship announced that artists and writers, inciuding Mike Federali, would be attending New York Comic Con. Federali signed copies of the comic. On November 15, Rocketship announced through its new imprint Bottlerocket, that the comic will release in the Spring of 2023.


title: Felix the Cat

text: With the advent of synchronized sound in "The Jazz Singer" in 1927, Educational Pictures, who distributed the Felix shorts at the time, urged Pat Sullivan to make the leap to "talkie" cartoons, but Sullivan refused. Further disputes led to a break between Educational and Sullivan. Only after competing studios released the first synchronized-sound animated films, such as Fleischer's "My Old Kentucky Home", Van Beuren's "Dinner Time" and Disney's "Steamboat Willie", did Sullivan see the possibilities of sound. He managed to secure a contract with First National Pictures in 1928. However, for reasons unknown, this did not last, so Sullivan sought out Jacques Kopfstein and Copley Pictures to distribute his new sound Felix cartoons. On 16 October 1929, an advertisement appeared in "Film Daily" with Felix announcing, Jolson-like, "You ain't heard nothin' yet!"


title: Felix the Cat

text: Felix's transition to sound was not a smooth one. Sullivan did not carefully prepare for Felix's transition to sound and added sound effects into the sound cartoons as a post-animation process. The results were disastrous. More than ever, it seemed as though Disney's mouse was drawing audiences away from Sullivan's silent star. Not even entries such as the Fleischer-style off-beat "Felix Woos Whoopee" or the Silly Symphony-esque "April Maze" (both 1930) could regain the franchise's audience. Kopfstein finally canceled Sullivan's contract. Subsequently, he announced plans to start a new studio in California, but such ideas never materialized. Things went from bad to worse when Sullivan's wife, Marjorie, died in March 1932. After this, Sullivan completely fell apart. He slumped into an alcoholic depression, his health rapidly declined, and his memory began to fade. He could not even cash checks to Messmer because his signature was reduced to a mere scribble. He died in 1933. Messmer recalled, "He left everything a mess, no books, no nothing. So when he died the place had to close down, at the height of popularity, when everybody, RKO and all of them, for years they tried to get hold of Felix... I didn't have that permission [to continue the character] 'cause I didn't have legal ownership of it".


title: Felix the Cat

text: In 1935, Amadee J. Van Beuren of the Van Beuren Studios called Messmer and asked him if he could return Felix to the screen. Van Beuren even stated that Messmer would be provided with a full staff and all of the necessary utilities. However, Messmer declined his offer and instead recommended Burt Gillett, a former Sullivan staffer who was now heading the Van Beuren staff. So, in 1936, Van Beuren obtained approval from Sullivan's brother to license Felix to his studio with the intention of producing new shorts both in color and with sound. With Gillett at the helm, now with a heavy Disney influence, he did away with Felix's established personality, rendering him a stock talking animal character of the type popular in the day. The new shorts were unsuccessful, and after only three outings Van Beuren discontinued the series, leaving a fourth in the storyboard stages.


title: Felix the Cat

text: In 1953, Official Films purchased the Sullivan–Messmer shorts, added soundtracks to them, and distributed them to the home movie and television markets.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Otto Messmer's assistant Joe Oriolo, who had taken over the Felix comic strip, struck a deal with Felix's new owner, Pat Sullivan's nephew, to begin a new series of Felix cartoons on television. Oriolo went on to star Felix in 260 television cartoons produced by Famous Studios which was renamed to Paramount Cartoon Studios, and distributed by Trans-Lux beginning in 1958. Like the Van Beuren studio before, Oriolo gave Felix a more domesticated and pedestrian personality geared more toward children and introduced now-familiar elements such as Felix's Magic Bag of Tricks, a satchel that could assume the shape and characteristics of anything Felix wanted. The show did away with Felix's previous supporting cast and introduced many new characters, all of which were performed by voice actor Jack Mercer.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Oriolo's plots revolve around the unsuccessful attempts of the antagonists to steal Felix's Magic Bag, though in an unusual twist, these antagonists are occasionally depicted as Felix's friends as well. The cartoons proved popular, but critics have dismissed them as paling in comparison to the earlier Sullivan–Messmer works, especially since Oriolo aimed the cartoons at children. Limited animation (required due to budgetary restraints) and simplistic storylines did nothing to diminish the series' popularity.


title: Felix the Cat

text: In 1970, Oriolo gained complete control of the Felix character and Don Oriolo continues to promote the character to this day, even though the rights are now owned by Dreamworks.


title: Felix the Cat

text: In the late 1980s, after his father's death, Don Oriolo teamed up with European animators to work on the character's first feature film, "". In the film, Felix visits an alternate reality along with the Professor and Poindexter. New World Pictures planned a 1987 Thanksgiving release for U.S. theaters, which did not happen; the movie went direct-to-video in August 1991, which was widely panned upon its release before being completely abandoned in the US during the 21st century. In 1994, Felix appeared on television again, to replace the popular Fido Dido bumpers on CBS, and then one year later in the series "The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat". "Baby Felix" followed in 2000 for the Japanese market, and also the direct-to-video "Felix the Cat Saves Christmas" released in 2004. Oriolo also brought about a new wave of Felix merchandising, including Wendy's Kids Meal toys and a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Felix was voted in 2004 among the 100 Greatest Cartoons in a poll conducted by the British television channel Channel 4, ranking at No. 89.


title: Felix the Cat

text: According to Don Oriolo's Felix the Cat blog, as of September 2008 there were plans in development for a new television series. Oriolo's biography page also mentions a 52-episode cartoon series then in the works titled "The Felix the Cat Show", which was slated to use computer graphics. As of December 2020, WildBrain is working on a new Felix the Cat series with "" and "Snoopy in Space" co-producers.


title: Felix the Cat

text: Oriolo has not produced or directed any cartoons or feature films featuring Felix the Cat since the mid-2000s.


title: Felix the Cat

text: DVD releases include "Presenting Felix the Cat" from Bosko Video; "Felix!" from Lumivision; "Felix the Cat: The Collector's Edition" from Delta Entertainment; and "Before Walt" from Inkwell Images Ink. Some of the TV series cartoons (from 1958 to 1959) were released on DVD by Classic Media. Some of the 1990s series has also been released.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: The Progressive Party was a third party in the United States formed in 1912 by former president Theodore Roosevelt after he lost the presidential nomination of the Republican Party to his former protégé rival, incumbent president William Howard Taft. The new party was known for taking advanced positions on progressive reforms and attracting leading national reformers. The party was also ideologically deeply connected with America's indigenous radical-liberal tradition.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: After the party's defeat in the 1912 presidential election, it went into rapid decline in elections until 1918, disappearing by 1920. The Progressive Party was popularly nicknamed the "Bull Moose Party" when Roosevelt boasted that he felt "strong as a bull moose" after losing the Republican nomination in June 1912 at the Chicago convention.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: As a member of the Republican Party, Roosevelt had served as president from 1901 to 1909, becoming increasingly progressive in the later years of his presidency. In the 1908 presidential election, Roosevelt helped ensure that he would be succeeded by Secretary of War Taft. Although Taft entered office determined to advance Roosevelt's Square Deal domestic agenda, he stumbled badly during the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act debate and the Pinchot–Ballinger controversy. The political fallout of these events divided the Republican Party and alienated Roosevelt from his former friend. Progressive Republican leader Robert M. La Follette had already announced a challenge to Taft for the 1912 Republican nomination, but many of his supporters shifted to Roosevelt after the former president decided to seek a third presidential term, which was permissible under the Constitution prior to the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment. At the 1912 Republican National Convention, Taft narrowly defeated Roosevelt for the party's presidential nomination. After the convention, Roosevelt, Frank Munsey, George Walbridge Perkins and other progressive Republicans established the Progressive Party and nominated a ticket of Roosevelt and Hiram Johnson of California at the 1912 Progressive National Convention. The new party attracted several Republican officeholders, although nearly all of them remained loyal to the Republican Party—in California, Johnson and the Progressives took control of the Republican Party.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: The party's platform built on Roosevelt's Square Deal domestic program and called for several progressive reforms. The platform asserted that "to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day". Proposals on the platform included restrictions on campaign finance contributions, a reduction of the tariff and the establishment of a social insurance system, an eight-hour workday and women's suffrage. The party was split on the regulation of large corporations, with some party members disappointed that the platform did not contain a stronger call for "trust-busting". Party members also had different outlooks on foreign policy, with pacifists like Jane Addams opposing Roosevelt's call for a naval build-up.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: In the 1912 election, Roosevelt won 27.4% of the popular vote compared to Taft's 23.2%, making Roosevelt the only third party presidential nominee to finish with a higher share of the popular vote than a major party's presidential nominee. Both Taft and Roosevelt finished behind Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson, who won 41.8% of the popular vote and the vast majority of the electoral vote. The Progressives elected several Congressional and state legislative candidates, but the election was marked primarily by Democratic gains. The 1916 Progressive National Convention was held in conjunction with the 1916 Republican National Convention in hopes of reunifying the parties with Roosevelt as the presidential nominee of both parties. The Progressive Party collapsed after Roosevelt refused the Progressive nomination and insisted his supporters vote for Charles Evans Hughes, the moderately progressive Republican nominee. Most Progressives joined the Republican Party, but some converted to the Democratic Party and Progressives such as Harold L. Ickes would play a role in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. In 1924, La Follette set up another Progressive Party for his presidential run. A third Progressive Party was set up in 1948 for the presidential campaign of former vice president Henry A. Wallace.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: Roosevelt had selected Taft, his Secretary of War, to succeed him as the presidential candidate because he thought Taft closely mirrored his own positions. Taft easily won the 1908 presidential election over William Jennings Bryan. Roosevelt became disappointed by Taft's increasingly conservative policies. Roosevelt was outraged when Taft used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to sue U.S. Steel for an action that President Roosevelt had explicitly approved. They became openly hostile and Roosevelt decided to seek the presidency in early 1912. Taft was already being challenged by Progressive leader senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin. Most of La Follette's supporters switched to Roosevelt, leaving the Wisconsin senator embittered.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: Nine of the states where progressive elements were strongest had set up preference primaries, which Roosevelt won, but Taft had worked far harder than Roosevelt to control the Republican Party's organizational operations and the mechanism for choosing its presidential nominee, the 1912 Republican National Convention. For example, he bought up the votes of delegates from the Southern states, copying the technique Roosevelt himself used in 1904. The Republican National Convention rejected Roosevelt's protests. Roosevelt and his supporters walked out and the convention re-nominated Taft.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: The next day, Roosevelt supporters met to form a new political party of their own. California Governor Hiram Johnson became its chairman and a new convention was scheduled for August. Most of the funding came from wealthy sponsors. Magazine publisher Frank A. Munsey provided $135,000; and financier George W. Perkins, gave $130,000. Roosevelt's family gave $77,500 and others gave $164,000. The total was nearly $600,000, far less than the major parties.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: The leadership of the new party at the level just below Roosevelt included Jane Addams of Hull House, a leader in social work, feminism, and pacifism; former Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana, a leading advocate of regulating industry.; Gifford Pinchot, a leading environmentalist. and his brother Amos Pinchot, enemy of the trusts. Publishers represented the Muckraker element exposing corruption in city machines. The included Frank Munsey, and Frank Knox, who was the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate in 1936. The two main organizers were Senator Joseph M. Dixon of Montana and especially George W. Perkins, a senior partner of the Morgan bank who came from the efficiency movement. He and Munsey provided financing while Perkins took efficient charge of the new party's organization. However Perkins close ties to Wall Street made him feared and deeply distrusted by many party activists.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: The new party had serious structural defects. Since it insisted on running complete tickets against the regular Republican ticket in most states, Republican politicians would have to abandon to support Roosevelt. The exception was California, where the progressive element took control of the Republican Party and Taft was not even on the November ballot. Nationally only five of the 15 most progressive Republican senators joined the new party. Republican legislators, governors, national committeemen, publishers and editors showed comparable reluctance. bolting the old party risked career suicide. Very few Democrats ever joined the new party. However, many independent reformers still signed up. As a result most of Roosevelt's previous political allies supported Taft, including his son-in-law, Congressman Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati. His wife Alice Roosevelt Longworth was Roosevelt's most energetic cheerleader. Their public dispute permanently spoiled their marriage.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: Despite these obstacles, the August convention opened with great enthusiasm. Over 2,000 delegates attended, including many women. In 1912, neither Taft nor Wilson endorsed women's suffrage on the national level. The notable suffragist and social worker Jane Addams gave a seconding speech for Roosevelt's nomination, but Roosevelt insisted on excluding black Republicans from the South (whom he regarded as a corrupt and ineffective element). Yet he alienated white Southern supporters on the eve of the election by publicly dining with black people at a Rhode Island hotel. Roosevelt was nominated by acclamation, with Johnson as his running mate.


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: The main work of the convention was the platform, which set forth the new party's appeal to the voters. It included a broad range of social and political reforms long advocated by progressives. It spoke with near-religious fervor and the candidate himself promised: "Our cause is based on the eternal principle of righteousness; and even though we, who now lead may for the time fail, in the end the cause itself shall triumph".


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: The platform's main theme was reversing the domination of politics by business interests, which allegedly controlled the Republican and Democratic parties, alike. The platform asserted:


title: Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

text: Besides these measures, the platform called for reductions in the tariff and limitations on naval armaments by international agreement. The platform also vaguely called for the creation of a national health service, making Roosevelt likely the first major politician to call for health care reform.